Forrest: Before I get into my message today, there's two special people that I want to recognize because there is a wedding anniversary that we need to celebrate.
Forrest: Jonathan and Haley Zieman's wedding anniversary is today.
Forrest: We love them so much and are so grateful for them.
Forrest: And I think about them over the last two years of how they have had a wedding and had a marriage that is what you see in the scripture, a picture of Christ and his church, and for them to allow the Lord to use them to help build a church over these last two years of their marriage is just uh very uh humbling and grateful, and I love you guys.
Forrest: And jumping into the message today, our new series come to life.
Forrest: I got a question for you.
Forrest: When do you feel most alive?
Forrest: When you're at the gym, when you're riding your motorcycle, when you're cooking, when you're where is that space that you feel most alive in life?
Forrest: Yeah, I think for each of us we have a time, or maybe it's when you're outdoors, maybe when you're out hunting, and you really feel yourself come to life.
Forrest: And there are other times when you feel like the life is just drained out of us.
Forrest: I don't know about you, but I feel like oftentimes when I ask people, how are you doing?
Forrest: How are you doing?
Forrest: They say, I'm tired.
Forrest: You ever get that?
Forrest: I'm tired.
Forrest: Just drained, I'm just worn out.
Forrest: And you think about the pace of the life that we're leading right now and what it looks like for us for our daily rhythms.
Forrest: Now think about it, it hasn't always been this tired.
Forrest: Did you know that before Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1879, the average person got 11 hours of sleep every single night?
Forrest: No wonder all those people back in history had so much smart things to say.
Forrest: Let's say we were fully rested, no brain fog, 11 hours of sleep because when the sun went down, they went to sleep.
Forrest: There was no lights in the house to keep them up, no ball games to watch in the evenings, no shows to get immersed in and binge on Netflix.
Forrest: Instead, the daily rhythm and the daily life looks very different than the pace of today.
Forrest: When it's a good night, when you get five, six, seven hours of sleep.
Forrest: No wonder at all that when we think about what it looks like and feels like for us to come alive or for us to have the life drained out of us, a lot of it can be connected back to the pace that we're going and the busyness that we're in.
Forrest: Corey Tim Boom famously said, if the devil can't make you sin, he'll make you busy.
Forrest: This is kind of astonishing, really.
Forrest: I saw this this week as I was reading.
Forrest: The average iPhone user touches their phone 2,617 times every single day.
Forrest: We can go down a black hole of busyness.
Forrest: And that black hole of busyness, it it ends up leading us to a place of numbness.
Forrest: And even at sometimes I feel like we're kind of dying from the inside out.
Forrest: There's a uh popular memes and stuff that were going around last year on social media where people were talking about feeling dead inside.
Forrest: This was like post-pandemic and everything that everybody was going through.
Forrest: But I just want us to know that we are people who have been called by faith to run out of darkness and into God's glorious light.
Forrest: Out of a pit, out of a black hole, but instead to run to freedom from a life of death into an adventure of following Jesus.
Forrest: You know, I firmly believe that we are, you are most alive when Jesus is alive in you.
Forrest: And this series that we're in come to life.
Forrest: Today's message is called Living Proof.
Forrest: And there was a time where there was a black hole, a darkness, a silence, a dryness, even in the scripture.
Forrest: You know, in our in our Bibles, we have a break between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Forrest: And where Malachi ends, and then a couple pages later, Matthew begins, is not just a couple of pages in time, it's actually 400 years called a 400 years of silence that was between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Forrest: There was 400 years between the Old Testament and the end, and what Malachi and the end of Chronicles said, and the beginning of the New Testament, there was 400 years where no scripture was written, where there was a dryness, where there was a silence, and then out of the silence explodes a prophet named John the Baptist onto the scene in the beginning of the Gospels.
Forrest: As we look at the life of John the Baptist after 400 years of God pulling back and not speaking, not something that he hasn't done before, that there was a 400 years of the of in the Old Testament that the people of God were in slavery in Egypt and they were crying out to him, and there was a time of silence then.
Forrest: But out of the silence comes this voice, this person, John the Baptist.
Forrest: Now, for you Bible scholars, John the Baptist is a cousin of Jesus, his mother Elizabeth.
Forrest: And we see when John was still in the womb in Luke 1, 41 through 42, at the sound of Mary, Jesus' mother, Mary's greeting of Elizabeth's child leapt within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Forrest: Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, God has blessed you above all women, your child is blessed.
Forrest: Speaking of Jesus, and then verse 43.
Forrest: Why am I so honored that the mother of the Lord should visit me?
Forrest: In verse 44.
Forrest: When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy.
Forrest: Just when John got into the presence of Jesus in the womb, John he left for joy.
Forrest: It's what the scripture says.
Forrest: It's it's it's what Psalms 139 says for you created in my inmost being, and you knit me together in my mother's womb.
Forrest: I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made, for your works are wonderful.
Forrest: I know that full well.
Forrest: And the prophet Jeremiah that God had a plan and a purpose and a calling on his life when he was still in the womb.
Forrest: When Jeremiah the Lord said to him, I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb.
Forrest: Before you were born, I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations.
Forrest: When John was still in the womb, he knew that he had a calling on his life and a plan and a purpose.
Forrest: That's the reason why we believe that life started in the womb, from these scriptures, that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of us.
Forrest: That he's called us out, that he knit us together.
Forrest: And John had this deep calling on his life before he was even born, and we see his calling come to fruition in the beginning of the Gospels, and we're going to read it from Mark chapter 1, starting in verse 1, the very beginning of Mark, where we see that John the Baptist is preparing the way for Jesus.
Forrest: In verse 1, it says, This is the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God.
Forrest: It began just as the prophet Isaiah had written.
Forrest: Look, I am sending a messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way.
Forrest: He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord's coming, clear the road for him.
Forrest: The book of Mark, the Gospel of Mark, it starts with not talking about Jesus, but talking about John the Baptist.
Forrest: That he's this one that the prophet Isaiah spoke about, that there was a calling on his life, that he was going to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus.
Forrest: The voice that's crying in the wilderness, the scripture's not talking about Jesus there.
Forrest: It's talking about John.
Forrest: That he's preparing the way for Jesus' arrival.
Forrest: And in verse 4, this message was John the Baptist.
Forrest: This messenger was John the Baptist.
Forrest: He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they have repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven.
Forrest: All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John.
Forrest: And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.
Forrest: His clothes were woven with quartz camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist, and the food that he ate was locusts and wild honey.
Forrest: And John announced in verse 7 Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am.
Forrest: So much greater than I'm not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals.
Forrest: I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
Forrest: John is proclaiming the truth about Jesus coming.
Forrest: What does it look like for us to proclaim the truth of Jesus coming?
Forrest: I told you last Sunday we got to go over to the future home of Multiply Church, and it was there that people wrote all over the walls scripture verses and prayers.
Forrest: And this last week I went over, because I didn't get to see them all, but I went over one morning this last week, and I went across the room, the new building, and I read every single prayer and every single scripture that was written.
Forrest: And let me just tell you the things that were written on the wall in our future home, it brought a tear to my eye.
Forrest: The power of people claiming and proclaiming that many people, multitudes, some people writing thousands of people would come to know Jesus in that space.
Forrest: People wrote out scriptures about children coming to Jesus and about families that would be saved and that people would feel welcomed.
Forrest: And I walked around and I thought about how powerful it was for us to proclaim and to speak over and to pray over new life and people to come to life in Jesus in that new space.
Forrest: One person wrote in big letters dream big and pray bigger.
Forrest: And I think about what it looks like for us before we get into that space for us to have the mentality of proclaiming the truth about Jesus and preparing his way for people to come to know him right here in this room.
Forrest: Right here in this movie theater, right over here in our kids' area.
Forrest: That the same heartbeat would be that we are proclaiming and preparing the way for Christ right now, this Sunday, leading up to Easter and ultimately to when we get into our future home in the future, but right now preparing the way for Jesus.
Forrest: The story of John continues at this moment where God uses John to catalyze and catapult Jesus' ministry and the baptism of Jesus.
Forrest: In Matthew 3, we see then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John.
Forrest: But John tried to talk him out of it.
Forrest: I'm the one who needs to be baptized by you, he said.
Forrest: So why are you coming to me?
Forrest: But Jesus said, It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.
Forrest: So John agreed to baptize him.
Forrest: After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descend, descending like a dove and settling on him.
Forrest: And a voice from heaven said, This is my dearly loved son who brings me great joy.
Forrest: John has a call on his life to prepare the way for the Lord.
Forrest: And in the very same way for us, we have a call on our lives that we would prepare the way for the Lord as well.
Forrest: One, that he would be in our lives, in our hearts, that we would be awake and that we would be alive in Christ, be made new in him, and then we would see other people be made new and come to life in Christ.
Forrest: I uh have um a very controversial Easter candy here with me.
Forrest: It's a package of peeps.
Forrest: You either love them or you hate them.
Forrest: There's no in-between.
Forrest: But they're consistently in the top candies of Easter every single year.
Forrest: And today I want to invite you into something that Emily and I have been a part of and done over the last several years when it comes to Easter.
Forrest: I've talked to you about my friend named Justin Riccio before in the past.
Forrest: This is Justin.
Forrest: Justin and I served together at our church in South Carolina, but his story didn't start there.
Forrest: Justin's story started when many years ago he and his girlfriend at the time, Britney, were stuck in a life of alcohol abuse and drug addiction.
Forrest: Justin was abusing prescription pills.
Forrest: He was stealing from different places in order to fuel his habit.
Forrest: Living with his girlfriend, they were partying all the time.
Forrest: And one Easter, at the front door of their house, they received a package of peeps, like this, with an invitation to come to church.
Forrest: They took this package of peeps and they threw it on the kitchen table, and they went on in the weekend of Easter that Saturday night, they went out and partied hard.
Forrest: Drunk and high, having a great time.
Forrest: And that next morning, they had planned to go to Easter with their parents that next day, just out of obligation.
Forrest: But they woke up too late, hung over, still drunk from the night before, and they're sitting in their living room, and they're like, well, we can't make it to the parents.
Forrest: Why don't we just go here to this church with this package of peeps on?
Forrest: And so years ago, Brittany and Justin, they walked into Easter Sunday of the church that Emily and I were a part of in South Carolina.
Forrest: That day, Justin said he couldn't remember anything that happened that day.
Forrest: He doesn't remember the sermon.
Forrest: Don't remember who talked to him.
Forrest: All he remembered was that he felt the love of God.
Forrest: That same week, after Justin attended that Sunday morning, he got arrested for stealing.
Forrest: Went to drug rehab, ended up getting saved and baptized while he was in rehab, and came back to our church.
Forrest: He and Brittany got a part of to be a part of a small group.
Forrest: Again to grow in their faith.
Forrest: Eventually they started leading a small group.
Forrest: They started seeing their friends come to Christ, and Justin was seeing them be baptized.
Forrest: And Justin and I have been friends for seven years now.
Forrest: And just a few years after him coming to Christ, he ended up becoming a pastor on staff and one of my great friends and co-workers for years.
Forrest: And every single day, even today, Justin sends me scripture, texts me and Emily scripture every single day, and has for like the last, I don't even know how many years.
Forrest: And I I want to invite you into preparing the way for the Lord for somebody in your life.
Forrest: I'm inviting you into this today.
Forrest: When you walk out, there's going to be packages of peeps like this with an invite card.
Forrest: And there's enough for everybody to take a couple of them.
Forrest: I'm inviting you into taking a package of peeps like that.
Forrest: You can sit on your neighbor's doorstep.
Forrest: You can hand it to your coworker.
Forrest: Wherever you feel led, or however you feel led to prepare the way of the Lord for someone because you don't ever know who might pick it up and who the next Justin may be.
Forrest: But I don't have that excuse now.
Forrest: I said, You're right, you don't have the excuse now anymore.
Forrest: I invited you.
Forrest: And then he made another excuse, but I told him, don't worry about that excuse either.
Forrest: We don't ever know what one invitation.
Forrest: What one word, what encouraging word.
Forrest: One intentional choice to speak the name of Jesus or to invite somebody to be a part of a body of believers, what change could happen in somebody's life?
Forrest: We just don't know.
Forrest: But we know this that God has called us and put a burden and a mandate and a challenge over each one of us that we would prepare the way of the Lord for him in the same way that John did.
Forrest: That we would be willing to invite someone.
Forrest: And that the proof of the gospel for somebody else would be the way that you live without the gospel in your life.
Forrest: And in saying that, are you living proof of a living God?
Forrest: The one that has made us alive.
Forrest: That for each one of us that we've crossed over from death to life because of the glorious good news of Jesus.
Forrest: His death on the cross in our place.
Forrest: And his ultimate resurrection.
Forrest: I'm a voice crying out in the wilderness, come this way, be baptized, but but somebody else is going to come and they're there.
Forrest: I'm not even worthy.
Forrest: Not even worthy to untie his sandals.
Forrest: He's going to come and he's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and build a way for you to have eternal life and be with God, be restored.
Forrest: In the same way, what does it look like for us to point to Jesus as well?
Forrest: You know, I had a really impactful moment last week at our one year celebration.
Forrest: I know for all of us who were there celebrating one year ago, some of us that were here at that point or have come within the last year.
Forrest: I think all of us were thinking about what it looked like for us to be blessed by the work of Multiply Church and what it looked like for us to be a blessing back to Multiply Church, what our story is, when we got to be a part of this community.
Forrest: And for one couple, they came to me last Sunday and they said, hey, it's not just the one-year anniversary for Multiply this last week, but it is also our anniversary for coming because our first Sunday was the Sunday at Multiply.
Forrest: That person was Singrid and Michael, who are back there, Singrid leading worship this morning.
Forrest: And this is what she said to me.
Forrest: Well, she said, this is our one year.
Forrest: And I just kind of thought, man, praise God.
Forrest: That's so amazing.
Forrest: And then she said this.
Forrest: She said, over this last year, you know the word that comes to mind to me about what our life has been like as a part of this church over the last year?
Forrest: I said, no, what?
Forrest: She said, alive.
Forrest: Our life is felt alive.
Forrest: Now she didn't even know what she was saying to me when she said that.
Forrest: That literally, over the next few weeks, we're we're talking about what it looks like for us to step out of darkness into God's glorious light, for us to leave death behind because death is dead and its sting is gone, that we can walk into new life in Christ.
Forrest: And it's because of Easter, because of what happened on the cross that we didn't even have access to God, that we can even be alive.
Forrest: And there's so many people that are around us.
Forrest: That are tired and broken and hurting and feeling the death that the enemy Satan wants to put on them and wants to keep them in.
Forrest: And God can use you powerfully just as much as He'll use me powerfully to speak life into somebody else.
Forrest: By the way of our testimony, what God's done for me and for you, by the power of the Word of God, that we would be alive.
Forrest: So, what does it look like for you this week?
Forrest: Who do you need to take your package of this controversial candy to?
Forrest: I think some of our groups are gonna pass out some of these peeps too in the coming weeks.
Forrest: I just want you all to know, church.
Forrest: I want you all to know, like, I I'm we're we're out here.
Forrest: I want you to, over the last week, I probably in different settings have been able to invite 50 people, over 50 people to come to Easter Sunday.
Forrest: And I'm not saying that to be boastful, I'm saying that to say, I want to see people come to life.
Forrest: I want to see people receive hope.
Forrest: I want to see people be able to know the gospel of Jesus and not just assume that everybody knows it.
Forrest: What does it look like for you to prepare the way for the Lord?
Forrest: And maybe you're here today and you walked in the room today, and the only thing you could think of was how tired you are, how busy you are.
Forrest: Instead of taking this moment to praise your been thinking and planning your week ahead or thinking about the to-do list, thinking about what's going on at my job, my relationship status, whatever the thing is that is distracting you.
Forrest: Can I tell you this that Jesus wants your full attention so that he can give you the fullness of his love and grace and hope and power.
Forrest: He's not ignoring us.
Forrest: He's not too busy for us.
Forrest: Maybe you're here today, and today is your day for you to come alive, to come to life in Christ, to receive Jesus' death for you on the cross.
Forrest: Because it was on that cross that Jesus took your sins and my sins, our mess-ups, our screw-ups, everything that we have done, the brokenness that is in our life, and it was on the cross that he took it, and he forgave it, and he washed it away.
Forrest: If you will receive it, so that you can walk in life with him.
Forrest: Is that day today for you?
Forrest: Let me pray for us now.
Forrest: Father, all across the room today, God.
Forrest: I thank you, Father, for the life that you have given me, given each one of us who call ourselves Christians, believers, followers of you, Jesus.
Forrest: Father, I pray right now over each one of us, God, that our lives wouldn't be too busy for you, that we wouldn't spin our wheels on all the wrong things to the point that we're so tired that we can't love the people who are around us.
Forrest: Father, I pray over this room today.
Forrest: God, I pray life and joy and peace and in each and every home.
Forrest: And God, I pray across the room today if there's anybody in this place who's not received you as their savior, who's not asked for your forgiveness, who's not given their life to you, God, been forgiven of their sins and saved from the pit of hell.
Forrest: God, I pray today that they would pray, Lord, that they would lift up their heart and mind to you and they pray, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: I believe that you are the Son of God and that you are alive.
Forrest: Forgive me of my sin 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: Thank you for saving me.
Forrest: In Jesus' name.
Forrest: Amen.
Forrest: If you prayed that today for the first time, we want to come alongside you, we want to celebrate with you, we want to help you take your next step of baptism, maybe even that day is Easter.
Forrest: Would you join with me now?
Forrest: Stand as we close and sing.