Pick Me, Lord (The Five O’Clock Crowd)

0:00:00 – (Steve Gray): Hey, were you one of those kids in grade school, whenever they had a sports thing like kickball, softball, basketball, and you always got picked out of the last group? How embarrassing is that? Well, I want to tell you how to get to the front of the line in the Kingdom of God on the next More Faith, More Life podcast.

0:00:15 – (Steve Gray): You were made for more than the status quo. I’m Pastor Steve Gray, and this is the More Faith, More Life podcast. This podcast is for Christians with an ambitious heart who want to be more for their family, do more with their career, and see more of God’s promises in their life. I’ve spent many years as a worship artist, minister, nonprofit leader, bold truth speaker, and most importantly, father and spouse.

0:00:40 – (Steve Gray): When I was in my early 40s, I was craving more. More from God and more from life. I’d done everything I was supposed to do. My life was good, but it wasn’t good enough. So I spent the following years diving into the word of God and searching for the biblical principles that would bring me closer to God and help my purpose and life flourish. That’s what I want to share with you. In every episode, you’ll get practical tools based on real life experiences that you can put into action to redefine your faith and ultimately your life.

0:01:14 – (Steve Gray): So if you’re ready to do more, subscribers, subscribe to More Faith, More Life and hear an unfiltered biblical truth every week. It’s time to be and experience more.

0:01:27 – (Steve Gray): Hello everyone, and welcome to another More Faith, More Life podcast, your voice of revival. And speaking of revival, we have more good signs happening in our country. I think in the last week or so we see other things like we were just discussing right before we started it. There’s like a kind of a religious revolution, kind of a religious moral cleanup your life, get back to basics, faith and family.

0:01:54 – (Steve Gray): That’s a real revolution happening in our country right now. And it’s a very good sign, isn’t it? Because it’ll help protect us for a long time if we can really get this and have some sort of revival of something, which we’re seeing rumblings of it and that’s good. On the other hand, though, we do still have certain people in our country that also talk revolution. And their revolution is to change our country and bring in foreign and ideas, ideologies, socialism, all kinds of stuff.

0:02:24 – (Steve Gray): And they want to change how America does America. And, you know, I guess that’s what makes us great, is you can have a different opinion, but we need the spirit of God to revive us, his people. You know, I said the other day, somebody said to me, America needs revival. And I said, what are you saying? We are America. We are America and we need it. God’s people need it. God’s people need a breath of fresh air to blow in like a mighty rushing wind and set us on a different plane, you know, where we’re still, we’re getting out of feeling selfish and self-centered and worried about ourselves all the time and lack of faith and not getting along and critical and judgmental. These are real things in the body of Christ. They’re real.

0:03:10 – (Steve Gray): So let’s be real about it, they’re real. Now that doesn’t mean we can’t move out of it. That doesn’t mean we’re bad people. That means there’s real progress needing to be made before we turn to another revolutionary and say, hey, you’re bad, you’re no good, you got all these wrong ideas. Well, they’re just going to say, well look at you guys, you don’t do any better. You can’t get along yourselves, you don’t know what you’re doing.

0:03:35 – (Steve Gray): You criticize each other, you’re prideful, egotistical, love of money, all that. And that’s in our camp. And we need some fresh wind to blow and blow it right away out of us and get us on a different plane. And so that’s where we have to change a little bit. Where we can’t look at the world and think, well, we’re the angels and they’re the devils. Today we’re playing the devils, but we’re the angels and that’s not going to work.

0:04:04 – (Steve Gray): We have to really be something, we have to become something, not just do something. We have to become something in Christ, become something in God. And it’s happened through the centuries, but we have to want it. We can’t think we’re the good guys and they’re the bad guys. So if we can just fix the bad guys, everything’s going to be okay. But it doesn’t make us more loyal, it doesn’t make us more faithful, it doesn’t make us more, more caring, loving. It doesn’t do that to us. We need revived.

0:04:34 – (Steve Gray): And then it spreads out from us as light to the world where we’re examples, you know, we’re examples to other people. We need a lot of good examples today, don’t we? But we’re moving along. It’s the best I’ve seen in years in our nation. The direction that some people are trying to go, some people, we have a lot of opposers that think our Nation’s terrible. You know, they think it’s terrible, but they don’t see what you see. They don’t see what I see. We’re looking. Our clues are different than theirs, you know. So anyway, that’s what I wanted to start off with. But we’re going to talk about a parable From Matthew chapter 20, the parable of the workers in the vineyard. And I wanted to call it Pick me, Lord, Pick Me.

0:05:17 – (Steve Gray): And I don’t know, my guys working with me here in the studio, they probably didn’t ever have that problem. You guys never probably played softball, kickball, football, and got picked last. You don’t look like guys would pick. Be picked last, I don’t think, anyway. But there. There was always people that got picked last, right? I didn’t get. Okay, I didn’t get picked last either. So, you know, yeah, we’re winners.

0:05:41 – (Steve Gray): And lots of times I’d be on the, you know, on the first. First pick. But anyway, but this is a. This is a Pick me, Lord, and there’s a reason for it. So it starts off with the kingdom of heaven is like. And so whenever it says that, we have to find. What does this mean? And what is this parable about? Cause it’s got a lot of things in it. But you have to figure out what is it absolutely Jesus saying in his day to them, so I can get it in my day to me.

0:06:07 – (Steve Gray): So a landowner and he went early in the morning to get some workers to work in his vineyard. It’s probably six o’ clock in the morning and early. And he sees these workers and he says, come on, if you’ll come and work for me today, I’ll give you one denarius, which was standard pay for a day’s labor in that culture. So they would have been okay with that. Yeah, sure, we’ll come and work and we’ll get. Everybody gets a denarius. Okay?

0:06:32 – (Steve Gray): So time passed. It got to be 9 o’ clock in the morning. And somehow the landowner ends up back at the same place and he sees workers not working. He says, come and work for me. You can come work for me. And then he comes back at noon, more workers. He comes back at 3 o’, clock, there’s still more workers. And each time he says, well, you’re not doing anything. Come work for me and I’ll pay you what’s right.

0:06:55 – (Steve Gray): He doesn’t say a denarius to them. He just says, I’ll pay you what’s right. And so then five o’ clock comes. Now they’re Only going to work till six. So they have one hour left. And he sees these guys and they’re mulling around and he says, what is this? Why are you just standing around doing nothing? And they said, because nobody hired us. And I like that because it gives people hope of when God listen. When God starts moving in spiritual revivals and you can study them recent and far away, you know, long time ago, God ends up choosing people that you wouldn’t choose in a normal environment where those things are not happening, okay?

0:07:38 – (Steve Gray): So there’s hope for you. If you’ve never felt like you’ve been an upfront, you’re not usually picked or, you know, you played softball and you were always picked last, you know how terrible that feels or whatever, there’s going to be a fresh choosing when God begins to really move to another level, higher than we’re doing now. Right now, the signs of revival are being led by really talented people that have been talented for a long time. Love God prepared to stir things up and that’s all good. But they can’t do it alone. We need a whole army of people. And those will be a lot of unpicked people, unpicked ones.

0:08:13 – (Steve Gray): So basically they’re saying we’re not working cause nobody wanted us. And he says, well, I want you, so go and work. So they go and they work for one hour. Now, the key to understanding this parable is the word denarius, okay? He said, work for me and I’ll give you a denarius. That’s what this is about, okay? The rest of it is just set up and getting us into it. So anyway, the day goes on and they work and then it’s time to get paid. And so the foreman or whoever it is comes and he says, the landowner says, okay, pay everybody, but I want you to start with the ones that just started at 5 o’ clock and go backwards. Like 5, 3, 12, 9, then 6.

0:08:55 – (Steve Gray): And so start and go backwards. So he does. So when he gets the guys, they just worked one hour, one hour, and he gives them a denarius. Okay? Well, when you see stuff like that happen, especially in religion and you know, there’s involved spiritual things and spiritual thoughts are flying around. So the ones that got hired, the rest he gave everybody denarius and the ones that got hired first and they worked all day, all day long.

0:09:25 – (Steve Gray): I get it, I understand it. It’s easy to. To let something go off inside of you that says, this isn’t fair, this isn’t right. And so they. The Bible says they expected More. Cause if you give one denarius to somebody that worked one hour, how many denarius am I going to get if I worked all day? Right? And that’s what their brains did. Their minds went there. And so when it comes time to pay him, foreman comes up, and he still gives the ones that worked all day one denarius. Just one.

0:09:54 – (Steve Gray): And like I said, we might yell foul. That’s no fair. You have to. But that’s not the parable. That’s not the teaching. This shows us how God thinks, all right? Because the guys got angry at him and, you know, for just giving him one denarius. And they worked all day long. And he said, listen, why are you upset at me? Didn’t we agree that you would work all day and you would get one denarius? They said, yes.

0:10:20 – (Steve Gray): And then he said, well, that’s what we did. You should be happy. You agreed. I agreed. We did it. That’s what you got. And he said, are you going to be upset with me because I’m generous? Cause I want to be generous with people and give extra to those that didn’t work all day. I mean, they could use a denarius, too. And I wanted to be generous. And he says, don’t I have a right to do what I want with my own money?

0:10:47 – (Steve Gray): And doesn’t God have a right to do what he wants with his own creation, with his own way of doing things? And so they were upset. And so we learned something here, though, that a lot of. And, well, we learned this, too, that a lot of people were coming in to the kingdom of God when Jesus is ministering, right? And you know that. You know the titles. First, we’ve got the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Teachers of the Law.

0:11:14 – (Steve Gray): Well, they have been faithful. Faithful. They’ve been in the temple. You know, they’re tithers, they’re givers. They tithe. It says they tithe. They pray a lot. The motives aren’t good. They got a lot of corruption. But nevertheless, like, they were there every day. Every day. They showed up to do what they do. Okay, Then we have others come in and you know the titles. They said they were tax collectors, prostitutes, you know, all kinds of characters.

0:11:40 – (Steve Gray): And they came in and they just came in recently. And yet they are being accepted by God on the same level as those who did this year after year or their whole lives. And the parable is saying. He’s saying to those people, I know what you’re thinking. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking this isn’t right. But here’s the problem is you’ve been doing it all your life, but your heart has been far from me.

0:12:08 – (Steve Gray): You’re not doing it from your heart. You’re not doing it from your heart. You’re not doing it for the right reasons. And you said, your ancestors said. And their ancestors said, we’ll do it, we’ll serve you. So what’s the big deal? You’re serving, you’re getting to do it. And you know. So anyway, it shows that those then that worked just for the hour got accepted by God just like those that worked their entire lives. That’s the parable.

0:12:38 – (Steve Gray): Cause Jesus is facing religious people who are upset because he’s eating with tax collectors and prostitutes and unsavory characters, I guess even be around the sick and all that. And they didn’t like it. And they didn’t think, like, if you’re really the Messiah and you’re really who you are, you ought to be with us. We’re the ones that have been here the whole time. I think it’s a little reflective on the parable.

0:13:01 – (Steve Gray): A man had two sons, you know, the one who we call him the prodigal son, went and squandered all his money and lived riotously and ended up eating pig’s food and lost everything. And finally he comes to his senses and says, I know what I’ll do. I’ll go back to my father’s house. And that’s the first part of the parable. And that’s the guy who hasn’t been faithful. It’s sort of like the workers for an hour or two or whatever, and then they come back and the father just throws his arms around him, gives him ring and shoes and everything and.

0:13:32 – (Steve Gray): And you know, and kills. Let’s kill the fatted calf. And like, he’s been gone. He comes back, he’s here just a little bit, and we’re having a celebration for the guy that went and wasn’t here to help. He squandered his money, he didn’t help in the fields, all these kinds of things. So they throw the big party. And the second son, who gives us the idea that he’s older, he’s been faithful all this time.

0:13:57 – (Steve Gray): Now, see, let’s think for a minute. We try to be tough on these guys, but let’s think. How would you feel? It’d be real easy for you to let that switch in your head go flip. And you go like, this isn’t fair, this isn’t right. And so he’s upset and he said, hey, this isn’t right. You never killed a fatted calf for me. You never had a party for me. And I’ve been here the whole time. So it’s a little bit on the same way, you know, you made a commitment to your dad to be here and to run the farm or whatever.

0:14:28 – (Steve Gray): And then the dad says to him, the father says to him, well, yeah, but here’s the thing. You have been faithful and you’ve been doing that. You know what, though? I don’t have to throw a party for you because all of this is already yours. What I have is already yours. And so he’s really saying, this is what we agreed on. You’d work, you be faithful, you stay here, and someday this will all be yours.

0:14:52 – (Steve Gray): So why are you upset that the silly brother, the squandered one that squandered, he comes in, he didn’t make a commitment. He wanted to leave. He didn’t even want to be with us. But now he’s back and he’s come to his senses, and so why not? What do you care? You got everything, you own everything anyway, eventually, what do you care if I just want to have a party and be glad? He said we had to celebrate? You know, he’s back.

0:15:14 – (Steve Gray): And so it’s a lot like that. And so they get angry and they get upset. Well, we learned some things from this, that people that come in later have a great opportunity nowadays. You didn’t come in. I’ve been doing this many, many years, and boy, I could just think I deserve more than you. Or whenever. Cause you’ve been living this riotous life and squandering, and you haven’t been going to church like I go to church and preach all the sermons I preached.

0:15:40 – (Steve Gray): And so I should get a little upper seat, you know, I should sit a little higher because of that. But God, this is the story. I’m not going to do that. Because the ancient Jews and all those, I made a deal with them, and hopefully they kept their deal or tried to. But God says, but I’m keeping my deal with them. I’m keeping my deal with them. But then those that come in later, whether they be then Gentiles later, not just the Jewish ones of the tax collectors, et cetera, they come in later. And God says, I will accept you, just like you’ve been here as long as them.

0:16:13 – (Steve Gray): Now, that’s pretty good news if you’ve kind of been a little lazy and squandering and not that interested and all of a sudden, I tell you, there’s things happening in the spirit world. It’s like a religious sort of revolution of people changing their hearts and minds. And they’re admitting it. They’re not just doing it, they’re admitting it. They’re saying it. They’re joining other people to say that.

0:16:36 – (Steve Gray): And that means you, who maybe just are now coming in or you’ve been in, but you. You only. You’re kind of like the three o’ clock crowd. You know, you came in at three, so you didn’t come in in the morning or noon or anything, or nine. So you’re the three o’ clock crowd and you’ve been doing okay, and you only worked a few hours. But God will treat you just like you’ve been there all day and give you the same chance to step forth now in this most important hour and start working hard for the Lord and making a priority. God’s house, God’s work.

0:17:08 – (Steve Gray): Right? It hasn’t been that way for many, many years. And we still have a lot of churches that are. I would say they’re good churches, but they don’t have a priority. Even the leaders, they don’t have a Jesus priority. Like, look, love him first. He’s number one. It’s the narrow way. We’re not going to widen this for anybody. But we have others that do. They widen it. And church is just kind of the place where you meet God loves you, you meet with people, you. You have fellowship and sing some songs.

0:17:40 – (Steve Gray): But unless something changes in thousands of these churches, they’re not going to get any zeal for God’s house or any, you know, they’re not going to get fire shut up in their bones. They started the church, and we know what they meant when they started. They started to keep it nominal, peaceful, don’t rock the boat. Let’s just love each other. Let’s have fellowship together and know that we have a home in heaven if we die. That’s kind of it. But.

0:18:04 – (Steve Gray): But then there’s maybe you or people, you know, that there’s something more in you that’s been in your life, your whole life. You’ve had something more. Like, I was made for more than this. This is not me. I mean, it’s okay they’re doing that if they want to do that, but I want to go to the top of the mountain if I can. I want to go as high as I can. I want to experience things with God. You know, Peter and John, they go up to the Mount of Transfiguration and they get to see Moses and they get to see Elijah and they see the transformation where Jesus becomes white as white, glowing, glowing light.

0:18:41 – (Steve Gray): They saw all that up in the mountain. And then of course, you know what, there were guys at the bottom of the mountain too. And guess what they were doing? They were trying to cast out a demon that they couldn’t cast out. They said, we’re trying to cast out demons and they’re not listening to us. We can’t cast them out while the other guys, they’re up on top of the mountain seeing Jesus glow with the glory of God.

0:19:02 – (Steve Gray): Well, that’s two positions. You can go to the top of the mountain in your lifetime, as high as you can go with God, or you can stay down at the bottom of the mountain and just, you know, just play around with religion and try to do a few good deeds and help a few good people, Right? But that’s not me and I hope that’s not you. And I’m looking for people and praying for people to arise and say, say, look, I was a late comer. I hadn’t given much. I wasn’t a good attender, I wasn’t a tither.

0:19:33 – (Steve Gray): I don’t even know half the songs you sing. But I’m here now. I came in last, the last hour, five o’. Clock. I came in and I believe God’s grabbing hold of my life just as though I’ve been here all those years. He’s given me the same opportunity just as I’ve been there for all those years. It’s happening. It’s really happening. And so I want to encourage you to be that those type of people. There’s also the other type that’s frustrating to all leaders in Christianity and that is the start and stop people.

0:20:03 – (Steve Gray): They start and they, and they make a commitment and they’re going to be there and they’re going to serve and they’ll be your friend and they’re going to love you forever and you can depend on them and they’ll help with the children’s ministry or whatever. And then they change their mind. You don’t. It just, I don’t know what goes off in people’s minds. But I was sharing, you know, the parable about the four kinds of people. You know, there’s a kind that the sower sows the word and some of them, the birds come and eat it and others, they get, you know, they get offended and others, you know, they get sidetracked and all that. And out of the four people that it speaks of, only one really goes on to produce fruit.

0:20:42 – (Steve Gray): The Rest of the three they get, they just don’t make it. They don’t make it. That’s three out of four. And when you think about that and the business that I’m in and you see new people come or others and people moving around and doing stuff, you go, well, be careful now. Be careful. Don’t overthink this. You make a vow. You say you’re willing, you’re going to do it. And you’re not going to change your mind and get your feelings hurt or say, this ain’t fair.

0:21:11 – (Steve Gray): Nope, you make your deal, God, I’m going to serve you. I’m going to do it. I’m going to go for you. This is who I am now. This is who I am. And this is who I will be with you forever. That’s what this is about. That God treated those that came in late just like those who came in early. And that’s a good word for many people today who have maybe been around but not really worked very hard. But now the door is wide open for people like you, like me, like us, that we can step in in this hour.

0:21:42 – (Steve Gray): And in my opinion, there’ll be people that will arise that I would say. I don’t mean to be sound awful about this, but, you know, right now you’d call them nobodies. Nobody knows who they are, okay? Nobody knows who they are that will arise. And if this keeps coming, they will arise. And some of them probably will become very well known. That’s what happened in other revivals. Nobody rose and became world famous in other revivals.

0:22:08 – (Steve Gray): And people. You can read about them in books today, hundreds of years later. And so, well, I was a nobody, too. I was in the country, the country church with a town of 532 people. I was a nobody. And within nine months, it was national. And within a year, I was doing international and was on all the TV shows and Time magazine visited us. Newsweek did an article, books, everything. So I was one of those people. So I guess I know what I’m talking about.

0:22:35 – (Steve Gray): Maybe you are next. Be sure and check out https://stevegrayministries.com. There’s a lot of new things coming. A lot of new website, new things, new products that you’ll want to check out and follow us and get to know us, like us and all that kind of stuff. Till next time, bye-bye.