Matthew chapter 20, if you would stand with us, we're going to read a passage beginning in verse 1, and we'll have prayer together in a moment. The Bible says, For the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that is a householder which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard." And so what we're going to read in the following verses has to do with that verse. A householder, that's a landowner, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. Verse 2 says, And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, which was a penny was a typical day's wages, when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out, the householder, the landowner, he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace. Now the third hour of the day would typically be about nine o'clock in the morning. So young people just realize that nine o'clock in the morning is not early. In verse one, it says he went out early. That would have been probably about six o'clock in the morning. So just so you think, man, I got up early, it's nine o'clock. It really isn't all that early, right? Why did I say that? Verse four, and said unto them at nine a.m. in the third hour, and said unto them, go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, noon and three p.m., and did the same thing. Go out into the vineyard, whatever's right I'll give you. Verse 6, in about the 11th hour, that would be an hour before really sunset or 5 p.m. or so, he went out, about the 11th hour he went out. Notice that late in the day he's still recruiting workers. And found others standing idle. And saith unto them, why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us, he saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that shall you receive. So when even was come the Lord of the vineyard, saith unto his steward, his manager, his supervisor, the foreman, He said unto his steward, call the laborers and give them their hire. We're gonna pay them for their work. Beginning from the last, the last one hired until the first. And when they came that were hired about the 11th hour, about 5 p.m., they received every man a penny. But when the first came, the first ones that were hired, they supposed that they should have received more. And they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the good men of the house, saying, these last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them and said, friend, I do thee no wrong. Didst thou not agree with me for a penny? This is what you agreed to. Take that thine is, and go thy way. I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I'm good, because I'm generous and paid them the same thing? Do you give you the right to be evil or critical? So the last shall be first and the first last, for many be called, but few chosen. So we're gonna look at this passage together, and I really wanna focus on the question that's at the last part of verse six. Why stand ye here all the day idle? Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word tonight, and Lord, my heart has been blessed throughout this day. Father, to be able to be here and experience, Lord, what You're doing here in Fort Worth and Metropolitan Baptist Church, and Father, for just the fellowship we have with these dear folks. And Lord, we pray tonight that as we think about this great work of missions, and our involvement, our participation. Father, we would be led by the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Lord, please help us tonight. We pray You'd bind the devil in every way he'd try to hinder or distract. Steal away the good seed of the Word of God before it brings forth fruit in our life. May you be honored and glorified, and may fruit be born because of what you do in our lives today. And we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. This, the chapter divisions as you probably know in our Bible were not a part of the original giving of the Scripture. Those were kind of inserted to help us follow and organize the Bible. But this, so this, if you look in verse 1 of chapter 20 it begins with the word for. That's a kind of an interesting way to begin a sentence. Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man." And what that tells us is it indicates that the beginning of chapter 20 is really just the continuation of what was in the previous chapter. Now I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that, but I just want to highlight a couple of things because I think they are relevant to us understanding the passage tonight. But in chapter 19 and verse 16 we begins something that took us from chapter 19 and verse 16 all the way into chapter 20. Verse 16 of chapter 19 says, "'And behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?' So there is the question. And of course we want to we know that the question is really about what's required, what's necessary to go to Heaven. And Jesus begins to tell them about the law and the relevance of the law and just the various commandments in verse 17, 18, 19. And verse 20, of course, the young man said, I've done all these from my youth up, which is not true. So verse 21, Jesus said, okay, then go sell everything you have and sell it and give to the poor and come follow me. Verse 22 says, When the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. His possessions meant more to him, really, than a relationship with God. Verse 23, notice the first word of verse 23, then said Jesus unto him. So there's, you see a continuation there. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, you know, verily I say unto you, a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And this wonderful teaching of Jesus here, when his disciples heard that in verse 25, they were amazed who then can be saved. Jesus said in 26, with men it is impossible, with God all things are possible. Verse 27 begins with the word, then. Then answered Peter. So you see again the continuation. So then Peter says in verse 28, verse 27, we have forsaken all and followed thee. shall we have therefore?" So one man wasn't willing to forsake anything and follow Jesus. And now Peter says, we've forsaken all and followed you. So the context really continues, and Jesus said unto him these wonderful words in 28, that you which have followed Me in the regeneration with the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory. You shall sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And verse 29, and everyone, not just you, but two words, everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first." And then he begins, for, he continues, for this is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. And so, they're talking about, they're talking about what we've done, we've done everything we can to follow you, Peter said. And then Jesus gives us, to me, a very wonderful teaching beginning in verse 1 of chapter 20 that really pertains to the same subject. Basically, it's about a landowner a householder who's hiring laborers to work in his vineyard. Some of them only spent a part of the day, some of them spent the whole day. All of them would eventually be rewarded. And when I read this, I remember things I heard my grandfather say. My grandfather, both of my grandfathers lived east of Dallas about 45 minutes or so south of Wills Point. Some of you may know where Wills Point is, but I can still hear my grandfather on my dad's side, when he had a project to do, building fence or something of that nature, he said, I'm gonna go to town and I'm gonna hire me a few people. It's not unusual to go to town, find somebody standing around and hire them. It's still not unusual to find people standing around. but many of them don't want to work. But anyway that's another sermon for another time. So what is this teaching about? Verse 1, for the Kingdom of Heaven is like this, this teaching is about the Kingdom of Heaven. And there is much in the Bible about that, and we're not going to teach that. John the Baptist came and said, repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, it's imminent, it's upon us. Jesus said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The Bible says in Matthew 4, Jesus went about preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Much of Matthew's gospel is about that. Jesus sent the 12 out saying, preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So the kingdom of heaven is the rule and the reign of God. And this, and by the way Luke says the Kingdom of God is within you. It's seen in our hearts, it's seen in our lives, and one day it will be seen in a physical sense when our Lord will come back after the Great Tribulation and set up a Kingdom rule in this world and will reign for a thousand years. But in this context, in this teaching, Jesus said, this is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. So this is what it's like. It's like someone hiring laborers to go and serve in their vineyard, in their kingdom. And I think that's really what this, to me, missions is about. It's the vineyard is the vineyard of the Lord. It's the vineyard is the opportunity to reach people. And he's hiring people to go out and work in his vineyard. And in his passage tonight, I just want to notice what I think are very practical, valuable lessons about serving him, laboring for the Lord. Because I just want to tell you tonight, the landowner is still hiring laborers to work in his vineyard. He is an equal opportunity employer. Amen? Thank God for that. So what can we surmise in chapter 20 about this matter of working in the Lord's vineyard? The first one is this, there are still too many who are idle. Look what he says in verse 6, why stand ye here, last part of verse 6, why stand ye here all the day idle? Now as I look at this congregation tonight, I appreciate you being here on this Sunday night, and if it's like most churches, a good number of people, some churches I think the majority of people are involved in ministry in some form or fashion, serving the Lord. Could I just clarify something for a moment? When I talk about serving the Lord, when the Bible talks about serving the Lord in the vineyard, he's not talking about attending church. It's not labor to attend church. Labor is when we're working in the field. It's when we're trying to promote the gospel, the spread of the gospel. And this passage, if you look with me in verse one, he mentions this householder who went out to hire laborers. Notice the word laborers. In verse 2 he says, when he agreed with the laborers. In verse 8 he says, call the laborers and give them their hire. And so I'm made to believe by that, that he's talking about those who are laboring in the Lord's work, in the Lord's kingdom. And the gospel ministry cannot be done without those who are willing to be involved. and willing to serve. I think this has an obvious application to the subject of missions. God is looking to employ those to serve in His vineyard. And it applies to more than foreign missions though. Foreign missions is a part of that. witnessing, the Bible handout, that's a part of this thing, it's preaching the Gospel, sowing the seed. You know going to nursing homes in our church today, we live in a very small community, less than 5,000 people, but from our church today there were four nursing homes that were ministered to where people got the Gospel preached to them, and sung songs. Ministry going out where people are, hospitals, and the jails, and where people are. Bible printing, all this is the work of the vineyard, reaching people with the Gospel. We have a little community about two hours north of us. There's a little bitty town called Huntsville, Missouri, but you go way out in the country from Huntsville where there's no houses really hard at all, just a really remote place, and there's a church there, Sweet Springs Baptist Church, and that Sweet Springs Baptist Church has a press room and a web press that's about as big as from here to that wall right there. And that thing is cranking out millions of pieces of literature. It's an incredible thing to see. For instance, they have a goal, and they're accomplishing this goal to put a John and Romans in the mailbox of every home in the state of Missouri. At the same time they're doing that, they're targeting area codes, or zip codes, where there are not any Gospel preaching churches in other places in America, and they're sending the Gospel, John and Romans, to those places. And you go by there any week. My wife and I have been there a number of times. And in this little room they'll be out there assembling, putting together these signatures, they call them, and putting together John and Romans. And all of them are people much older than me, they're like seniors really. You know what, this is all, I'm talking about this is the work of the vineyard, it's hiring people. These people can't, you know they can't go to some foreign country, but they can sit there and they can staple those scriptures and pray over every one of them with a goal of putting the Bible in every home in the area. So this applies to missions. The ministry requires laborers. And a part of that is praying, a part of that is going, a part of that is giving, a part of that is tithing, a part of that is faith promise. And the Lord is looking to hire workers for His vineyard. You know, sometimes people hear messages about serving the Lord and they think, well, the preacher wants me to do this for him or that for him. But in almost every case, they're not asking for you to do something for them. He's asking you to do something for him. We're working in his vineyard. So the question is, why stand ye here idle? And I want to suggest to you today, and this may seem kind of critical or condescending, but I think there's still too many people idle. when it comes to the working in the Kingdom of Heaven. There's something that stands out to me about this teaching, and that is this. God wants everyone involved. He went out early in the morning and He sent some out. He went out at 9 a.m. and He sent some more out. He went out at noon and He sent some more out. He went out at 3 p.m. and said, why are you standing around doing nothing? He sent some more out. The Lord wants everybody involved. Amen. You say, where do you get it? I get it from the Bible. So why I stand here is still so in the Kingdom, the Lord is still so in the Kingdom of Heaven. God wants us working. There is a second thing I get out of this text and that is this, He wants us active The earlier, the better. See, some were ready to go early in the morning. Estimate, about 6 a.m., early in the morning. Others at the 9 a.m., others at noon, others in the ninth hour, which is 3 p.m., and some even in the last hour of the day. But the earlier you go, the better it is. So the earlier one starts, the better. The earlier you start, the better. I was privileged to hear the Gospel when I was 21 years old, not just once but a number of times, attending a Bible-preaching church. And at the age of 21, I committed my life to Christ, received Christ as my Savior, put my faith in the shed blood of Christ. I was born again. My life took on a brand new direction and trajectory. And I began at that point at 21 years old, I began to serve the Lord there in my church. So I've had the privilege of serving the Lord now for 50 years this year. But you know what? I wish I'd have started earlier. I wish I'd have started serving as a teenager. I wish I'd have paid attention to what the people were trying to tell me back then. The earlier you start, the better. The earlier you are, the more you have to offer. The earlier it is, the more years you have, the more opportunities you have, the more energy you have, the more mental alertness you have, I think. My wife and I, I was thinking about this today, my wife and I started tithing right after we got saved, 1975. To my knowledge, by the grace of God, I've never received any kind of income that I didn't give the first part back to God. But I wish I'd have started earlier doing that. I just say make yourselves available early in your Christian life. Be willing to serve the Lord and get involved in ministry, get involved in reaching people, get involved in helping people. To me, the landowner seemed a bit surprised to find people who were idle when there was an opportunity for them to work. Maybe you didn't respond to the early call. Well, respond to the 9 o'clock call. Respond to the noon call. Don't waste whatever time it is in your life, don't waste this time of your life. Get involved in the Lord's work. Our church began supporting missions through Faith Promise Giving in 1992. So for these many years, my wife and I have never ever thought about, should we get involved in Faith Promise? No, it's the plan that God gave us, gave us in the Word of God. Our church is committed to it. The question is never, are we going to do it? The question is, at what level are we going to do it? And we trust God to show us that. As a young person, young persons start supporting missions now. So I learned from this passage that there's still too many who are idle. And I also learned that God wants us active as soon as possible. There's a third thing, and I'll mention this briefly. that I see in this passage, and that is, whenever you start serving, there are going to be others who have been serving before you. I mean, when the people went out at 9 a.m., they might have thought, man, we're getting to go to work early, but there are people already out there working. And the people went out there, the longer you went in the day, the more people there are working. I'm just saying that because sometimes people get intimidated by this. They think, you know, I haven't been at it as long as other people. I can never be where they are. Don't listen to those lies and don't let that hinder you. Matter of fact, let people who've been serving longer be, you know, encourage and help you. I can remember when I started going to preacher's meetings when I was one of the youngest preachers there. Now, I'm not. Don't let the presence of those who are already serving, and you may be sitting here thinking, you know, I'm kind of new to the church, and everybody seems to be plugged in, and I'm not really a part of it. Don't let the presence of those already serving intimidate you. The Lord needs workers now. And by the way, if there's a person here tonight, or today, or this month, your admissions month, who says, you know, God's been working in my heart, And I'm going to get serious about serving the Lord. You're going to be nothing but an encouragement to other people who are serving the Lord. So there are still too many who are idle. He wants us idle or wants us active as soon as possible. Others have been serving before you. A fourth thing I get from this passage, is found in verse four, if you'll look there with me. It's, or verse seven, excuse me. They say unto him, when he asked, why are you here idle all the time? And they say unto him, because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard." The fourth thing I want to mention is sometimes people may need to be asked. I wish it wasn't this way, but sometimes it is this way. By the way, that's how I got started. I was in a Sunday night service, a lot like this service, and I don't even remember what the sermon was about. I don't know what time of the year it was, but I remember this. I'll never forget this. I was sitting I was actually standing after church about over on this side of the auditorium somewhere, just minding my own business. I'd just gotten saved recently. I was a hippie that got born again. I tell you, I thank God for the grace of God. And so I'm standing there after church just enjoying the blessings of God, and a man walked up to me and said to me, I'd like for you to pray about something. And I said, all right, that sounds safe enough. And he said, I'd like for you to think about getting involved in the bus ministry in our church. And I said, you know, I will pray about that. And I felt, you know, I didn't feel like the Lord wouldn't want me to do it, and I said, okay, eventually I said I'll do it. You say, why do you mention that? Because it was his invitation that got me going in a direction that has never changed. And that is for the first time, this 21, 21, actually 21 or 22 young man, I started doing something to help other people. And within a few months, I had my own bus route, and I'm bringing 30 or 40 young people into church and seeing people get saved. And I've never gotten over it. I'm just telling you, some people may need to be asked. And I've had people say to me over the years, occasionally they'll say to me as their pastor, well, nobody ever asked me. And I say, I stand up behind this pulpit almost every week of my life and ask people to get involved in serving the Lord, but they don't take it personally. But I want to say to you, it's not, I'm not asking you, I believe the Word of God compels all of us to serve the Lord. When Jesus was praying in John chapter 17, In that very, very sacred and holy moment, before He went to Garden's Gethsemane and shed, as it were, great drops of blood for us, He prayed this. This is what Jesus prayed. And by the way, He didn't just pray it for those 12, He prayed it for all those who would believe on Him after that. So He prayed it for you, and He prayed it for me, and this is what He prayed. as thou, to the Father, as thou has sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." He prayed that we would be involved in reaching people with the gospel. That's what he prayed for. If I'm not doing what I can to reach people with the gospel, I'm going against what Jesus prayed for in John chapter 17. He's always been recruiting workers. and he's still recruiting workers even tonight. So we see this landowner compelling the idol to get into the vineyard and work. Can I say to you tonight, it is an honor to serve the King of Kings. And during meetings like this, not this service, but all these services, this emphasis in the month of October, God is compelling people. God is compelling people to get involved in the work of the Lord. This is what the, you say, why do you say that? Because Jesus said, this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. He's the one that said that. So the landowner is compelling the idol to get to work. There's a fifth thing I see in this passage. And by the way, we're moving right along. We only have 37 more. The fifth thing I want to say about this passage is this. It's never been this late before. We may be at the five o'clock hour. The day may be nearly gone. Darkness is creeping upon us. And He said to these people, why stand ye here idle all the day long? You know, many times over the years, my wife and I'll be traveling and going up to somewhere up north and west, maybe South Dakota, maybe North Dakota, and sometimes driving late at night. You can look out across those fields and see those big combines as they're harvesting crops all through the night. Because you know what Jesus said, work while it's day, the night comes when no man can work. Now they have headlights, they can work later at night. But you know what they know? The time is of essence when it comes to harvesting the crop. Jesus said, the night is coming. You know, I've thought about this a lot of times in our church. You never know when missions month, this will be the last missions month we'll ever have. The last opportunity, the last call for workers You know, our remaining time to serve the Lord is only going to get shorter and shorter, not longer. So Jesus said, this is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. It's getting late. The sixth thing I want to note from this passage is this. I love this part. It's not too late to get started. Maybe you've been idle. Maybe you're sitting here tonight and you love the Lord, you love the Bible, you love this church. But you're really not involved in helping to reach people with the Gospel. I want to tell you, it's not too late to get started. Maybe you've gotten out of the habit of visiting or working in the church, serving in the church. Maybe you haven't been giving or supporting missions. The picture is of a landowner. This is the picture I get out of this. A landowner with an inexhaustible supply of work for those who are willing to work. I just want to say it's the devil's lie that it's too late. Not too late to get started. Maybe the 10 o'clock, or maybe the early in the morning for you, maybe noon, maybe 3 p.m., but it's never too late to start doing the right thing. Do what you can now. You know, Isaiah said, hear my Lord, send me. He just got in a position where he could hear the Lord. Saul of Tarsus, Saul, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? So there are still too many that are idle. Let's review. Still too many that are idle. I'd love to, I would love to think in the church that I pastored for over 40 years, that every, every member, true member of that church was busy serving God. Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing? But the truth of the matter is, I could never honestly say that. But I want to tell you, we should be able to say that. We ever, God wants every one of us doing what we can. He wants us active as soon as possible. Thirdly, others have been serving before you, for some may need to be asked. You say, I wish somebody would ask me. You won't be able to say that again because God's asking you tonight. It's never been this late before, and I feel that in my soul. It's not too late to get started. Number seven, those who have been serving should never quit. When those went out there, it's 6 o'clock in the morning, early in the morning, and started working. While they're working at 9 a.m., some more people start showing up. They're working at noon, some more people start showing up. They're working at 3 p.m., and some more people show up. They're working at 5 p.m., you can almost see the sun starting to set. They're still working. They're still out there working, and I want to tell you, those who've been serving should never quit. Amen? As a pastor, it's difficult, it's been difficult for me sometimes to see some people who are just flat, unwilling to serve. I hope there's no one here like that. But I'll tell you something else that's disturbing, and that's for someone who's been serving to leave their post, to leave the field. Don't quit. Don't ever stop serving the Lord. Don't ever stop serving the Lord for any reason. We may not be able to do as much as we once did, but God help us to do what we can. If you've been idle, get back to work. John Mark did. John Mark bailed, we don't know the reasons why, we can speculate, but on the first missionary journey John Mark bailed on Paul and Barnabas, went back home to Jerusalem. I don't know what he did, I don't know why he did it, some of you may know. If you want me to tell you, I can't tell you, but see Brother David, he knows, you can talk to David. I'm just telling you, people bail. But later on in his ministry, Paul in the second epistle to Timothy said, bring John Mark, he's profitable unto me. Maybe you quit, get back in the work, get back in the ministry. It's the devil that wants us to think that we can't serve. So it's not too late to get started. Those who've been serving should never quit. I don't ever have to quit serving the Lord, amen? Number eight, this is the last one. This would be our church's, our church's favorite. Their favorite point was always the last point. They knew they were getting close. I love this part though. Number eight, we will all be properly rewarded. So what he said in verse seven, they say unto him, because no man hath hired us, he saith unto them, go ye also into the vineyard. Notice this, and whatsoever is right, shall you receive." Remember this ties into the question that Peter asked over in chapter 19, we have forsaken all and followed thee, what shall we have therefore? And a part of the answer was what we're seeing right here in chapter 20. Those, we just read it a moment ago, but those who served the longest were murmuring because those who came in last were getting paid the same thing they were getting. In today's world, some of these people would be forming, I hope I don't offend anybody by this, they'd be forming a labor union. And say, this is not right. This is not right. But you know what we learn from this? God's system of rewarding is not always as we would imagine. But it will be just. It will be just. We leave that to God. We don't serve God so we can be rewarded, but God is not unfaithful to forget your labor of love. That's what the Bible says in the book of Hebrews. And the truth of the matter is, and this may not resonate with you, but it's right in my heart, I am as amazed today as I was 50 years ago that God would let me serve Him. Be glad that you're able to serve Him. Be glad for all who are serving Him. Be glad when others get involved in serving Him. I have no way of knowing what it's going to be like when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ. I've thought about it hundreds of times. Sometimes I think about it every day more than once a day. And standing before the Lord, I think of that song that we sing in our church sometimes, I wish I'd given Him more. Nobody will wish they'd given Him less on that day. Nobody. In my mind though, I've thought about this related to this message, and I don't know, I have my ideas about it, but I'm not certain. When I stand before the Lord at the judgment seat of Christ, whether anybody else will be around or not, for some things that we might realize how much we've missed the mark, we might be glad that nobody's around to know about it. But on the other hand, when I see people, like, I think I've told you this before, I don't know why I'm thinking about this now, but the thing that, the human instrument that got my wife and I going to church, when we were at such a low, low place in our life, we never went to church. I had no interest in the things of God, no interest in the Bible, no interest in church. And literally, almost every day of my life for years, I was drinking and doing drugs. That was the life that I was living. But a woman by the name of Nancy Ball, who was, my wife was a beautician, and she would talk to my wife, and my wife would talk to her, and my wife would tell her how she had the most wonderful husband in all the world. No, I'm just kidding. I don't know what my wife told her, but I know she told her that we were having a hard time. Nancy Ball persuaded my wife to persuade me if we can just get him in church, God could get a hold of him. See, why do I even say that? Because I think one of these days, I'd like to see what Nancy Ball gets at the judgment seat of Christ. But in my mind, I'd like to be thinking I would stand there and see somebody who late in their life, maybe at the five o'clock hour, said, you know what? Whatever time I've got left, I'm going to give it to serving God. I'm going to find a way to serve the Lord. I'm going to find a way to reach people. I may not be as agile as I was. I may not be as alert as I was, but I'm going to do something. I'd like to think that the judgment seat of Christ, I could see somebody like that who just served in the latter part of their life, and I can see myself just cheering as God rewards them for doing what they could when they could do it. I'm just saying, you know, God's going to reward people properly, justly, exactly according to what ought to be done. Because you know what? It's all because of the grace of God. We are saved by His grace. We serve by His grace. We'll be rewarded because of His grace. And the purpose of being rewarded is that not somebody can pat us on the back and give us an attaboy. It'll be because Jesus Christ will get all the glory for anything worthwhile done through any of our lives. Our rewards will not be for our glory, but for His. So, I thought in thinking about this service, And think about world missions, think about faith promise, think about expanding our missionary influence, our missionary footprint in the world. It'd be good to look at a passage where the Bible says, this is what the Kingdom of God is like, this is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. It's like a landowner going out hour after hour after hour, and saying, come work for me. I want to put you to work in my vineyard. I want to give you a job to do. And that question, that question to me would be a piercing question. Why stand you here idle all the day long? Why aren't you involved in doing something? And I want to say to you tonight, He's recruiting workers. for his vineyard today. People to serve. People to labor. People to give to support the work of missions. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to sign up. It's time to say, it's too late not to be involved. It's too late not to do my part. And Peter said, Lord, we gave all. What are you going to do for us? And you know what he said? I love the language that the Lord told him. He says, nobody, everyone, not every other one, not most, not the majority, everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold in this life, and inherit everlasting life. You know, we heard a great lesson in Sunday school this morning. about the journey of the Gospel through where Paul wanted to go up into Bithynia, and this visitor from Macedonia said, come over unto us, and the church at Philippi was started, and that church at Philippi supported his ministry, and he says, not because I desire a gift. but he said, I desire fruit to your account. I don't say to you tonight, that's what we want, we want fruit to our account. Paul said, henceforth there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, he's used this language, the righteous judge shall give me at that day. So tonight, the Lord is hiring people You know, if all of us, now I'm gonna speak very generally, I'm gonna paint with a wide brush, but if all of God's people, and I use that term very general, if all of God's people would say, you know, here am I, use me wherever you wanna use me, there would be a waiting list for people to be able to teach a Sunday school class. are people to serve in the nursery, are people to go to nursing homes. But I've never been to a church where there's a waiting list for people. There's always a need for workers. You say, this kind of makes me feel uncomfortable. I'm not trying to make anybody feel uncomfortable. I'm just trying to say, let's find out what we can do and do it for the glory of God. Amen? Let's stand together, please, with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. Everyone standing, our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. This is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like, a man that is a householder which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. This is what it's like. Would you be willing tonight to say, I want to, I've been serving and I want to keep serving and I don't ever stop serving. That'd be a good commitment to make. Or maybe to say, Lord, maybe there's more that I could do. Maybe there is a place that I could serve. You say, well, I just don't really know where that'd be. Talk to Pastor Bujak. He'll help you, pray with you about that. Fathers, we pray today, I thank you for this passage of scripture and I thank you for the simple reality that, Lord, you want all of us involved. Father, we say that from the pulpit. We say it in our teaching and preaching sometimes. We say it in our conversations, but it's, they're not empty words. You do want everybody involved. You're going out and hiring people, employing people, recruiting people. And tonight, Lord, I pray that in this place all of us would be willing to say, Lord, I want to get involved. Whatever hour of the day it is in my life, whatever hour of the day it is in the course of time, I want to get involved. Lord, would you work in our hearts in these next few moments. While heads are bowed and folks are praying this evening and while the piano plays for a moment, maybe tonight God has spoken to your heart in some way. In your own life, you just want to say, Lord, here am I. Use me. Give me a place. Show me where I could serve. Don't ever think for a moment that your contribution is not valuable to the work, to the labor, to the harvest? Maybe tonight, just whisper a prayer. Lord, show me what you want me to do in this matter of getting the gospel to the world. In our faith promise commitments, in our service, how could you use me? We're going to sing on verse number one of I surrender all that the Lord spoken to your heart. I hope you respond to the Lord. Let's sing. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. Oh, to Jesus I surrender, humbly at His feet I bow, worldly pleasure forsaken. Take me, Jesus, take me now. I surrender. Amen. I really enjoyed the message tonight. These kind of messages stir my soul. Like Pastor Smith, I have a lot of things in my life that I regret and I wish that I'd given the lord my life earlier. I got right with the lord around the age of 20. But I'd given a few years of my life to myself and to doing wrong. I was a wayward young person. But when I came back to the Lord, I'm thankful that he had grace enough to forgive me. And then I couldn't sit idly by. I was always stirred to work. It was how I was built. And one of the first ministries I got involved in when I got my life right with the Lord was the door-to-door visitation, knocking on people's doors and inviting them to church. And it was there where I started to feel God's call to preach in my life, where I knew I needed to study more of God's word to answer some of the questions I was getting at people's doors. And then I started riding the buses, and then I became a bus captain and bringing kids to church. And I'd always be praying, God, help me to get these kids parents in church. I didn't just want to bring the child to church. I wanted to reach their family And I was in so many of their homes and I would seed it with prayer And it would be so exciting bringing extra people to church on Sunday and I would be praying during the service Lord use the pastor, you know We've got a couple of vehicles around here that some some family may be saying, you know what? I can do that I can go out on a Saturday and put 15 people in a van and pick them up on Sunday and take them home Sunday. As a matter of fact, sometimes people do that as a family to say, hey, I'm going to do something for the Lord. We could actually do those kind of things in church. We want to have new ministries, more ministries, and we need more workers and laborers. We always need more workers in children's church, Sunday school. We always need more people for Bible handout. As a matter of fact, we average about 15 to 20 cars per two hours for Bible handout. And we go out to Bible handout on Tuesdays and Saturdays, but it takes about three people to run an effective Bible handout. You need somebody holding the sign, and you need an effective witnesser to stand here and hand out a Bible. I believe that the Bible has the answers to all of men's problems, and our community has people that do not have Bibles, and they don't know nothing about the Bible. so we try to encourage people to read the God's Word and then to come in for Bible studies. This very week, my week is so packed for calling people who showed up to our parking lot to get a Bible. And I'm hoping to get them in here for Bible studies. We need more laborers. You know if we had an extra team of three we could have a Bible handout on Thursday. actually seat it down all week long if we wanted to. But I'm just saying we do Tuesdays and Saturdays right now. We've got people, you know obviously our church has needs in our building, the building doesn't get cleaned. No, you know most of the people on our cleaning crew are 60 years and older. Some of them are over 80 and they're still washing the windows, cleaning the church saying, I can be involved and nothing should be above us to do. But workers. You know Brother Jeff runs TTUS. It's just him and his wife. If you think TTUS is an easy thing to do, bringing preachers in here, doing a video class for three hours and then editing those videos for all the foolish questions our people ask. No, I'm saying sometimes you've got to edit those videos. Brother Jeff needs help with, well I would say this, Sarah needs help editing those videos. And we need workers. We need laborers. And you know, that ministry, the TTUS ministry is something that is built to last beyond our lifetimes. We're videotaping men like Pastor Smith and Pastor Sargent and some of the finest Bible teachers in the United States. And when we die, those videos and those classes are still gonna go on to teach people who wanna learn more about God's word and effectively minister. We need ministry. You know, new ministries, mission work. I think I said everything I needed to say. Anything, anyway, sometimes I'm guilty of re-preaching a message. but I thank the Lord for the message. Pastor Smith, thank you for being here today. If you want your heart to be blessed, would you please stop by that table and get some of those devotional materials for your family? Brother Smith, again, he's a native Texan and he gave up Texas to minister to heathen in Missouri. And you know how hard that is for a Texan to leave Texas. The first preaching that I ever did, I pastored a church in Illinois. I was young. But I had a man ask me, he said, you know, are you a territorial preacher? And I said, you know, I don't know what that means. And he said, did God only call you to preach in Michigan? You know, most of my ministry has taken place away from Michigan. I still love my home state, but I'm thankful to be here in Texas. This church has been so good to me. And we've grown, and so many people came out tonight. I think there are more people here tonight than were here on the first Sunday morning service that I preached here in this church. And that's a testament to the hardworking people of the Metropolitan Baptist Church. This is a great crowd for a Sunday night in Fort Worth, Texas. And I want to say to all of you, thank you for being here. You have privileged me. My heart is full. I am blessed to see all of you here today. And we're going to have this gathering after service tonight. And we want to encourage all of you to stay. Please stay and enjoy some of the smoked meat. What do we got coming across here? Let's move some chairs. We're gonna do that. Thank you brother mark Both mark squared is going to be in charge of this moving chairs operation And so for those of you that are visiting with us tonight, please do not be offended um at our work, but you're welcome to stay in the sanctuary And fellowship and go back and get books devotional books But if everybody in this section to the right and I don't know what happened today. We are heavy on the right It's almost like nobody wanted to sit over here in Sestardi's section and you know what they say about somebody sitting in his own pew I'll tell you later But anybody who's sitting over here, we're gonna start stacking these chairs up against the wall so if you guys could just kindly move over here to this section because we're taking all of these chairs in the middle from the front to the middle and Every chair all the way to back to brother Blaine. We're gonna be stacking them up and So we're gonna do that immediately following the closing prayer and then if you want to make your way over to the gym It's just through these doors here the gymnasium. Just follow your nose. You'll follow your nose. You'll find the food We've got what do we got on the menu tonight? Does anybody want to sell this thing or what? Pull smoked put brother mark you want to sell your own meat? No, you don't know you tell us what you did to this meat, how did you smoke it I You can't tell me that. It's a special family recipe. There's several desserts that are over there. I know there's plenty of food. So if you would please come on over there with us and enjoy the food and the fellowship. Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer and ask God's blessing on the fellowship and all the work that's being done. Father in heaven, Thank you for the message tonight by your servant. Thank you, Lord, for saving his soul and for this dear saint who invited his wife and him to church. Lord, I thank you for the people who are active in my life, who invited my parents to go to a church where later I would meet my wife and be called to preach and be saved. And Lord, there's just so many things, the interventions that you've done in my life and the grace that you've shown me. And Lord, I just want to say thank you tonight. Appreciate Lord all the people who come out to the church house Lord. I know that many It's no small thing to come on out on a Sunday night Some people are struggling with their health and and others and I just thank you for the good turnout We've had and I pray that you would pour out blessings on every person who's come here tonight Especially the visitors who've come for the first time I pray you'd fill their heart with your grace and goodness and Lord I pray you'd bless this time of fellowship now help us to have a great time in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. I