November 2022: Our Month of Strange Favour!
Praise the Lord for bringing us to yet another month in this year of laughter. It’s the eleventh month and we have every reason to be grateful to the Lord. Join in thanking the Lord for the great things He has done.
Matthew 20:1-16 tells a compelling story. A vineyard owner went out early in the morning and invited a set of labourers to come work for him at 6 am. It was agreed that their wage would be a penny.
At 9 am, he went out again and hired the idle hands he could find. He repeated the same recruitment at 12noon and 3 pm, offering to pay those he found whatever he deemed fit. It was only with those hired at 6 am that he agreed to pay one penny.
Something intriguing happened in the sixth and seventh verses. According to the King James Version, “And about the eleventh hour (being 5pm) he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? 7 They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.”
These were people who must have given up on the opportunities of the day as it was just an hour left to the close of business – to somebody reading this piece right now, I prophesy you will land the best of jobs this November.
This vineyard owner went on to hire those he found at the eleventh hour, pointing them to go and work in the same vineyard. At the end of the day, he directed his foreman to pay those he hired last the same wage that was agreed upon with those who started work at 6 am.
When those who put in 12-hour work protested, he reminded them that they got what he negotiated with them for, which leaves him with the latitude to do whatever he pleases with his money.
Matthew 20:16 captures the moral of the story in that, the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. What happened to those last hires is a clear case of strange favour. It is the same way that God will grant us peculiar favour at the eleventh hour.
This November, you will enjoy the sort of favour that transcends your labour, age, race, experience and qualifications. Can you imagine somebody working for just an hour yet receiving the same wage as the person who toiled for 12 hours?
Psalm 102:13 sheds light on this privilege thus, “Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.” Indeed, the set time for you to be favoured is now. Be assured of minimal labour yet maximal profit this month because a strange order of favour is on the horizon.
To every member of Highland Church and all those connected to this Commission, this November is hereby declared as “Our month of Strange Favour!” The Lord will bring you into a prepared blessing where people you do not know will favour you.
I heartily welcome you to your month of strange favour.
Congratulations!
Pastor Joseph Aborowa,
Senior Pastor, Highland Church.