Matthew 21:33-43 (click to view Scripture below)
We have a lot to be thankful for, but many times we take God’s goodness for granted and it leads to an attitude of ingratitude when we should have an attitude of gratitude.
We can take several lessons from the parable that Jesus told in today’s text. But I want us to see the attitude the tenants had toward the landowner who paid for, built and prepared a wonderful vineyard for the tenants who were working it. But instead of showing gratitude, they chose to kill the representatives of the landowner who had come on his behalf — including his son. Instead of receiving them with open arms and serving them, they chose ingratitude.
Danny grew up in incredibly difficult circumstances in the poverty-stricken community of Linda Vista just outside San Jose, Costa Rica. He was blessed to have a sponsor to help him attend our ChildHope school where he received a wonderful education and heard about Jesus. He could have chosen to focus on the difficulties of his life, but he chose to be grateful even to the point of serving his own community once he became an adult. Against all odds he became a medical doctor and served in some very difficult places. His life portrayed an attitude of gratitude not just in words, but how he lived his life.
Today, I want to encourage you to live a life of gratitude for what Jesus did for you when he went to the cross. He died so you could have the promise of eternal life.
President/Executive Director, ChildHope
Prayer: Dear Father, today I thank you for the covenant that you provided through your son Jesus Christ by his death on the cross. I choose today to live a life that demonstrates thankfulness and serve those around me.
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Matthew 21:33-43 (ESV)
33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
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Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®),
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