Fairness and Greatness in God’s Kingdom (Mt. 20:1-19)

In the parable of the workers in the vineyard, workers would join from 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 5pm. Who should receive the most money? Those who started at 9am.   But each received 1 denarius, even those who worked for one hour.  Salvation is the same regardless of when we are called. This is the owner’s heart.  If the one denarius was the promised amount, the person who started in the early morning shouldn’t complain about those who started later in the day.

Who is contained in the 9am people?  Those who believed the longest.  They have received salvation early on, and you have to compare to the people who started later, that’s the new believers, but salvation seems to be the same.  In the Bible, it’s expressed that those who started latest are the earliest.  This is God’s Word inside of His Kingdom.

These people may appear to be longtime believers, but God may not see it like that, because the Jews and Pharisees did not believe in Jesus.  However, the Samaritan woman who was ridiculed by many people believed the moment she met him. It is according to God’s heart. 

But why are we scarred? We have scars because of this.  We come in at 5pm, and they think life is great, they receive a full day’s wages even though they worked an hour.  If we don’t give this all to God, we will be stuck within our own standards that have no choice but to leave us with scars.   “I did so much, how could they fire me? How could my parents do this to me?” What is that standard?  That is the standard of “fairness” that you have put. 

What is “fairness” to you?  If you think things are unfair, you’ll be scarred, isn’t that right? So, “their parents may be like that, and why are mine like this?” God is our standard.  Why did God place me in this family? Why was my family created in this way? That is God’s standard.  Then, the person who came at 9am or the person who came at 5pm received the same answers.  Scars are all set up because of the human standards and it leads to rage. 

Do you get enraged? Change it to God’s standard.  “God, why did you create me to be within this family?  Not just me, but God, why did you make me face this incident?” Then God will answer you because our standard becomes aligned to the standard of God’s Word.  Then, through the scars, you see God’s grace.  Joseph could have said, “Why are my brothers like this? Why are they trying to kill me? I’m the only one being sold as a slave; why is my life like this? What did my father do?” His father was alive at the time, “What did my father do? Why did my father tell me to shepherd the sheep?”

But God allowed it to happen, that’s how it becomes God’s grace. Outside of this standard, you are not able to heal your scars.  After RU, we just gathered together to have dinner together, and a pastor gave a testimony during dinner, and the pastor ended up in a mental institution, and the diagnosis was bipolar disorder.  So, one symptom of bipolar is to be in a hyper or manic state, and the pastor assumed he was full of the spirit.  But then he was depressed, so they sent him to a mental institution.  The pastor would try to do all sorts of things to leave the institution. So I asked the pastor, “How did you end up here?”

Guilt

He used to work as a CPA but he received a lot of money, but he felt guilty and Satan entered into his life and tried to control his life, and he attempted suicide many times.  He said there were several instances where he would end up in the bathroom with his head tied up, and his wife would have to save him every time. When I asked him, “Why did you try to commit suicide?” He said, “It just happened like that, it was due to my guilty conscience. While reporting to the IRS, I felt a tremendous amount of guilt, and Satan dragged me to the point of suicide through this guilt.”

I asked, “How did you live before this?”  In the past, he said he used to be very proactive and very liberal about his views.  But he went crazy thinking the government was planting evidence on him, so he was completely seized by Satan. He fought for justice.  But he fell into mental illness, and he was led to Christ in the mental institution.  Satan uses a guilty conscience.

Ego

Your ego controls your life, and outwardly a person may appear to be just, but there are no just people in this world.  If this person is disadvantageous to me, then I push them aside.  In Romans, we think some people would die for others, but it’s because they have some relationship. In some situations, a parent may die for their child, but that’s just because it’s their child.  There’s no one perfect person in this world.  But, if you keep thinking like that, Satan works according to his time schedule.  People in mental hospitals find themselves kind or innocent, but that’s all a lie.  Some people may seem very pure, but it’s just their own style; you can’t say they’re pure because there are no pure people.

This only means they’re oppressed, being dragged around by Satan.  It all came from this thought of “fair” and “unfair,” and we must keep society’s laws to some extent, but there are no fair people in this world.  There’s no fairness in the world. One day, America will take their hands out of the Middle East.  Outside of Jesus Christ, there is no righteous thing or righteous person who can die and make us righteous.  That is why, when you believe in Jesus Christ, you become righteous. 

Unfairness and fairness causes scarring and scars. Should we then not have fairness in the world?  I’m saying there are many things outside of this.  We can see that, when a drug addict comes into our church, a lot of people look down on them.  But everyone respects a person with great influence and high standing in the world. That’s not justice.  Rather, when we live like this, we have no choice but to face or receive these scars. 

Why did God allow this to happen?  It’s not my standard, so it’s not about why I face this, but why is God allowing me to face this?  If you look at your own standard, you will receive scars and look at this situation with superiority or inferiority.

2. Cross – Death, Resurrection

It’s not possible with calculations of the world, but only the ones who receive God’s grace can make this happen.  The people of the world lived according to their standards.  They got married however they wanted, they spent their money on what they wanted, and they spent their lives with their own calculations.  During that time, Noah built the Ark and he didn’t even have an axe at that time, but he built the ship on top of the mountain. 

People who saw Noah thought he was stupid because it didn’t make sense according to the calculations of the world, but God saw Noah as righteous based on His calculation. These are the people throughout the age.  The people of the world may be God’s people but they live a religious life, with their own calculations.  Those are the ones who are to fail.  When we look at Noah, according to the people of the world, it seems not beneficial, but to God’s Kingdom, what God was doing was something else. 

Now, you have to change to God’s method and God’s calculations. No longer your own method of learning, so you have to keep in mind the lessons of the world, but keep the Word God desires even more.

3. Parents

“How can my children be successful, to be the number 1 and number 2 in the world?”

Anger

The disciples worried, if the children became 1 or 2, what would happen to them?  When do you get angry?  When you worry about what happens to you.  A characteristic of mental illness is that you get stuck inside yourself and you cannot think of anything but yourself.  The counseling of the world always says to look from the perspective of the opposing person.  But because you keep looking at it from your own perspective, you get scars.

My daughter was invited to a quinceanera, but it was on a day where there’s worship, “You have something to do at church at 3:30pm,” so my daughter’s thoughts are correct for her own perspective, but she couldn’t think of my perspective.  The child thinks the parent should always support them, and if the parent is suspicious, they get upset.  “Unfortunately I have things to do from 3:30-5pm,” and eventually my daughter heard about what I had to do, then she gave up.  If it were me, I would have received a scar. 

“I told them I could go, but why are you preventing me from going?” But if you can think from the opposing perspective, you can come out of it.  A successful person who only knows of themselves will kill others; they cannot succeed.  They come to their own standards, they’re centered on themselves, they kill off weaker people.  Socially if you want to succeed, you must succeed in that manner, but think of the opposing person.

Even between two unbelievers, they have prepared vessels from a very young age.  We stand before God, why did God do this?  Then you will receive answers.  It’s not that it’s unfair; rather, especially the ones who are self-righteous, they tend to get a lot of scars because they try not to hurt other people or themselves.  Then they receive something? They’ll get scarred themselves. That’s why they become uncontrollably enraged. 

Satan crosses the line and moves back and forth; you can’t stop him from crossing that line.  Only when you set that line with Jesus Christ, Satan won’t be able to cross back and forth.  Quickly come out of that.  The more you hold onto this, the harder it will be for you later on. 

What is the difference between selfishness and self-centeredness? There was an incident my first year in college. Being selfish means they just do whatever they want, even while harming other people.  Self-centered or individualistic will try to benefit themselves without harming others.  That’s why America recognizes and promotes individualism.  In order to protect oneself, individualism may appear to be a thing, but that only leads to people receiving scars and anger. 

Jesus’ response to this request? 

Great Person – Servant

In the Kingdom of God, the great people become servants. The training is ingrained into them in church. If this training doesn’t take place, you’ll be unable to make decisions in an ambiguous workplace because they don’t know how to serve.  If you try to enter into colleges, you have to volunteer in many programs, and it’s a good requirement.  Most likely, the government enforced this so you can be a better person, however, because it’s optional, people volunteer only a little and cannot become a great person.

A president is someone who serves the people, and that person becomes a great president.  If you have the dream to become president?  Become a person who serves.  Serving means you volunteer your time and material possessions.  The person who serves is great in God’s Kingdom. It’s the same in the world because God never changes.  That’s why we don’t give money to those who volunteer in the church. 

How is it serving if you receive money for doing God’s work?  Why put in effort to receive money from church when you can make money being out in the world?  We are raising up children to be great individuals through serving the church, but parents try to block this.  So, the $100 we give them it’s to keep them doing this work.  I hope you will become these great people, then you will have to first know how to serve people, and God will give you that strength to serve. That becomes your prayer topic.

Hold onto the prayer topic of serving, then serve the church. People who sit there and do nothing for the church are the lowest in God’s kingdom.  People who just work, even though they aren’t told to do anything, are greatest.  Even unbelievers want these great people.  Even in your workplace, serve the workplace and establish God’s Kingdom there, don’t just do the bare minimum.

Look at Joseph, he wasn’t able to just receive a little bit of money; God raised him to become a great person.  Even David, they were able to determine whether he was a great or lowly individual as he was shepherding. What did it mean that he didn’t ever lose even one sheep?  Though it was his father’s possessions, he didn’t lose any sheep. How could you win against a lion or bear? You shouldn’t be able to win, but David had no choice but to request that power from God because he had to protect the sheep. God grants power to those who have such thoughts.

To David, it was the same, whether hunting a lion or bear, or hunting Goliath.  When you go out to war, you’re facing death; would you be able to do that?  If you do not have the intention of serving, you’re not able to stake your life on the line.  I grew up as an unbeliever, there was nothing better than church.  As I was growing up, there was no space for me to learn, there are limitations to family education.  Then, even in the schools, all they teach you is knowledge, and knowledge is limited by teacher’s knowledge, and the teachers also just go to get paid, so that’s why I’m saying there’s nothing but the church.

Do you know what the church is?  Do you think the church is a platform to your success?  Or is it a place to have temporary rest for yourself?  That’s not right.  All things are contained in the church to save the world. It’s not just here, but rather, something noticeable to our eyes is being placed inside of us.  That’s why there are so many great Christians being raised up.  That’s why we cannot be the foolish people who look down on the church.  There are quite a few presidents who were Sunday school teachers.  This was ingrained into them from a young age. That is how you can raise up America.

First – Slave

If you want to be first, be a slave, so the person who wants to be first?  They should be a slave.

Ransom

If your faith is great, offer your life as a ransom. The Bible verses are important but so is your ideology. If your ideology doesn’t change, you input Bible verses, then you’re just a Pharisee.  I hope you will be able to have a prayer topic from these Bible verses. We have to remain here in order to enter into God’s Kingdom.  I hope you will pray about what person you will be with the Word, what you will do in the church, not the success in the world, but what kind of person will I become. It’s difficult to think of something in the future without the content. If someone has a mental illness, the whole family will be afflicted.  Even the people like the president and high officials will be afflicted if they are self-centered. 

We have no choice but to do this, but Jesus Christ died as a ransom for many, and by the filling of the Holy Spirit, we can also become a ransom for many. It’s why, these people entered into the ransom of the world. Otherwise people say, “Why am I being taken advantage of?” Such a person cannot evangelize.  However, if these people serve and become slaves, they will be opposing.

This is the flow God showed us today, and it’s what it means God will reveal the Word according to the flow of the time schedule. In reality, there’s no ne who can really achieve this, but there’s no reason to feel oppressed while hearing this.  When the Holy Spirit works, you can be sent. This is the future. It’s not about what you do, but who you become. If you’re inside of this, God will naturally work.