Luke 19:11-27 | Parables in Practice

Listen to this week’s sermon, Parables In Practice preached by Pastor Kenneth Dyches from Luke 19:11-27

Transcript

Welcome, Prayer, And Scripture

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 0:06

Hello everyone. This is Pastor Benjamin. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, Orlando. At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer. For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.

Justin Grimm 0:20

Would you pray with me? Gracious God, by your spirit, kindle our hearts that we might be a hopeful people. Through your word, keep us from growing weary, that we may not miss the glory of Christ appearing. Even so, come quickly, O God. Amen. If you are able, remain standing for the reading of God's word. As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. He said, Therefore, A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minus, and said to them, Engage in busyness until I come. But his citizens hate him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, We do not want this man to reign over us. When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business. The first came before him, saying, Lord, your Mina has made ten minas more. And he said to him, Well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, your Mina has made five minas. And he said to him, And you are to be over five cities. Then another came, saying, Lord, here is your Mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. He said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest? And he said to those who stood by, Take the Mina from him and give it to the one who has the ten Minas. And they said to him, Lord, he has ten Minas. I tell you that to everyone who has more, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me. This is God's word. Thanks be to God, you may be seated.

Power As A Place To Hide

Kenneth Dyches 3:04

Good morning, new city. So glad to be worshiping with you this morning. Grateful that you all are here. It's no small thing sometimes to show up to church. Uh, we have uh those of us who are parents have have kids sometimes that make it hard getting out of the door. Uh the rest of us, we have other things going on in our lives that can make it genuinely hard to invest our time uh in being present with God here this morning. Uh my wife actually told me I'm not allowed to preach anymore because we have sick kids that were all giving her a hard time as she was trying to get out the door to come here. So if you don't see me anymore, you know why. I'm just kidding. She's so I'm so grateful for her and for and for my family. Uh but I want to tell you about uh Charles Wendell Coulson. Uh his name is Chuck Coulson. In the year 1969, uh he had finally arrived at life. Uh he had a corner office in the West Wing. His phone calls got returned within the hour. Uh he was called Nixon's Pitbull. And he once said that he would do whatever it took, uh, even walking over his own grandmother, to get Nixon re-elected. That's something. So he breathes power, right? In those early years, he had plenty of it. Uh but here's what nobody talks about uh when they talk about Coulson's story. All of that power, that access and influence that he had was also the perfect place to hide. See if you're busy enough, if you're important enough, if you're necessary enough, you never have to sit still long enough to be found. And so the West Wing was itself a kind of cover. So go back further than Washington, D.C. Go all the way back to the garden. Adam hears the sound of the Lord walking in the cool of the day, the same presence that had always been his greatest gift. And what does he do? He hides. And when God calls out, Where are you? Adam's answer is chilling. I was afraid. See, it wasn't just guilt that caused him to hide, it was fear. That fear that if he was truly seen, truly known in his failure, that that encounter would destroy him. And so he took everything that God had given him, his dignity, his calling, his very self, and hid away in the bushes. Fear turned his greatest gift into something to be hidden. Now, first century Jericho, there's another man who understood this perfectly. His name was Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector, he was wealthy, powerful, and hated by everybody. His neighbors called him a traitor. He was serving the Roman oppressors, he was defrauding people. And when he walked through the market, the crowd didn't part out of respect for him. It closed in around him. He was powerful but profoundly alone. And so the word comes that Jesus is coming into town. He's passing through, and something stirs in him, and he must go see Jesus. So he runs ahead of the crowd, climbs a tree. And normally we see that as good curiosity, but look again, he's ahead of the crowd, he's above the crowd, he's in the tree, hidden by the leaves, watching Jesus from a safe distance. He can see Jesus without Jesus seeing him. He can observe the encounter, evaluate it, and retreat if Jesus gets too close. He's trying to see God without being seen by God. It's Adam in the bushes all over again. And I want to suggest that this is the oldest human instinct we carry. We want connection. We desperately want connection. We all feel it. But we want it at our own terms, at our own distance, we want it in our own way, and we want to be in control of how much of ourselves we give away. And that's fear. Fear takes the very thing God designed us for real belonging, real relationship, real investment with each other, honestly. And it buries it, it protects it, it hides away and keeps it safe from the risk of encounter. And so Jesus tells this parable about a servant receiving Mina from his master, a gift, an investment, a calling. And what does he do with it? He hides it away. And when the master returns, we again hear those chilling words. I was afraid. See, fear doesn't just make us hide ourselves, it makes us hide what God has given to us. It takes the gifts, the callings, the capacity for real, honest relationship and puts them hidden away where they can neither grow or be lost, where they can be perfectly preserved and perfectly useless. Chuck Colson knew that place. By 1973, the walls were closing in. There was a Watergate scandal, grand jury subpoenas. His name was in the newspapers for all the wrong reasons. And one August night, as everything was crumbling down, he was sitting in the driveway of a friend. He was known in all of his failures. And he listened to that friend read him, read to him from C.S. Lewis about the great sin of pride, about the self that built its own whole world and its importance. And something cracked. The man who said he'd walk over his own grandmother, who walked in the most powerful corridors on earth, sat in the car and wept. In prison, he would surrender his life to Christ. And then when he got out, surrender the rest of his life to prison ministry. What Lewis's words did in that driveway is exactly what Jesus' words did standing under the sycamore tree in Jericho. They made hiding impossible. Not through condemnation or accusation, but through being known and loved. Jesus stopped, looked into the branches, and said, Zacchaeus, come down, I must stay at your house today. He said, I know your name. I'm coming into your house. So you can't hide from someone who already knows your name and greets you with a smile. And that's what undoes us, not the fear of judgment. We've built defenses against that, right? It's the unexpected welcome that brings us out of that tree towards grace. Coulson stopped hiding in that driveway. Zaccia stopped hiding in the tree, and both of them, exposed, known, and welcomed, did the same extraordinary thing. They gave everything away. Because that's what happens when fear loses its grip. Sinners become saints, become servants. The Mina comes up out of hiding. The gifts come back into the light. Authentic relationship forms. And we have an offering for God's good purposes. So this morning we're going to look at the story of the man in the tree and the servant who buried the Mina, the one who came, as he says in verse 10, to seek and to save the lost. Both those who are lost in eternity, but also those lost parts of our hearts that we hide away that we don't want exposed. Now, all of us, we're all sinners, right? We all fall short. We all have parts of our life that we don't want to bring into the light. And we don't want to do that because our works are evil, or at least because we know we're insufficient. I wonder what those insufficient parts of you are. What is keeping you from coming into the light in those parts of your life? I wonder if you're here today, maybe open to the faith in Jesus, but actually terrified to be vulnerable to ask God if He's real and if relationship with Him is possible. I wonder if you're a teenager who stays silent about your faith at school because you're afraid that people will think you're strange or judgmental. Maybe you're a young professional, but you feel unqualified to talk about Jesus because you just don't know the answers. And so you don't start spiritual conversations. Maybe you're a single young adult who loves to practice hospitality, but you fear that people will see how ordinary or lonely your life really is. Or maybe you feel overextended by normal life circumstances, and you feel ashamed of ongoing struggles at home. And so you withdraw from church community instead of letting others know your need and inviting them to support you in the midst of that need. Maybe you're an empty nester that you and you sense God's nudging towards you to mentor young believers, but you assume that your best years are already past you. And so you don't move towards those who need you. There's so many ways that we can hide the minas that we've been given out of fear rather than bringing them to the light. But today we're going to talk about how you don't have to be afraid, because Jesus makes saints of sinners and servants of saints. Jesus makes saints of sinners and servants of saints.

Zacchaeus Seen And Salvation Begins

Kenneth Dyches 11:47

Look with me at Luke 19, verse 11. And it says, As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable. Now it's really helpful when you see, as they heard these things, to ask the question, what did they hear? What is going on? This is an opportunity to lean into the whole text to get some context for what's going on. And that context is the story of Zacchaeus that I just told a little bit. And in that story, if you look at verses chapter 19, verses 1 through 10, uh Zacchaeus he climbs up into that tree. Jesus comes by, and you can imagine what is going through Zacchaeus's heart, right? He wants to see Jesus, this righteous man that some are calling the Messiah. He's doing these incredible works, he's preaching these incredible teachings. And all of a sudden, Jesus pauses and he looks up at Zacchaeus. And imagine you're Zacchaeus in that tree. You thought you were hidden. You were just there to perceive what's going on. And then all of a sudden, Jesus looks right at you. I imagine his heart was pounding. Time probably slowed down a little bit. And he was fearful. I'm seen. Everybody here knows who I am. Everybody here knows I've defrauded people. I'm a tax collector. Is Jesus gonna condemn me? Because I'm worthy of condemnation. But what does Jesus say? He says, the key is hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. Jesus invites them into communion. I can imagine the relief that washes over him, the desperation to go and be with Jesus. And you see it. He hurries down and receives Jesus joyfully. All of a sudden he has this opportunity for Jesus to come into his house. Zacchaeus. This is greater than he ever thought it could happen. See, Jesus is here with us this morning. And he's inviting them out into his presence so that he might come in and you might see salvation there. But look with me at verse 7. When everyone else saw it, right? These are the people who are hearing the parable of the Minas now, they grumbled. He has gone to be in the guest of a man who is a sinner. So the word sinner, uh, it's not a popular word in our culture today. Um, but sinner essentially means that you've you've missed the mark. You don't measure up, you're insufficient. And uh that's true of all of us. When we stand before a holy God who's created us to love him with all of our hearts, souls, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, when we're created to live in holiness, to extend God's blessing over all creation, we all know that we fall short in that. And so we are all sinners. And so it can be tempting for us to look at people like Zacchaeus in our own life with judgment, or rather to simply not move towards them in love. Um but Jesus is inviting everyone present to identify with Zacchaeus, with the sinner, with those who don't measure up and are insufficient. And look what happens when Zacchaeus accepts that invitation. Uh he says, I give half of my goods to the poor. If I've defrauded anyone, uh anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus says, Today salvation has come to this house. And so you see the fruit of salvation because he's giving generously of what he has. He's become a servant. Jesus has made a sinner, a saint, and now become a servant, giving of all that he has, but even more than that, repenting, right? Jesus says the gospel is to repent, for the kingdom is at hand, and Zacchaeus is repenting, uh, giving back fourfold anything that he has defrauded. And so we likewise are invited to respond the same way. And then when we look at verse 10, Jesus says, For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. So why does Jesus tell the parable of the teen ten Minas? It's because he's inviting people to enter into his mission to seek and save the lost. Not just one time in coming to know Jesus, but all those parts of our heart, all those places of our life that we hide away from God, where we look at him from the outside looking in, and are not quite ready to bring those places to him. Now go ahead and look with me at verse 11 again. Because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. Uh, and so we see here that um there's a misunderstanding about what the kingdom of God is. Now, Jesus is coming into Jerusalem, and so people had this expectation that he, if he's the Messiah, right, he's gonna establish the Davidic kingdom again, he's gonna drive out the Roman Empire, uh, everyone's gonna be sipping my ties on the beach, and it's gonna be a good old time. This is fantastic. The kingdom is coming to us. And Jesus says, No, no, no, you misunderstand. Right? The kingdom is coming and it's inaugurated, but I've chosen to depend on you to seek and to save the lost. This is your mission that I am giving you, and hence He gives us this parable. He came to turn sinners to saints and saints to servants, and to invite us into that mission.

Lonely Crowds And Screen Distance

Kenneth Dyches 17:17

Now, you guys, uh, you if you're on social media in any sort of capacity, you've probably heard of something called teen takeovers. Um yeah, it's weird, uh, especially for us older folk, right? We're like, what in the world is going on? Why are all these young'uns gathering around and causing a ruckus? Um, and it's a good question, right? We should ask. Like when these things happen, what's going on? Over Memorial Day weekend, this happened in Chicago, Milwaukee, and here in Orlando. The in Chicago, there were 53 arrests, nine weapons were confiscated. In Milwaukee, there were brawls at two locations, 13 arrests. And here in Orlando, around 1,000 teenagers showed up to ICOM Park on Saturday nights, bringing fights and substantial police response. So everyone is asking the question: what is going on here? Well, experts think they know, and teenagers, you can come and tell me afterwards if they do know. But uh they see teenagers flooding these streets, uh, and they realize that these guys went into lockdown during their middle school years when they were learning how to interact with the world around them. Their social space became a screen. They are lonely, they're depressed. Uh, this is the anxious generation, and desperate, they're desperate for human interaction and social contact. And so one expert said these aren't random acts of violence. This isn't just chaos, it's not out-of-control youth. More often than not, it's a desperate need for connection. A 2025 global report identified teenagers as the loneliest age group in the world, and they are responding to that loneliness with frantic, sometimes violent lunge toward each other. Now, a crowd is actually, again, the perfect hiding place. You can belong to something without being vulnerable to anyone, kind of like social media, right? You can control the social interactions. You can feel like you're connected without actually having genuine, vulnerable relationship. You can be present without being known. These teenagers are doing something very old. They're trying to find connection while keeping their distance. They want to see without being seen. And that's the key is up in the tree. Up in the branches, hidden by leaves, watching from a safe distance, close enough to observe Jesus, far enough to retreat if it gets too real. It looks like curiosity, but it's actually the oldest human instinct in the world. It's Adam in the garden. It's I was afraid, so I hid. And this generation is doing the same thing. We're hiding behind screens, filling streets and crowds, desperate for connection, but terrified of the kind that actually costs something. And into all of that noise, Jesus stops. He looks up into the branches and he says the thing that's making us hide. He invites us to know him. And this he's inviting us to see others, to see this generation, to be those who are looking with Jesus' eyes and asking, what is being hidden and what is Jesus offering them? And I wonder what Jesus, or rather, what fear has made you bury? What are the dark corners of your heart? What are the things you don't want exposed? What are the things that you've been wanting to tell somebody but you haven't told anyone? What is the fear that's made you hide those things away? And what would it look like to let Jesus bring it into the light? Do you feel freedom for him to do that? We see what it would look like. Today, salvation has come to this house. Today, salvation comes into your heart. Today you can respond in bold joy, entering into the mission of God with generosity and boldness.

The Mina Mission And Well Done

Kenneth Dyches 20:46

So we see how Jesus makes uh saints of sinners, but he also makes servants of those saints. Look with me at Luke 19, verses 12 through 15. He said, therefore, a nobleman, which is Jesus, went into a far country to receive himself a kingdom and then return. Calling ten of his servants, right? These are disciples of Jesus. He gave them ten minas, one mina each, and said to them, Engage in business. That business is to seek and save the lost. Engage in business until I come. But his citizens hated him, and they sent a delegation after him, saying, We do not want this man to reign over us. So again, here you see the setting. The sitting is the kingdom of God. This is the setting for us, right? Jesus reigns in heaven and we live in the already not yet. We experience parts of the new heavens, new earth now. God dwells in us by the Holy Spirit. He answers our prayers. We have communion with the saints, and yet we still live in a world that is lost, a world that needs us to be God's emissaries for the kingdom of God. And that's our mission to seek and to save the lost. And that's an exciting mission, right? We get to be a part of God, bringing salvation to the houses of others, God entering into their Hearts, people who long to be known and loved, experiencing the love of Jesus Christ mediated through us, his servants. But it's a good question to ask. How do we do that? Right? We all ask that question. In our own ways, in our hearts, in the dark places. We all ask that question. How do we seek and save the lost? Well, honestly, in Acts 1, 6 through 8, the disciples uh have a similar question. They come together and they ask, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? It's the same question Jesus is uh referring to here. And he said to them, It's not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and to the ends of the earth. See, God dwells in us by the Holy Spirit. He's made his home in us, the Father and the Son in the Spirit, it says in John 14. Uh in Ephesians 1, Paul says the Spirit is a deposit, right? It's a foretaste. God dwells in us now and is the and uses us as the means that we can mediate his presence to the world around us. So we see we are ministers in the kingdom of God, seeking and saving the lost, along with God by the Spirit. But look with me at verse 15. When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business. The first came before him, saying, Lord, your mina has made ten minas more. And he said, Well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities. And the second came saying, Lord, your Mina has made five. And he said to him, And you are to be over five cities. So what I want to draw our attention to here is the well done. Now we all want to hear well done. We want to hear it from our spouses, right? That's why whenever I do tours around the house, I like I tell my spouse, I'm like, Hey, do you see all this work I did? It's awesome. She's like, Oh yeah, babe, you're great. Um, we want to hear that from our parents, right? Uh we want to hear that sometimes from our children. We want to hear that from our friends, we want to hear it from our bosses, we want to hear well done. And that's because we were created for it, right? We were created with God as our father. You know, children, babies, when they're born, they can only see up to their mother's face, right? And what they're looking for is delight. And if you've ever seen a baby, which I'm sure you have if you're at New City, right? Your natural response is to like make these goofy faces at them and be like, and people are like, what are you doing? But why do we do that? It's because we know that what this baby needs is to know they're delighted in, is to know how much they're adored. We instinctively know that. This baby instinctively knows its need, and you instinctively know that what it needs is to be delighted in. And that's the God that we love and serve, a God who delights in us. The Father said, Well done, uh, says, Well done, my good and faithful servant. In Ephesians 1, we see that we are beloved in the Lord, uh, in Jesus Christ. We're beloved before we've done anything, not because of our works, but because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. We are adopted, beloved children, and he delights in us. And he redeems our work. He invites us to be delighted in for what we do, to enter the new heavens and new earth, and to hear God say, Well done. I delight in the things that you did with me. I delight in the ways that you entered into the work of God with me. And so is he gonna say, Well done, Kenny? You got your whole to-do list done. Good job. That's not gonna happen. But if it could happen, he's gonna say, or is he gonna say, you looked impressive to those around you? Everyone liked you. They liked the words that you said, they laughed at your jokes. So good. Is he gonna say, good job, you you appeared to have your life together? Financial security, home ownership, married, three kids, and a dog. I'm speaking uh into the dog thing. My wife doesn't want one, but we'll see. A social life, staying fit, whatever, you know? No, he's not gonna say, well done for those things. He's gonna say, Well done. You didn't get that to-do list done, but you did stop to bless your neighbor again and again. You sometimes look like a fool, but you magnified me in the midst of it by humbly owning your shortcomings and depending on me in prayer. You didn't always measure up in your work, but you did listen and obey me in your work by being present and discipling your family and others. You sometimes struggled financially, and sometimes you struggled with a social life or just getting up in the morning. But you were always faithful with what I gave you and were generous to others. These are the things that when we get to heaven, God will say, Well done, my good and faithful servant. Well done. And he's gonna say, On all of these people are here to testify because you are present with them. You mediated my presence to them. You were involved in my mission to seek and save the lost. And there will be people there we don't recognize because we impacted one person in a way we didn't realize. And that person went on to impact other people. And we will get to the new heavens and new earth and rejoice with them, with Jesus, for the fruit that that bore in our lives and in the in all that God was doing. This is what God is inviting us into, to see his delight in our participation in his work to seek and save the lost. Look with me at Luke 19, verse 20.

Fear, Judgment, And God’s Love

Kenneth Dyches 27:46

Then another came, saying, Lord, here is your Mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. And then a little further down, Jesus says, Take that Mina from him and give it to the one who has ten minas. And they said to him, Lord, he has ten minas. And he said, I tell you that everyone who has more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me. See, we see again fear. Fear drives him to hide his Mena away. The book of Hebrews says that um for those who have received the Holy Spirit and then rejected Jesus, uh, they cannot uh return back. Um Jesus also says the only sin that cannot be forgiven is blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. We also hear that the gospel, when it comes into our hearts, it needs to take root uh if it's going to produce fruit in salvation. Right? And so how does the gospel take root? How do we know that the spirit lives and dwells in us? It's as we listen and obey, as we listen to the words of God, as we take the Mina that He's given us, as we dwell and abide with Him in the Spirit and participate in community and go outward in commission, in His mission to seek and save the lost. So I wonder what fear keeps you from doing? Does it keep you from speaking up against injustice? From sharing the gospel when you have the opportunity, from generosity from those who have asked or have not asked, from hospitality, right? I had a friend tell me recently, if you want to come over and spend time with me, just give me like one day's notice. But if you want to come over and spend time with my house, give me like two weeks. Right? I mean, especially if you have kids, you understand like getting your house in order, it's a difficult task. And yet God is inviting us to ask what his will is in all of these areas of our life, to risk. Just say, God, what do you desire? What is your mission? What are you inviting me to? Who are you inviting me to move towards? I also want to address him saying that God is severe. Um, it's hard for us to hear that God is severe, especially in our modern day culture. We know God is a God of steadfast love, and he is. But even when you look at John 3.16, which we're all familiar with, it says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. All right, we're good with that. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be safe through him. Amen. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and the people love the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil. See, the reality is God created us to love him with all of ourselves. He created us to receive his blessing and do his good work of expressing that blessing across the whole earth. And yet we have all fallen short of that. We are all sinners. We've all sinned against God. We've sinned against one another. We've fallen short, we're insufficient. And yet, God, in his great steadfast love, he sends uh the second person of the Trinity, he sends his son. And this is the thing about God. He's three in one, he's perfect unity in diversity, he's perfect loving community. He does not need us. If he wanted to, he could pull a Thanos, snap his fingers, we're all gone. Let's just start over. These guys are messed up. They don't know what they're doing. But he doesn't. He sends his very self, he sends the son into the world to be ridiculed, to die on a cross, to take our sins upon himself, so that all those who have faith in him might be washed in his blood, cleansed, and have opportunity to receive the spirit, to be adopted, to become beloved children. This is the gift that he offers us. And yet, to all those who fail to receive it, their end is exactly how our parable ends. And that's exactly what God wants to avoid. And so where Adam failed, Jesus succeeds. Jesus came to make us beloved servants, to adopt us, that we might be blessed in the beloved. And he does more than that. He makes saints servants. That's why he says to his disciples, I will make you fishers of men. This is the God of all creation saying, I'm going to recreate you in Jesus Christ to be fishers of men. That's why he says, Go and make disciples, and I will be with you. He's there with us every step of the journey. That's why he says to his disciples, you will receive power to be my witnesses. See, God goes with us in his mission to seek and save the lost. And so if we want to be with Jesus, we need to be part of his mission. In as much as our hearts are not engaged in that, in as much as we are not engaged in God's mission in the places we live, work, and play, we are not walking well with Jesus in those places. He's inviting us to more. But again, we might ask, but how does this work?

One Degree Shifts Toward Others

Kenneth Dyches 32:55

Right? So I've been in ministry a long time, uh, but I still don't love certain aspects of ministry. I'm not naturally gifted at them. Sometimes you're around somebody that can just start a conversation with somebody, meet them a year later, remember facts about their life, start talking to them about Jesus, and you're like, what in the world? That's my wife. I don't know how she does that. But I am not always like that. And so, introverts, uh, you're welcome. But I will walk into a coffee shop and I'm like, sometimes I just want to have a cup of coffee. Don't really want to talk to people. The person next to me is crying. That's awkward. I'm gonna go sit over here, you know. Like, I mean, it's hard. It can be hard to move towards others in love. But I've been going to a coffee shop near my house, and my goal is to bring the kingdom of God there by making one degree shifts in relationship with people. So, what do I do? I I get to know the regulars, the barista get to know their name, and then I get to learn a detail about their lives, and then I ask them how they're doing on a deeper level, and then I begin to offer if I can pray for them, and then I begin to have spiritual conversations, asking them more about their background, and then I look for opportunities for the gospel. And this happens over the course of days or weeks or months, and every time I'm inviting the spirit in those conversations, saying, Lord, help me to figure out what to say next. Help me to love this person with compassion, help me to introduce them to Jesus. And you'd be amazed at the ways that God does work every single time. One of those people is Emily. Uh, she's this person that I've been talking with, and she's a really great person, but she's been burned by the church. Uh, she has really been burned, and so when I've invited her to church or to even small group, she says, no, there's just no way. I'm not gonna show up there. Uh and why? It's fear. She's it's too vulnerable. Uh, she's fearful of being hurt in relationship, she's fearful of bringing herself into the light. Uh however, uh, I've had opportunities to pray for her in this coffee shop. I've learned her story. Uh, and over time, she's come to do things at my house like serving us uh coffee, doing a coffee tasting. She came to an Ocho de Mayo party that we threw because it was on Friday and not on Tuesday. But it was fun, and she came and she was the last person to leave. And she walked up to me afterwards and she said, Kenny, I haven't felt this loved in a long time. I felt so loved by the people here. And it says so much about you guys that you surround yourself with these people. And I wanted to say afterwards I thought this, uh, but that says a lot about Jesus. That says a lot about the person that we love and about this community and the impact he's had in this community. See, in that moment, she was seen, she was known in relationship. Uh, she felt the love of God mediated to her. We were Jesus coming to her and saying, I see you. I want to eat in your house today. She had already heard the gospel. She needed people to move towards her one degree at a time. Who are the people in your life, in the places you live, work, and play, that just need people to move towards them, to seek and save the lost, one degree at a time, starting by just learning their names, starting by praying for them, inviting them over one step at a time. So I invite you who are watching from the sidelines. Jesus is coming home to you in your fear, in your insufficiencies. He's calling you out into his mission to make sinners into saints. And that's your mission now. It's the work he prepared for you to do, and in all sorts of unique ways. That could be in your family with your children, that could be in a coffee shop, that can be in your workplace. There's all ways and places and peoples that he is calling you into in communion, community, and commission.

Community, Church Planting, And Need

Kenneth Dyches 36:33

One way to figure out what that looks like is to do the all of life guide. Sit down with that, spend time with it, take your time, ask Lord, where are you sending me? And how can I begin to mold my life around that? And I want to say one last thing, which is uh that the best place to live this out, hear me out, is church planting. What do I mean by that? I mean, what did the disciples do? Right? They they radically entered into prayerful community that was generous, moving towards one another in love, but that was always also moving outward. That's Acts 1 and 2. That's what they were doing. And that always resulted in planting churches, right? That doesn't mean that you need to be a part of this church plant. That doesn't mean that tomorrow you need to go be part of a church plant. But if you're not asking the question, Jesus, when are you sending me? Maybe you need to start. Because a community that's not asking that question, an individual that's not asking that question is not actively engaged with what God is doing and going into all of Orlando to bring the lost to know Jesus. That is the work that He's doing, that He's inviting you into. And so I invite you in your circles, in your community, ask that question. And you know what? Sometimes we're burnt out, sometimes we have too much going on, sometimes we're sick, sometimes we're in desperate need of help. And in those moments, Jesus is inviting you. Start with your need. Go to your community. Don't check out. Say, hey, I'm in desperate need. And we want to hide our needs, right? It's so tempting. Uh I just can't show up to community regularly because it's it's too hard. I have too much going on. I'm burnt out. Just so come to community with your need. Guys, this is where I am. I need help. I need people to meet me with where I'm at. And let invite them to meet your needs. See community grow from that. And then start moving out together with the whole body of Christ into his mission to seek and save the lost. All right, let me pray for us now.

Sending Prayer And Closing

Kenneth Dyches 38:34

Lord, thank you. Thank you for your mission to seek and save the lost, and that every single person here is part of that mission because you looked at us in the tree. You invited us out of hiding. You came into our hearts. You invited us to be known and to be loved. You empower us now to be sent into all the places that you've placed us. Not to do anything in our own power, but to ask the question, Lord, what are you doing? And would you give us wisdom? Would you give us discernment to ask that question and to hear from you, to hear you invite us out, to send us out, to empower us as your servants, to make a God who knows and loves and is offering salvation to all the world. Invite us into that, Lord. Praise in Jesus' name. Amen.