In Matthew 21:28-31, Jesus told an interesting parable on Christian service and the kind of attitude to service that pleases Him. A father approached two of his sons and told each son to go and work today in the vineyard. In other words, go and occupy for me in my vineyard. Same assignment, same instruction, different response, different attitude.
We can learn five important truths about occupying for the Lord and Christian service from these two sons.
1. Service is for sons; service is for true children of God
God doesn’t go around telling everyone to occupy for Him. The instruction to go and work in the vineyard was given specifically to two sons. It is His sons; those that have received Jesus as their Lord, Saviour, Master and Redeemer, those that have received the right to be called children of God (John 1:12-13) that God tells go and work for Me in My vineyard. God’s vineyard is a place God puts you to bear good fruit for Him (Isaiah 5:1-2, Luke 13:6-7). It’s a place where to keep you from being idle, to ensure you don’t live a wasted and purposeless life, you are called upon to work for God and after all you have done, you are rewarded for your labour of love (Matthew 20:1-6).
A lot of people are not sons yet they have jumped the gun and are busy working on God’s vineyard. They have run ahead of God to get involved in things they don’t have the spiritual backing and capacity to handle. A typical example is the sons of Sceva. In Acts 19:13-16, the seven sons of Sceva, even though they didn’t know and have Jesus as their Lord and personal Saviour, got themselves occupied and busy with the ministry of deliverance. The demons they were trying to cast out pounced on them and beat them mercilessly. Until you have crossed from darkness to light, you can’t effectively get involved in the works of light. We see from the seven sons of Sceva that you need to know Jesus personally, you need to receive spiritual authority and backing from Him, before you go and work in God’s vineyard otherwise the kingdom of darkness will give you a hard time for joining forces with God when you are still one of them. Besides, no matter how many churches and orphanages you build, crusades you organise, poor people you help, or days of the week you spend in church, it makes no meaning to God if you have not received Jesus into your life; if you are not a son of God. To be enlisted to work in God’s vineyard; to occupy for the Lord, the name heaven pays attention to is not sons of Sceva, sons of Johnson, sons of Tom or sons of Okon. Heaven recognises and richly rewards those who bear the name - sons of God; those who have Jesus’ gene and the seed of God (Galatians 3: 26, Galatians 4:4-5, 1 John 3:9).
Sonship welcomes you into the family of God (Ephesians 1:5). Sonship breaks the power and hold of the curse of the law over your life (Galatians 4:5,). It delivers you from insecurity, timidity to serve, the fear and oppression of the devil and his cohorts (Exodus 4:22-23). Sonship qualifies you to call the owner of the vineyard Abba Father; dear Papa, my beloved and best Dad ever (Romans 8:15). Sonship is what equips and empowers you to serve (John 15:4-5) and guarantees that the service you do for God in His vineyard will receive the Father’s affirmation and won’t be a wasted effort; won’t be a labour in vain (Matthew 15:8-9).
2. Don’t allow personal needs, issues and challenges keep you from obeying a divine instruction
When the first son was asked to go and work in the vineyard, he categorically told his father no, I will not work in the vineyard. His answer appeared disrespectful but he didn’t want to deceive his father. He didn’t want to give his word that he would do something when he knew he wouldn’t. The son must have had a reason for answering his father the way he did. The son wasn’t being rude; he just wasn’t up to the task. Perhaps he was going through some personal issues and challenges at that time that going to work on the vineyard was the last thing on his mind. It could have been that he was going through some financial issues and didn’t have transport money to go to the vineyard. There are some days some people don’t come to church not because they don’t want to, but because they don’t have money for fuel or transport. Maybe the son had borrowed money from people on the vineyard, didn’t have the money to pay back, and so was ashamed to go to the vineyard and meet his creditors. Or maybe there were health issues he was battling with; he wasn’t feeling too well that day. Or it could be that the day the father told him to go and work in the vineyard, was on one of those days that he just wasn’t in the mood. There are times you aren’t in the mood for prayer, bible study or another church service. You are going through some emotional issues and you just want to be on your own.
Whatever the reason, the son while thinking things through, realised that no need, issue or challenge of life is more important than a divine instruction. He realised that you don’t place anything or any situation before God. When God asks you to do something, when he comes knocking and calling at the door of your life, irrespective of how difficult or inconvenient that thing He wants you to do is, you put everything aside to follow God. This is the mindset of those that occupy for the Lord, those that stay busy for God and focused on God. For as long as you are wrapped up in what you are presently facing or going through, you will keep putting off the work of God until a more ‘convenient’ time. But the truth of the matter is there will never be a convenient time. Jesus said “In this world you will have trouble…” (John 16:33). Meaning that there will always be something you are battling with or going through. Today it may be a financial issue, tomorrow a marital issue. The next month a health issue. Life will always bring issues and challenges our way. But like the first son did, we need to make God more important to us than anything and anyone.
A lot of us are praying for one major breakthrough or the other. Breakthroughs don’t fall from heaven. Breakthroughs are birthed and come to manifestation by yielding to divine instructions. Peter would never have had that miraculous catch of fish if he didn’t follow the instruction Jesus gave him “Put out into the deep water, and let down the nets for a catch” (Luke 5:1-7). Who said it was convenient for Peter to do this? The instruction came when he was extremely tired. He had worked all night. The instruction came when he wasn’t in the mood to do anymore fishing having spent hours trying to fish and not being able to catch anything. But Peter put all that aside to follow a divine instruction. The result was he became a recipient of a major breakthrough. How many breakthroughs have slipped past us because we were indifferent, disinterested or too tired and weighed down to follow a divine instruction?
I pray that whenever the Master calls on us to go and work on His vineyard, to go and occupy for Him, we will give first place to that instruction so we can reap the huge benefits that come from working in God’s vineyard.
3. Don’t allow your personal needs, issues and challenges keep you from service, keep you from being a blessing to others
God’s vineyard is not a place for solo, one man squad service. It is a place where you are doing something for and with the other members of the body of Christ. Working in God’s vineyard is getting involved in a service that brings glory to God Almighty, and lifts up, encourages and edifies another person. The call to work in God’s vineyard, to occupy for the Lord, is a call to get your focus and attention off yourself and focus on other people, focus on spiritually uplifting things. This was what the Father was trying to achieve when He told His sons to go and work in His vineyard. It was a strategic move on the part of the Father aimed at removing every form of selfishness and being self-centered from His sons. It was to make His sons understand that life is not all about our own needs, issues and challenges, and there’s no other place like God’s vineyard that can make you come to terms with the needs and problems of other people.
Having observed what the sons were going through, where they were struggling, I believe the father wanted to expose them to work in the vineyard so they could see those facing similar challenges like theirs, as well as those who had more serious and critical issues to deal with.
When you see people from afar all gaily dressed, you may assume that life is all good and rosy for them. It’s when you get to God’s vineyard; when you get involved in ministering to others that you discover that underneath all the latest and designer clothes people wear, are people with serious pains and challenges.
When God tells you to go and work in His vineyard, He is telling you less of self more of God’s needs. He is telling you get out of your comfort zone, go and reach out to others, go and minister to others. As you do this, what you are personally going through gets attended to at the place of service. Zechariah didn’t have any children but that didn’t keep him from working on God’s vineyard and ministering to others. It was while he was on God’s vineyard that he received a divine visitation which led to the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5-17).
Zechariah’s long awaited miracle was delivered into his hands while at the place of service. There are so many good things God will deliver into your hands when you go to His vineyard and occupy for Him.
4. Never underestimate the power of a broken and repentant heart
Even sons mess up big time. The fact that you are a son of God doesn’t mean that along the line, you won’t make mistakes, you won’t fall into sin. Both sons in the parable Jesus told in Matthew 21:28-31, at some point did what was wrong. The first son initially refused to heed to his father’s call. He refused to do what his father had requested him to do. The second son told his father a lie; he made an empty promise to his father. They both messed up but only one son retraced his steps and ended up doing the right thing. One repented of his wrong actions, the other remained in that wrong action; he remained a wrongdoer for life. If the second son after lying to his father had come back to say Dad, I’m sorry I lied to you, please forgive me, I’m now ready to follow your instruction, the father wouldn’t have resisted him or ignored him. But the son never did this. He didn’t have a change of heart unlike the first son.
The first son had a change of mind because his heart wasn’t hardened. He had a heart that God’s word and voice could penetrate (Hebrews 4:12). He had a heart that recognised and acknowledged his error and sinful ways not a heart that made excuses for and justified sinful behaviour (Psalm 51:3-4).
Jesus made it clear in the parable of the two sons that tax collectors and prostitutes; the most unlikely people are being welcomed to heaven simply because they have a broken and repentant heart. Meanwhile, those with a holier than thou attitude, those who are doing what is wrong, yet fail to see the error of their ways, those who aren’t broken over their sins, miss out on what God has packaged for them, miss out on the glory of heaven. Matthew 7:29 tells us of tax collectors; those that were considered to be dubious cheats that turned to God in repentance. Luke 7:37-47 tells us of a woman who had lived a sinful life who came to Jesus and washed His feet with her hair. Jesus didn’t cast them away or treat them as good-for-nothing, worthless men and women because of the length or magnitude of their sins. It is not sin that keeps us from God and His kingdom or prevents God from using us in His vineyard, it is the failure to acknowledge and repent of our sins.
5. Don’t be a person who is all talk and no action
It’s so easy to make statements like I love You Lord, You are everything to me, I will go wherever you want me to, I will use my resources to build churches for You, I will pray and fast for the next seven days, I won’t gossip or say bad things about anyone. You can’t occupy for the Lord with mere words. 1 Corinthians 4:20 tells us “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power”. The way of God is the way of action through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. This is why we have a book in the Bible that chronicles the Acts of the Apostles not the words, hopes and intentions of the Apostles. God doesn’t bless and reward us for what we say we will do or what we hope and intend to it. It is our actions that are blessed of the Lord.
1 Corinthians 3:8 tells us that God rewards each person according to his labour; God rewards each person based on the actual work he or she has done in His vineyard. God is not impressed with how many good and admirable things we say we will do, God recognises and is pleased with the things we have done for Him and for the expansion of His kingdom here on earth.
Are you a talker or a doer? Positive words are good. Visions and plans are good. But what value are grandeur visions and plans if there is no action, no execution to back them up? Let’s not be like the second son that was all talk and no action. Let’s have actions empowered by the infilling of the Holy Spirit that will point people to Christ and shake our generation.
