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.
Justin Grimm: Would you pray with me?
Justin Grimm: Gracious God, by your spirit, kindle our hearts that we might be a hopeful people.
Justin Grimm: Through your word, keep us from growing weary, that we may not miss the glory of Christ appearing.
Justin Grimm: Even so, come quickly, O God.
Justin Grimm: Amen.
Justin Grimm: If you are able, remain standing for the reading of God's word.
Justin Grimm: 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.
Justin Grimm: He said, Therefore, A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.
Justin Grimm: Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minus, and said to them, Engage in busyness until I come.
Justin Grimm: But his citizens hate him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, We do not want this man to reign over us.
Justin Grimm: 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.
Justin Grimm: The first came before him, saying, Lord, your Mina has made ten minas more.
Justin Grimm: 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.
Justin Grimm: And the second came, saying, Lord, your Mina has made five minas.
Justin Grimm: And he said to him, And you are to be over five cities.
Justin Grimm: 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.
Justin Grimm: You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.
Justin Grimm: He said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant.
Justin Grimm: You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.
Justin Grimm: Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?
Justin Grimm: And he said to those who stood by, Take the Mina from him and give it to the one who has the ten Minas.
Justin Grimm: And they said to him, Lord, he has ten Minas.
Justin Grimm: 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.
Justin Grimm: But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.
Justin Grimm: This is God's word.
Justin Grimm: Thanks be to God, you may be seated.
Kenneth Dyches: Good morning, new city.
Kenneth Dyches: So glad to be worshiping with you this morning.
Kenneth Dyches: Grateful that you all are here.
Kenneth Dyches: It's no small thing sometimes to show up to church.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, we have uh those of us who are parents have have kids sometimes that make it hard getting out of the door.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: So if you don't see me anymore, you know why.
Kenneth Dyches: I'm just kidding.
Kenneth Dyches: She's so I'm so grateful for her and for and for my family.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh but I want to tell you about uh Charles Wendell Coulson.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh his name is Chuck Coulson.
Kenneth Dyches: In the year 1969, uh he had finally arrived at life.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh he had a corner office in the West Wing.
Kenneth Dyches: His phone calls got returned within the hour.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh he was called Nixon's Pitbull.
Kenneth Dyches: And he once said that he would do whatever it took, uh, even walking over his own grandmother, to get Nixon re-elected.
Kenneth Dyches: That's something.
Kenneth Dyches: So he breathes power, right?
Kenneth Dyches: In those early years, he had plenty of it.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh but here's what nobody talks about uh when they talk about Coulson's story.
Kenneth Dyches: All of that power, that access and influence that he had was also the perfect place to hide.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: And so the West Wing was itself a kind of cover.
Kenneth Dyches: So go back further than Washington, D.C.
Kenneth Dyches: Go all the way back to the garden.
Kenneth Dyches: Adam hears the sound of the Lord walking in the cool of the day, the same presence that had always been his greatest gift.
Kenneth Dyches: And what does he do?
Kenneth Dyches: He hides.
Kenneth Dyches: And when God calls out, Where are you?
Kenneth Dyches: Adam's answer is chilling.
Kenneth Dyches: I was afraid.
Kenneth Dyches: See, it wasn't just guilt that caused him to hide, it was fear.
Kenneth Dyches: That fear that if he was truly seen, truly known in his failure, that that encounter would destroy him.
Kenneth Dyches: And so he took everything that God had given him, his dignity, his calling, his very self, and hid away in the bushes.
Kenneth Dyches: Fear turned his greatest gift into something to be hidden.
Kenneth Dyches: Now, first century Jericho, there's another man who understood this perfectly.
Kenneth Dyches: His name was Zacchaeus.
Kenneth Dyches: He was the chief tax collector, he was wealthy, powerful, and hated by everybody.
Kenneth Dyches: His neighbors called him a traitor.
Kenneth Dyches: He was serving the Roman oppressors, he was defrauding people.
Kenneth Dyches: And when he walked through the market, the crowd didn't part out of respect for him.
Kenneth Dyches: It closed in around him.
Kenneth Dyches: He was powerful but profoundly alone.
Kenneth Dyches: And so the word comes that Jesus is coming into town.
Kenneth Dyches: He's passing through, and something stirs in him, and he must go see Jesus.
Kenneth Dyches: So he runs ahead of the crowd, climbs a tree.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: He can see Jesus without Jesus seeing him.
Kenneth Dyches: He can observe the encounter, evaluate it, and retreat if Jesus gets too close.
Kenneth Dyches: He's trying to see God without being seen by God.
Kenneth Dyches: It's Adam in the bushes all over again.
Kenneth Dyches: And I want to suggest that this is the oldest human instinct we carry.
Kenneth Dyches: We want connection.
Kenneth Dyches: We desperately want connection.
Kenneth Dyches: We all feel it.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: And that's fear.
Kenneth Dyches: Fear takes the very thing God designed us for real belonging, real relationship, real investment with each other, honestly.
Kenneth Dyches: And it buries it, it protects it, it hides away and keeps it safe from the risk of encounter.
Kenneth Dyches: And so Jesus tells this parable about a servant receiving Mina from his master, a gift, an investment, a calling.
Kenneth Dyches: And what does he do with it?
Kenneth Dyches: He hides it away.
Kenneth Dyches: And when the master returns, we again hear those chilling words.
Kenneth Dyches: I was afraid.
Kenneth Dyches: See, fear doesn't just make us hide ourselves, it makes us hide what God has given to us.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: Chuck Colson knew that place.
Kenneth Dyches: By 1973, the walls were closing in.
Kenneth Dyches: There was a Watergate scandal, grand jury subpoenas.
Kenneth Dyches: His name was in the newspapers for all the wrong reasons.
Kenneth Dyches: And one August night, as everything was crumbling down, he was sitting in the driveway of a friend.
Kenneth Dyches: He was known in all of his failures.
Kenneth Dyches: And he listened to that friend read him, read to him from C.S.
Kenneth Dyches: Lewis about the great sin of pride, about the self that built its own whole world and its importance.
Kenneth Dyches: And something cracked.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: In prison, he would surrender his life to Christ.
Kenneth Dyches: And then when he got out, surrender the rest of his life to prison ministry.
Kenneth Dyches: What Lewis's words did in that driveway is exactly what Jesus' words did standing under the sycamore tree in Jericho.
Kenneth Dyches: They made hiding impossible.
Kenneth Dyches: Not through condemnation or accusation, but through being known and loved.
Kenneth Dyches: Jesus stopped, looked into the branches, and said, Zacchaeus, come down, I must stay at your house today.
Kenneth Dyches: He said, I know your name.
Kenneth Dyches: I'm coming into your house.
Kenneth Dyches: So you can't hide from someone who already knows your name and greets you with a smile.
Kenneth Dyches: And that's what undoes us, not the fear of judgment.
Kenneth Dyches: We've built defenses against that, right?
Kenneth Dyches: It's the unexpected welcome that brings us out of that tree towards grace.
Kenneth Dyches: Coulson stopped hiding in that driveway.
Kenneth Dyches: Zaccia stopped hiding in the tree, and both of them, exposed, known, and welcomed, did the same extraordinary thing.
Kenneth Dyches: They gave everything away.
Kenneth Dyches: Because that's what happens when fear loses its grip.
Kenneth Dyches: Sinners become saints, become servants.
Kenneth Dyches: The Mina comes up out of hiding.
Kenneth Dyches: The gifts come back into the light.
Kenneth Dyches: Authentic relationship forms.
Kenneth Dyches: And we have an offering for God's good purposes.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: Now, all of us, we're all sinners, right?
Kenneth Dyches: We all fall short.
Kenneth Dyches: We all have parts of our life that we don't want to bring into the light.
Kenneth Dyches: And we don't want to do that because our works are evil, or at least because we know we're insufficient.
Kenneth Dyches: I wonder what those insufficient parts of you are.
Kenneth Dyches: What is keeping you from coming into the light in those parts of your life?
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: Maybe you're a young professional, but you feel unqualified to talk about Jesus because you just don't know the answers.
Kenneth Dyches: And so you don't start spiritual conversations.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: Or maybe you feel overextended by normal life circumstances, and you feel ashamed of ongoing struggles at home.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: And so you don't move towards those who need you.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: Jesus makes saints of sinners and servants of saints.
Kenneth Dyches: Look with me at Luke 19, verse 11.
Kenneth Dyches: And it says, As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable.
Kenneth Dyches: Now it's really helpful when you see, as they heard these things, to ask the question, what did they hear?
Kenneth Dyches: What is going on?
Kenneth Dyches: This is an opportunity to lean into the whole text to get some context for what's going on.
Kenneth Dyches: And that context is the story of Zacchaeus that I just told a little bit.
Kenneth Dyches: And in that story, if you look at verses chapter 19, verses 1 through 10, uh Zacchaeus he climbs up into that tree.
Kenneth Dyches: Jesus comes by, and you can imagine what is going through Zacchaeus's heart, right?
Kenneth Dyches: He wants to see Jesus, this righteous man that some are calling the Messiah.
Kenneth Dyches: He's doing these incredible works, he's preaching these incredible teachings.
Kenneth Dyches: And all of a sudden, Jesus pauses and he looks up at Zacchaeus.
Kenneth Dyches: And imagine you're Zacchaeus in that tree.
Kenneth Dyches: You thought you were hidden.
Kenneth Dyches: You were just there to perceive what's going on.
Kenneth Dyches: And then all of a sudden, Jesus looks right at you.
Kenneth Dyches: I imagine his heart was pounding.
Kenneth Dyches: Time probably slowed down a little bit.
Kenneth Dyches: And he was fearful.
Kenneth Dyches: I'm seen.
Kenneth Dyches: Everybody here knows who I am.
Kenneth Dyches: Everybody here knows I've defrauded people.
Kenneth Dyches: I'm a tax collector.
Kenneth Dyches: Is Jesus gonna condemn me?
Kenneth Dyches: Because I'm worthy of condemnation.
Kenneth Dyches: But what does Jesus say?
Kenneth Dyches: He says, the key is hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.
Kenneth Dyches: Jesus invites them into communion.
Kenneth Dyches: I can imagine the relief that washes over him, the desperation to go and be with Jesus.
Kenneth Dyches: And you see it.
Kenneth Dyches: He hurries down and receives Jesus joyfully.
Kenneth Dyches: All of a sudden he has this opportunity for Jesus to come into his house.
Kenneth Dyches: Zacchaeus.
Kenneth Dyches: This is greater than he ever thought it could happen.
Kenneth Dyches: See, Jesus is here with us this morning.
Kenneth Dyches: And he's inviting them out into his presence so that he might come in and you might see salvation there.
Kenneth Dyches: But look with me at verse 7.
Kenneth Dyches: When everyone else saw it, right?
Kenneth Dyches: These are the people who are hearing the parable of the Minas now, they grumbled.
Kenneth Dyches: He has gone to be in the guest of a man who is a sinner.
Kenneth Dyches: So the word sinner, uh, it's not a popular word in our culture today.
Kenneth Dyches: Um, but sinner essentially means that you've you've missed the mark.
Kenneth Dyches: You don't measure up, you're insufficient.
Kenneth Dyches: And uh that's true of all of us.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: And so we are all sinners.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: Um but Jesus is inviting everyone present to identify with Zacchaeus, with the sinner, with those who don't measure up and are insufficient.
Kenneth Dyches: And look what happens when Zacchaeus accepts that invitation.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh he says, I give half of my goods to the poor.
Kenneth Dyches: If I've defrauded anyone, uh anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.
Kenneth Dyches: And Jesus says, Today salvation has come to this house.
Kenneth Dyches: And so you see the fruit of salvation because he's giving generously of what he has.
Kenneth Dyches: He's become a servant.
Kenneth Dyches: 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?
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: And so we likewise are invited to respond the same way.
Kenneth Dyches: And then when we look at verse 10, Jesus says, For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.
Kenneth Dyches: So why does Jesus tell the parable of the teen ten Minas?
Kenneth Dyches: It's because he's inviting people to enter into his mission to seek and save the lost.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: Now go ahead and look with me at verse 11 again.
Kenneth Dyches: Because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, and so we see here that um there's a misunderstanding about what the kingdom of God is.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: This is fantastic.
Kenneth Dyches: The kingdom is coming to us.
Kenneth Dyches: And Jesus says, No, no, no, you misunderstand.
Kenneth Dyches: Right?
Kenneth Dyches: The kingdom is coming and it's inaugurated, but I've chosen to depend on you to seek and to save the lost.
Kenneth Dyches: This is your mission that I am giving you, and hence He gives us this parable.
Kenneth Dyches: He came to turn sinners to saints and saints to servants, and to invite us into that mission.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: Um yeah, it's weird, uh, especially for us older folk, right?
Kenneth Dyches: We're like, what in the world is going on?
Kenneth Dyches: Why are all these young'uns gathering around and causing a ruckus?
Kenneth Dyches: Um, and it's a good question, right?
Kenneth Dyches: We should ask.
Kenneth Dyches: Like when these things happen, what's going on?
Kenneth Dyches: Over Memorial Day weekend, this happened in Chicago, Milwaukee, and here in Orlando.
Kenneth Dyches: The in Chicago, there were 53 arrests, nine weapons were confiscated.
Kenneth Dyches: In Milwaukee, there were brawls at two locations, 13 arrests.
Kenneth Dyches: And here in Orlando, around 1,000 teenagers showed up to ICOM Park on Saturday nights, bringing fights and substantial police response.
Kenneth Dyches: So everyone is asking the question: what is going on here?
Kenneth Dyches: Well, experts think they know, and teenagers, you can come and tell me afterwards if they do know.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: Their social space became a screen.
Kenneth Dyches: They are lonely, they're depressed.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, this is the anxious generation, and desperate, they're desperate for human interaction and social contact.
Kenneth Dyches: And so one expert said these aren't random acts of violence.
Kenneth Dyches: This isn't just chaos, it's not out-of-control youth.
Kenneth Dyches: More often than not, it's a desperate need for connection.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: Now, a crowd is actually, again, the perfect hiding place.
Kenneth Dyches: You can belong to something without being vulnerable to anyone, kind of like social media, right?
Kenneth Dyches: You can control the social interactions.
Kenneth Dyches: You can feel like you're connected without actually having genuine, vulnerable relationship.
Kenneth Dyches: You can be present without being known.
Kenneth Dyches: These teenagers are doing something very old.
Kenneth Dyches: They're trying to find connection while keeping their distance.
Kenneth Dyches: They want to see without being seen.
Kenneth Dyches: And that's the key is up in the tree.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: It looks like curiosity, but it's actually the oldest human instinct in the world.
Kenneth Dyches: It's Adam in the garden.
Kenneth Dyches: It's I was afraid, so I hid.
Kenneth Dyches: And this generation is doing the same thing.
Kenneth Dyches: We're hiding behind screens, filling streets and crowds, desperate for connection, but terrified of the kind that actually costs something.
Kenneth Dyches: And into all of that noise, Jesus stops.
Kenneth Dyches: He looks up into the branches and he says the thing that's making us hide.
Kenneth Dyches: He invites us to know him.
Kenneth Dyches: 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?
Kenneth Dyches: And I wonder what Jesus, or rather, what fear has made you bury?
Kenneth Dyches: What are the dark corners of your heart?
Kenneth Dyches: What are the things you don't want exposed?
Kenneth Dyches: What are the things that you've been wanting to tell somebody but you haven't told anyone?
Kenneth Dyches: What is the fear that's made you hide those things away?
Kenneth Dyches: And what would it look like to let Jesus bring it into the light?
Kenneth Dyches: Do you feel freedom for him to do that?
Kenneth Dyches: We see what it would look like.
Kenneth Dyches: Today, salvation has come to this house.
Kenneth Dyches: Today, salvation comes into your heart.
Kenneth Dyches: Today you can respond in bold joy, entering into the mission of God with generosity and boldness.
Kenneth Dyches: So we see how Jesus makes uh saints of sinners, but he also makes servants of those saints.
Kenneth Dyches: Look with me at Luke 19, verses 12 through 15.
Kenneth Dyches: He said, therefore, a nobleman, which is Jesus, went into a far country to receive himself a kingdom and then return.
Kenneth Dyches: Calling ten of his servants, right?
Kenneth Dyches: These are disciples of Jesus.
Kenneth Dyches: He gave them ten minas, one mina each, and said to them, Engage in business.
Kenneth Dyches: That business is to seek and save the lost.
Kenneth Dyches: Engage in business until I come.
Kenneth Dyches: But his citizens hated him, and they sent a delegation after him, saying, We do not want this man to reign over us.
Kenneth Dyches: So again, here you see the setting.
Kenneth Dyches: The sitting is the kingdom of God.
Kenneth Dyches: This is the setting for us, right?
Kenneth Dyches: Jesus reigns in heaven and we live in the already not yet.
Kenneth Dyches: We experience parts of the new heavens, new earth now.
Kenneth Dyches: God dwells in us by the Holy Spirit.
Kenneth Dyches: He answers our prayers.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: And that's our mission to seek and to save the lost.
Kenneth Dyches: And that's an exciting mission, right?
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: But it's a good question to ask.
Kenneth Dyches: How do we do that?
Kenneth Dyches: Right?
Kenneth Dyches: We all ask that question.
Kenneth Dyches: In our own ways, in our hearts, in the dark places.
Kenneth Dyches: We all ask that question.
Kenneth Dyches: How do we seek and save the lost?
Kenneth Dyches: Well, honestly, in Acts 1, 6 through 8, the disciples uh have a similar question.
Kenneth Dyches: They come together and they ask, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?
Kenneth Dyches: It's the same question Jesus is uh referring to here.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: See, God dwells in us by the Holy Spirit.
Kenneth Dyches: He's made his home in us, the Father and the Son in the Spirit, it says in John 14.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh in Ephesians 1, Paul says the Spirit is a deposit, right?
Kenneth Dyches: It's a foretaste.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: So we see we are ministers in the kingdom of God, seeking and saving the lost, along with God by the Spirit.
Kenneth Dyches: But look with me at verse 15.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: The first came before him, saying, Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.
Kenneth Dyches: And he said, Well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.
Kenneth Dyches: And the second came saying, Lord, your Mina has made five.
Kenneth Dyches: And he said to him, And you are to be over five cities.
Kenneth Dyches: So what I want to draw our attention to here is the well done.
Kenneth Dyches: Now we all want to hear well done.
Kenneth Dyches: We want to hear it from our spouses, right?
Kenneth Dyches: 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?
Kenneth Dyches: It's awesome.
Kenneth Dyches: She's like, Oh yeah, babe, you're great.
Kenneth Dyches: Um, we want to hear that from our parents, right?
Kenneth Dyches: Uh we want to hear that sometimes from our children.
Kenneth Dyches: We want to hear that from our friends, we want to hear it from our bosses, we want to hear well done.
Kenneth Dyches: And that's because we were created for it, right?
Kenneth Dyches: We were created with God as our father.
Kenneth Dyches: You know, children, babies, when they're born, they can only see up to their mother's face, right?
Kenneth Dyches: And what they're looking for is delight.
Kenneth Dyches: And if you've ever seen a baby, which I'm sure you have if you're at New City, right?
Kenneth Dyches: Your natural response is to like make these goofy faces at them and be like, and people are like, what are you doing?
Kenneth Dyches: But why do we do that?
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: We instinctively know that.
Kenneth Dyches: This baby instinctively knows its need, and you instinctively know that what it needs is to be delighted in.
Kenneth Dyches: And that's the God that we love and serve, a God who delights in us.
Kenneth Dyches: The Father said, Well done, uh, says, Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Kenneth Dyches: In Ephesians 1, we see that we are beloved in the Lord, uh, in Jesus Christ.
Kenneth Dyches: We're beloved before we've done anything, not because of our works, but because of what Jesus Christ has done for us.
Kenneth Dyches: We are adopted, beloved children, and he delights in us.
Kenneth Dyches: And he redeems our work.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: I delight in the things that you did with me.
Kenneth Dyches: I delight in the ways that you entered into the work of God with me.
Kenneth Dyches: And so is he gonna say, Well done, Kenny?
Kenneth Dyches: You got your whole to-do list done.
Kenneth Dyches: Good job.
Kenneth Dyches: That's not gonna happen.
Kenneth Dyches: But if it could happen, he's gonna say, or is he gonna say, you looked impressive to those around you?
Kenneth Dyches: Everyone liked you.
Kenneth Dyches: They liked the words that you said, they laughed at your jokes.
Kenneth Dyches: So good.
Kenneth Dyches: Is he gonna say, good job, you you appeared to have your life together?
Kenneth Dyches: Financial security, home ownership, married, three kids, and a dog.
Kenneth Dyches: I'm speaking uh into the dog thing.
Kenneth Dyches: My wife doesn't want one, but we'll see.
Kenneth Dyches: A social life, staying fit, whatever, you know?
Kenneth Dyches: No, he's not gonna say, well done for those things.
Kenneth Dyches: He's gonna say, Well done.
Kenneth Dyches: You didn't get that to-do list done, but you did stop to bless your neighbor again and again.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: You sometimes struggled financially, and sometimes you struggled with a social life or just getting up in the morning.
Kenneth Dyches: But you were always faithful with what I gave you and were generous to others.
Kenneth Dyches: These are the things that when we get to heaven, God will say, Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Kenneth Dyches: Well done.
Kenneth Dyches: And he's gonna say, On all of these people are here to testify because you are present with them.
Kenneth Dyches: You mediated my presence to them.
Kenneth Dyches: You were involved in my mission to seek and save the lost.
Kenneth Dyches: And there will be people there we don't recognize because we impacted one person in a way we didn't realize.
Kenneth Dyches: And that person went on to impact other people.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: This is what God is inviting us into, to see his delight in our participation in his work to seek and save the lost.
Kenneth Dyches: Look with me at Luke 19, verse 20.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.
Kenneth Dyches: And then a little further down, Jesus says, Take that Mina from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.
Kenneth Dyches: And they said to him, Lord, he has ten minas.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.
Kenneth Dyches: See, we see again fear.
Kenneth Dyches: Fear drives him to hide his Mena away.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: Um Jesus also says the only sin that cannot be forgiven is blaspheming against the Holy Spirit.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: Right?
Kenneth Dyches: And so how does the gospel take root?
Kenneth Dyches: How do we know that the spirit lives and dwells in us?
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: So I wonder what fear keeps you from doing?
Kenneth Dyches: Does it keep you from speaking up against injustice?
Kenneth Dyches: From sharing the gospel when you have the opportunity, from generosity from those who have asked or have not asked, from hospitality, right?
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: But if you want to come over and spend time with my house, give me like two weeks.
Kenneth Dyches: Right?
Kenneth Dyches: I mean, especially if you have kids, you understand like getting your house in order, it's a difficult task.
Kenneth Dyches: And yet God is inviting us to ask what his will is in all of these areas of our life, to risk.
Kenneth Dyches: Just say, God, what do you desire?
Kenneth Dyches: What is your mission?
Kenneth Dyches: What are you inviting me to?
Kenneth Dyches: Who are you inviting me to move towards?
Kenneth Dyches: I also want to address him saying that God is severe.
Kenneth Dyches: Um, it's hard for us to hear that God is severe, especially in our modern day culture.
Kenneth Dyches: We know God is a God of steadfast love, and he is.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: All right, we're good with that.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: Amen.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: And this is the judgment.
Kenneth Dyches: The light has come into the world, and the people love the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.
Kenneth Dyches: See, the reality is God created us to love him with all of ourselves.
Kenneth Dyches: He created us to receive his blessing and do his good work of expressing that blessing across the whole earth.
Kenneth Dyches: And yet we have all fallen short of that.
Kenneth Dyches: We are all sinners.
Kenneth Dyches: We've all sinned against God.
Kenneth Dyches: We've sinned against one another.
Kenneth Dyches: We've fallen short, we're insufficient.
Kenneth Dyches: And yet, God, in his great steadfast love, he sends uh the second person of the Trinity, he sends his son.
Kenneth Dyches: And this is the thing about God.
Kenneth Dyches: He's three in one, he's perfect unity in diversity, he's perfect loving community.
Kenneth Dyches: He does not need us.
Kenneth Dyches: If he wanted to, he could pull a Thanos, snap his fingers, we're all gone.
Kenneth Dyches: Let's just start over.
Kenneth Dyches: These guys are messed up.
Kenneth Dyches: They don't know what they're doing.
Kenneth Dyches: But he doesn't.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: This is the gift that he offers us.
Kenneth Dyches: And yet, to all those who fail to receive it, their end is exactly how our parable ends.
Kenneth Dyches: And that's exactly what God wants to avoid.
Kenneth Dyches: And so where Adam failed, Jesus succeeds.
Kenneth Dyches: Jesus came to make us beloved servants, to adopt us, that we might be blessed in the beloved.
Kenneth Dyches: And he does more than that.
Kenneth Dyches: He makes saints servants.
Kenneth Dyches: That's why he says to his disciples, I will make you fishers of men.
Kenneth Dyches: This is the God of all creation saying, I'm going to recreate you in Jesus Christ to be fishers of men.
Kenneth Dyches: That's why he says, Go and make disciples, and I will be with you.
Kenneth Dyches: He's there with us every step of the journey.
Kenneth Dyches: That's why he says to his disciples, you will receive power to be my witnesses.
Kenneth Dyches: See, God goes with us in his mission to seek and save the lost.
Kenneth Dyches: And so if we want to be with Jesus, we need to be part of his mission.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: He's inviting us to more.
Kenneth Dyches: But again, we might ask, but how does this work?
Kenneth Dyches: Right?
Kenneth Dyches: So I've been in ministry a long time, uh, but I still don't love certain aspects of ministry.
Kenneth Dyches: I'm not naturally gifted at them.
Kenneth Dyches: 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?
Kenneth Dyches: That's my wife.
Kenneth Dyches: I don't know how she does that.
Kenneth Dyches: But I am not always like that.
Kenneth Dyches: And so, introverts, uh, you're welcome.
Kenneth Dyches: But I will walk into a coffee shop and I'm like, sometimes I just want to have a cup of coffee.
Kenneth Dyches: Don't really want to talk to people.
Kenneth Dyches: The person next to me is crying.
Kenneth Dyches: That's awkward.
Kenneth Dyches: I'm gonna go sit over here, you know.
Kenneth Dyches: Like, I mean, it's hard.
Kenneth Dyches: It can be hard to move towards others in love.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: So, what do I do?
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: Help me to love this person with compassion, help me to introduce them to Jesus.
Kenneth Dyches: And you'd be amazed at the ways that God does work every single time.
Kenneth Dyches: One of those people is Emily.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: I'm not gonna show up there.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh and why?
Kenneth Dyches: It's fear.
Kenneth Dyches: She's it's too vulnerable.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, she's fearful of being hurt in relationship, she's fearful of bringing herself into the light.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh however, uh, I've had opportunities to pray for her in this coffee shop.
Kenneth Dyches: I've learned her story.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, and over time, she's come to do things at my house like serving us uh coffee, doing a coffee tasting.
Kenneth Dyches: She came to an Ocho de Mayo party that we threw because it was on Friday and not on Tuesday.
Kenneth Dyches: But it was fun, and she came and she was the last person to leave.
Kenneth Dyches: And she walked up to me afterwards and she said, Kenny, I haven't felt this loved in a long time.
Kenneth Dyches: I felt so loved by the people here.
Kenneth Dyches: And it says so much about you guys that you surround yourself with these people.
Kenneth Dyches: And I wanted to say afterwards I thought this, uh, but that says a lot about Jesus.
Kenneth Dyches: That says a lot about the person that we love and about this community and the impact he's had in this community.
Kenneth Dyches: See, in that moment, she was seen, she was known in relationship.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, she felt the love of God mediated to her.
Kenneth Dyches: We were Jesus coming to her and saying, I see you.
Kenneth Dyches: I want to eat in your house today.
Kenneth Dyches: She had already heard the gospel.
Kenneth Dyches: She needed people to move towards her one degree at a time.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: So I invite you who are watching from the sidelines.
Kenneth Dyches: Jesus is coming home to you in your fear, in your insufficiencies.
Kenneth Dyches: He's calling you out into his mission to make sinners into saints.
Kenneth Dyches: And that's your mission now.
Kenneth Dyches: It's the work he prepared for you to do, and in all sorts of unique ways.
Kenneth Dyches: That could be in your family with your children, that could be in a coffee shop, that can be in your workplace.
Kenneth Dyches: There's all ways and places and peoples that he is calling you into in communion, community, and commission.
Kenneth Dyches: One way to figure out what that looks like is to do the all of life guide.
Kenneth Dyches: Sit down with that, spend time with it, take your time, ask Lord, where are you sending me?
Kenneth Dyches: And how can I begin to mold my life around that?
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: What do I mean by that?
Kenneth Dyches: I mean, what did the disciples do?
Kenneth Dyches: Right?
Kenneth Dyches: They they radically entered into prayerful community that was generous, moving towards one another in love, but that was always also moving outward.
Kenneth Dyches: That's Acts 1 and 2.
Kenneth Dyches: That's what they were doing.
Kenneth Dyches: And that always resulted in planting churches, right?
Kenneth Dyches: That doesn't mean that you need to be a part of this church plant.
Kenneth Dyches: That doesn't mean that tomorrow you need to go be part of a church plant.
Kenneth Dyches: But if you're not asking the question, Jesus, when are you sending me?
Kenneth Dyches: Maybe you need to start.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: That is the work that He's doing, that He's inviting you into.
Kenneth Dyches: And so I invite you in your circles, in your community, ask that question.
Kenneth Dyches: And you know what?
Kenneth Dyches: Sometimes we're burnt out, sometimes we have too much going on, sometimes we're sick, sometimes we're in desperate need of help.
Kenneth Dyches: And in those moments, Jesus is inviting you.
Kenneth Dyches: Start with your need.
Kenneth Dyches: Go to your community.
Kenneth Dyches: Don't check out.
Kenneth Dyches: Say, hey, I'm in desperate need.
Kenneth Dyches: And we want to hide our needs, right?
Kenneth Dyches: It's so tempting.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh I just can't show up to community regularly because it's it's too hard.
Kenneth Dyches: I have too much going on.
Kenneth Dyches: I'm burnt out.
Kenneth Dyches: Just so come to community with your need.
Kenneth Dyches: Guys, this is where I am.
Kenneth Dyches: I need help.
Kenneth Dyches: I need people to meet me with where I'm at.
Kenneth Dyches: And let invite them to meet your needs.
Kenneth Dyches: See community grow from that.
Kenneth Dyches: And then start moving out together with the whole body of Christ into his mission to seek and save the lost.
Kenneth Dyches: All right, let me pray for us now.
Kenneth Dyches: Lord, thank you.
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: You invited us out of hiding.
Kenneth Dyches: You came into our hearts.
Kenneth Dyches: You invited us to be known and to be loved.
Kenneth Dyches: You empower us now to be sent into all the places that you've placed us.
Kenneth Dyches: Not to do anything in our own power, but to ask the question, Lord, what are you doing?
Kenneth Dyches: And would you give us wisdom?
Kenneth Dyches: 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.
Kenneth Dyches: Invite us into that, Lord.
Kenneth Dyches: Praise in Jesus' name.
Kenneth Dyches: Amen.