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Jesus entered the temple courts. And while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of of the people came to him, By what authority are you doing these things? They asked, and who gave you this authority? Jesus replied, I will also ask you 1 question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

John's baptism, where did it come from? Was it from heaven or of human origin? They discussed it among themselves and said, if we say from heaven, he will ask, then why didn't you believe him? But if we say of human origin, We are afraid of the people for they all hold that John was a prophet. So they answered Jesus.

We don't know. Then he said, neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things? What do you think? There was a man who had 2 sons He went to the first and said, son, go and work today in the vineyard. I will not, he answered.

But later, he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, I will, sir, but he did not go. Which of the 2 did what his father wanted? The first they answered.

Jesus said to them, truly, I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of god ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. Good evening, everybody.

My name is Steve. For those of you who don't know, I'm 1 of the elders here. And today, we're gonna be looking at this chapter that Benchers read out this passage We're just looking at verses 28 to 32, but there's some initial context that's added in by verses 23 to 27. And it's a 1 off It's not part of the series, which surprised, Phil, a second ago when we were talking about it. The series that we were running through earlier is finished, and this is just a 1 off looking at the subject of, religion and repentance and obedience.

So that's what we're doing here tonight. So it's a short passage in which Jesus talking to the chief priests and the elders in the temple. And this is almost like the first in a mini series that Jesus does, in their following verses, where he starts telling a few parables all seem to have a very similar theme or a similar subset of characters. They all seem to feature a person or people who either look like they're gonna do 1 thing or look like they're gonna behave in a certain way and then reveal themselves later to not to be that to do something different. So today, we're looking at Power 1 and it's pretty short.

It's only 4 verses. But there's a lot in it. And there's some strong challenge in this. So I'll pray before we start, that God will help us. Heavenly father, we do pray now, as we read your words and we come to hear what you have to say to us that you'll prepare our hearts that you'll get us ready to be honest with ourselves.

And that actually you will start to transform our hearts if you haven't already, to be more obedient. To be more aligned to your will, and would you pray this for your glory in you's name, amen. Talk is cheap. That's a saying that I'm sure a lot of you have heard before and it might be a rather strange way to start a talk. But I'm sure a lot of you have heard it.

You would have heard it in movies, in songs. Some of you might have read it in books or articles. Some of you might even have had people say it to you in real life. Talk is cheap. No matter what, I think the phrase Talkorship and the others are similar to it.

Really seem to resonate with people nowadays. And I think it's because pretty much all of us have at 1 point or another felt let down or betrayed by someone who said they'd do something and then revealed themselves later on to not have done so. Now, we see it pretty much everywhere. We see it in politics. Now whether you voted leave or remain, in the Brexit, campaign.

I don't think that really matters for this specific talk. But I think we can all agree that 1 politician say that 350000000 pounds a week are gonna pump back into NHS if we all vote a certain way and then the country votes a certain way and nothing happens. And that 350000000 pound promise is revealed to be nothing. I think we can all understand when people say talk is cheap. They promised action and there were no actions to back up their words.

All we see in relationships I'm married, as a lot of you wanna know, and my wife, Emma, who's not here tonight, gets frustrated with me sometimes. I hope I'm not the only 1 who this has happened to. Maybe some of you guys have been in this situation before. My wife has had the kids all day, a very hectic day. There's been screaming and crying, of the kids, not my wife.

But and the house is a bit of a mess. There's toys everywhere. It's a bit of date and I get back from work, but Emma's got plans to go out in the evening. And I look around and it looks like a bomb hit it. And Emma says, I'm really sorry.

I haven't trusted it. It won't take long. Can you just while I'm out do the dishes, tie the waste from the toys. The kids are in bed. Can you just do that 1 amount?

And I say, honey. Don't even worry about it. I got it covered. She leaves. She comes back 2 hours later and the house looks exactly the same with 1 exception that there's an additional dirty plates in the sink, from my dinner.

I'm hoping I'm not the only 1 that's happened to. See a few smiles. So I'm hoping there's a lot of people who also had that happen. But she'd be right to be frustrated, wouldn't she? Because actually I said I'd do something and then I didn't do it.

Talk is cheap. And we know this to be true because we particularly feel betrayed when people say they do something and they don't keep their word. It's frustrating people don't do that keep their word. Now I think this is summed up relatively well in the nineties song more than words by the band extreme. I'm not sure if any of you remember that song.

Dan does. I was about to ask Daniel to sing at Frost, but that's probably a dangerous thing to to say. I will read out some of the looks for you now. It goes a bit like this. Saying I love you is not the words I want to hear from you.

It's not that I want you not to say, but if you only knew, How easy it would be to show me how you feel. More than words is all you have to do to make it real. Then you wouldn't have to say that you love me because I'd already know. What would you do if my heart was torn into? More than words to show you feel that your love for me is real.

What would you say if I took those words away? Then you couldn't make things new just by saying I love you more than words. For those who know it. Talk is cheap and it takes more than words to show what your heart is actually like. And that's the thrust of what Jesus is trying to say here in this message.

In this parable, he presents us with a case study of a family. So father and 2 sons, relatively simple. You've got 1 son who starts off badly but ends quite well. And then you've got the other son who ends badly and on the surface looks like he starts well. But in reality actually starts in the same place he finishes, which is not great.

And that brings me to my first point which is family portrait if you're taking notes. Family portrait. Look with me back at your bibles, verse 28. Says this. What do you think?

There was a man who had 2 sons. He went to the first 1 and said, son, go and work today in the vineyard. I will not, he answered. But later, he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other side and said the same thing.

He answered, I will, sir, but he did not go. Which of the 2 did what his father wanted. The first, they answered. Jesus said to them, truly, I tell you the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of god ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness and you did not believe him.

But the tax collectors and the prostitutes did And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. So Jesus tells are parable here, and it seems on the surface to be quite simple. So a man has 2 sons. 1 does what the father wants. And the other doesn't, which is the good son, which is the 1 that does what the father wants.

That seems to be it in a nutshell, relatively simple. It's easy, but as always, the context in which Jesus is speaking into, is very, very important, which is why Ben read out verses 23 to 20 sevens beforehand. So we see in verses 23 in verse 23 that the elders and the chief priests in the temple are questioning Jesus. They aren't happy with what he's doing. In their eyes, he's usurping their authority, their positions power in the community and they're already looking to discredit him to rubbish him.

Now the elders and the chief priests would have been looked to at the time as the spiritual benchmarks in the community. So if you wanted to see what goddiness look like you would need to look no further than these bastions of righteousness. These upstanding men They kept the letter of the law almost perfectly it seemed. In fact, they were so good at keeping the law that they started to invent their own little add ons to the law of god. That they could keep and try and enforce on others who they deemed less righteous than themselves.

So I like to think of it a bit like first century spiritual top trumps. If you guys remember top trumps, that game that used to play a long time ago, if you don't remember it, it's very simple. Each person would have a hand of cards and you would match your card against a card in your opponent's hand. And you compare them to see who would actually which card is better, essentially. So If you're doing sports cars, you might be comparing, best acceleration, top speed, engine size or something like that or if it's superheroes, it might be, who's strongest, who's fastest, who's got the best intellect or something like that.

And whoever's got the highest stat in a given category wins, they trump the other person, and they get the card. Now, if you were playing first century spiritual top trunks and you drew an elder card or chief priest card, they knew it'd almost be guaranteed to win the hand because their righteousness and law keeping was always 10 out of 10. Always 10 out of 10. These guys were the best, and they didn't look too fondly on this upstart from Nazareth, who was coming in and stirring up trouble for them, because they were the top dogs, the top trumps as it were. Or so they thought.

So Jesus turns up, and after expertly dodging their questions about authority, paints for them a family portrait that perfectly pinpoints the issue with these men. Look again at verse 28. What do you think there was a man who had 2 sons? He went to the first and said, son, go and work today in the vineyard. I will not, he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, I will, sir. But he did not go. She just tells us parable, and the chief priests and the elders would have, at this point, I think, have been seething They would have been furious because Jesus pinpoints perfectly with this parable or the issue with these minutes. And the issue is that they are religious on the outside.

They put on a good show. But actually, when you get below the surface, you see that actually there is no desire to honor god with their lives. The lord the god they claim to follow has asked them to follow him, to love him, to serve him, to work in the vineyard, as the parable says. And they say, yes, sir, and then proceed to do exactly nothing. Their talk is cheap.

They look good to society and for the people around them but inside when you really look at their hearts, they're dead. They are religious on the outside, but they're actually sure they don't care for god. They don't care care for the 1 who they claim to serve. So again, going back to the top trump analogy for you to look more closely at that car that you've poured. The older card, the chief priest card.

You'll see that the 10 they have a righteousness isn't actually real. They've just gone in and they've drawn the 1 on themselves. And so when you scratch away the fake 1, what are they left with? The big fat 0. There's no righteousness.

Their talk is cheap. And they may have fooled others, but they haven't fooled the lord. They haven't fooled Jesus. Jesus knows their hearts and exposes them by showing that they have already actually rejected god. Look again at verse 31.

Which of the 2 did what his father wanted? The first they answered. Jesus said to them truly, I tell you the tax factors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of god ahead of you. Verse day 2, for John came to you to show you the way of righteousness and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes did.

And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. The religious elite of the day are too proud. And when god sent his messenger in John the Baptist, they reject him because what he said didn't fit with their view of who they were before the lord. It didn't fit. And so just as they reject John, so they then reject Jesus, and the very message that they desperately need to hear And the irony is it's their religiosity, which I think is a word and for the sake of this sermon is a word.

Their religiosity is the very thing that is keeping them from god because they care more about the public appearances that they have with the people around them than they do about how they really stand before the living god. It's the essence of idolatry when you stop and think about it. Their hearts are selfish and focus inwards on their own reputation rather than on the glorification of god. Their words say 1 thing, but the action says something completely different. Now Church isn't just a place to come for comfort.

It is that to some extent, but it's not just for comfort. And there comes times when we need to ask ourselves, painful questions. And I think this is 1 of these times. The question that we need to ask ourselves when we read this parable, 1 of the many is, is this us? Is this you?

Are you like this? I don't know everyone here, and even if I did know you all, I can't possibly know your hearts. But god knows, and so the question is, is this you? Are you like the pharisees here? The chief priest, the elders.

Do you come to church and put on a mask and masquerade around acting the parts? But really show no obedience in your heart. Now Cornerstone is a relatively, relaxed church, I guess, in terms of, tradition and religiosity, things that look like religion. We have tables here with no haribo tonight, unfortunately, which is deeply upsetting. But actually it's very easy for us to still come here every single week and play religion.

So do we do that? Do you act a certain way here on a Sunday, but then act completely different in your heart and when you're outside? It's an important question, and to be honest, it's a question that I find I have to ask myself regularly because I know the natural state of my heart without god is not obedience as much as I wish it was. So look, if this is you here tonight and you find yourself leaning on yourself and on your own good deeds, and your reputation and good works for other people, then I want to encourage you to be like the first son in Jesus parable. Be like the tax letters and the prostitutes.

Don't lean on yourself. Don't be like the chief priests and the elders who are so taken up with their own reputation and keeping the law, but don't address their hearts. Don't be like that. Which brings me to my second point. The selfish heart transformed.

The selfish heart transformed reads me again verse 28. What do you think? There was a man who had 2 sons. He went to the first 1 and said, son, go and work today in the vineyard. I will not.

He answered. But later he changed his mind and went. And then jumped down to verse 31. Jesus said to them, truly I tell you the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of god ahead of you. You see the other sum is an interesting 1.

He starts off rejecting the instructions of the father. And in that sense, he's he's no better than his brother. He doesn't start off obedient to the father and in fact he's kind of rude. I think if I was as rude as this son was to my parents growing up, It wouldn't have ended well for me. And now we don't know why the sun and the storms responding in this way.

She just doesn't say it to much. It doesn't really doesn't really matter. But what is clear is that his heart is just as selfish as his brothers at the start of this story. He doesn't care to do the word of the father, and he isn't looking to be obedient. Now I think if we're honest, that makes sense, doesn't it?

I think actually the natural state of all of our hearts before Jesus intervenes is not willing obedience. I know mine certainly, isn't. So Mark chapter 7 says this, for it's from within out of a person's heart that evil thoughts come. Romans 3 says this. There is no 1 righteous, not even 1.

There is no 1 who understands. There is no 1 who seeks god all have turned away. And then Jeremiah 17 says this, the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. So it seems pretty clear that the natural state of our hearts before Jesus comes in is not willing obedience. When the father comes and tells us it's time to work in the vineyard.

At best, we say, sure thing dad and then do nothing. At worst, we say, you know what? Just leave me alone. I don't have time for this right now. I'm doing my own stuff.

And completely ignore and disrespect him. Do we see that in ourselves? How often do we see the opportunity to be obedient to the word? And then in that moment of weakness choose to give in to sin. Our natural state without Christ is not obedience, it's disobedience.

I have a daughter I have 2 daughters, actually. But for the sake of this, I have a daughter called Kayla, who many of you will know, and she is wonderful. She's 2 years old and she brings me a lot of joy, but I'd be lying if I didn't say she doesn't also bring me frustration at times. For those of you who know her, you might understand what I'm talking about. I remember once we took Kayla to a soft play area in Kingston in 1 of the outdoor sporting shops inside, they have a soft play area and they do hot chocolates and stuff.

We took her there so that she could play around inside and did it on 1 of our days off and it was really nice. She saw it. She wanted to go in and play. There were slides and big inflatable thingies and cargo net and stuff. She saw it.

She was eager to get in and we thought, okay, let's put it in this part of the reason why we're here anyway. Now, Outside the play area, there was a big sign that had a whole lot of rules on there and there were 2 rules in particular that I remember. The first 1 No shoes are to be worn in the soft gray area. So we took off our shoes. The second rule, and this is the crux here, Socks are to be worn at all times in the soft play area.

Those were the rules. Hopefully you guys can remember them. Kayla struggled. So we said to Kayla, okay, we'll take your shoes off. Kayla, you have to leave your socks on.

Okay? Don't take your socks off. You understand? Yes, daddy. Okay.

Put it on soft play. Everything's fine, drinking hot chocolate eating whatever is we're eating sandwiches of some kind. And everything's cool. She runs off. She's having fun, going up and down the slide, and so on.

About 15 minutes or so into it, Kayla pulls off her socks. Both of them, frozen down and runs around and I see this. Okay. Well, now I've gotta go and get her. So I clamber in, wade past all these other kids.

Pick her up. She's screaming. Pick up her socks, hoy her out. And sit her down. She's screaming ahead off and I'm trying to calm her down and I say Kayla, you can't take your socks off.

So I'm trying to explain to what the rules are. Kayla, you can't take your socks off. Okay? You need to keep your socks on when you're going to soft play. Okay?

Yes, steady. Okay. So that is gonna put your socks back on. You can go back in. Don't take them off.

Okay? Yes, study. Alright. So don't take them off Kayla. You get that.

Yes, Daddy. Okay. I'm putting you back in socks on Kayla Kayla Kayla. Kayla? Don't take your socks off.

Kayla. Yes, Daddy. Okay. Good. Go and play.

Everything was fine. For about 60 seconds, After that, I see Kayla, she sits down. She grabs hold of 1 of her socks and she looks up and she sees me. I look at her and I say Kayla. Don't take your socks off.

And she lets go. She actually didn't take her socks off. And I was like, wow, this parenting thing. Got it nailed. She then gets up and scrambles off and climbs up the little slope to the top of the slide and sits down.

And I kid you not without breaking eye contact with me, looks at me, grabs hold of 1 sock, pulls it off grabs hold of the other sock, pulls it off, throws it down the slide and just stares at me as if to say, yeah, come on dad. You think you're hard. Come get me. Sorry did. And it's at that point that I think I realized that me and Emma were gonna have a little bit of trouble with our darling daughter, Kayla.

I think if we're honest, all of us have a little bit of Kayla, you know, Our natural state, in our natural state, aren't we just like her? We might feign obedience for a little while, but deep down in our hearts, all we really want to do is rip our socks off metaphorically rip our socks off. Our natural tendency is to be like the second son in this parable. But as we saw with the second son of the parable, God doesn't care about what you say if it isn't backed up by actions. It takes more than words.

It takes repentance, which is actually what we see with the first sum. Look again at verse 29. It's the words of the first son. He's asked to go to the vineyard and he says, I will not. He answered.

But later, he changed his mind and went. Do you see that? But later, he changed his mind and went. It's very important that word went would count down a little bit. The first son in this parable, who starts off with the same selfish heart as his brother, is changed.

His heart is transformed, it's renewed. It's made alive. You see, we are incapable of doing the right thing before God. But god in his grace and mercy brings us to repentance, he changes our hearts, changes our minds and transforms us so that we are able to be obedient to his word. And this is the correct response to meeting Jesus.

This is the correct response to the call of the father, and it's the difference between the 2 sons and the parables the chief priest and the tax the chief priest and the temple elders, sorry, on 1 hand, and the tax collectors and the prostitutes on the other. 1 group is too proud. Too caught up in their own religious acts to accept what they need to do. But the other group, the other group understand what they're really like. They know They know because they aren't the top dogs of society.

They aren't the top trumps. They're the outcasts. The prostitutes and the tax factors know who they are before god. They're they're painfully aware actually. Pain fluid of how far short they fall because the lives they're living full of sexual immorality, lying and stealing lives are not in line with what the lord wants for them.

They know. And so what do they do? They accept their position before god. They humble themselves and they repent. Brothers says is this, this is the correct response to meeting Jesus.

Repentance. Humble yourself before the lord, and he will lift you up. We'd be missing we'd be missing something really important, actually, if we didn't talk about what repentance actually is. Especially because it seems like a relatively religious word that is very easy to say and quite difficult to do, which actually is exactly Jesus is preaching against here in this passage. So repentance in its simplest form is realizing that we're going in the wrong direction away from god, apologizing to god for that, turning around and moving forward in another direction towards god in its simplest form, simplest form that has repentance.

In a nutshell. And so we can see that, interestingly, repentance and obedience actually go hand in hand. You can't be repentant without having an obedient heart because part of repentance is not just turning around but in the power of god walking forward. So the son in the power didn't just change his mind. He doesn't stop there.

Verse 29 doesn't read. I will not, he answered. But later, he changed his mind. Realized he should have gone. Felt kind of bad about it, but decided it was too late anyway.

Actually, the sun was getting low in the sky. He'd already told us that he wasn't gonna go and it made no difference at point. So he decided to stay where he was and didn't actually go to the vineyard. First 29 doesn't read like that. If it did, it would be a disaster.

It says he changed his mind and he went. That little word went. He acted wasn't just talk. It was more than words. Again, this is the correct response to meeting Jesus.

Repentance. And as Jesus said, that repentance leads to acceptance into the kingdom of heaven in verse 31, which is the most wonderful thing ever, a place where there's no suffering, where there's no pain, where there's only joy, where you're face to face with, the very personification of love. How on earth could we reject that? So again, if you find yourself here today and you haven't repented, I want to encourage you to do that today. Why not take this opportunity right now?

To humble yourself before the lord, to repent. Allow god to transform your heart. And yet, having said all that and yet, I think it's fair to say that many of us here will have repented before. And many of us will find ourselves daily slipping into disobedience. Don't we find that at times?

Every day as a new battle, we continue to fight against the sinful nature, but we must learn to cultivate the obedient heart that God has blessed us with. We've had our hearts transformed, but we must cultivate that heart now, which is my last point and it's just the point of application. So cultivating an obedient heart. Now we know only god can change our hearts and bring us to repentance and obedience that comes through grace. But there are things that we can do to help ourselves in the fight.

And if obedience starts with a heart, how do we go about cultivating this heart so that it is actually more obedient. We want to have hearts that are obedient, but more than that, I think we want to have hearts that are willingly obedience. When the father calls us to work in the vineyard, he wants sons and daughters who are willing to go. So remember the story of Jona in the old testaments. God tells him to go to Ninevada preach, and he literally does almost everything he can possibly imagine to get out of it.

And when he is finally worn down by being spotted by a massive fish and then being spewed up, He goes. He is obedient, but he's super grumpy about it. He's really, really miserable the whole time. We don't want to be like that, do we? So what can we do?

Well, I think the first thing we need to do is understand that willing obedience springs from love. I'll say that again, willing obedience springs from love. Do not forget your first love. Jesus says that to the church in ephesus in, in Revelation. Do not forget your first love.

We have to remind ourselves and each other what God has done for us through Jesus. What has the father done for you? Now you have to think what may the first son change his mind? We don't know and after all it's just a story. Jesus doesn't actually tell us.

But I would think it would be something like remembering what his father has done for him. Remember how much love the father has shown him, which is what changes his mind. Some of you will have would have heard this story before. But I I'm hoping enough of you haven't heard it that I can tell it again. I haven't told it in a sermon before.

I've definitely told it in youth. I think Ben's heard it. I'm pretty sure Matt's definitely heard it. When I was 14 years old, my parents took me to, the Maldives. You know my brother?

On a wonderful beach holiday. It was a lovely time. You haven't been to the Maldives and you can afford it. I'd very much recommend it. It's picturesque.

It's beautiful. So we spent a lot of time on the beach, chilling out, splashing about in the sea. And 1 day, because it was so beautiful and had lots of tropical fish swimming around, I wanted to go snorkeling to see some of these fish. So I went and I rented out, it's kind of a snorkel and some flippers splashed out. My parents were on the beach with my brother.

About 14 years old. So I'm swimming about in the sea. I'm ever so slightly out of my depth. I'm having a great time looking at these tropical fish. And I get a little bit of water in my goggles because the seal around them wasn't so great.

Now for the life of me now, I don't know why I didn't just swim back to shore. In hindsight, that would have been the right thing to do, but I didn't because I was stupid. And I thought, I know I'll just take my goggles off With 1 hand, I'll shake the water out and then I'll put them back on. So I think my goal was off, shake the water out, splash around with 1 hand, trying to keep myself afloat, kicking with both legs. It doesn't work so well.

I get water in my eyes. I get more water in my goggles and I can't quite put them back on again. So I keep shaking. Keep splashing. Keep getting more water in my eyes.

And then I'm like, this is this is stupid. What am I doing? But for some reason again, I don't swim back to shore. And then I get cramp in my left foot, and I kick off my flipper. And that flipper's gone, at the bottom of the ocean somewhere in the Maldives.

I imagine so to this day. And I keep kicking keep splashing, keep trying to empty the water. And then I get cramping my right foot, and I kick off that flipper. And so now I've got cramping both feet I've got water in my eyes. I've been splashing around with 1 arm and I raise at this point.

Okay. This is stupid. I need to get back to shore. Then my brain kicks in. The problem is it's so bright and there's sunlight glinting off the water and off the white sand.

I can't work out where I am because I've been swimming around in you know, with 1 hand, basically turning in circles. I have no clue which way land is, and I'm too scared to swim in any direction in case I swim further out into the sea that I'm completely done for. And so I'm just splashing about getting more and more water in my eyes and then panic sets in. Because I realize I'm in a lot of trouble here. I'm in a lot of trouble, but I can't do anything.

I can't see the crampage slowly spreading up my legs, you know, past my feet into my calves, up into my thighs, and the panic really, really starts to take a hold. And I remember thinking, this is it. I'm I'm gonna die here. This is the end of Steve Simms. Now spoilers, as you guys know, I'm standing here, so I didn't die, right?

But at that moment in the sea, I was convinced that was it. And water was rushing into my mouth and I was getting more and more tired and I did at 1 point just give up and I started to sink. I had no energy left and I thought this is it. I'm gonna die. This is the end for me.

And I'm convinced that 30 more seconds. I wouldn't be here today. Me and my my family talk about this actually relatively often. I was hwicked out of the water I couldn't see, and I'm coughing up half the ocean. I'm snapped on someone's back and I'm being trudged.

I remember slowly to shore, someone's swimming swimming there. And when I've kind of, you know, cleared my throat of all the water and I've rubbed the tears and the the seawater out of my eyes, I realized it's my dad. And my dad has seen me from the beach drowning. My brother was waving him saying, dad, Steve's in trouble. Stephen's in trouble.

And he came in and got me. I was unable to save myself and I realized at that point that my dad had actually saved my life and I remember vividly the very first thing I said to him when I could muster words to speak. The very first thing I said was I love you, dad. That was the very first thing because he'd saved my life. And in that moment, I had never loved him.

I couldn't love him any more than I did. Now look again, I don't know everyone here. I don't know your life stories. You might not have a story like that in your life. But I wanna say that we all have a story.

If you're a Christian here tonight, that is so much more visceral and powerful and important and wonderful and beautiful than the story that I've just told. Because if you are Christian here tonight, you are also at 1 point on the brink of death. You are unable to save yourself. And in fact, more than that, the more you tried to save yourself, the worse things got. The more you tried to gasp rare, the more water flowed in, the more you tried to kick to keep yourself afloat, the worse the cramp set in.

There was nothing you could do to save yourself. You were lost and you were without hope. But your heavenly father sent rescue He sent Jesus and he pulls you back from the brink of death and he saves you but in saving you, He dies. He dies. He gives himself to save you from certain death.

That's why this is so much more powerful than the story I told of my dad because my dad's still alive today. Jesus died. My dad didn't die for me. 1 of my favorite verses in the Bible is Romans 5 8, says this, but god demonstrates his own love and this while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God demonstrates his love.

It's more than words, you see? Out of love for us and out of love for the father, Jesus took action. He went. He went. He went to the cross and he was killed brutally murdered for us to save us.

Dived in our place. So how do we cultivate an obedient heart? We remember what Christ has done for us. Remember what the father has done for us. And when we get it, when we really, really get it, we will love.

And then we'll repent. And then when the father asks you to go to the vineyard to work, You'll happily roll up your sleeves and get dirty in the vineyard. Look, the harvest is coming. The harvest is coming, and there's a lot of work to be done before it arrives. There are people who haven't heard the news of Jesus.

I mean, to come to the vineyard and get dirty and tell them. The people who need to be encouraged, maybe people in this very room who need to be encouraged and edified and built up. And there are people who actually might need to be rebuked as well and brought back to repentance. There's work to do. Work in the vineyard.

Talk is cheap. Options are costly. Actions require sacrifice as demonstrated by Christ on the cross. So remember, Remember who you were before god. What Christ has done for you and who you are now a beloved son or daughter.

Remember the love that cries the shower on us. And then once you've remembered that, once you know what you've been saved from and see where you are now, go and work in the vineyard. Let me pray. Father you've done so so much for us. You've saved us.

You've given us the opportunity that we don't deserve to be your loved and cherished sons and daughters and we thank you so much for that lord. Please help us to remember to not forget to really understand the weight of what was happening to us, where we were. On the brink of death, so much on the brink that actually we were classified as dead already. And you sent Christ to die for us, lord, we thank and praise you so much for this. Please help us to remember.

And lord please help us to want to be willing willing to go and work for you in the vineyard. Whatever that might be, whatever that might look like, we do pray that you will help us to do that. Please help us transform our hearts, cultivate them. We do pray this in Jesus name for your wonderful glory.