Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Hello everyone.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is Pastor Benjamin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City Orlando.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Stand and join with me as we pray together a prayer of illumination and the reading of God's Word.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Prayer of Illumination, read with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Pray with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God our Father, by your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and our minds to your word and lead us into your truth for the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Amen.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you would remain standing if you were able for the reading of the Gospel of Luke, chapter 14, verses 1 and 7 through 24.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now he told a parable to those who were invited when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he who invited you both will come and say to you, Give your place to this person.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, Friend, move up higher.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He said also to the man who had invited him, When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters, or your relatives, or your rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But Jesus said to him, A man once gave a great banquet and invited many.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But they all alike began to make excuses.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The first said to him, I bought a field, and I must go out and see it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Please have me excused.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And another said, I bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Please have me excused.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So the servant came and reported these things to his master.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the servant said, Sir, what you have what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the master said to the servant, Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is God's word.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Thanks be to God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You may be seated.
Kenneth Dyches: Good morning, New City.
Kenneth Dyches: So I want you to imagine for a moment that you've been invited to a dinner banquet.
Kenneth Dyches: And it's your boss who invited you, not just your boss, but really your CEO of the company who's hosting it.
Kenneth Dyches: And he's invited every all of the high-ups in the company as well as the whole company.
Kenneth Dyches: He's also invited some other uh organizations and philanthropists.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, there's some notable people there.
Kenneth Dyches: Maybe there's even one or two celebrities, right?
Kenneth Dyches: So you you come to the dinner and people are coming up in nice cars, uh, people are dressed well, uh, they're mingling and socializing with one another.
Kenneth Dyches: Everybody wants to get a chance to talk to the CEO, talk to the boss, get a chance to uh let their face and name be known, uh, hopefully get that promotion that they want.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh for the couple celebrities that are there, people are trying to get close to them, to take selfies, either from like a distance, you know, 20 feet away, or just like brave enough to come up and talk to them.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh and so it's it's a haul to do, right?
Kenneth Dyches: But in the midst of all of that, somebody walks in.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, this person uh is a little awkward.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh they're not dressed like everybody else.
Kenneth Dyches: They are a little swollen, they're clearly uncomfortable.
Kenneth Dyches: Something's a little bit off with this person.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, they don't fit in.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh and so everyone, you know, they're kind of giving them the side eye.
Kenneth Dyches: They're like, they're aware of them, but they're not sure what to do with this man.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, and so the night goes on, uh, and the host comes up uh to give a short speech, right?
Kenneth Dyches: It's polished, it's funny, people laugh at his jokes.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, but as he's giving it, he pauses and he notices the man in the middle of the room.
Kenneth Dyches: And he cranes his neck and and to see who he is and what he's doing, why he's caused a little bit of a fuss.
Kenneth Dyches: And the room goes quiet.
Kenneth Dyches: In the middle of his speech, he's paused to look at this man.
Kenneth Dyches: And everybody in that moment, uh, nobody moves.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, everybody knows that it's not gonna benefit me to move towards this man uh until I see someone else do that, right?
Kenneth Dyches: I'm not gonna climb the social ladder by talking to him.
Kenneth Dyches: If I do talk to him, I might kind of be burdened uh by whatever his needs are.
Kenneth Dyches: I might actually be stuck helping him.
Kenneth Dyches: And what if I don't get to talk to the CEO or take a selfie with that celebrity?
Kenneth Dyches: But the host comes off the podium, he walks over to the man, he sees that the man's legs are shaking, and so he grabs a chair for him and seats him at the table, uh, right actually where the host uh will be sitting.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh and he grabs him a meal before the dinner.
Kenneth Dyches: It's actually plated.
Kenneth Dyches: He goes out and he grabs it, brings it to him, gives him a bottle of water before finally coming up and finishing uh his polished speech in front of everybody on the podium.
Kenneth Dyches: At the at that party, uh it didn't earn points for people uh to go and minister to that man, uh it didn't increase their influence, it might have cost them social capital.
Kenneth Dyches: So they stayed silent, right?
Kenneth Dyches: They played it safe, they protected their position.
Kenneth Dyches: But then their host sees, cares for, and restores that man.
Kenneth Dyches: And just like that, the entire value system of the room is exposed because while they're securing their seat, protecting their image, and managing their status, they completely missed the person right in front of them.
Kenneth Dyches: Why?
Kenneth Dyches: Because of a culture of scarcity and self-protection.
Kenneth Dyches: The key idea in the social science of economics is the concept of scarcity, the fundamental problem that resources are limited while human wants are unlimited.
Kenneth Dyches: And so our hearts tainted by sin respond in self-protection.
Kenneth Dyches: The economics of a world tainted by sin is defined by scarcity.
Kenneth Dyches: It's that pit in the center of our stomach, right, that tells us there's not enough for everyone.
Kenneth Dyches: And scarcity leads sinful hearts to self-protection.
Kenneth Dyches: Give you a couple examples of this.
Kenneth Dyches: There's time scarcity.
Kenneth Dyches: It sounds like I just don't have time for that.
Kenneth Dyches: It looks like constantly rushing over booking and multitasking, prioritizing productivity over people.
Kenneth Dyches: Then there's money scarcity, right?
Kenneth Dyches: It sounds like I need to hold on to what I have.
Kenneth Dyches: And it looks like fear of giving, even when we're able, anxiety about the future despite the stability that we have, and constant comparison of income, lifestyle, or security.
Kenneth Dyches: And then there's relational or emotional scarcity, right?
Kenneth Dyches: It sounds like I have to protect my circle or I just don't have anything left to give.
Kenneth Dyches: It can look like hesitating to include outsiders, investing only in people who feel easy or beneficial, or withdrawing instead of engaging when life gets too hard.
Kenneth Dyches: Scarcity leads sinful hearts to self-protection.
Kenneth Dyches: However, in the economics of God's kingdom, scarcity doesn't exist.
Kenneth Dyches: God knows all things, sees all things, owns all things.
Kenneth Dyches: He creates all things from nothing.
Kenneth Dyches: And this leads a good God to humble himself and self-giving to a sinful people.
Kenneth Dyches: And he calls those same people made in his image to humility and self-giving as well.
Kenneth Dyches: In God's kingdom, we can respond to scarcity with humility and self-giving.
Kenneth Dyches: And that's what we're talking about here today.
Kenneth Dyches: In God's kingdom, we can respond to scarcity with humility and self-giving.
Kenneth Dyches: Go ahead and look at the text with me.
Kenneth Dyches: We're going to start in Luke chapter 14, verse 1.
Kenneth Dyches: Now, as we come to the passage, uh we see that Jesus is at a table.
Kenneth Dyches: He's at a feast.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh and it's not uncommon to find Jesus at a table in Luke's gospel.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh he's almost always coming from, going to, or at a table with somebody in the gospel account.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, that can be Pharisees, tax collectors, sinners, the outcasts, his disciples, and the lost.
Kenneth Dyches: Right?
Kenneth Dyches: He's inviting all to the table, and he's invited to their table.
Kenneth Dyches: So there's something important there.
Kenneth Dyches: But we look at uh chapter 14, verse 1, and it says, one Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.
Kenneth Dyches: So notice that this is on the Sabbath day.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh Jesus says at one point, uh, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Kenneth Dyches: It looks forward to the rest and the wholeness that we will receive in the new heavens and new earth when all things are made new.
Kenneth Dyches: And so he's been disputing with them about can I heal on the Sabbath?
Kenneth Dyches: Right.
Kenneth Dyches: And so he says that to this room, there's actually, he's at the feast uh of that a Pharisee is throwing, right?
Kenneth Dyches: He's a ruler of the Pharisee.
Kenneth Dyches: And so probably a lot of other religious leaders there, a lot of people of import and influence.
Kenneth Dyches: And in the midst of all of that, there's a man, as we continue reading the next several verses, with dropsy, right?
Kenneth Dyches: So he would have been swollen, right?
Kenneth Dyches: He he would have been uncomfortable looking.
Kenneth Dyches: People probably would have been avoiding him, right?
Kenneth Dyches: And so notice what Jesus notices.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, he then goes on to notice this man and to heal him on the spot in the moment.
Kenneth Dyches: While the Pharisees are watching him closely, asking, is this man one of us?
Kenneth Dyches: Is he going to further our status?
Kenneth Dyches: Are we going to benefit from him being here as the guest of honor?
Kenneth Dyches: Jesus is noticing the humble man, right, who needs help among them.
Kenneth Dyches: And so we move forward in the passage at uh and go ahead with me and look at verse seven, which says, now he.
Kenneth Dyches: Oh, sorry, excuse me.
Kenneth Dyches: Yeah, look with me at verse seven.
Kenneth Dyches: Now he told a parable to those who were invited when he noticed how they chose the places of honor.
Kenneth Dyches: So again, notice what Jesus is noticing, right?
Kenneth Dyches: They're watching him, but he sees their hearts.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, he sees their lack of humility.
Kenneth Dyches: I wonder uh if we were conscious all the time of what Jesus is noticing in our lives, right?
Kenneth Dyches: When we're doom scrolling on social media, when we're posting our own things on social media, uh and all the things that we do when we when we come to church, who do we talk to?
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, when we're going about our life at the grocery store, when we're around our kids and in our neighborhoods, uh, if we were keeping in mind what Jesus is noticing, what would we do differently?
Kenneth Dyches: And the context of what's going on here in an honor and shame culture, uh, the places of honor at a banquet reveal one's social status and influence, things that we are often subconsciously trying to seek out and get for ourselves.
Kenneth Dyches: And so it would be important for the people at the feast.
Kenneth Dyches: This is an opportunity for them vocationally, right, uh, to move, to move up in their station.
Kenneth Dyches: This is an opportunity to be near those who have much, near those who can decide their fate, right?
Kenneth Dyches: Where they're at in society, what kind of honor they have, who can they they can be friends with.
Kenneth Dyches: So this would have been important for those there uh to grab the seats of honor.
Kenneth Dyches: But that's operating from the lie of scarcity, which says if someone else gets noticed, then there's less for me.
Kenneth Dyches: If I'm not being seen, then I must not matter.
Kenneth Dyches: And if I have if I have to position, I have to position myself, or I will get overlooked.
Kenneth Dyches: But Jesus flips the script.
Kenneth Dyches: Look with me at verse 11.
Kenneth Dyches: For everyone who exalts himself, he says, will be humbled.
Kenneth Dyches: And he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh that word humbles himself means to cause to be at a lower point.
Kenneth Dyches: And what's wonderful about the God that we know and love, the God of the scriptures, is it says in Philippians 2, the Son of God was found in human form.
Kenneth Dyches: God humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Kenneth Dyches: God, who owns all things, came to live and dwell with sinners in humility, counting their salvation more important than even his own life, that he could die on a cross for their sins, that they might be forgiven and have an opportunity to become children of God, who could receive all that they needed at the table of God in Jesus Christ.
Kenneth Dyches: And that's what Matthew 18 tells us when Jesus invites us to humble ourselves like a child.
Kenneth Dyches: And his disciple Peter later tells us in 1 Peter that as we humble ourselves, we can cast our anxieties, our needs, our wants on him, because he cares for us and he will exalt us at the proper time.
Kenneth Dyches: We don't need to exalt ourselves.
Kenneth Dyches: We don't need to look out for ourselves or station ourselves or be noticed.
Kenneth Dyches: God sees and notices his children and he longs for them to come to them and receive what they need.
Kenneth Dyches: See, God says if you humble yourself and someone else gets noticed, you are noticed by God.
Kenneth Dyches: If you humble yourself and are not seen, God sees and delights in you.
Kenneth Dyches: And in the new heavens and new earth, uh, everyone will one day know it.
Kenneth Dyches: If you humble yourself and don't position yourself, God will position and provide for you at the right time.
Kenneth Dyches: Children of God, there's no scarcity or power or position or platform or people to love you.
Kenneth Dyches: There's no lack of those things in the kingdom of God.
Kenneth Dyches: Yet if you truly want these things, we must be willing to lose them.
Kenneth Dyches: Mr.
Kenneth Dyches: Rogers, if you're a millennial, you're probably familiar with that show.
Kenneth Dyches: You probably grew up watching it.
Kenneth Dyches: Um He's actually a local legend, right?
Kenneth Dyches: He went to Rollins College uh here in Orlando.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh and his show was known uh for the degree of intention that he put uh into loving his audience well.
Kenneth Dyches: It wasn't flashy, he wasn't just trying to get eyeballs, he was truly trying to love and let the children who are watching know uh that they were important, right?
Kenneth Dyches: That they were cared for.
Kenneth Dyches: And this really came out one day uh as his show was gaining in popularity.
Kenneth Dyches: He uh the broadcasting company uh hosted the meet and greet.
Kenneth Dyches: And they expected maybe in the hundreds of people to show up.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh but that day in the morning, they looked outside and there were thousands and upon thousands of people lined up with their children to meet Mr.
Kenneth Dyches: Rogers.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh and they were there because their kids knew, right, Mr.
Kenneth Dyches: Rogers would see them.
Kenneth Dyches: He cared about them, he thought they were important.
Kenneth Dyches: And it took until late in the day, right, towards the very end of the day, before they had to send people home finally because uh they still weren't through the crowds.
Kenneth Dyches: And it was because Mr.
Kenneth Dyches: Rogers stopped, knelt down, learned the child the name of every child, and held a conversation with them.
Kenneth Dyches: He humbled himself before the lowly and bestowed honor on them.
Kenneth Dyches: A good barometer in how we're doing with this is by asking ourselves the question: how do you use social media?
Kenneth Dyches: What does your feed look like?
Kenneth Dyches: Another question is, how do you treat others who you have nothing to gain from?
Kenneth Dyches: Right?
Kenneth Dyches: It could be people at the store, people in your neighborhood, people you won't see again.
Kenneth Dyches: And a third question is, what does your prayer life look like?
Kenneth Dyches: C.S.
Kenneth Dyches: Lewis says, true humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.
Kenneth Dyches: And true humility draws us to pray and set our minds on God in the midst of all that we go through in this life.
Kenneth Dyches: And it brings us to our knees because we know we are finite.
Kenneth Dyches: We know that we need his help to have humility and move towards others.
Kenneth Dyches: And we know our hearts are disordered.
Kenneth Dyches: We're sinners in desperate need of honor and connection that only God through Jesus Christ can bring us.
Kenneth Dyches: And that leads me to my second point.
Kenneth Dyches: So in the first one, we talked about the scarcity of honor, and then the second one, we're looking at the scarcity of blessing.
Kenneth Dyches: Look with me at Luke chapter 14, verse 12.
Kenneth Dyches: He said also to the man who had invited him, When you give a dinner at a banquet, do not invite your friends and your brothers and your relatives or your rich neighbors.
Kenneth Dyches: Hold the phone.
Kenneth Dyches: So I want to have a smash tournament at my house, right?
Kenneth Dyches: I want to uh have a pool party at my house, I want to host a Super Bowl party, and you're telling me I shouldn't invite my family or my friends or my boss.
Kenneth Dyches: Okay, let's translate this for a moment because that's a little insane.
Kenneth Dyches: When you form a new city community or circle, right, when you're throwing a party at your house, or when you're just thinking through your next several weekends, who you want to have over, who you want to get together with, don't think only of your besties, of the social insiders of the fun crowd, or those that you might benefit from.
Kenneth Dyches: He's not saying don't hang out with these people at all, but his stark contrast is meant to bring out the question: how often are your decisions about community, who you invite to your table, about who is most life-giving, beneficial, easy, and most similar to yourself.
Kenneth Dyches: See, I think this way, we all think this way because we feel the scarcity of resources, time, and relational capital.
Kenneth Dyches: If you're single, right, you likely have people you work with, you have people at school, you have people here at church.
Kenneth Dyches: Your social circles can be really big, but you only have so much time for each one.
Kenneth Dyches: And then as you get married, you're spending more time with your spouse.
Kenneth Dyches: You want to start spending more time with other couples, and you begin to feel the constraint on your time and realize you only have so much relational and emotional capital to give.
Kenneth Dyches: And then once you have kids, man, you gotta just delete half your phone.
Kenneth Dyches: Like you just don't have time for anybody not in your social circles, especially as they have sports and et cetera, and so on.
Kenneth Dyches: You feel the strain, right?
Kenneth Dyches: Somebody wants to get together and be like, Yeah, let's book it for five months from now.
Kenneth Dyches: You laugh because you know.
Kenneth Dyches: See, we we feel the need to be repaid.
Kenneth Dyches: I feel the need with mutually beneficial friendships.
Kenneth Dyches: And those are good.
Kenneth Dyches: God's not saying don't have those, but he's saying there are those who don't have.
Kenneth Dyches: Are you moving towards them?
Kenneth Dyches: Look with me at verse 13.
Kenneth Dyches: But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.
Kenneth Dyches: So there's an opportunity right here.
Kenneth Dyches: He's inviting us to give a feast, right?
Kenneth Dyches: There's something good there, which we'll come to in a moment.
Kenneth Dyches: But let's look at that list.
Kenneth Dyches: If you've engaged the poor, you know that you cannot meet all of their needs, that their needs can be endless.
Kenneth Dyches: If you've ever engaged the crippled, you know that they live life at a different pace, a slower pace.
Kenneth Dyches: If you've ever engaged the mentally disabled, you know how uncomfortable certain social situations can be.
Kenneth Dyches: If you've ever engaged the spiritually lost, those who don't believe what we what we believe, you know how quickly you can lose things in common and how awkward those conversations can get.
Kenneth Dyches: If you've engaged with somebody of a different culture or stage of life, uh, you know how difficult it can be to form deep and lasting friendships.
Kenneth Dyches: See, to engage those who are in need, those who are different, who are outcasts, who aren't in our normal circles is costly.
Kenneth Dyches: We're all made in the image of God, though.
Kenneth Dyches: And those who have greater need or different needs than our own uniquely reflect God and offer us in Jesus things that we need.
Kenneth Dyches: That's why Jesus in Matthew 25 says that when we go out of our way to bless those who are in greater need, we are blessing Jesus Himself.
Kenneth Dyches: We can flip the script by prioritizing the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and the lost.
Kenneth Dyches: Look with me at verse 14.
Kenneth Dyches: Jesus says, And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.
Kenneth Dyches: See, Jesus flips the script again.
Kenneth Dyches: The word blessed here means truly fortunate or happy.
Kenneth Dyches: That's that's backwards.
Kenneth Dyches: To be truly fortunate or happy, but to be giving of ourselves that way, sacrificially, it doesn't really make sense.
Kenneth Dyches: But he's striking against the quid pro quo way of the world that's based on reciprocity.
Kenneth Dyches: Essentially, I serve others because it serves me, or I bless others so that I can receive blessing in return from them.
Kenneth Dyches: But Jesus says, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy, and blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice, for they shall be satisfied.
Kenneth Dyches: Do you know that you need mercy?
Kenneth Dyches: Do you identify?
Kenneth Dyches: Do you remember that you were once spiritually lost?
Kenneth Dyches: That you are once spiritually crippled.
Kenneth Dyches: Do you recognize the deep needs that you have here and now that can only truly be met in Jesus Christ, who is inviting you to his own table to receive that?
Kenneth Dyches: See, when we come to Jesus regularly in confession and repentance on our knees in prayer, and we ask for his mercy and grace for ourselves, when we ask him, and we can ask him to give us a humble heart, he will do it.
Kenneth Dyches: Then in your great joy and thankfulness, you will turn to your neighbor.
Kenneth Dyches: Isaiah 25, 6 gives us a vision of what will be in the new heavens and new earth.
Kenneth Dyches: He says, On this mountain, Yahweh, the Lord of hosts, will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
Kenneth Dyches: We can begin to participate in that now as we invite people to our table.
Kenneth Dyches: And the reality is there are people around us that we don't see.
Kenneth Dyches: One in three households have at least one family member with disability.
Kenneth Dyches: One in four adults experience disability.
Kenneth Dyches: One in six children experience disability.
Kenneth Dyches: Disability.
Kenneth Dyches: So this is important to us.
Kenneth Dyches: We often don't see them, the people who are in need.
Kenneth Dyches: In our own neighborhoods, in our own church.
Kenneth Dyches: Look at the number of people in this church.
Kenneth Dyches: If these statistics are true, how many are there in this church who we have opportunities to invite to our table that we haven't?
Kenneth Dyches: One in two families have left their church because their child with disabilities was not welcomed.
Kenneth Dyches: Now we are a welcoming church, we're hospitable.
Kenneth Dyches: But what does it say about the church at large?
Kenneth Dyches: There are people who statistically are leaving this church because they are not seen.
Kenneth Dyches: Because they haven't been invited to our table.
Kenneth Dyches: Are the people coming into my own home?
Kenneth Dyches: Are the people sitting with us here in these chairs around us partaking of this meal that we'll partake of together?
Kenneth Dyches: Are they the people who are poor, lame, crippled, and blind?
Kenneth Dyches: Do the mentally or physically disabled have a place here?
Kenneth Dyches: What about the poor and the oppressed?
Kenneth Dyches: What about the lost?
Kenneth Dyches: Do we give this feast for them?
Kenneth Dyches: One simple way we can do this is by the common rhythm practice of feasting together.
Kenneth Dyches: And when we feast at our own tables, when we invite people, we can just be sure to include people who are new to the church, right?
Kenneth Dyches: Your next door neighbors, especially those who might be considered outcasts.
Kenneth Dyches: And sometimes it's just being present enough to look around us in wherever we live, work and play, and asking ourselves, who is Jesus wanting to invite to his table?
Kenneth Dyches: And how can I be part of that?
Kenneth Dyches: And it is sacrificial.
Kenneth Dyches: Like I can tell you, we we work hard to have people in our home, and it's insanely difficult.
Kenneth Dyches: It requires planning ahead.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, it requires putting in your schedule, it requires being present so as to even meet your neighbors.
Kenneth Dyches: Sometimes it's hard to even just meet those guys.
Kenneth Dyches: So you wonder what they do.
Kenneth Dyches: And there are many here, right?
Kenneth Dyches: There are many of us who have been hospitable, who have loaned, offered services, blessed others, whose sacrifices have not been repaid.
Kenneth Dyches: Jesus sees you.
Kenneth Dyches: He sees what you have done to invite people to his table, and he will reward it.
Kenneth Dyches: Note too that Jesus ultimately is not all dependent on us.
Kenneth Dyches: He's inviting us to participate in his good work of inviting all these people to partake of the rich food at his table.
Kenneth Dyches: But he's the one who will honor, bless, satisfy, and make all people whole.
Kenneth Dyches: He just invites us to be part of that process.
Kenneth Dyches: That brings me to my third point.
Kenneth Dyches: So we've seen scarcity of honor, scarcity of blessing, and now we see an abundance of excuses.
Kenneth Dyches: Look with me at Luke 14, verse 15.
Kenneth Dyches: When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.
Kenneth Dyches: I imagine Jesus like pausing and kind of like looking over at him, like, what?
Kenneth Dyches: And then going on and saying, Okay, let's draw this out.
Kenneth Dyches: I don't know if you understand.
Kenneth Dyches: Look with me at verse 16 and 17.
Kenneth Dyches: But he said to him, A man once gave a great banquet and invited many.
Kenneth Dyches: And at the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready.
Kenneth Dyches: Now, uh, it's important to know that because the servant is going out and inviting people because the dinner's ready, uh, likely uh they will have already received and responded yes to an RSVP.
Kenneth Dyches: So these people giving excuses are actually people who said, Yes, I'll be there.
Kenneth Dyches: Um, and so notice what they say.
Kenneth Dyches: There's actually uh an increase uh in dishonor in each one.
Kenneth Dyches: The first said to him, I've bought a field and I must go out and see it.
Kenneth Dyches: Please have me excused.
Kenneth Dyches: Right?
Kenneth Dyches: So this invitation went out months in advance.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, and he's probably should have looked at this field before he bought it, right?
Kenneth Dyches: Uh but he's like, Okay, but I I just bought it, it's really important.
Kenneth Dyches: I need to go see it.
Kenneth Dyches: Which can you please have me excused?
Kenneth Dyches: Another said, I have both bought five yoke of oxen and I go to examine him then.
Kenneth Dyches: Please see me excused.
Kenneth Dyches: So he's already on his way, right?
Kenneth Dyches: This this servant had to go track this guy down on his way to the oxen, and he's asking to be excused, but he already presumptively went to go see them.
Kenneth Dyches: And then the third said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
Kenneth Dyches: Again, this likely is a wedding feast that this man is hosting, that the master is hosting.
Kenneth Dyches: And this guy also would have scheduled his wedding feast way out in advance.
Kenneth Dyches: And notice that he's already married this woman.
Kenneth Dyches: But coming to this feast would mean that he'd have to be apart from her, right?
Kenneth Dyches: And I'm sure he wants to be with her and love her and protect her.
Kenneth Dyches: And so he says, even though he can come, he says, Oh, I cannot come, see me excused.
Kenneth Dyches: These are legitimate concerns, but they're escalating in insult.
Kenneth Dyches: See, double invitations were customary among the upper class when they were entertaining, and guests who invited an invitation were actually honor bound to attend when they were informed that the meal was ready.
Kenneth Dyches: And imagine this, it basically would have been like me going out and uh hiring a Michelin star chef to come uh to a venue that I had booked, uh, that I had set up.
Kenneth Dyches: You know, I'd spent tons and tons of money uh on a wedding.
Kenneth Dyches: You know, some people do that, you can't really afford it, right?
Kenneth Dyches: But you do it anyway.
Kenneth Dyches: And uh then all of the people I had invited, I'm standing, I'm standing alone there, right, at the venue, wanting to celebrate maybe the birth, I mean the marriage of my daughter, and no one shows up.
Kenneth Dyches: All these people who had said yes, who I thought were part of my my family, right?
Kenneth Dyches: My my friends, the closest people I know and love.
Kenneth Dyches: I had spent so much money.
Kenneth Dyches: I was looking forward to this.
Kenneth Dyches: And they have said, no, I have other things to do.
Kenneth Dyches: See, each of them uh were looking for good life and satisfaction and worldly security, work, and family, but not in the master, not in God.
Kenneth Dyches: Their loves were disordered by scarcity, and so their loves became idols.
Kenneth Dyches: So they missed out on the true satisfaction and the table of the one who invited them.
Kenneth Dyches: See, in order to find true satisfaction in Jesus Christ, in order to experience the joy and delight that God offers us even here and now, we need to humble ourselves to ask what in our lives is getting in the way of what God truly has for us.
Kenneth Dyches: Sometimes it's lies.
Kenneth Dyches: Like, you know, if if I if I don't give everything that I have to my job and to work, I might lose my job.
Kenneth Dyches: I or if if I uh if I don't give everything I have to the friends that I love the most who are immediately around me, then they're gonna find other friends.
Kenneth Dyches: Whatever the case may be, scarcity mindsets, right, they draw us to elevate things that were to the place where only God should be.
Kenneth Dyches: See, Alexander the Great was probably the best at uh going out and getting what he wanted.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, and so he conquered more land than any before him.
Kenneth Dyches: He was a brilliant tactician, he was a brave leader of armies, a ruthless enemy, an intelligent ruler.
Kenneth Dyches: He was able to win some incredibly impressive battles uh against many different nations.
Kenneth Dyches: Jerusalem actually opened the gates for him to show him a prophecy uh from the book of Daniel that he would conquer.
Kenneth Dyches: Yet, on his return journey, he suddenly died.
Kenneth Dyches: All of that, and the world was shocked that such an undefeatable conqueror could vanish so quickly.
Kenneth Dyches: Right if we if our lives are required of us tomorrow, will when we get to the wedding feast, will Jesus say, Move up, come sit next to me?
Kenneth Dyches: What will he look at our time and say?
Kenneth Dyches: Will he say, You humbled yourself and submitted it all to me for the sake of those that I love?
Kenneth Dyches: What are you striving after and what do you need to surrender?
Kenneth Dyches: Sometimes we need to surrender from being the third person of the Trinity, right?
Kenneth Dyches: We're supposed to be listening to God through his spirit for his will for our lives, but so often we, I'm guilty of this for sure, we set our own schedules.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, we have our Google calendars.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, we say yes or no to people based on what fits in our Google calendar, what our priorities are.
Kenneth Dyches: But how often when we adjust those calendars, are we asking the Spirit who we should move towards, what he has for us, what he is doing in and through us.
Kenneth Dyches: This is one of the reasons why uh we want to church plant and why it's important for churches to plant churches.
Kenneth Dyches: I don't know if you know this, but um, in the average established church, you only see one conversion for every 106 members.
Kenneth Dyches: There's a lot of new people moving to Orlando.
Kenneth Dyches: It's a lot of people who've left the church that don't ever want to come back.
Kenneth Dyches: A lot of people who don't know Jesus, who are spiritually blind and lost, and Jesus wants to invite to his table.
Kenneth Dyches: But the out in church plants, that number is actually for every six members, you have one conversion, right?
Kenneth Dyches: We want to go out and reach the lost.
Kenneth Dyches: If we want to move towards those who don't yet know Jesus, we have to move outside of our circles, outside of what is comfortable.
Kenneth Dyches: We have to be willing to pray and ask the Lord, what do you have for me?
Kenneth Dyches: And that might not be church planting.
Kenneth Dyches: Okay, I'm not trying to recruit all of you at once.
Kenneth Dyches: But wherever you live, work and play, he is inviting you to move towards people around you that you don't yet see.
Kenneth Dyches: Ask him who those people are.
Kenneth Dyches: In these parables, we encounter the God who invites us to his table.
Kenneth Dyches: See, the Pharisees were offended because Jesus gave his attention to the humble one among them against their rules and regulations.
Kenneth Dyches: In so doing, he declared the needs of his people more important.
Kenneth Dyches: He sees that your needs are important.
Kenneth Dyches: Jesus was also called a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
Kenneth Dyches: See, he sees and knows your sin, and he calls and invites you to the table, nonetheless, so that we can do the same with others, to those who are messy, because we're messy.
Kenneth Dyches: To come to his table requires loss, willingness to lose friendships, social media followers, comfort, worldly security and happiness, but to find it all in Jesus.
Kenneth Dyches: And yet in Matthew 19, Jesus says, Everyone who has left all of these things, or houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
Kenneth Dyches: And he adds, but many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
Kenneth Dyches: See, we as sinners are afraid to be humble because humility requires loss.
Kenneth Dyches: And we believe the lie of scarcity, that at the end of the day we are alone to take care of ourselves.
Kenneth Dyches: Yet God humbled himself and he emptied all of heaven to die on a cross for sinners who rejected him, so that we might have the opportunity to respond to his invitation here and now, to receive from his table, to know that it is secure for us, to participate in his good and incredible work of inviting others to that table.
Kenneth Dyches: And this is from a God who is always available and always taking care of us.
Kenneth Dyches: So come to Jesus' table and then ask, who is he inviting you to invite to yours?
Kenneth Dyches: Go ahead and pray with me.
Kenneth Dyches: Heavenly Father, we we need your spirit to form our hearts, to be humble, to receive from your table in faith, to desire, to lay down our lives, our priorities, our work, our relationships for the sake of those that you love, for the sake of the lost, for the sake of the least of these.
Kenneth Dyches: Lord, we want to move towards these, but often we don't even know how.
Kenneth Dyches: We don't know where to begin.
Kenneth Dyches: But we trust that your spirit can transform our hearts, that can give us a heart like yours, that can move us in love towards those around us.
Kenneth Dyches: And that as we take steps of faith to do that, Lord, we ask that you would provide, provide what we need to do that, provide for our tables, provide that we can move towards one another in humility and in love.
Kenneth Dyches: Open our eyes to what you're doing around us, that we can rejoice in the new heavens and new earth and all those that we will see around us, that we were, that we partook in inviting to that table to feast and to be satisfied in your presence.
Kenneth Dyches: We pray these things in Jesus' name.
Kenneth Dyches: Amen.