Forrest: A few years ago, I took my wife Emily out during the holiday season for a uh bougie date night to go to the theater.
Forrest: Went to the theater.
Forrest: We went to go see a Christmas Carol, classic, Charles Dickens.
Forrest: And so we got all dressed up and went to the theater and the show began and all the lights and the actors and actresses and the music was going, and it didn't take very long into the performance that I looked over to Emily and I was like, this is this is the wrong Christmas Carol.
Forrest: Like, this dialogue is wrong, the songs are wrong.
Forrest: And I was like really perplexed.
Forrest: Because see, in our house, we don't have very many uh holiday traditions, but pretty much kind of like our one holiday tradition is that every year on Christmas Eve, we watch a Muppet's Christmas Carol.
Forrest: Love it.
Forrest: And I'm like watching this show in the theater.
Forrest: I'm like, they're singing the wrong songs.
Forrest: They need to learn the Kermit songs for a Christmas carol.
Forrest: We don't know there's a character in the Christmas Carol who is uh Ebenezer Scrooge.
Forrest: Michael Cain plays great Scrooge, the Muppet Christmas Carol, has a terrible singing voice, but he does a great job.
Forrest: He's got the look, he's got the anger.
Forrest: And you all kind of know maybe the story of Ebenezer Scrooge that he was hurt as a young man and became greedy in his whole life and had his fiancee that left him and left him as this uh this angry penny pincher Scrooge of a man.
Forrest: Even his name, we now can say, hey, are you being a Scrooge this Christmas?
Forrest: And I just have to say this that before we even get to Thanksgiving and into the holiday season, you could right now already make a decision and decide that you're gonna be a Scrooge this Christmas.
Forrest: That you're gonna say, bye humbug.
Forrest: It's all the fun, all the joy, all the cheer, and specifically the generosity.
Forrest: Now I hope that you will not be a Scrooge because I want our church and I want for you, what I want for you today, and what I want at the end of this message for you to know and feel and to have walking out the door today is a spirit of generosity.
Forrest: A spirit of generosity.
Forrest: Oftentimes when it comes to us talking about our finances, especially in light of God and Jesus and what he's done for us, there's options for us to operate out of.
Forrest: We can operate out of greed, being stingy, being reserved, or we can operate out of a spirit of generosity that God's given to us.
Forrest: Now, I know we've been in this series called the best, and I saw this week somebody said online, they said, you know, if uh if money is the if money is the root of all evil, the church sure does talk about wanting it a lot.
Forrest: But again, the quote's wrong.
Forrest: It's the love of money is the root of all evil.
Forrest: So you've already heard this morning that we're a church that likes to go outside the walls, and we want to have a generous spirit here at Multiply.
Forrest: And I think that even before we launched back in March, that generosity was something to us and to our church that was more than just a word that's on our website or something that we casually talk about, but instead that we have a heart of generosity to see God do amazing things in Frankfurt and beyond.
Forrest: And we're in this sermon series right now called The Best.
Forrest: Talking about the fact that we get to bring our best to God because he brought his best to us in the form of his son Jesus.
Forrest: That he didn't hold back and wasn't stingy, but instead he gave generously to us even his life, death, even death on the cross, to die in our place.
Forrest: And set us on a course of generosity in our life, and for us, for us to be in a place to bring our best.
Forrest: Now, you may be in the house today and you're like, you know what, this whole God thing, I'm just trying to figure it out, and I'm here for the first time, and gosh, they're talking about money.
Forrest: Uh, at figures.
Forrest: Figures, they be talking about money.
Forrest: First time I'm here.
Forrest: Um I just want for you to know that this message today, it comes out of a heart and a spirit of generosity among us.
Forrest: For us to see God move powerfully.
Forrest: Not something that we want from you, but something that we want for you to see God work and move in your life.
Forrest: We get to bring our best to God.
Forrest: Now the scripture talks about bringing our best to the Lord in a couple of different ways.
Forrest: I want to share some of the scripture with you.
Forrest: This is 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 5 through 8.
Forrest: It says, do your best.
Forrest: Everybody say best to improve your faith by adding goodness and understanding, self-control, patience, devotion to God, concern for others, and love.
Forrest: If you keep growing in this way, you will show that you know our Lord Jesus Christ has made your lives useful and meaningful.
Forrest: Boy.
Forrest: If me as your pastor, if at the end of our days in life, if you can look back and say that your life was useful and meaningful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, I would have succeeded.
Forrest: 2 Timothy 2 through 15.
Forrest: Says, do your best to present yourself to God as one approved.
Forrest: A worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
Forrest: This morning I want to bring to you the word of truth.
Forrest: And I want to handle it correctly so that I can, I can show myself or present myself approved before God to give my best, and also that you also can present yourself before God and give your best as well.
Forrest: You know, because this Christian life that we're running, if you're a believer in Jesus, we're not just doing this haphazardly.
Forrest: We want to win.
Forrest: We want to do this successfully.
Forrest: In the same way that Paul tells us to do so in 1 Corinthians 9, 24.
Forrest: It says, in a race, everyone runs, but only one person gets first prize.
Forrest: So run your race to win.
Forrest: To win the contest, you must deny yourself many things that would keep you from doing your best.
Forrest: An athlete goes to all this trouble just to win a blue ribbon or a silver cup, but we do it for a heavenly reward that never disappears.
Forrest: So I run straight to the goal with a purpose in every step.
Forrest: I fight to win.
Forrest: I'm not just shadow boxing or playing around.
Forrest: Y'all know these gold medalists, Olympic athletes.
Forrest: You all know the sacrifices that they make, their whole life dedicated to them getting a medal.
Forrest: And they get to stand on a stage and they get to hold a piece of metal, this first prize, around their neck.
Forrest: And it's a great, glorious celebration, and it's a celebration of their hard work and the discipline that they have.
Forrest: But that gold prize, one day it will disappear when they disappear.
Forrest: One day nobody's going to remember their title or their prize or their winning championship.
Forrest: But instead, for us, we, when we run this race of the Christian walk, when we run this race with an intention, with purpose, with clarity, with vision, with love in our hearts, we're running the race to win.
Forrest: You know what God doesn't want us to be?
Forrest: A bunch of losers.
Forrest: He wants you to win.
Forrest: He wants you to win in life.
Forrest: He wants you to win in your relationships.
Forrest: He wants you to win in your finances.
Forrest: He wants you to win in your business.
Forrest: He wants you to win in your love for your neighbor.
Forrest: He wants you to win in the way that you raise your kids.
Forrest: He wants you to win the way that the world looks and sees you and shows you as a person who loves God dearly, with all of themselves, that's willing to give their best.
Forrest: Can I just be real for a second here?
Forrest: I think that when we talk about generosity and having a spirit of generosity, I think the number one barrier to us being generous is fear.
Forrest: I honestly think the the number one barrier for us, for us living the life of generosity in response to God's generosity to us, is because instead of a spirit of generosity, we have a spirit of fear.
Forrest: 2 Timothy 1.7 says this.
Forrest: This is the truth that you should mark this down, you should highlight this, you could put it on your phone, something.
Forrest: For God has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity.
Forrest: Everybody say spirit.
Forrest: God has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity, but of power and love and self-discipline.
Forrest: It's not God's heart for you, for you to have a spirit of fear.
Forrest: But instead for you to have a spirit that is in alignment with God's Spirit, His Holy Spirit that loves you deeply, who wants the best for you.
Forrest: And for you not to live a life that's controlled by a barrier of fear, but instead that you're enjoying the fruits of what it looks like to be generous.
Forrest: Now I know this all too well.
Forrest: I was reminded of a time in Emily and I's life.
Forrest: Emily's still in college.
Forrest: We're just getting started.
Forrest: Y'all know I grew up in Shelbyville down the road.
Forrest: I served on staff at a church in Somerset when we first got married.
Forrest: And it was, you know, first getting the married times.
Forrest: Emily was in school.
Forrest: She was commuting all the way to UK from Somerset.
Forrest: It was a wild time.
Forrest: One of my best friends in Somerset was from Somerset.
Forrest: We were getting our life started.
Forrest: He and his family were also kind of getting their life underway.
Forrest: They just had their first kid and they were needing to sell a house and they were very financially strapped.
Forrest: And Emily and I were very financially strapped.
Forrest: I remember sitting in his SUV and both of us looking at each other and saying, hey, we're both going through a hard time right now.
Forrest: We were praying for one another, trying to encourage each other.
Forrest: Both of us thinking, like, how are we gonna kind of get out of this situation?
Forrest: His family desperately needed to sell his house.
Forrest: We were trying to make ends meet.
Forrest: And I will never forget, I'll never forget my friend.
Forrest: He said, you know what?
Forrest: I know, I know that if I have a heart of generosity, that God's gonna provide for me.
Forrest: And so I want to write you a check for your family in this season, even though I don't have the money.
Forrest: I'm gonna write this to we need this money right now, but I'm gonna write it to you.
Forrest: And he wrote out a check, and he handed it to me, sitting in that truck.
Forrest: And I'll never forget it.
Forrest: Y'all can probably guess what happened in the story.
Forrest: They sold the house, made money on it.
Forrest: They're doing great, their family's doing well, Emily and I are too.
Forrest: But in that moment, he chose instead to be bound by a barrier of fear.
Forrest: Instead for him to give generously to me to see God work in and through his life.
Forrest: I'll never forget it.
Forrest: You know, many of us come to that crossroads where we think, man, you know, I just I don't know what's gonna happen here, and I I don't I don't really know what what I should do here.
Forrest: And maybe the maybe the math and that kind of thing's not really making sense, but you know what Jesus told us to do?
Forrest: In Acts 20, Jesus is quoted.
Forrest: Verse 35.
Forrest: Paul says, I've been in a constant, Luke says, I've been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard.
Forrest: You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus.
Forrest: It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Forrest: Those are the words of Jesus.
Forrest: It's more blessed to get.
Forrest: It's more blessed to give than to get.
Forrest: I said that yesterday.
Forrest: Emily and I and our family, we had a little fun family day.
Forrest: We went up to uh to the aquarium up in Newport.
Forrest: Never been there?
Forrest: Boy, when it's 20 degrees outside, do indoor fun.
Forrest: And we were rushed and trying to get there for our ticket time, and we pulled into the Chick-fil-A up there in northern Kentucky, and we're eating in the car.
Forrest: And a homeless guy comes over toward my window.
Forrest: And I roll down the window, and he puts his hands like this, and he says, Hey, can you give me anything?
Forrest: And so I had half a carton of fries left, and I just handed it out the window.
Forrest: And Emily had half a carton of her fries and handed out the window, and I said, Hey, be blessed.
Forrest: And he was like, Thank you so much.
Forrest: And when he walked away, my three-year-old, who's in the back seat, she said, Daddy, why'd you give that man that food?
Forrest: And I said, you know, sis, I gave him the food because not everybody has food.
Forrest: Not everybody's blessed to have food.
Forrest: And I said, it's more blessed to give than to get.
Forrest: I said that to my daughter yesterday.
Forrest: She's three years old.
Forrest: She has no idea what I mean.
Forrest: She doesn't have any clue.
Forrest: But she knows that she saw her mom and dad be generous-ish to give to somebody who needed.
Forrest: Somebody we didn't even know.
Forrest: It's more blessed to give than to get.
Forrest: Even a child can see it.
Forrest: Jesus illustrates this so perfectly.
Forrest: In Luke chapter 10, Jesus replies to a question from the Pharisees trying to catch him.
Forrest: They ask Jesus, asking him that we're supposed to love our neighbor, and this Pharisee asks, Well, who is my neighbor?
Forrest: And Jesus, instead of replying with just a statement, he replies with the whole story.
Forrest: This is what he said.
Forrest: Jesus replied with a story a Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits.
Forrest: They stripped him of his clothes, they beat him up, and they left him half dead beside the road.
Forrest: By chance, a priest came along.
Forrest: But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed the other side of the road and passed him by.
Forrest: A temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed on to the other side.
Forrest: Then a despised Samaritan came along.
Forrest: And when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him.
Forrest: Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them.
Forrest: Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn.
Forrest: And when they took care of him, the next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, Take care of this man.
Forrest: If his bill run bills run higher than this, I'll pay you next time I'm here.
Forrest: Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who attacked, was attacked by bandits?
Forrest: Jesus asked.
Forrest: And the man replied, The one who showed him mercy.
Forrest: And Jesus said, Yes, now go and do the same.
Forrest: This man, the Samaritan, this despised person, saw a guy half dead on the side of the road, was generous to a stranger.
Forrest: Not just generous to a stranger, he went above and beyond.
Forrest: He took him, got him banded up, bandaged up, took him to an inn.
Forrest: And then he left his Vimmo.
Forrest: He left his cash app.
Forrest: And said, hey, if there's any other needs, just build them to me.
Forrest: Being completely generous.
Forrest: You know, we think about generosity.
Forrest: When we think about generosity, I know here at church and things we talk about percentages of our giving and God's called us to give 10% and these kind of things.
Forrest: But here's the thing.
Forrest: When we talk about generosity, I don't want us to think about percentages.
Forrest: I want us to think about people.
Forrest: I don't just want us to talk about, well, this is how much God requires, and for us to bring back, but instead for us to talk about the people who are in our life, who are impacted by our church, who are impacted by your life and your generosity.
Forrest: I want you to picture and think about the people who are going to be affected, who are going to be encouraged, that are going to see life change happen because of your generous spirit.
Forrest: Not just out of duty or out of a percentage or thinking about dollars and cents, but instead thinking about people.
Forrest: Just as Jesus did.
Forrest: Jesus says, who's your neighbor?
Forrest: Let me tell you the story of someone who is in great need.
Forrest: And God's called us to be generous to a neighbor.
Forrest: Now there's added benefits.
Forrest: Our generosity has benefits.
Forrest: We looked at this passage last week.
Forrest: We're going to continue to look at it.
Forrest: 2 Corinthians 9, 6 through 8.
Forrest: Remember this.
Forrest: A farmer who plants only a few seeds gets a small crop.
Forrest: But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.
Forrest: You must each decide in your own hearts how much to give, and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure.
Forrest: For God loves a person who gives what?
Forrest: Cheerfully.
Forrest: And God will generously provide all you need, and then you will always have enough.
Forrest: Have everything that you need and plenty left over to share with others.
Forrest: There's added benefits.
Forrest: When we plant a seed of generosity, God gives us a promise that when we're generous and we overcome the fear and the barrier, when we're generous, God takes care of everything you need, plus more.
Forrest: Maybe you haven't yet gotten to a place of generosity.
Forrest: Towards your giving towards God, towards your giving towards others.
Forrest: But let me tell you this it's a promise.
Forrest: It's a promise.
Forrest: That if you take the step to begin to give to the Lord, He'll be faithful right back to you.
Forrest: I know that.
Forrest: Emily and I, we've made a conscious decision our entire marriage where we've had the money, where we've not, for us to give.
Forrest: That doesn't mean anything to you all because you're like, you're the pastor, you should do that.
Forrest: But I can can I just say that there's been times where hitting that inner button on our giving has caused a lot of fear and anxiety in my life too.
Forrest: Right before hitting that button, now it's like on my phone.
Forrest: Hitting that button to give, and that gut check before I ooh! Ah.
Forrest: Okay.
Forrest: God, I'm gonna do my best to give cheerfully to you right now.
Forrest: Because I know how good you are to me.
Forrest: And how good you've been to me, and how you'll continue to be good to me.
Forrest: I love that this passion, this passage tells us not to give reluctantly or out of pressure.
Forrest: And I'll genuinely say to you today, today, I am in no way trying to pressure you into being blessed by God.
Forrest: I'm inviting you into it.
Forrest: Because I've experienced before.
Forrest: But that's exactly what it is, it's an invitation.
Forrest: Y'all heard uh a couple weeks ago as we got into this series, The Vest, that it's leading up to December the 11th, which is gonna be our day that we're gonna give collectively as a church.
Forrest: I told you about last week the fact that we're gonna give thousands of dollars to young life to see teenagers reach for Jesus.
Forrest: We're gonna give thousands of dollars to sponsor Christmas for 50 or 60 uh teenagers who are families impacted by incarceration, who are served to the Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation.
Forrest: That's the the what is going to be given and poured out through our church.
Forrest: And there'll be more that I'll share in the next couple weeks.
Forrest: But you all got a car that looks like this when you came into the room last week, and there's more today.
Forrest: You may have got one today if you can get one on your way out.
Forrest: The card looks like this.
Forrest: The front says the best.
Forrest: It's got uh name and address, pretty simple things to fill out, and then there's some options here on the card.
Forrest: First one is I'm committing to begin or continue to tithe.
Forrest: The second is I'm giving this amount to our year and giving offering that's going to be on December the 11th.
Forrest: And then I'm committing to give this much this next year as God provides.
Forrest: Now, this card, what I'd like for you to do is to take one with you today if you've already thrown it in the trash from last Sunday.
Forrest: To take one with you today, and I don't want us to give reluctantly or out of pressure on the 11th.
Forrest: I want you to pray genuinely about what God will lead you to do and the generosity that He wants to see happen in your life and through you.
Forrest: I I would fully love for y'all to like write something on here and then it be scratched out, and then write something else as you're praying.
Forrest: This is not for you to like give today.
Forrest: This is for you to genuinely pray about what does it look like in my life to have a generous spirit?
Forrest: Here's the thing.
Forrest: God has given us his best, and we're gonna give him our best in return.
Forrest: It may be the fact that you may be in the room today, and for whatever reason, fear, distrust, not trusting and saying, oh, what's the church doing with my money?
Forrest: I guarantee you all, I do not drive a Mercedes or some fancy car or any of that.
Forrest: This is a place where our giving is going to the work of the kingdom of God.
Forrest: And I want to invite you into you overcoming that fear, that barrier, moving into not that this is the rest of your life, but the best of your life.
Forrest: Do you know that the best could be right in front of you?
Forrest: Every single one of us walk into this place and have walked into a church or our church at one time or another before our life of Jesus with regrets, with shame, with mess ups.
Forrest: Gosh, I've made all kinds of mistakes over my life.
Forrest: But I'm so thankful that I gave my life to Jesus and received his forgiveness, and he broke my shame and guilt and rescued me out of it, the cross, to put me on the course for me to have the best life that he could possibly bless me with.
Forrest: Now, what does that mean?
Forrest: Does that mean that I'm gonna be rich?
Forrest: I don't know.
Forrest: That may or may not be in the cards for me.
Forrest: Does that mean that I'm never gonna get sick?
Forrest: I'll guarantee you this guy, guys, I will eventually die, okay?
Forrest: I don't know when it's gonna be, but I will.
Forrest: But between me giving my life to Jesus the day that I meet him, God wants nothing more than for me to have his absolute best and for my life to be filled with his blessings and joy.
Forrest: What does it look like for the rest of your life, from here forward, for you to have the best marriage, for you to have the best relationship with your kids, for you to have the best portion of joy, the power of God in your life.
Forrest: What did it look like?
Forrest: Can I invite you into it?
Forrest: You came in today, and maybe you came in today, and you're looking back on your life, you know that you need something different, you know that you need to change.
Forrest: And glory to God.
Forrest: Jesus came so that you can have new life in him, and so that you can be changed.
Forrest: That you can turn from your sin, from despair, from loneliness, from anger, from bitterness, from rage, and you can turn to Jesus.
Forrest: You can receive forgiveness, and that you can begin to live a blessed life.
Forrest: Maybe that's one of you today.
Forrest: Maybe for you it's the barrier of generosity.
Forrest: I want more than ever today for you to realize the fact that Jesus wants you to have his spirit of generosity flowing through you.
Forrest: And I believe that he's gonna do it.
Forrest: I know that he's gonna do it.
Forrest: So would you bow your heads and pray with me right now?
Forrest: All across the room today.
Forrest: God, I pray over each person who's here this morning.
Forrest: God, I pray, Lord, through your power, that God, you would change hearts and minds, that God, you would crush the barriers of fear, of doubt, of distrust, of cynicism.
Forrest: And Lord, that you would replace that, Jesus, with your power, with your spirit, with your love, the generosity you've given to us, that Lord, now we get to be a part of, that we get to join you in.
Forrest: And so, God, today I pray all across the room that Lord, as we prepare our hearts to give on the 11th, that God, we would have a spirit of generosity among us.
Forrest: God, we are your people.
Forrest: We're submitting ourselves to you.
Forrest: God, thank you, Lord, for how richly you've blessed our church already.
Forrest: You've allowed us to pour into our community so much, Lord.
Forrest: And I know you have so much more for us.
Forrest: I know you do.
Forrest: Thank you, Lord, that we can be a blessing to teenagers at the end of this year, all across our community.
Forrest: Father, I pray across the room today, God, that anybody in this place, Lord, is looking at their life, the past.
Forrest: God, and know that you have better days ahead for them than God today that they would commit themselves to that.
Forrest: God, I pray across the room right now, if there's anybody who's not given their life, their heart, their mind to you, Jesus, that today would be that day.
Forrest: That they would make a decision to follow you, to be saved, to be forgiven of their sin, and Lord, to take a new direction in life.
Forrest: All across the room, Lord, I pray right now, if anybody in the room is in that place that God, they would pray to you right now, pray, Jesus, thank you for giving to me.
Forrest: Thank you for dying on the cross.
Forrest: I believe that you're the Son of God.
Forrest: Forgive me.
Forrest: Wash me as white as snow, that I might get to join you in heaven one day.
Forrest: Jesus, I give my life to you as you gave your life for mine.
Forrest: In the name of Jesus.
Forrest: Amen.
Forrest: Nobody looking around, heads bowed.
Forrest: If you're in the room today and you prayed that prayer for Jesus to save you, would you just very quietly just throw your hand up in the air?
Forrest: One, two, three, so I can see you and pray for you.
Forrest: If you prayed that prayer today, God, I pray over this room.
Forrest: Lord, we thank you for salvation that you've granted to us, that you've given to us by way of your cross and your power.
Forrest: Father, I pray over this whole room, God.
Forrest: Lord, we be people that are dedicated and given our hearts and lives to you, Father.
Forrest: We thank you, we praise you.
Forrest: In Jesus' name.
Forrest: Amen.
Forrest: Will you stand to your feet now, Church, as we close and worship?