P.O. Box 53055    
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CONNIE: Do you watch the cash register carefully when you check out at the grocery store? Is it important to get exactly what you pay for? Or would you like to get more than you pay for?

Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for 75 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko, and Connie, I don’t think anyone really objects to getting more than they paid for, do you?

CONNIE: Well, there have been times, when I’ve noticed that something didn’t ring up right at the store, and I think it’s only fair for a Christian to point it out if the price rings up too low—or if the clerk misses an item. I like to feel like I get what I pay for, but not necessarily get more than I paid for.

LONNIE: But we’re looking at one of Jesus’ stories today, where some of the people got more than they deserved. It’s a story about grace, and when we really understand grace, we need to recognize that it is God’s plan to give us better than we deserve.

CONNIE: We heard a fascinating story recently about a man who wanted to be sure he paid his debt to society. Lonnie spoke with Ron Rockey about his experience in prison, and about how he learned to accept the grace of God. Let’s listen to their interview now.

LONNIE: Ron Rockey, welcome to our broadcast. Now you have an incredible story about how you stood before a judge on more than one occasion with handcuffs on, 19 years of age. Tells us a little bit about your rough upbringing and how you did time, and escaped and what not.

RON: Well, my mother and father were very poor and they could not afford anymore children, and my mother found herself pregnant with me, and didn’t want another child, and she was too busy to take care of me, and so most of my life I have felt or experienced rejection from the highest order.

LONNIE: You felt that you were really a loser and it made you angry.

RON: Oh, absolutely! It was written on the core of my being.

LONNIE: What led you to go to prison?

RON: Well, everything went south when I was about 17 or 18 years of age, everything went bad. I decided since I’m no good I might as well go ahead and go off the edge and just live that way. So, I found myself in prison many times, as a matter of fact, I found myself in the state penitentiary in TN when the brutality there was off the charts and they were just on my back like nobodies business and I told the warden, I said, if you don’t get off my back I’m going to leave. He laughed at me and I said ok, alright, and the next week I escaped.

LONNIE: But now you were really number 1 on the hit list.

RON: At that point yes I was, but I went from place to place until a long while later the Feds finally caught up with me, and they arrested me and locked me up in Federal Prison. After serving my Federal time, I was sent back to finish my Tennessee State time, and it was there that second time that I began to notice a laymen coming in to the prison. He came around and told us inmates that if we would convert to God that we could probably get out of prison early, so I said, well, that sounds like a get good idea to me. So, I went to listen to this guy, and I started to ask questions. How do I act like I’m converted? And well 2 years later he found a way for me to get out early. At that point God’s grace had got into the heart of my being, and he told me that I was going to get out 2 years early, but I told him that I was confused and mixed up about the idea of God, so I chose to stay and serve the rest of my sentence.

LONNIE: So you believed that if you did the crime that you should do the time?

RON: I wanted to make sure that God was really in my heart, not just an excuse to get out early.

LONNIE: Ironically, as soon as you had served your time, Wisconsin was waiting in the wings, right?

RON: They were waiting right outside the prison, and they took me back to Wisconsin and I had stop spend 3 months there waiting for a trail, but I said if I have to back, I have to go back. So I might have been locked up, but in my heart I was free.

LONNIE: You know, the nice thing about God is that he doesn’t operate like humans. You can be forgiven for the crimes and bad things that you have done to others and yourself. What has this understanding done for you considering grace?

RON: He has changed everything for me in my life and understanding. I felt total acceptance by him.

LONNIE: And in fact you sand your wife Nancy have begun as ministry and you can be seen with The Faith for Today program.
RON: Yes we have, and we are just so pleased that God has blessed us and continues to lead us through this wonderful life.

LONNIE: Thanks Ron.

RON: Thanks Lonnie.

: “Peace, Perfect Peace“, Del Delker, from VOP Music Library #29 CD

CONNIE: Amen! Thank you Del Delker for that reminder that one of the greatest gifts of God’s grace is the peace He wants us to have in our hearts.

LONNIE: And Connie, I want to remind our listeners that we’ve recently expanded and from our radio ministry into a brand new television ministry, which also focuses on how we can receive the grace of God in our lives.

CONNIE: The television broadcast gives us the opportunity to explore our topics in greater depth, and we want to invite you to join us for those programs as well.

LONNIE: To find out where you can view our new “Exploring the Word” television ministry, please visit our web page at VOP.COM. You’ll find lots of wonderful study aids on our web page, and also a link that will help you find a place to view our new telecast.

CONNIE: Please do stop by our web page at VOP.COM today, but right now, it’s time to listen to Pastor Lonnie’s message for today: “You Don’t Get What You Pay For.”

You Don’t Get What You Pay For

If you show up at the Christian church in Cherry Log, Georgia, on a Sunday morning, you’re liable to meet up with a man who understands the value of a good story. His name is Fred B. Craddock. He’s a preacher and a teacher of preachers. But perhaps he’s best known for his stories—or perhaps we should call them parables. In the book Craddock Stories, he tells a little of his background and how he learned to tell stories.

He credits his father as a great storyteller, and one of the most compelling stories in his book is about his father.

Fred’s dad never attended church. In fact, he seemed to pride himself in his disdain for church, pastors, and particularly evangelists.

My mother took us to church and Sunday school; [Fred writes] my father didn’t go. He complained about Sunday dinner being late when she came home. Sometimes the preacher would call, and my father would say, “I know what the church wants. Church doesn’t care about me. Church wants another name, another pledge, another name, another pledge. Right? Isn’t that the name of it? Another name, another pledge.” That’s what he always said.
Sometimes we’d have a revival. Pastor would bring the evangelist and say to the evangelist, “There’s one now, sic him, get him, get him,” and my father would say the same thing. . . . “The church doesn’t care about me. The church wants another name and another pledge. . . .”
One time he didn’t say it. He was in the veteran’s hospital, and he was down to seventy-three pounds. They’d taken out his throat, and said, “It’s too late.” . . . I flew in to see him. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t eat. I looked around the room, potted plants and cut flowers on all the windowsills, a stack of cards twenty inches deep beside his bed. And even that tray where they put food, if you can eat, on that was a flower. And all the flowers beside the bed, every card, every blossom, were from persons or groups from the church.
He saw me read a card. He could not speak, so he took a Kleenex box and wrote on the side of it a line from Shakespeare. If he had not written this line, I would not tell you this story He wrote: “In this harsh world, draw your breath in pain to tell my story.”
I said, “What is your story, Daddy?” And he wrote, “I was wrong.”
Three simple words, and yet perhaps the hardest words to write or say. “I was wrong.” Wrong about what, Daddy Craddock?

Wrong about the church. How many times did I say it? “The church doesn’t care about me!” But, if the church doesn’t care, why all these flowers? Why all these heartfelt expressions of love and sympathy?

You know what, friend? I am thankful for every one of those cards, every one of those blossoms that filled Fred’s daddy’s room. Because they tell me that the people in the little church his mother attended understood something about grace. That in God’s kingdom, you don’t get what you pay for.

Because if they’d given Fred’s father just what he deserved, the room would have been empty and barren. But because the little church understood the meaning of grace, and that you don’t get what you pay for in God’s kingdom, they were able to minister even to one who spurned their love.

When you stop to think about it, who on this earth deserves to be loved?

Who on this earth deserves the gift of life? Is there anything we can do in order to earn this privilege? Is there anything we can do that would make us worthy of eternal life?

I think that’s the question that Jesus is challenging us with in the parable we’re looking at today. You’ve probably heard the story before. It’s found in Matthew 20. Here’s how it begins: Jesus says, “ ‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard’ ” ( Matthew 20: 1, 2, NRSV).

Now, to fully understand this story, we need to be aware of its context: Why Jesus told it when He did. There’s a whole series of events leading up to this story in Matthew 19. Verses 13-15 tell about the mothers who wanted to bring their little children to Jesus for His blessing. The disciples considered this an interruption of Jesus’ important work though, and tried to chase them away.

It was kind of like they were saying, you know, this is adult stuff, not for little kids. We’re talking about the kingdom of heaven here, for heaven’s sakes! Don’t interrupt us! But Jesus didn’t take that attitude toward children at all. To Him, they were just as worthy of the kingdom of heaven as the most ardent disciple. “ ‘Let the little children come to me,’ ” He said, “ ‘and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs’ ” (Matthew 19:14, NRSV). And having said that, He laid His hands on them and blessed them.

Aha! We’re already starting to get a clue as to what this parable is teaching, aren’t we? If even little children are worthy to be part of the kingdom of heaven, then the way to get into the kingdom can’t be through a lifetime of hard labor, can it?

The next person to come to Jesus after He has blessed the little children is a wealthy young man with a question: “ ‘What good deed must I do to have eternal life?’ ” (verse 16).

In this context, Jesus’ response is surprising. He’s already said that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the little children. But now, with this young man, He suggests that doing the right thing is the way to get into the kingdom. “ ‘ If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments,’ ” He says (verse 17).

When the young man responds that he’s been keeping the commandments all his life, Jesus lays one more challenge before him: “ ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me’ ” (verse 21).

Jesus’ message to this man is essentially, if you want to be a part of my kingdom, then take it seriously. Come, work in the vineyard with me.

But the young man is unwilling to do that. Verse 22 tells us that “When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.”

Now, I think what Jesus wanted was for this young man to realize that no matter how great his possessions on earth were, they didn’t hold a candle to the value of the kingdom of heaven. And he especially wanted him to realize that no amount of wealth could buy his way into the kingdom.

That was kind of a new thought even to the disciples. Because in those days wealth was considered to be a blessing from God. In other words, if you were wealthy, it was because God had blessed you. So it was just assumed that if you were wealthy, you were a friend of God, and that surely you’d have a place in his kingdom!

But after the wealthy young man went away, Jesus said, “ ‘Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven’ ” (verse 23). The disciples were astonished at this and asked how anyone could possibly get into the kingdom then, and Jesus responded, “ ‘For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible’ ” (verse 26).

It’s at this point that Peter approaches Jesus with another question about rewards in the kingdom of heaven—What will those of us who have left everything to follow You receive as a reward? And Jesus reassures him that “ ‘Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundred-fold, and will inherit eternal life’ ” (verse 29).

That’s reassuring. But then Jesus adds this little kicker: “ ‘But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first’ ” (verse 30).

What in the world does He mean by that? I mean, here’s Peter, one of the first people to accept Jesus’ call to be a disciple—a man who certainly deserves the highest honors and the highest wages for what he has done—but Jesus is tossing a little cautionary note his way. Almost saying, “Don’t expect to get more just because you’ve given more!”

It’s this sequence of events that prompts Jesus to tell the story that we’re studying today.

In the story a landowner goes into the marketplace looking for people to work in his vineyard. This is a familiar scene to us here in Southern California. There’s a little market on a corner in the town where I live where you can see men standing at sunrise any day of the week, waiting for someone to come along and give them a job for the day.

And each one is hoping to get hired on early in order to be able to earn as much money as possible.

But Jesus takes this common scene and puts a whole new twist on it. He has the landowner hiring a batch of laborers early in the morning, agreeing on a day’s wages for their work. He finds more workers at nine in the morning and hires them, then hires some more at noon, more yet at three o’clock, and then at five in the evening, when there’s only one hour left to work, he hires another batch.

The first group put in a grueling twelve-hour day out in the hot sun, but they’re glad for the work and the promised wages.

But now comes the surprise in Jesus’ story. Remember, just before He started the story, Jesus had warned Peter that the first would be last and the last would be first in the kingdom. Now the landowner begins to put that into practice. He calls those who have labored for the shortest time to get their pay first—the last called are the first paid.

Those who worked all day can’t help but notice the delight on the faces of the men who had worked only an hour. And it must not have taken them long to discover that these one-hour workers had received a full day’s wages for their labor. Wow! What a generous landowner!

I don’t know about you, but if I’d been there, I’d have been doing the math in my head very quickly. If these guys got a full day’s wages for one hour’s work, then surely this generous landlord is going to pay those of us who worked all day VERY well. And suddenly that blue silk scarf my wife has been eyeing in the market begins to seem to be within my reach. And I begin to visualize just how happy she’ll be when I come home. I’ll hide it under my tunic and then pull it out with a great flourish and watch her eyes grow wide with joy!

While lost in my reverie, I don’t notice how much the other workers get paid, but when my time with the paymaster comes, my heart sinks right down to my toes! He’s only handed me a day’s wages. There must be some mistake. Maybe he doesn’t realize I was one of those that worked all day.

I look around for the landowner. “Sir?” I say tentatively when I can catch his eye. “ Didn’t you realize I was one of them that worked all day—out in the hot sun?”

“Yes,” he replies.

“Then . . . um . . .”

“Is there some problem?” he asks.

“Well, the people who worked only in the evening—in the cool of the day—for only an hour—they got a whole day’s wages.”

By now other men who worked with me are gathering around, listening to see what the landowner will say.

“Is that a problem?” the landowner asks.

“Well, I just thought you would pay us more than you paid them.”

Now the grumbling starts. Several of the men around me begin to mutter under their breath, and some speak louder about how unfair they feel the situation is.

“I don’t understand,” the landowner says. “What’s the problem? Didn’t you agree to work for a usual day’s wages?”

“Yes but …” we start to say. But he will have none of it.

“Take what’s yours and get out of here!” he says. “If you’ve got a problem with my being generous, that’s your problem, not mine!”

And so ends Jesus’ story of the laborers in the vineyard. Justice has not been done—in the strictest sense. You would expect those who worked longer to get paid more. But in reality, there is one wage for all. There’s not one level of heaven for those who devote their entire lives to serving the Savior and another level for those who just squeak in under the wire like the thief on the cross. The rewards are the same for everyone. Because the same gracious God is handing out the rewards to everyone.

In an economy founded on grace, you don’t get what you pay for. You get something better.

I’m thankful that Fred Cradock’s mother’s church didn’t treat Fred’s father the way he perhaps deserved to be treated—ignoring him the way he had ignored the church. Because their attitude toward him pictured the grace of God just as much as the story of the landowner who paid everyone the same pictures God’s grace.

And I want to tell you, that story moves my heart. Because it tells me that I have a Father in heaven who wants to give me eternal life, if I’ll just report to His vineyard for even one hour. I don’t care if the first will be last and the last will be first. Because that doesn’t really matter. It just means that everyone is equal—it means we are all beloved in the sight of God.

How is it with you, friend, are you one of those who has been trying to earn God’s favor? Putting in hours of labor in the hot sun of the day, hoping He will notice and reward you? Don’t give up. Don’t despair. God loves you and appreciates your work in His vineyard.

But what if you’re one of those who haven’t yet the accepted the call of God and gone into His vineyard to labor? Don’t you despair either? There’s still a place for you in His kingdom. And even if you’re the last one in the door—you’ll be right up there with the first ones like Peter and James and John who joined Jesus at the beginning of His ministry!

I want to be there with all of those children of God. I don’t care if I’m first or last. I just want to be there when that roll call sounds up yonder! Don’t you?

“When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder”, Andrews University Singers, from We Would See Jesus CD.