2026.03.29 | The Stewardship of the "Vineyard"

If you’re a parent, you know that feeling of deep investment. We "plant the vineyard" for our kids... we pick the schools, we schedule the sports, we obsess over the meals, and we try to build a "fence" of protection around them. We work the ground hard because we want to see them flourish.

But this Sunday, as Pastor Jeff walked us through the Parable of the Tenants in Matthew 21, I caught a glimpse of myself in a way I didn't expect.

In the story, the tenants were entrusted with a beautiful vineyard. It was a "win-win" deal. They got to work a land they didn't have to buy, and the Master got to enjoy the fruit. But somewhere along the way, the tenants stopped seeing themselves as caretakers. They started seeing themselves as owners. They wanted the inheritance for themselves. They stopped respecting the Master and started resenting His "interference."

As a parent, I’ve realized how quickly my stewardship turns into ownership.

I start thinking of my children’s success as my success. I start treating my home as my kingdom where my rules and my comfort reign supreme. I find myself "rejecting the Master's servants", those nudges of conviction or words of Scripture, because they disrupt the way I want to run my life.

Jeff asked the ultimate question: Do you respect the Son or reject the Son?

Respecting Jesus as a parent means acknowledging that my kids belong to Him first. It means realizing that the "fruit" He’s looking for in my home isn't high grades or a clean house, it’s a heart that worships and trusts Him. When I try to be the "Master" of my own little vineyard, I end up stressed, entitled, and prone to "throwing the Son out" of my daily decisions.

But when I settle into being a tenant, someone entrusted by a good and generous God to love and lead His people, there is so much more freedom. I don't have to be the foundation of my family; Jesus is the Cornerstone. I don't have to produce the fruit on my own; I just have to stay connected to the Vine.

This Holy Week, as we prepare for the joy of Easter, I'm asking the Lord to help me drop the "owner" act. I want to live with open hands, respecting the Son and honoring the Master who entrusted me with so much beauty in the first place.

Watch the full message, "The Rejected Cornerstone," on our YouTube channel here: