Forrest: When I was a kid, our family would go on a journey a couple of times a year.
Forrest: Grew up in Kentucky, moved here when I was in first grade.
Forrest: I was born in LA, which is lower Alabama.
Forrest: That's where my family's from.
Forrest: That's where my parents graduated from Fair Hope High School, down across from Mobile in Alabama.
Forrest: And so a couple of times a year, every year, we would make this 12-hour trek from Shelbyville, right down the road, and head down the interstate through Tennessee and all the way down Alabama.
Forrest: And we did this over and over and over again, year after year, year after year.
Forrest: And I don't know if you've ever taken long road trips with kids, but it can get a little crazy, okay?
Forrest: As uh parents, you can kind of lose your mind on times like that.
Forrest: And I will have to say that there was more than one time where my dad pulled over to the side of the road and said, Boys, if you don't start stop fighting back there, I'm gonna give you a whooping on the side of the road.
Forrest: Now, one time he actually did it, pulled over on the side of the road.
Forrest: My dad would always keep a big hairbrush that he would brush his hair with.
Forrest: And he grabbed that hairbrush out of the console and was off on the side of the interstate, somewhere in Alabama, I don't know where we were.
Forrest: My older brother and I were probably punching each other or hitting each other or yelling, whatever we were doing.
Forrest: And so my dad grabbed that hairbrush and he went to swing at my brother, oldest, you know, first.
Forrest: And my brother lifted his leg just right at the right time, and that hairbrush went flying out of my dad's hand and like had to be like 50 yards down the side of the interstate.
Forrest: And he was like, he was like, I'm not even gonna go and find that right now.
Forrest: You boy just get back in the car and quit fighting.
Forrest: And we were saved from the snake in that time, praise the Lord.
Forrest: Now, like I said, you can go on a journey, and sometimes there's many trials and tribulations.
Forrest: Among us here at Multiply over the last few weeks, we've been going on a journey of generosity.
Forrest: On a journey of generosity.
Forrest: We've already gotten to see God do some incredible things.
Forrest: As we've been decision, hey, we're gonna step up and we're gonna give in a sacrificial way, in accordance with what we see that God wants us to be and what He's called us to be here at Multiply, that we would be a people of generosity.
Forrest: That wouldn't just be something that we say or something that's on a website, but something that is for real.
Forrest: That got going this last year, even before we launched Multiply Church, so we were able to have this year in giving like we're doing today last year, and the Lord helped us to be able to bless in a major way different organizations across the community to a tune of over$50,000 last year, which is incredible.
Forrest: It's amazing.
Forrest: And then for this year, for us to make a decision that we're going to give in generosity, literally with Christmas joy, 44 kids, but each kid is getting many different gifts.
Forrest: I mean, at this point, it's hundreds of gifts that the Lord has allowed us to be able to provide.
Forrest: Giving to see young life get off the ground here in Franklin County and to continue the generosity.
Forrest: Because it's not just at the Christmas time that we're generous, we've been giving and serving all year long.
Forrest: Some 300 meals already at K-State this last fall that we were served as students.
Forrest: We've got his work powerfully.
Forrest: And as we've been on a generosity journey, God has then stepped up and has responded to our faithfulness with his faithfulness.
Forrest: So if you're in the house last week, you got to hear the celebration of the fact one, that we now have a signed lease on the new Save a Lot Space.
Forrest: Praise the Lord.
Forrest: For those of you who knew, we've been talking about this save a lot space all year long, and the Lord has finally opened that door.
Forrest: And then in keeping with the generous spirit and God showing up for us in an amazing way, our sending church, Southland, who's been so incredible to us along this journey, they stepped up and told us that in this year-in giving and for the project for the save a lot, that they're going to match our giving up to$150,000.
Forrest: We got to celebrate that big time.
Forrest: Last year and are still last week and are still getting to celebrate it.
Forrest: And today I'm excited that as we come to give, and at the end of the service today, for those of you who prayed about what God has put on your heart for you to give, we get to have the generosity from the Lord that every single dollar that's given is going to be matched dollar for dollar.
Forrest: Every dollar becomes two.
Forrest: Only God can do stuff like that.
Forrest: But when you're on a generosity journey, it doesn't mean that when you take off on that trek as a journeyer, as a sojourner, as a seeker after God, that you're not going to go through any hardship or any trials.
Forrest: I know today, as I'm preparing for us as a church for us to give, that there are folks in our church right now who are facing surgery that's coming up here soon.
Forrest: That have gone through major loss in their household.
Forrest: Go through serious trials and tribulations.
Forrest: And in the midst of that, still being on the journey of generosity for us as we walk toward what God has called us and wants us to do.
Forrest: I want to look at a passage today in the scripture of some people who did just that.
Forrest: Who journeyed.
Forrest: It was a long trek before the purpose of generosity.
Forrest: And you may be in the house today and you're thinking, maybe it's your first time here, you haven't come in a while, you're thinking, I'm not on this generosity journey.
Forrest: I don't even know why you're talking about this.
Forrest: I certainly didn't want to come on a day when everybody was giving money.
Forrest: I definitely didn't want to do that.
Forrest: Let you know this.
Forrest: God has you here today for a reason.
Forrest: And it isn't necessarily about your wallet, but about your heart.
Forrest: And what God wants to show you.
Forrest: What God wants to uh to display to you today by the work of his church.
Forrest: I'll just say this.
Forrest: This week is like up to the week, nine months from when we had launch Sunday here in the movie theater.
Forrest: Nine months.
Forrest: And and and the Lord has been putting an image in my mind of an of an egg being hatched.
Forrest: And I think that God's gonna do something new today.
Forrest: That there's a new birth, there's a new beginning, there's something fresh that's gonna come as a response to God's generosity to us.
Forrest: And so I'm just believing big and knowing that God's gonna work faithfully.
Forrest: And I want to show you from the scripture how he was faithful to a group of people that uh we don't talk about a whole lot.
Forrest: But we're gonna start kind of in the Christmas story, but it's not really the Christmas story, it's actually two years after the birth of Jesus, but of these fellas called the wise men.
Forrest: You ever heard of them?
Forrest: So the wise men, they they end up getting lumped into the Christmas story.
Forrest: When you see the nativity scene, it's so beautiful.
Forrest: You've got the shepherds, and you know, you've got the animals there, and there's Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus, and then there's these wise guys standing over here to the side.
Forrest: Now, what you're gonna see from the scripture today is that those wise men, they weren't actually there the morning that Jesus was born, instead about two years later.
Forrest: So I would like for all of you to adjust your nativity scenes accordingly.
Forrest: Please put the wise men across the room somewhere.
Forrest: Because they weren't actually there that morning, but we're gonna hear from their story and see about their journey.
Forrest: And so we're gonna be in Matthew chapter 2.
Forrest: I just want you to imagine for a moment what is going on in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Israel at the time.
Forrest: They're being occupied by the Roman Empire.
Forrest: They're under Roman rule.
Forrest: They have an army occupying their whole country, and not only do they have an army occupying the whole country, they're being taxed to pay for that army that is oppressing them.
Forrest: Imagine if that was your situation.
Forrest: And there was a ruler that the Roman Empire put over this area of Judea, King Herod.
Forrest: King Herod, who was a great builder, doing massive, huge building projects all across the country.
Forrest: Even one palace that he built in the desert at the top of a mountain that he never went to one time.
Forrest: Huge palace.
Forrest: But as he continued to rule, he got more paranoid and more paranoid and more paranoid that he was going to lose his power.
Forrest: So much so, he got so paranoid that he killed his sons.
Forrest: He got so paranoid that he killed his wife.
Forrest: And then he mummified her in honey after he felt bad about it.
Forrest: That's a whole new meaning to calling your wife honey.
Forrest: He was paranoid.
Forrest: He was trying desperately to hold on to the power.
Forrest: And there are these folks who show up to him.
Forrest: In Matthew chapter 2, starting in verse 1, the scripture tells us that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of King Herod.
Forrest: About that time, some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem asking, Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
Forrest: We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.
Forrest: Now pause for a second.
Forrest: There's a lot here in this beginning.
Forrest: We've got some wise men.
Forrest: Some of the Christmas songs call them kings.
Forrest: They probably weren't kings.
Forrest: They were probably advisors to a king, astrologers looking at the stars, and they come from the east.
Forrest: Now, where was the east?
Forrest: We don't know.
Forrest: Some scholars think that it was possibly Babylon, possibly Iran, possibly Turkey, but really don't know and don't really know how long this journey was.
Forrest: To think maybe somewhere between 500 to 2,000 miles.
Forrest: But these wise men, the astrologers, were taking note of the sky and the stars and noticed a star, and they had some recognition or some knowledge of the Hebrew scriptures because they knew that a king of the Jews was to be born in a place in the area, Judea, which they would have known from Micah chapter 5, verse 2.
Forrest: So they had some knowledge of the Hebrew scriptures.
Forrest: They've made this journey and they've come to this paranoid, power-hungry king, and they've said, Where's the new king?
Forrest: Where's this new king that's to be born?
Forrest: Because we would like to know so that we could go and worship him.
Forrest: Can you imagine how threatening that was to the man who'd killed his sons, killed his wife?
Forrest: A new king.
Forrest: Verse 3.
Forrest: King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this.
Forrest: As was everyone in Jerusalem.
Forrest: He called a meeting of leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?
Forrest: In Bethlehem and Judea, they said, For this is what the prophet wrote.
Forrest: And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah.
Forrest: For a ruler will come from you who will be a shepherd for my people, Israel.
Forrest: Speaking of Jesus to come.
Forrest: Then Herod called a private meeting with these wise men, and he learned from them the time when they saw when the star first appeared.
Forrest: And then he told them, Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child.
Forrest: And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him too.
Forrest: After this interview, the wise men went their way.
Forrest: And the star that they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem and went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was.
Forrest: And when they saw the star, they were filled with joy.
Forrest: They entered the house and they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him.
Forrest: Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Forrest: When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route.
Forrest: For God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.
Forrest: Verse 13.
Forrest: After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.
Forrest: Get up, flee to Egypt with the child and his mother, the angel said.
Forrest: Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.
Forrest: Verse 14.
Forrest: That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother.
Forrest: They stayed there until Herod's death and fulfilled the what the Lord had spoken through the prophet, I call my son out of Egypt.
Forrest: Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him.
Forrest: He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Jerusalem, in and around Bethlehem, who were two years old and under, based on the wise men's report of the stars' first appearance.
Forrest: Herod tells him, Go find the boy.
Forrest: Come back and tell me.
Forrest: So that I can go and worship him.
Forrest: All the while.
Forrest: Not to worship him.
Forrest: These wise men go and follow the star right to where Jesus and his family are in this house.
Forrest: Not where the manger was, in the house.
Forrest: They mean gifts.
Forrest: They had gone hundreds of miles on a journey of generosity to find the king of the world, the king of the universe, to lay gifts at his feet.
Forrest: Now we don't know how many wise men there were.
Forrest: There were three gifts, but there could have been many wise men.
Forrest: That's another piece to the puzzle.
Forrest: If you want to add another wise man to your notivity, that's okay.
Forrest: They laid gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Forrest: They brought extravagant gifts of worship to a child.
Forrest: To a child.
Forrest: And then you see the fact that they went on another route back home.
Forrest: Why?
Forrest: Because they were warned in a dream.
Forrest: Then an angel comes to Joseph and says, get up and go.
Forrest: It's protection.
Forrest: Think about all the aspects that went into this story of these wise men who came hundreds and hundreds of miles, being led by a star, then having a dream to protect them.
Forrest: And the angel of the Lord coming and speaking to Joseph and his family for protection over him.
Forrest: And I want to tell you this today.
Forrest: As you go on a journey of generosity, God is going to protect you.
Forrest: God is going to protect you.
Forrest: Some extravagant ways in this story.
Forrest: The way of dreams, visions, angels.
Forrest: But I know this.
Forrest: We know from what we've seen in the scripture that when we are generous, when we have a heart of generosity, when we have a spirit of generosity, that God tells us to put him to the test.
Forrest: To see that if he will not open up the floodgates and bless you in return.
Forrest: And I know for any of us who have been on this journey of generosity before, we know that as we give, that doesn't mean that nothing bad is going to happen to us.
Forrest: Doesn't mean that you're not going to have difficulties and trials and tribulations.
Forrest: What it means is if you're going to have exceptional faith, listen to me.
Forrest: If you're going to have exceptional faith, you need to expect difficulty.
Forrest: If you're going to have exceptional faith to please God, and you want your life to be pleasing to King Jesus, he tells us that in this world we will have trouble.
Forrest: We get to worship the overcomer.
Forrest: The fact that anything that happens to us, we get sick, we get hurt, we lose loved ones, we ourselves, ultimately, as we are in Christ and are living a life faithful to him, we have everything to gain.
Forrest: Death is dead, death has lost its sting.
Forrest: This world, its troubles, its hardship, the suffering that we experience.
Forrest: Jesus knows every single bit about it.
Forrest: God is walking alongside us as we're in this journey with him.
Forrest: We've seen this scripture almost every week over the last few weeks to tell us about our generosity.
Forrest: 2 Corinthians 9, 6 through 8.
Forrest: Remember this.
Forrest: A farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.
Forrest: You must each decide in your own heart how much to give.
Forrest: And don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure, for God loves a person who gives cheerfully.
Forrest: And God will generously provide all you need, and then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.
Forrest: We talked about the fact that we get to plant generously, and in doing so, our lives begin to produce generously, that God provides for us in response to that generously.
Forrest: That's a promise here.
Forrest: As we make a decision, not under pressure, but being cheerful about what we give.
Forrest: That God's going to respond to us and is going to work powerfully in the midst of the hardship and the difficulty.
Forrest: I know I've challenged you all over the last few weeks to be praying about, talking about what you're going to give today and in this series.
Forrest: And it's I hope it's been kind of a back and forth.
Forrest: I know Emily and I, we've gone round and round and round.
Forrest: And, you know, as we're stepping on this journey and God's responding, I just want you to know this.
Forrest: Last Sunday, the celebration we have and the celebration of today, the enemy is upset.
Forrest: I told Emily after last Sunday, I said, woo, the Lord was moving.
Forrest: The enemy's upset.
Forrest: Let's expect the unexpected.
Forrest: We're talking about how much we're going to give.
Forrest: Guess what?
Forrest: On Monday, my car broke down.
Forrest: Go to the shop,$1,000 on the trailblazer.
Forrest: Out of nowhere.
Forrest: Some of us have family have had kids who've gotten sick.
Forrest: Health problems that are going on.
Forrest: I know, Emily and I, we're sitting here talking, okay, what are we going to give?
Forrest: And then boom, the car breaks down.
Forrest: And so Emily have to say, okay, well, alright, are we still gonna give?
Forrest: Are we still gonna be generous?
Forrest: The answer is yes.
Forrest: The answer's yes.
Forrest: Because if we're gonna be exceptionally faithful, we're gonna expect that it's gonna be difficult.
Forrest: And that we're gonna please God in the process.
Forrest: I know.
Forrest: Y'all are probably if I've already heard some of the stories of y'all talking about you you're and your spouse back and forth.
Forrest: What are we gonna give?
Forrest: This, no, that, no.
Forrest: Maybe you've just been wrestling with the Lord.
Forrest: What is I'm gonna do?
Forrest: And I just want more than anything else for you to hear me to take a step of obedience.
Forrest: Yeah, I'm just as excited today about the person who gives for the very first time to God than the person who gives a ton.
Forrest: I'm excited today about a person who takes a step of faithfulness and obedience to the Lord because some of you in the place, this day you've been thinking like, this is the first time I'm ever going to trust God with this area of my life.
Forrest: You know what?
Forrest: God in return is going to show you a life that's going to be filled with blessing as you walk alongside Him.
Forrest: It's a challenge.
Forrest: But for each of us, we have to decide what is our best to bring to King Jesus.
Forrest: These wise men from the East traveled so far, coming to bring to Jesus an offering, a sacrifice to celebrate who he was.
Forrest: And God in return, in his faithfulness, spared the life of his son by telling an angel to come to Joseph and say, take the child and his mother to Egypt to escape certain death at the hand of King Herod, who intended to kill all boys under the age of two.
Forrest: But 30 some years later, God didn't spare his son's life.
Forrest: He let Jesus go to the cross.
Forrest: And his perfect plan to die on the cross for our sins.
Forrest: This rescue mission that God had put into place to save all of humanity, the fact that we couldn't save ourselves, that we're messed up, we're jacked up, we've done sinful things, and then in doing so, we have brought sin, condemnation, and death on ourselves, but it's in Christ.
Forrest: It's in Christ where we become free.
Forrest: So Jesus came off of his throne into the form of a baby, and ultimately to a cross for the salvation of the world all the time.
Forrest: In the form of a baby, receiving gifts, when he ascended back into heaven and is seated on the right hand of the Father.
Forrest: He is the king.
Forrest: So what will you bring to the king?
Forrest: What will you bring to the king?
Forrest: What is it that God has placed on your heart today to give?
Forrest: Here in just a few minutes as we close our service, there's some boxes that are down here for us to give.
Forrest: And when you came in to the house today, you got a card that looks like this.
Forrest: On the card, there's opportunity for you to write obviously who you are and what God has laid on your heart to give.
Forrest: And here in just a bit, the worship team is going to play some music over us as we bring these gifts.
Forrest: There's an envelope that looks like this.
Forrest: It's down here.
Forrest: You take your card, you fill it out, you put it into the offering.
Forrest: If you have a check to give, you can write a check and put it into this offering.
Forrest: There's also a way for you to give online.
Forrest: We've got a code up here that you can scan.
Forrest: You can go to the website.
Forrest: All while we're in right now.
Forrest: You didn't bring checkbook, that's fine.
Forrest: You can scan, go to the website.
Forrest: There's a drop-down of where to give, and there's a it says 2020, year in giving the best.
Forrest: You can give there.
Forrest: And I know as we're closing this out, that this is something that for many of us in the room, we've thought about, we prayed about, and you're ready to give.
Forrest: If you're here new today, let this be an encouragement to you and be a blessing to you as a display of God's goodness and his grace.
Forrest: And I invite you to give if you feel so led, but ultimately for you just to be obedient to God.
Forrest: Ultimately, that obedience to God starts with you receiving Jesus as your Savior.
Forrest: If you've not accepted Christ and the sacrifice that He made for you on the cross, today is the day for you to receive Him, for you to be blessed from now into eternity.
Forrest: That you would cry out to God and ask Him to forgive you of your sins so that you can be in right relationship with Him and you can have salvation.
Forrest: That death would no longer touch you, but that you would be alive forever in Him.
Forrest: So in just a second, I'm going to join us all in prayer.
Forrest: And after I say Amen, as a worship team plays over us, you can fill this out.
Forrest: And each of you one by one, or however you like, come down and to drop your gift to the Lord into one of these boxes.
Forrest: And then we'll have a close to our service.
Forrest: Would you mind if I pray over us now?
Forrest: Father, all across this room, God.
Forrest: You've led us to today into this moment over several weeks.
Forrest: God, we don't take for granted how richly you have blessed us.
Forrest: God, thank you, Lord, that we can give to you, and that God, you're going to use it for your kingdom.
Forrest: God, thank you, Lord, that you invite us into a blessed life where we can have everything that we need, plus more, to share with others.
Forrest: Father, you've led us to this place.
Forrest: And God, thank you for your provision.
Forrest: Thank you for your protection.
Forrest: Well, ultimately, God, thank you for your son Jesus.
Forrest: Him opening the doorway and a pathway for us to be saved and come to know you.
Forrest: So, Father, I pray right now, anybody in this room who's not accepted you as their Savior, who's not followed you, God, who's not declared you as Lord, who's not asked for forgiveness of their sins and given their life to you, that right now, God, they would do that.
Forrest: In their mind and their heart, that they would pray, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: Believe that you are the Son of God and that you are alive.
Forrest: Forgive me.
Forrest: Wash me as white as snow, so that I might be in heaven one day with you.
Forrest: I give you my life as you gave your life for mine.
Forrest: Thank you for saving me.
Forrest: In Jesus' name.
Forrest: Amen.
Forrest: If you prayed that prayer today, we want to encourage you.
Forrest: We want to come alongside you and pray over each of us now as we have this time of giving and worship to God.
Forrest: And then we'll close here in a few minutes.