[Message] Pastor Jung Myeong Seok
[Scriptures] Matthew 20:1-14
1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing.
6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you.
Hallelujah! I bid you the love of the eternal God and the peace of the Holy Son.
The body gets strength from three major sources.
They are first, the strength of the body / second, stamina / third, the strength of righteousness.
First, the strength of the body is different for each person, even if they are the same age.
If you make your body strong and hardy through training, then it has greater strength. If you do not do that, then your body would be weaker.
Second, stamina is ‘the basic source of strength for the body.’
It comes according to the food you ate and the nutrients you absorbed. And it even includes the combined power of the nerves and the muscles too.
Third, the strength of righteousness comes only if you do ‘righteousness deeds'.
Doing righteous deeds is like making money.
If you sit still, money does not come in. Nor is the strength of righteousness generated if you sit still.
You have to do righteous deeds. Only then will you gain the strength of righteousness.
Each person does righteous deeds and there are many types of righteousness.
Receiving the Word, leading revival assemblies and Holy Spirit assemblies, construction work in God’s Natural Temple, prayer, predawn prayer, praise, glory given to the Holy Trinity, love for the Holy Trinity, unity with the Trinity, unity with the Lord, evangelism, management, lecturing, sermon delivery, testifying for the Lord, thanksgiving, tithing, overcoming tribulations, persecutions and slander, taking action according to the Word, doing good deeds and others things too.
This is ‘a life of faith.’
However, you must take action clearly knowing that all of those things become ‘such great righteousness’ for you.
Even if your <body> did not receive any missions in the world, if you do righteous deeds such as praying, evangelizing, managing, lecturing, being united with the Lord, loving the Trinity, and other things, your spirit will shine according to ‘those righteous deeds,’ and it will become like you ‘have received missions from God’ by those deeds themselves.
The Holy Trinity pay you the wages of righteousness as much as you do work that the Holy Trinity want and do the spiritual work that Heaven wants.
<The value of righteousness that God pays you> is so tremendous that it cannot be compared to what the world pays you.
The value of your righteousness varies according to what kind of righteous deed you do, even if you have done 'righteous deeds' just that same as other people. God pays you by calculating ‘the value of your righteousness’ according to exactly what kind of deeds you do.
In today’s main scriptures, the owner of a vineyard called people, gathered them and spoke to them. The main scriptures are long, but the key point is this:
“Come and work in my vineyard. I will pay you well. Rather than paying you according to the amount of time, I will pay you according to the work you have done. So work for me as much as your strength will allow,” He said.
As it says, God will measure the value of your righteousness and reward you for it according to ‘the work pertaining to this time period’ that you have done.
The Lord paid with ‘his own righteousness’ and forgave ‘the sins of the time period,’ forgave ‘the sins of people,’ and saved them.
In this world too, if someone is operating a store but keeps accumulating more and more debt, he can no longer operate the store.
He will lose that store if someone does not buy it for him.
If someone buys the store for him at the point he can no longer run it by his strength alone, he can keep the store and run it again.
The same is true with the world of faith.
Someone who has gone bankrupt in righteousness has no ‘strength of righteousness.’ So he cannot get back up by his strength alone.
The Lord has ‘righteousness to pay on their behalf.’
Therefore, the Lord pays ‘righteousness’ on their behalf, forgives them and lets them get back up again.
Among the countless many kinds of righteousness, the greatest is the righteousness of loving God, the Holy Spirit and the Holy Son, and the righteousness of saving lives and making them become the Trinity’s counterparts of love.
Don’t you want to do just a few more 'righteous deeds' and change your destiny by the value of righteousness? And don’t you want to do righteous deeds, gain the strength of righteousness and raise your level?
I bless you to be full of the blessing of thoughts of wanting to do it through today's message, and be full of the Trinity’s power when you are taking action!
<Pastor Jung Myeong Seok’s Wednesday message summary from October 21, 2015>
