Forrest: Amen.
Forrest: You can be seated.
Forrest: It's maybe one of the most lively crowds that I've ever had the pleasure of being able to share with.
Forrest: We started today.
Forrest: If you came in a few minutes early, we had pictures that were rolling from the last year in celebration of all that God's done.
Forrest: And it makes me think about what God has done over the last year and the fact that we've gotten to see 15 children and adults be baptized, move from death to life, to give God the glory and praise in their life.
Forrest: I think about the fact that we were able to pull together to send relief to Eastern Kentucky in the flood and our partner church rooted church down there in Whitesburg.
Forrest: I think about the team rallies and the volunteers that we come together and been able to, as a team, as a group, as a church, give of our time, talent, and treasure so that the Lord can work powerfully through us.
Forrest: I think about Easter all the way of last year and the powerful work that happened that day.
Forrest: And the three that were baptized on Easter last year.
Forrest: I think about the generosity of giving at the end of this last year and the fact that in that, right in the midst of it, in the same timing, the Lord opened the door for us to secure a permanent facility here in Frankfurt.
Forrest: Praise God.
Forrest: I think about babies being dedicated.
Forrest: I think about going and giving away a television at K-State University to some random college kid, just so that they would know about a church that loves them and cares for them and the over 300 meals that we got to serve to K-State students last year.
Forrest: I think about all that God has allowed us to do, and there's an importance of the remembering.
Forrest: There's an importance of looking back and seeing what God has done and thanking him and in gratitude of what the Lord's done.
Forrest: I've got this app on my phone, it's called Time Hop.
Forrest: Everybody heard of it?
Forrest: And what it does is you put your social media in and your phone and photos on your phone, and every day you click on it, and then it goes back every single year of a picture or some kind of memory that you have from that day.
Forrest: And I I love getting on there and looking at where God has brought me from in my spiritual journey and in my life.
Forrest: And I love looking back and seeing the pictures of a small group of people meeting in a house two years ago to the launch of this church just one year ago.
Forrest: Tomorrow, on the first day of spring.
Forrest: Isn't it good of the Lord on the last day of winter to give us 20-degree weather outside?
Forrest: Oh man.
Forrest: But tomorrow is spring, a new beginning, a fresh start.
Forrest: The people of God were making their trek and trying to get into the promised land, and there was one last barrier for them to make it into this promised land that God had given the Israelites.
Forrest: They'd wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.
Forrest: Moses had died, and his mantle had been moved to Joseph, and Joseph was leading the people of God, and there was one barrier standing between them, and that was the Jordan River.
Forrest: In Joshua chapter 3, we see the story of the people of God carrying the Ark of the Covenant, this, this, this, this box that had been crafted by God's instructions to put the Ten Commandments in them, and it housed the presence of God.
Forrest: And so the priests would carry this Ark of the Covenant ahead of the Israelites as they went into and were walking into God's promised land for them.
Forrest: In Joshua chapter 4, the Lord tells Joshua for them to take the ark.
Forrest: And even though they couldn't pass by this Jordan River because it had, the scripture says in chapter 3 that it had been overflowing from the high rains of the season before.
Forrest: Now, this isn't just some little tiny river out there.
Forrest: Think of a big body of water that that is rushing, overflowing.
Forrest: And God tells them that the priest would go and take a foot, and as soon as the feet of the priest touched the water, the water moved.
Forrest: The water split.
Forrest: Now they had seen this before.
Forrest: They had already seen God do this at the Red Sea when they were leaving as slaves out of captivity in Egypt, and they could remember back to what God did then, and they were confident to step forward and put a foot into the water because they remembered what God was going to do and they knew he would do it again.
Forrest: Even still, even still, them remembering what God did, the Lord still asked them to make a tangible sign of remembrance.
Forrest: In Joshua chapter 4, the Lord tells Joshua that as they cross over the Jordan River, that they should grab twelve stones, one representing each of the tribes of Israel.
Forrest: And that in the middle of the dry ground, in the middle of the river, that they would stack these stones up to a memorial for God.
Forrest: And that they would carry another 12 stones to the other side once they were done.
Forrest: And so in Joshua chapter 4, verse 19, we see that the people crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month.
Forrest: And then they camped at Gilgal east of Jericho.
Forrest: It was there at Gilgal that Joshua piled up the twelve stones taken from the Jordan River.
Forrest: Then Joshua said to the Israelites, In the future, your children will ask, What do these stones mean?
Forrest: And then you will tell them, This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.
Forrest: For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea when he dried it up until we had all crossed over.
Forrest: He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the Lord's hand is powerful.
Forrest: And so that you might fear the Lord your God forever in reverence to the Lord.
Forrest: Today we remember.
Forrest: Today we remember the fact that God paved a way for us to be able to depart the sea, so to speak, to start something from nothing, and the story in the life of multiplied church that some of us now and for years to come will cross over from death to life.
Forrest: And we remember what God did to bring us to this point so that we won't forget and get and take it for granted when we see it in the future.
Forrest: These stones represent there's a remembrance, there's a point in time, there's something that we see so that we can tell the story.
Forrest: Today I want somebody to come and share a little bit of a story from this last year.
Forrest: Whitney Wise is gonna come, is gonna share with us.
Forrest: You give it up for Whitney as she comes, so give me a testimony.
Forrest: Whitney, share with us, share with us a highlight from this last year.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: So you hold that right.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Um we had three generations baptized in my family.
SPEAKER_01: My father-in-law, my husband, and two out of three of our daughters.
Forrest: Can we give the Lord some praise for that?
Forrest: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there are no words.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, my husband, hello.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if y'all knew him and knew his past, I mean, we love him.
SPEAKER_01: Honey, are you awake?
Forrest: We love him.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_01: He did get up at 4:30 this morning, so okay.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to check, but so thanks.
Forrest: Can we give it up for Whitney?
unknown: Woo!
Forrest: And praise the Lord for what God's done.
Forrest: It's worth remembering.
Forrest: There's a word in the scripture and it's Ebenezer.
Forrest: Everybody say Ebenezer.
Forrest: All the kids say this big word, Ebenezer.
Forrest: Back in 1758, Robert Robinson penned a hymn and it's called, Come, Thou Found Every Blessing.
Forrest: And he he wrote, I come, thou found of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace.
Forrest: Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
Forrest: Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above.
Forrest: Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it, mouth of God's unchanging love.
Forrest: And then in the second verse, he says, Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home.
Forrest: Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God, he rescued me from danger, interposed his precious blood.
Forrest: What's an Ebenezer?
Forrest: What does that even mean?
Forrest: Today we raise it.
Forrest: Today we raise our Ebenezer.
Forrest: The prophet Samuel was with the people of God, and the Philistines were coming against them in the army.
Forrest: And they thought that they were going to be overtaken, and suddenly from the heavens above, the Lord spoke.
Forrest: And it put the Philistines in such a confusion, in such a disorientation, that they were defeated and the people of God were saved.
Forrest: And the prophet Samuel said this in 1 Samuel 7, 12.
Forrest: Samuel then took a large stone and he placed it in between the towns of Mizbah and Jesana and named it as an Ebenezer, which means the stone of help, for he said, Up to this point, the Lord has helped us.
Forrest: Today we raise it Ebenezer because we can say the exact same thing.
Forrest: Up to this point, the Lord has helped us, and we know he's gonna help us in the future.
Forrest: You know that he's gonna be at our front, he's gonna be at our back.
Forrest: He's gonna continue to lead us into unknown and into the shadow, but he's gonna be with us every step of the way.
Forrest: Today, we celebrate the sending.
Forrest: We celebrate the sending.
Forrest: I think about those that are in our partner in sending church, Southland, who now, well over a year ago, stepped forward and put courage into our hearts that we would take the steps.
Forrest: We were already doing it.
Forrest: They came alongside and confirmed it and encouraged us.
Forrest: And I'm thankful for them.
Forrest: I know Lee Webb and his family's here today.
Forrest: The Coxes are here today.
Forrest: Anyone else on the impact team today from Southland?
Forrest: Would y'all take a second to stand so that we can honor these folks from Southland today?
Forrest: Lee's in the back, the Coxes right here.
Forrest: Missy and Jim.
Forrest: Over two years ago, when the Lord put it in my wife and I's heart to come and to see a work begin called Multiply Church, I was sitting in my table in Charleston and my dining room table, and I'm on the phone with Lee Webb, and he's saying, buddy, you better get to Frankfurt as soon as you can.
Forrest: Because the Lord's put a call on your life and in your heart, and you cannot wait to see what God's gonna do there.
Forrest: So sell the house.
Forrest: Emily, find a part-time job, whatever you need to do, get there.
Forrest: Lee's been a brother, a mentor, and a friend to me for years.
Forrest: A church planner before in Shelbyville, my hometown.
Forrest: I know the work that God did through me.
Forrest: And he had the unique opportunity to encourage me.
Forrest: You know what encouragement is?
Forrest: It's when you put courage into somebody else.
Forrest: It's when you put courage into someone.
Forrest: And today we remember what God did in the life and the story of Multiply Church and what he wants to do in the future.
Forrest: And there's been so many hands that have gone in over the last year to make this happen and to be a part of the work and the move of God.
Forrest: And it's important for us to remember.
Forrest: When I was a teenager, pretty new teenage parents in the room.
Forrest: I gave my parents a hard time when I was a teenager.
Forrest: There's still hope, there's hope for them.
Forrest: I know my dad had sleepless nights.
Forrest: As me and my brother were out running the road.
Forrest: And before I would leave the house as a teenager, my dad would always look at me and he would always say, Forrest, remember who you are.
Forrest: Before I left the house, before I walked out of the room, he would say, Remember who you are.
Forrest: And today we don't just want to remember who we are, we want to remember whose we are.
Forrest: And whose we are is Jesus.
Forrest: We're his.
Forrest: And who we are multiplied churches this.
Forrest: We're a group of people who see a need and feel a need, who are sacrificially serving one another.
Forrest: We embrace the grace of the Lord and his truth at the same time.
Forrest: We do for one person what we wish we could do for everybody.
Forrest: We'll leave the 99 and go after the one because Jesus did that too.
Forrest: We're gonna believe the best about our community, our people, and we're gonna be people who carry grace and peace, is what 2 Peter 1 2 says.
Forrest: We're gonna be people who dream big and pray bigger, knowing that God is with us and gonna be with us, and people are gonna look and we're gonna look at each other, we're gonna say, multiply, it's crazy, and it's crazy faith.
Forrest: We're gonna bring our best because we're gonna have an attitude of gratitude because Jesus deserves our best.
Forrest: We're gonna blaze a trail of faith here.
Forrest: It's not just gonna stay here in Franklin County, it's gonna go beyond because we're a group of trailblazers, and in doing so, we are going to be a blessing to other people.
Forrest: We're gonna be a blessing to our community, we're gonna be a blessing to nonprofits in town because you want to know why?
Forrest: We fuel the fire church.
Forrest: Those who are doing good in the name of Jesus, we're gonna pour on gasoline and say, Let's keep going.
Forrest: You got this, you can keep doing it.
Forrest: We've done it before, we're gonna do it again.
Forrest: We are a group of people who are not gonna tear people down, but instead we're gonna build them up.
Forrest: We're gonna be builders.
Forrest: We are builders and we're gonna continue to be builders, and we're gonna be people who multiply the grace of God to those who are near and far from Him so that they can live out their destiny in Christ in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
Forrest: And we're gonna let our lives shine and we're gonna let our lives multiply out because we know that we're the people of the 30, of the 60, of the hundredfold.
Forrest: That the work that God's done in and through us, it's not meant just for us.
Forrest: The work that God's doing in your house, in your marriage, in your kids, in your family, it's not meant just for you.
Forrest: It's for us to multiply the grace, the peace, the glory of God to others.
Forrest: Do you want to know why?
Forrest: Because it's Jesus who did that for us first on the cross.
Forrest: Jesus is our rock.
Forrest: In Ephesians 2, 19 and 21.
Forrest: Paul tells us, and now you Gentiles, you're no longer strangers or foreigners, you are citizens along with the God's holy people, you are members of God's family.
Forrest: Together, we are his house built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, and the cornerstone is Jesus Christ Himself.
Forrest: We are carefully joined together in Him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.
Forrest: In my pocket here, I got this little rock.
Forrest: This little stone.
Forrest: This week, my daughter Ember and I went over to the old Save a lot, and we went out back where there's a bunch of rocks, and we grabbed a whole bunch of these.
Forrest: Let it remind you this week to remember what God has done and be expectant of what he's gonna do in our future.
Forrest: That each of us, what the scripture says, that we've been joined together carefully as a holy temple of the Lord, as his body in Christ.
Forrest: Each one of us plays a part in this body.
Forrest: Each one of us are built on a foundation, and we are built up in Christ, and God wants to do that in you.
Forrest: You may be here today, and you have not begun to walk with and to accept what Jesus did and built for you, the the path that he built, the bridge that he built for you 2,000 years ago on the cross.
Forrest: Today you can do that.
Forrest: Just like the people of God moved from one side over the other, you can cross from death to life today in the name of Jesus by receiving his son and what he did for you on the cross.
Forrest: Jesus went to the cross 2,000 years ago to die in your place so that you could have a pathway to God that you cannot build for yourself, only he can.
Forrest: All of us have messed up.
Forrest: We have sinned against God, we've broken his law time and time again.
Forrest: We cannot save ourselves, church.
Forrest: We are dependent on the cornerstone, Jesus, to do it for us.
Forrest: But it requires us to give our life over to him, to believe, to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, and that scripture says that we will be saved.
Forrest: You will be saved in doing so.
Forrest: And so today I want to pray over each one of us in the room.
Forrest: So if you bow your head, Father, I pray over our church, every man, woman, and child that's in the room today.
Forrest: God, that we would be people who are built on your rock.
Forrest: That God, we would have a church that is built on your rock, Father.
Forrest: Lord, I pray over this room today, God, that we would have families and children, Lord, that are built up on the rock, the solid rock of Jesus.
Forrest: Today, Father, I pray over this room.
Forrest: Lord, if there's anybody in this place that needs to move over from spiritual death into life by receiving you on the cross, by believing in you, Christ, by confessing you, and by turning to you, God, I pray that they would do that today.
Forrest: They would pray, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: If that's you today, you can pray it in your heart, in your mind to the Lord.
Forrest: Jesus, save me.
Forrest: I believe that you are the Son of God and that you are alive.
Forrest: Forgive me, forgive me, so that I can be in heaven with you one day.
Forrest: I give you my life as you gave your life for mine.
Forrest: In Jesus' name.
Forrest: Nobody looking around, Father.
Forrest: I pray over each family that's represented here today, each person, each home, each apartment, Lord, that's that is represented here today, God, that there would be a flourishing and an influx, God, of the remembrance of what you've done for us.
Forrest: And God, today, as we celebrate, Lord, we celebrate you.
Forrest: We lift you up, Father.
Forrest: We praise you, God.
Forrest: We worship you, God, today for the powerful works that you've done in our lives in the last year and the many years to come, Father.
Forrest: We give you the glory and the honor and the praise in Jesus' name.
Forrest: And everybody said, Amen, amen, amen, amen.
Forrest: Will you stand to your feet as we close in worship?