Michigan Camp Meeting 2016: The Harvest is Great

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

What Sort of People

C. Raymond Holmes

What Sort of People- Part 1

What Sort of People- Part 2

What Sort of People- Part 3

What Sort of People- Part 4

Thank you for your grace and mercy that are new every day.

We thank you for the presence of your Holy Spirit, who is our teacher.

We pray that your spirit would speak to our hearts this morning, build our faith, and our surrender to your truth.

Well, when time was up yesterday, we were thanking God that when we surrender to Christ, he comes to dwell in our hearts.

And we're praising God that when that happens, the Holy Spirit has access to the inner being and begins to work his transforming grace to remold and recreate us and to restore the image of God that was lost when Adam and Eve sinned.

The day before yesterday, we focused on the Spirit's fruit of peace and patience.

Then we started talking about kindness and goodness.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 4, that love, the first of the Spirit's which is foundational to all the rest, is patient and kind, not arrogant or rude.

I looked in Webster's dictionary for a definition of kindness and goodness, but I wasn't satisfied with what I found in Webster's.

And then as I thought about it, I realized that what we really need is not a definition of goodness and kindness.

We need a description, something that's more vivid, like a picture, and that would make an indelible impression on our minds, not just on our minds, but on our hearts.

Of course, you find it in the Word of God.

So In Matthew chapter 20, the first 16 verses, we find a perfect description of kindness and goodness.

It's the story about a man who was kind and good.

It's always fascinated me by the way it starts.

It says, For the kingdom of heaven is like A master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace.

And to them he said, you go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right, I will pay you, I will give you." So they went.

Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same thing.

And about the 11th hour, he went out and found others standing and he said to them, why do you stand here idle all day?

They said to him, because no 1 has hired us.

He said to them, you go into the vineyard too.

And When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first.

And when those hired about the 11th hour, the last ones hired, came, each of them received a denarius.

Now when those hired first came, they thought, because they had seen that the last received a denarius.

They thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.

And on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, these last worked only 1 hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.

But he replied to 1 of them, friend, I am doing you no wrong.

I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.

Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?

So the last will be first and the first last.

Now a lot of people would say that that's not the way to run a business.

But that's not the point Jesus was making in telling this story.

And if they had had a labor union back then, they would have made a lot of trouble.

Jesus was talking about the nature of the kingdom of heaven.

And what better way than to describe it by drawing a picture of it that would not be forgotten?

The rest, of course, grumbled and complained.

You see, to them, the issue not generosity or kindness or goodness.

Verse 2 says, after agreeing with the labors for a denarius a day." He sent them into his vineyard.

In other words, they said, we'll work for that amount of money.

He wasn't being unfair, But he was being kind and generous to those who worked only 1 hour.

Now, you know, some You know, some people might think that he was foolish, stupid.

Is it stupid to be kind and generous and good?

You accept the Lord when you're 11 or when You accept the Lord when you're 11, or when you accept the Lord when you're 71.

And so, I mean, that's the only way to do this, salvation.

He said when you accept the Lord at 71, you get the same gift as a person who accepts the Lord when they're 10 years old.

Anyway, today, these people would organize to put a stop to such unfairness, foolishness, and stupidity from their point of view.

But he was not being unfair because he had negotiated with them, as verse 2 says.

And later on, he reminds them in verse 13, I'm doing you no wrong because you agreed with me for a denarius.

Take what belongs to you that you have a right to." In other words, they really had no complaint.

To Jesus, kindness and goodness was the issue.

He had a lesson that he wanted to teach his followers who were citizens of the kingdom of heaven, and so he tells this story.

Ellen White has a very interesting comment on this.

She said, those who came into the vineyard at the eleventh hour were thankful for an opportunity to work.

They would have been satisfied with the 1 denarius, or even less, because they were thankful for the opportunity.

She goes on, their hearts were full of gratitude to the 1 who had accepted them and when at the close of the day the householder paid them for a full day's work, they were greatly surprised.

They knew they had not earned such wages, she said.

And the kindness expressed in the countenance of their employer filled them with joy.

They never forgot the goodness of the householder or the generous compensation they had received.

Proverbs 11, 17 says, a man who is kind benefits himself, but cruel man hurts himself.

Series

What Sort of People

What Sort of People- Part 3

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

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