Sabbath 9/17/16 Seventh Day Baptist Daytona Pastor Wray sermon �Grace is the Difference�

Posted : 17 Sep, 2016 10:38 AM

Sabbath 9/17/16 Seventh Day Baptist Daytona Pastor Wray sermon �Grace is the Difference� Matthew 20:1-16

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Some of us are called early in our lives and some called later. We must all learn the concept of Grace. We all need to receive the Grace of God. We don�t really want to get what we deserve for our sins. Grace is when someone with superior power shows kindness or mercy to one in a lower position.



In our text, Jesus says the kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner who hires workers at different times of the day. He told each of them that he would pay them what was right. At the end of the day, he paid them all the same amount whether they worked the whole day or just the last hour. The workers who worked the whole day were upset because they got the same pay as the ones who worked one hour. They thought they should get paid more. The landowner said he was not being unfair, he paid them what they had agreed to.



The landowner knew about Grace because he paid the workers who came at the end of the day the same as the �all day� workers. The landowner is God and we are the workers who get Grace. Grace is received and not deserved. We know that we don�t deserve God�s Grace. All we can do is to receive the Grace that God offers to us. We are the workers who came late but God, like the landowner, shows Grace and paid us like we had come early and worked all day. No matter who we are or what titles we have or how much material wealth we have, none of it can open the way to God�s Grace. Grace is freely given and we must openly receive it.



God�s Grace is about mercy and not about being fair. Fair would have been to pay the daily workers for the actual hours they worked. That�s fair. God is about Mercy and gives us more than what we deserve. He gives us Grace and Mercy. God�s Grace is moving beyond fair. Grace is for the last person as well as the first person. God wants a relationship with everyone, the first who came and the last who came. He wants a relationship with those who came at the beginning of the day as well as those who came at the last hour of the day.



God wants a relationship with everybody. He has Grace to give to everybody. Grace is a free gift that we receive and not what we deserve. Grace is about mercy and not about fairness. Beloved, it is all about Grace! Father God we thank you for your Grace and we rejoice in our Grace. We rejoice in the knowledge that by your Grace, our sins are forgiven.

AMEN

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