In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the parable of the workers in the vineyard from Matthew chapter 20. The parable tells the story of a householder who hires laborers at different times of the day to work in his vineyard. The preacher suggests that there could be various reasons why some workers were still standing idle in the marketplace, such as blindness or lack of opportunity. The parable teaches us about the generosity and fairness of God's kingdom, as the workers who were hired later in the day received the same payment as those who had worked the entire day.

We're going into the book of Matthew, chapter 20. For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. When he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. He went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever ever is right, I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. At about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? And they said unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more, and they likewise received every man a penny. When they had received it, they murmured against the good men of the house, saying, These last have brought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne their burden in the 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? Take that which is thine, and go thy way. I will give unto the last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is mine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last. For many be called, but few are chosen. I don't know whether that is true here in Atlanta, but in many cities in the world. They have a place in the city where people who are seeking day labor will go and congregate, and the different employers will go to that place and pick up the men that are there waiting to be employed. So I'm not certain if that is ever done here in Atlanta. Elaine, would you know that? It is so. Thank you. And so that is a common practice. Now he went out early in the morning, perhaps about daybreak, and found a group of men that were already gathered. He went out about the third hour, about 9 a.m., and he saw others that had gathered around there, and they were not working. He sent them out. He went out about the sixth hour, that's about noon, and he went out the ninth hour, that's about three in the afternoon, and still found people there. Perhaps they had another job first, and now they're on a second job. Perhaps they were just plain late risers, but whatever it was, he sent them out likewise. About the eleventh hour, that's about 5 p.m., he went out and found others standing idle, and said, Why stand ye here all the day idle? And they saith unto him, Because no man hath hired us. And so I'm left with a question. Why weren't they hired? Why is it all the men that went, the employees, employers that were looking for employees, looking for workmen, looking for people that would work for a day or more, or many days as far as that's concerned, but every day at a time, why were they not hired? Why were they passed over? Why is it that every time an employer came, said, You, and you, and you, and you, and no, not you, you, and you, and no, not you, you, and they left them there. I said, Well, there must be some reason, wouldn't you think? It wasn't that they came late, because he said they stand all day idle. So it wasn't that, was it? It would have to be some other reason. It had to be something that impeded that they would be hired. And I got to thinking about that. Of course, there could be many reasons, but to give us an idea, we'll just look at four. First, I can think of blind Ben, we'll call him. He was a muscle man, strong, big. He could do anything, but he was blind. And blind men aren't very productive, are they? There's not much they could do in a vineyard especially, is there? Can't see what color the grapes are, see if they're ready to be picked or not, or even find the bunch on the vine. But nevertheless, he was just a day laborer. He wasn't a slave. He still could do a little something, but so often he would be passed over. So often he'd wait with hope, because he had a family to take care of. Let's say he had three small daughters, sweet wife, but she was tied to her children, she couldn't do much. And every day he'd go out hoping, hoping, hoping that somebody would find something he could do, and some days he would. But this day, every time someone came to employ, no, no, I can't use you. Heard that so many times, and still he stuck there. That's the amazing thing, isn't it? Get discouraged after a couple of years, well, what's the use? This is my day. I'll just go home, find his way home. No, he was there all day. He was there all day, but no one wanted him. No one wanted him. He was passed over. Someone that no one wanted. There was, there was lame laban. He was hospitable, had a lovely wife, but she was sick. Had two little boys, they too young to help, but he was lame. Lame. Not much he could do. Could hobble around. No one wants a lame man with all the other people busy working this and that. So he'd get passed over, passed over, passed over. They were depending on those wages. His family, his family were waiting for him to bring home something to eat. But once more, passed over. No one wanted him. Then there's Orin. He was too obese. Just plain too fat. Just plain nobody wanted him to work. He could, he could go around and perhaps he was fairly strong, but they just look at him and said, no, I don't think you can, you can work a month. And you're passed over. And there was Abel. He was all crippled up with arthritis. Every movement hurt. And of course, these men were all known by the employers. They knew that he wouldn't do much work. Poor fellow and everything he did were hurt. He moved slow, do the best he could, grit his teeth and go on. They didn't have fine aspirin and things of that nature in those days. But no one wanted him. No one wanted him. He was one more that's passed over. And there was, there was Abner. He was too old. Just too old. I mean, if I went out there, I know they wouldn't hire me. They passed me over. They looked for somebody that was able to produce, someone that was able to work. Not only that, he was very, very poor. They had tried to save up for their old age, but a fire had wiped them out, let's say, and his old wife. And they were hoping every day, they're hoping somebody would employ him because that was life. And he worked and got some wages or they didn't eat. More than one day they'd go without eating. More than one day they'd go to bed hungry. They couldn't produce. They were no good. They were rejects. They were rejects. Rejects of society. Rejects that no one wants. When I was a boy, I worked on a farm and I wasn't very athletic. I wasn't very coordinated. And when the boys would get together to play some game, baseball or something, and they'd choose sides, I'd be the last one chosen. I mean, the last one. They'd try to get me on the other side because they knew they had more chance of winning. And I always hated to be passed over, but I knew I would be. And I'd finally get to play, but the last one in the worst place to play. Passed over. Rejected. We don't want you. They had to live with that. Day after day. No, we can't use you. Once in a while there'd be some task that one of those could do and they'd give him a chance. But to me, the story that Jesus told tells of desperation, of hope till the very last. Perhaps hope fed by desperation itself. They needed it. And I can see the hurt. And I can see the feelings as they got passed over. And I can see as they would talk amongst themselves. Well, Abel, we didn't make it again. No one wants us. It's not my fault I'm old. It's not my fault I'm lame. It's not my fault I'm blind. But what can we do? No one wants us. Rejection is hard to take, isn't it? The more a person feels rejected, the more they can even get depressed. Not wanted. You are not wanted. That's what this story tells me. Excuse me for being a little bit imaginative and giving them names and so on, but they were real people, you know. Whatever their name was, they had names. And they had families. I know that because if they were just alone, they wouldn't have stayed all day. They'd gone around looking for something. But the desperation, having to go home at night, hating to walk in the door, hating to see the eyes of their wife and children say, Oh, Daddy, did you get anything? And the sadness of knowing that they went to bed hungry that night, nothing to eat. That's the story Jesus told about the rejects, about those nobody wanted, about those that couldn't be like others. Somehow, for whatever reason, there was something that they couldn't be with the rest of the gang and go out here and go out there and do this job or do that job. There was some reason they were passed over. There was more than one employer. Jesus tells us a man, a farmer. In fact, in Mark, I believe it called him a farmer or in Luke 22, and a landowner. But there's others. There'd be people that worked in construction and other things. And they would get a job once in a while. But the heaviness of their lives, the knowledge that day after day, they'd go out early in the morning, be there all day, no job, no wages, passed over, rejected. We don't want you. There are lots of people like that. You know, society has lots of people like that. There are lots of people that are rejects in society. In those days, they were angry with Jesus because he sat down and ate. It must have not been the finest food. It certainly wasn't a gourmet meal. He ate with Republicans and sinners and harlots, rejects. No one wanted them. In fact, they were angry with Jesus, as I said, because he did. Because he went out with those people that no one wanted. They didn't want them helped. They didn't want them alive. They preferred they'd just die and get out of sight and go away. Society didn't want them. They couldn't run with the rest. Their only company was their own people like them, the other rejects. And these that were left all the day idle, their only company was themselves. All the rest had gone to work. There they sat, talking over their miseries, realizing that life held no joy for them, realizing that life was one dead-end street, no place to go. There's people like that. All you have to do is take a walk down some evening down the center of Atlanta. You'll find people like that, you know. You'll find people like that, people that society has rejected, people that other people don't want. Not even churches want them. So many churches, at least, some do. There's no black man. Went into one of the fine, beautiful churches in Houston, Texas. He just felt like he wanted to go to church, and he passed a beautiful church, and he went in and sat down. And I mean, the ushers came and got him out quickly. He walked down the street, miserable, once more rejected, thrown out. They don't want me in there. They don't want me in there. And the Lord came by, and the Lord said, Son, what's the problem? He says, I went into that church. They don't want me in that church. And the Lord says, Son, don't feel too bad. I've been trying 20 years to get that church, and I can't get in either. People that are not wanted. But I want to tell you something. That's the title of this message. God has no rejects. God has no rejects. Amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. He came by, and he saw them. He said, Why are you standing all day idle? He said, Because no one hires us. He said, I'll hire you. Go on out. Go to work. So he put them to work. Had something for them to do. I can guess, perhaps, he put an old blind man loading the carts with his grapes. They were all picked and ready. After all, it was the last hour. He could do that. He was strong. He was a muscle man. He just couldn't see where he was going very well. But he could do that. He could lift those baskets one after one as they sat there, put them in the cart. He could do it fast. He was strong. And lame laban, he couldn't get around very much, but he could count. So they had him carrying the tally or the count of all the baskets that different laborers had brought in. There he was busily counting and writing down and counting and writing down. And then obese Oren, they had a job for him. He had good eyes. He just couldn't move very easily. He wasn't very mobile. So they had him picking all the trash out of the grapes, leaves, twigs, things that fall in when you're out harvesting. I know. I've been there. Always had to be picked out so that they don't spoil the rest of the harvest. And arthritic Abel, I know what he could do. He could sit on the cart and drive the donkey. That he could do. All he'd do is sit there and talk the right words to the donkey. He has a small vocabulary. And off he'd go. He'd sit there in the cart until he got to the place that they were unloaded. And old aged Abner, he'd been around a long time. He knew how to figure out and keep the production charts. So everyone was who picked what, who were the best pickers, and who were the best laborers, and who did this, that, and who did that right. They could control on all the workers. He could do that. And that would be done at the end of the day. So after all, they all had something to do. They all had something to do. There wasn't one left out. Whatever jobs they gave them, I'd pick that out because I've been in vineyards and I've been in harvest and lots of things. I've harvested different kinds of of fruit and harvest. And I know what they do. And I know there's things that people like that can do. They wouldn't have to do it all day, but at the end of the day, that's where they'd really shine. That's where they could get their work done. And as I said, after all, everyone was hired, wasn't they? Everyone was hired. God has no rejects. There is some place, there's something for everybody. When I was in Bible school, seminary, and my last year especially, they had, the school had found different places for ministry, for training. They'd send out the different ones, but there wasn't nearly as many places as there were, as were graduating seniors. There's perhaps 35 graduating, and perhaps there was 15 places at last, 10. I decided I was going to have a place too, but I didn't come up on the list. So I went down to the middle of the city of Los Angeles. Instead of having one place, I had three places. I went to three missions, and we'd go three times to each one once a week. I'd take a group of young people with me, and we had services three times a week. And we'd go to the city missions, and they dealt with the rejects of society, with the rejects of society. They would come in, sometimes for a meal, and sometimes just for places, get warm for a while, be quiet. Whatever the reason, there would be a good congregation. And you look at that congregation, they weren't all nicely dressed. They weren't all nicely perfumed. Well, yes, they were perfumed, but I would take away the word nicely. But you know, God loved them. And more than one would find grace, amazing grace, that saved a wretch like me. I once was blind. I once was lost. Now I'm found. Now I see. I was very, very enlightening, and I found I enjoyed it. I found that they were just as I was. They were just plain human. But for some reason or another, or for a dream, or for, shall we say, just bad luck, if you want to use that word, they were there, the outcasts. No one wanted. Poor. Many times they were hungry. If a mission would give a small meal, and some of them were able to and did, because they were backed by better, more wealthy churches. Oh, how those people would come in. How they'd wolf down that food. You knew they were hungry. But they were rejects. They were rejects. And you know, in God's vineyard, there's a place for everybody to go to work. There's a place for everybody in His vineyard. It's that we have to find that place. And I said I had three. I had to go after them. I went down and visited and talked with them and found three that were open on nights I could go and was open. And so I had my congregation. Sometimes we have to go after them. Sometimes they're so rejected they'll never come to you. But we can go to them. We can find them where they are. We went once, twice, thrice, four times. Early morning, nine o'clock, noon, three o'clock, five o'clock. Until everyone was hired. Until everyone had a place in His vineyard. Everyone had a place that they could go and work. There were no rejects. He had something for everyone. I'm sure they all didn't do the same work because there's many different jobs in a vineyard. But they were all employed. They were all employed. Even those that so many other will pass on and say, well, I can't use you. You haven't got enough education. Or you don't have enough holiness in your life. Or you don't have the right gifts. Or you don't have the right personality. Or you're just too fearful. No one expects you to do anything. Stay home and stay out of the way. Don't bother people. But that's not the way the Lord looks at things, is He? Again, I say the Lord has no rejects. There's a place for everyone. It's a different place for everyone. All weren't the pickers. All weren't the basket carriers. All weren't the ones that counted. All weren't the ones that picked. Some were given to clean the harvest. Some were given to prepare for the next portion of the season. But all had a place. God has no rejects. Sometimes we feel rejects, but God hasn't. We feel there's nothing for me to do. There is something for you to do. There is something for you to do. One thing I think most churches, and I think perhaps we too, are low on. We don't shine there. And that is, we don't contact much the rejects of society. I know we have a group that go to the nursing homes. I know we have a group that go to jail. Thank God for that. But there's a lot of rejects in society. There's a lot of people that people don't want. And I was reading a story of Jesus, and I realized about those that stood all the day idle. He said, why stand you here idle? Why? He said, no one's employed us. He said, I'll employ you. I'll employ you. I will have a place for you. And for those that feel that way and feel that they're just a bench warmer, just come to church, be faithful to church, be sure you pay your tithes, and that's all. That's it. I don't think that's all. I don't think that the Lord has so run out of employment that He can say, well, I'm sorry, honey, I don't need you. Just be a nice little woman. Just be a nice little man, and just sit there, go to every service, sing nicely, and that's all. I don't think that's so. I don't think that's so. I know a woman. I've never met her, incidentally. Yes, I beg your pardon. I did meet her at a conference one time. She lived in Canada. She lived way out in the country, and she couldn't read very well. She couldn't write very well. I know because she wrote me a letter, and then I saw her at this conference later. All she'd do when she had the time for it because she was on a little farm, she'd shut herself in her closet, and she'd open her heart and pray and intercede for missionaries, and as she would, God would show her in a vision some particular place, some missionary, and some problem, and tell her to pray for it, and she'd pray it through, and the reason she wrote me because I was one of them she saw, and she wrote me, and sure enough, what she saw was right, and what she prayed for was taken care of. She never went to Argentina in her life. She never went to any other country except Canada in her life. She lived way out there in the country. She could not read or write very well. Her letter, I had to study to make it out, but she had something to do. She had something to do. The Lord had a place for her, and afterwards, I found out, and I met her and talked with her. There was more than one that had happened, not just once, but quite a few times, quite a few times. Ecclesiastes says a man's gifts make room for him, and sometimes we don't realize what our gifts are. We don't realize we can do just because we can't do what some of the leading lights can do, and because our gifts aren't as bright, shining, and aren't as manifested as others, doesn't mean we don't have any. Maybe the Lord would pass by your place and say, why stand you here idle all day? No one hires me. I will. I will. I'll put you to work, and that's what this story is all about. That's what this story is trying to tell us. Who would want us? Who would care about us? Sometimes we get so rejected, we feel that we're totally useless. Well, maybe as far as society is concerned, maybe as far as your church is concerned, maybe that's true, but it isn't true as far as God's concerned, is it? Because through this story that Jesus told, I understand He has something for everyone, something for everyone. I don't know about the woman named Manoah. All I know that she had to do was raise one son in the most peculiar way. The angel came to her and told her she would have to sons. She should never cut his hair. She should never drink any wine or eat any fruit of the vine, but what she could do was she could do that, and she could raise her son, and she raised her son, and his name was Samson. A pretty good son, wasn't he? Did a wonderful work for God. She did what she could. That's what Jesus said about Mary when she put all the ointment upon his head, and the disciples were upset about it, especially Judas, and remonstrated with her, why did you waste that, all this waste, why that could have been sold for 300 pence, that could begin to pour, and put in a bag, and of course, I'll take them off the bag, and oh, he was really upset about it. But the Lord said this, she has done what she could. She has done what she could. I think that's a wonderful statement. It means that God doesn't demand mere as much as we demand sometimes of one another. It means all he asks is do what you can, and do it unto the Lord. And when she did, and then you can go back further, you can go to Moses' mother, she did what she could. It wasn't much, especially in the days she lived, but she did what she could, and God took on from there, didn't he? I don't think we need to make big demands on ourselves, and we've got to do this, we've got to do that. More and more I realize that we're not to make demands on ourselves. If he doesn't do it, you can't either. If he doesn't take on from there, you can't do anything. Without him, we can do nothing. But we can. We can get in touch, as he gets in touch with us, and we can do what Paul did. Lord, what do you want me to do? And there'll be something, maybe it's nothing more than raising some children, but I tell you that can be a biggie, not a little thing. That can be a big, big, big thing. I said it before, I'll say it again. When God wanted to produce and bring forth changes in the world, he started looking for a woman, gave her a child, and brought forth wonderful things. Say Samuel, or Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and you'll go through the rest of them, they all had a beginning with someone that was given no greater task than to raise a child. Isn't that right? We don't have to set big goals for ourselves. It's just that we realize we're not a reject. We realize that God has a place for me, and God has something for me to do, and my life is not just something that's just existence, and I get through as best I can, and hope for the best, expect the worst, and take what life gives me. It's not that. There's a purpose in life. There's a purpose in your life, every one of you, and when that purpose, or when I realize I have a purpose, and I get my life into right relationship with God, and he's able to use it for any way that he wants to use it, not the way I want him to use it, but the way he wants to use it. When I was younger, I used to try to produce services that I wanted God to do. Oh, I'd pray, and I'd work, try to get God to do what I want, until I finally say, wait a minute, this is the wrong way around. Let's let him do what he wants to do, and I'll try to follow along the best I can. I took a lot of pressure off, believe it or not. Took a lot of pressure off. I get letters, we want you to come. Oh, we want revival. We want you to come. Look, I don't carry revival in my suitcase. I've got a letter on my desk right now with those words in it, and I can really get pressured with that. Oh, I've got to go there. No, I don't. I'm not even going to try. If God does something wonderful. If he doesn't, well, I couldn't care less. If he doesn't want to, I don't want to either. I'll just do the best I can. What I can do, I'll do, and that's that. That's the end. People that live here in Atlanta know we've had some lovely service, and we've had some duds too, haven't we? Amen? Thank you. Just do what we can, but remember, remember there are no rejects. There are none that God says, I can't use you. There's not one that God says, sorry, pass you over. I'll get your neighbors. There's none, and even if it's been a long time you've wanted to do this or wish you could do this or prayed to do that, nothing ever works, just remember, even at the 11th hour, there's still something you can do. Shall we stand? Lord, there's so many that man has rejected, and you've picked up. You give us, all around us, people like that, like Joni Erikson, or Amy Carmichael, or Madame Gaillon, the things we can do. You don't ask us for things we can't do. You don't tell us to work miracles. You tell us to be available, to be standing in the place of hiring, be standing in the place where people come to get help, and so I ask you, Father, to encourage every heart here this morning to realize that there is amazing grace, to realize, Lord, that we are not passed over. We're not made with nothing that we can do, but we are given, each one, a place, a purpose. Even if every man in the world said, you are no good, you can't do anything. Oh, I'm sure they did of Joni, but she can and does. Totally paralyzed, except you left her a voice, and she uses it. You left her mouth free to use, and she put a brush in her teeth and paint lovely pictures. No one without knowing, without nothing they can do, and so, Father, encourage every heart to realize that you can make something beautiful out of every life. All we have to do is give it to you. All we have to do is get the place where the hiring's done. All we have to do is get the place where we're rightly related with you, and then you give a task. Perhaps it's just being a nanny at times. Perhaps it's a task we despise. We say, oh, well, I can't do that. Perhaps it's ministering to people that are drunk and soiled and stinking and rejected by all society, but there's a man or a woman that said, I will go to them, and so, in grace, they've opened up missions or churches right in the middle of the stinking people, have no place to go, and their find a job, their find a work to do. And so, Father, I pray that no one here will feel rejected or depressed in such a way that I'm no good. Lord, we aren't any good. Nobody is, but you are very good, and you will put your goodness in us, and you'll put your grace and your mercy in us. So, teach us. We might go your way, Lord, and know that we were born to be the dwelling place of our God, and there's not one that wasn't born to be there. Every one of us can manifest the presence of God around us. We can open our hearts more and more to you, to live with you, and then you'll open the doors here or there or someplace else, but we can start right in our own home. We can start right there, knowing I can't do anything, but you can, and all you ask is to live in me. All you ask is for me to let you live, for I was born to be the dwelling place of God. That's where you want to live, and as you live there, you will find the place. You will find the work. You'll find the task that you made me to be, and, Lord, history is full of those that found that wonderful place of just letting you live through them, letting you see through their eyes, letting you hear through their ears, letting you minister through their very bodies. So, I ask you, Father, open our hearts, encourage us, put a faith within us, put something that says deep within, I am not a reject. I am not one that's passed over. If you looked upon me and called me to yourself, redeemed me and washed my sins away and made me a son of God, I am not a reject. I'm one of yours. You said, fear not, you're mine, and if I'm yours, then there's a reason for my being. Lord, I pray that you'll teach us to open our hearts more, that you become a dwelling place, that you can live through us, and our bodies will be your administering with us with a kindness, a touch, a word, a work, a place, because you have no body on earth. We are your body. Help us, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.