Forrest: Yeah, I grew up and I was fortunate enough to have a great dad.
Forrest: Um but as a teenager, he got on my last nerves.
Forrest: I think it's just hardwired in teenagers' DNA that they think that their parents are the dumbest people on the planet for those few years, and you know, maybe years later you come to realize that you didn't know everything.
Forrest: Um but my dad used to do things and try to help us be successful, my brother and I.
Forrest: And one of those things that he would do with us as a teenager is that he would make us practice introducing ourselves to him.
Forrest: And so, you know, so that we, you know, be prepared for that job interview, or so that we'd be prepared for that college uh internship interview, whatever those things were.
Forrest: And so my dad would walk up to me and he'd put his hand out and he'd say, Hi, I'm Byron Coleman, nice to meet you.
Forrest: And then I'd have to shake his hand and introduce myself.
Forrest: I'm Forrest Coleman.
Forrest: It was just the worst thing ever.
Forrest: It was so annoying, so embarrassing.
Forrest: And so what's funny is uh I'm started doing the same thing, but with my three-year-old.
Forrest: And because right now, like she still thinks that you know, me and my wife that we hung the moon as parents.
Forrest: Like everything we do, we have a good time.
Forrest: She tells me that I'm her best friend, like we have a great relationship.
Forrest: Parents, you all know what I'm talking about.
Forrest: She's three, okay?
Forrest: She's not in that time yet.
Forrest: And so I'm trying to soak it up.
Forrest: So I'll walk up to Ember and I'll say, uh, hey, uh, I'll say, nice to meet you.
Forrest: I'm daddy.
Forrest: And then she'll stick out her hand and she'll say, Nice to meet you, I'm Ember, which is really sweet.
Forrest: But uh recently, Emily uh taught her to say in this introduction, uh, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance.
Forrest: Now she can't really articulate the words completely, but what what's funny is that she'll even like put her hand out like this, like she's a princess, and say, It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance.
Forrest: And so the other night we were our small group went to Da Vinci's Pizza to hang out, and we were there.
Forrest: And uh uh I was introducing Ember to Troy, who's in our small group, and uh I said, and this is my daughter Ember, and she looked at Troy and she said, It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance.
Forrest: And we all started dying laughing because she can barely say it.
Forrest: Um you think about uh meeting someone new.
Forrest: Uh, whenever you're in the introduction, you know, it can be uh awkward at times.
Forrest: What do you say?
Forrest: You know, did you shake the hand?
Forrest: Did you get fully in with the handshake?
Forrest: Did you just grab the fingers?
Forrest: Oh, it's awkward.
Forrest: Can you never talk to that person again because the handshake was weird?
Forrest: And, you know, um, we're getting into this new series today called Nice to Meet You.
Forrest: And really, it's an opportunity for uh us to introduce and reintroduce ourselves as a church as we get into this brand new series.
Forrest: And so if you're here today and you're new, if you're a new guest or you can consider yourself new, there's never a better Sunday for you to be here and starting off this series of nice to meet you.
Forrest: Because it's in in part, it's an introduction about who Multiply Church is.
Forrest: And to be honest with you, we're brand new.
Forrest: And so we've just tried to get to know who we are as a church.
Forrest: It's it's kind of like uh my seven-month-old Magnolia.
Forrest: I think I had a picture of Magnolia.
Forrest: Um she's just the sweetest.
Forrest: Uh, you know, at seven months though, um, you know, she smiles and lights up our world, but she can't really, she can't talk yet.
Forrest: She can't like we're getting to know Magnolia, but we don't really know Magnolia's personality yet, right?
Forrest: She's seven months old.
Forrest: We're getting to know her, we're getting to know her as an infant, but it's gonna take some time.
Forrest: It's gonna take months and months and and years to actually get to know who she is.
Forrest: And and in the same way, uh for us, it's it's kind of taken a while to figure out who we are as Multiply Church.
Forrest: Now, this was a very intentional decision.
Forrest: At the beginnings of of planting this church, and so uh just to introduce myself, I'm Forrest Coleman, my wife Emily.
Forrest: We came here to Frankfurt and joined with a group of people to plant Multiply Church two years ago.
Forrest: We launched just over a year ago here at Multiply.
Forrest: So glad to meet you.
Forrest: And in the early days of the church, some coaching and instruction that was given to me that I thought was so great was as we were starting to think about the values of multiply church and what we were going to be like as a church, certain coaches said, Hey, why don't you take some time and instead of uh doing what most and a lot of planters do is go find the church they love and go to their website and copy and paste all their values and things and put it onto their uh church.
Forrest: Because, you know, that's the I like that, so maybe that will be that.
Forrest: But instead for us to discover who we are so that when we talk about who Multiply Church is, it's from a place of authority and also honest.
Forrest: Because, you know, two years ago, we could have said, like, hey, hey, we're gonna be a generous church, and we could have put that on the website, but that's only proof in the pudding whether you actually are generous or not.
Forrest: Whether you actually are embodying the things that you say that you are.
Forrest: And so that's led to us over the last year, and really this sermon series has been two years in the making, but intentionally uh a year in the making, even six months in the making, to really say, okay, what are we truly like?
Forrest: Let's discover what that is and then what we truly value and what people are going to experience.
Forrest: You think about it in your own life when you are introduced to someone, what do they experience in you?
Forrest: What are the things that you truly value as a person?
Forrest: What do it be like for you to write those things down?
Forrest: Of what the values that you have, or what stories are connected to it?
Forrest: And so asking the question what do you want others to experience and what what they will truly experience when they come to be a part of Multiply.
Forrest: Now, the part of the discovery and figuring this out was, you know, when you do values, you can just have a big long list of words, or you could do different things.
Forrest: And, you know, I've tried to be very intentional, our leaders have tried to be very intentional for us not to copy anybody else.
Forrest: You want to know why?
Forrest: It's because God's doing a unique thing here at Multiply, us as an expression of the local church.
Forrest: And if we're gonna uh to copy anybody else and to take from anybody else, we would always be the Diet Coke version of somebody else.
Forrest: So why don't we just be who God made us to be?
Forrest: And who God is making us into now?
Forrest: And it's exciting for me to think about the who we are as a church and the things that we value, that those things were created in this time right now when the church was could literally meet in one living room.
Forrest: When the church right now is meeting in the movie theater.
Forrest: One day we're gonna have a big building, and and if Lord willing, we'll have lots of people who come to be a part of our church.
Forrest: But what we value started right now, started right here.
Forrest: And so, again, for you who are in the room today, maybe you've been around for a while, and maybe you haven't, this is a perfect time for you to get to know what in the world you're a part of.
Forrest: Because here's the thing multiply church is not a building, it's not just a pastor, it's not just a staff, it's all of us.
Forrest: It's all of us.
Forrest: As we think about embodying and what we embody and what we value as a church, that means that you and me, as we go have gone through this process, say, okay, what does it look like?
Forrest: What who are we?
Forrest: And as we go through and look at some of these values that we've that we've boiled down into very small statements.
Forrest: Now, why we do that?
Forrest: We can just put a list of words, generous, uh, all integrity, uh what we chose to do is to do some simple statements that are connected to story because that's more relational in my mind.
Forrest: Connected to who we are completely.
Forrest: And so, as an introduction today, and as you think about what the things are that you value, we're gonna take a look at Jesus and who he was and who he valued and what he valued.
Forrest: Because ultimately you've stepped into a church who loves Jesus and looks to Jesus as our model and our God.
Forrest: And the truth is that we don't just believe that the message of Jesus was divine, but also the methods of Jesus were divine as well.
Forrest: His example, how he treated the disciples, how he treated people as the stories of the scripture and what he did to help chart a course for us as we step forward as a church together.
Forrest: And so over the next three weeks, we're gonna break down and go through these 10 value statements.
Forrest: Um, and so I'm gonna overview them now and then we're gonna hone in on three of them today.
Forrest: And so uh we'll we'll we'll just jump right in.
Forrest: So the first one is this, and and you all have heard these some of these statements before.
Forrest: We see a need, we feel a need, we look to sacrificially serve one another.
Forrest: Number two, we embrace the tension.
Forrest: We love the truth of God's word and his limitless grace.
Forrest: Number three, we do for one.
Forrest: We do for one what we wish we could do for everyone.
Forrest: Number four, we know it's crazy.
Forrest: Multiply it's crazy in all the best ways.
Forrest: Number five, we bring our best.
Forrest: You've heard me say that a million times.
Forrest: We get to bring our best because God brought his best to us.
Forrest: Number six, we are trailblazers.
Forrest: We blaze a trail of faith together, collectively.
Forrest: Number seven, we fuel the fire.
Forrest: We want to be a blessing to others.
Forrest: Number eight, we are builders.
Forrest: We are builders, not a building.
Forrest: Number nine, we find the X factor.
Forrest: We want to discover your gifts and deploy them for your purpose.
Forrest: And number 10, we take others with us.
Forrest: Our church is meant to be a team sport, not a solo assignment.
Forrest: Woo! So we're gonna dig into some of these today, starting with this statement.
Forrest: We see a need, feel a need.
Forrest: Now, this statement was first said uh by one of our uh team leaders here at Multiplies, Shannon Lee, wherever Shannon is in the house.
Forrest: Bringing the trailer, getting things set up, and out of overflow of Shannon.
Forrest: Now, this has been over a year ago, probably now.
Forrest: Out of an overflow of service, he said to a group of us, he said, you know what, we see a need, we feel a need.
Forrest: And and what that looks like is that we take uh we take we look for opportunities to sacrificially serve one another.
Forrest: We're the hands and feet of Jesus inside and outside the walls of the church.
Forrest: We won't wait for someone else to step up, we take action to meet the needs of those around us.
Forrest: We're gonna see from Jesus' ministry and a story from Christ in Mark chapter 2 that there was this group of people who were had all come to see Jesus, and and and Jesus was teaching inside of this house, and the house was slam full with people.
Forrest: So many people that people were pouring out the doors, pouring out the windows, and there were so many people that that were there that that not everybody could even get a seat and get in.
Forrest: And there were these four guys who had a friend who was paralyzed, and and they did something that not everybody else was willing to do.
Forrest: If you see in Mark chapter 2, verse 2, soon the house where uh he was staying was packed with visitors, and there was no more room even outside the door.
Forrest: And while he was preaching God's word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat.
Forrest: They couldn't bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, and so they dug a hole through the roof above his head, and then they lowered the man on his mat right down in front of Jesus.
Forrest: And when that man came down in front of Jesus, Jesus not only forgave him of his sins, but he told him to stand up and walk, and he did.
Forrest: And he picked up his mat and he walked out of the house praising God.
Forrest: We see a need, we feel a need, we see a need, and just like these four guys who were unnamed in the story, they don't get the glory, but these four guys, they did everything that they could to get their friend in front of Jesus, and we want to do the same here at Multiply.
Forrest: We want to be a people that thinks about how in the world can we get somebody and invite somebody so that they can get down in front of the feet of Jesus and they can have transforming life change that only God can do that we can't do for ourselves.
Forrest: You say, Forrest, you know, I can't I can't really relate to this story.
Forrest: I don't really know anybody like that.
Forrest: Uh you know, all I have around me is really just, I don't know, my family, like you know, we're all Christians, all believers.
Forrest: I don't know.
Forrest: I mean, I I don't really see somebody who's who's paralyzed and think, you know, what am I supposed to do about that?
Forrest: And Jesus makes a statement about what we see and who we see in Matthew chapter 25.
Forrest: Jesus says, For I was hungry and you didn't feed me.
Forrest: I was thirsty and you didn't give me a drink.
Forrest: I was a stranger and you didn't invite me into your home.
Forrest: I was naked and you didn't give me clothing.
Forrest: I was sick and in prison and you didn't visit me.
Forrest: Then they reply, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and not help you?
Forrest: And he will answer, I tell you the truth.
Forrest: When you refuse to help, the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.
Forrest: I told you last Sunday that I got invited to go into um see and talk to the staff of the Simon House, now the only homeless shelter in Franklin County.
Forrest: Some others have closed down.
Forrest: And so on Wednesday, uh I got to go over and to meet the staff, and there's two different locations.
Forrest: There's a downtown house that can house five families with children.
Forrest: And then there's a second location that uh is in the old sheriff's department building, and they've transformed this building into a shelter for people.
Forrest: And in the basement, they have 16 beds that are there and available for people who are uh single, don't have kids that need a place to stay to get back on their feet.
Forrest: I went and got to meet the staff, and these people have absolute hearts of gold.
Forrest: And what they told me is they said, Forrest, we have so many people right now who we're serving that there's literally a waiting list to get in.
Forrest: And I asked them, I said, Who who are these folks?
Forrest: Like we walked and saw, and we saw some people and and and met some folks, but but I just said, are these people who are like coming from out of town that kind of find their way into Frankfurt?
Forrest: Or are these people who are from Frankfurt?
Forrest: And they said, by and large, these are people who are here in Frankfurt, these are people of Franklin County that have found themselves on hard times, don't know what to do.
Forrest: And so they described, they told us, they said, you know, right now in the in the shelter, you know, what's recommended is that people can stay for 30 days, but they said, For us, we can't even get people a new ID card or a social security card that they've lost because they've been living on the streets in a tent.
Forrest: Like so, so they allow people to stay to up to three months in both locations.
Forrest: And as I went through and I walked through and I saw and saw the hundreds of people that they are serving here in Franklin County, I just said, we've got to come alongside them.
Forrest: We gotta come alongside them.
Forrest: They said that you know there's hundreds of people who uh are are homeless here in Frankfurt.
Forrest: We don't see a lot of them because they're out in the woods in tents.
Forrest: They talked about that during COVID that they uh that during COVID that they opened up the the Frankfurt High School gym in downtown Frankfurt.
Forrest: I wasn't living in Frankfurt at that time, but apparently they opened the gym during COVID times to allow people who were were homeless to come and to be in the gym, and apparently the gym was packed out.
Forrest: And they said, Force it was the first time that Franklin County really saw the homelessness that's actually here and the problem that it is.
Forrest: And so Jesus tells us that when we refuse to love, to see the need, and those least of these, we're refusing to help Jesus himself.
Forrest: It's intense words.
Forrest: And I think about for us, I I I know we're gonna be we're gonna be coming up with some ways that we can go and be a blessing at the Simon House that'll be coming soon so that we can continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus outside the walls of the church.
Forrest: We see a need, we feel a need.
Forrest: Amen, church.
Forrest: The next one is we embrace the tension, we're bold about grace and truth.
Forrest: We love the truth of God's word and his limitless grace.
Forrest: We have tough conversations and we call each other up to the next level.
Forrest: We will be bold and filled with humility when it comes to resolving conflicts swiftly and completely.
Forrest: Matthew 5, 23 through 24.
Forrest: Jesus tells us this in Matthew 5.
Forrest: So if you're presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar.
Forrest: Go and be reconciled to that person, and then come offer your sacrifice to God.
Forrest: That's a strong word from Jesus to tell us that our and your heavenly worship isn't right until you've embraced the tension of your earthly relationships.
Forrest: That when we worship God, that it's not just a vertical relationship, but also our worship, it's impacted by the relations that we have here horizontally here on earth.
Forrest: And that we are gonna be people who embrace the tension of grace and truth.
Forrest: You wanna know why?
Forrest: Because Jesus himself embodied both of those things.
Forrest: John 1, 17.
Forrest: So the law was given through Moses.
Forrest: Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Forrest: Scott Nichol, who preached here a few weeks ago, he's actually a preacher and a pastor, and he actually has the word grace tattooed on one arm and truth tattooed on the other arm, to remind him as he preaches the gospel that we should embody both grace and truth like Jesus did.
Forrest: That we're gonna be a people that loves people well.
Forrest: That though we have the truth of God's word and that we know what's right, that we're not obsessed with being right all the time.
Forrest: That we're able to be in relationship with people so that they can get right with God.
Forrest: We know the truth of God's word, but we're not gonna compromise it.
Forrest: We're also not gonna treat people without grace and without love.
Forrest: When they come through the doors of multiply church, they're gonna experience the grace of Jesus.
Forrest: 2 Peter 1, 2, it tells us that we should multiply the grace and peace of God according to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Forrest: And I want for this place to be a place that as we multiply, that we multiply the grace and peace of God for others.
Forrest: Why should we do that?
Forrest: Because we're gonna be blessed because of it.
Forrest: Our ultimate posture in our relationships will be to be one of making peace, not just keeping peace.
Forrest: You know, there's a difference.
Forrest: There's a difference between being a peacekeeper with the tensions that are in our families and that are in our workplaces, and and and and even some of you have have have even said before, you know, I'm just I'm just the peacekeeper of our family.
Forrest: Just try to make everything, just smooth everything.
Forrest: Over so that we can get through it all.
Forrest: And ultimately that means you take a big broom and you're sweeping things under the rug.
Forrest: But Jesus doesn't call us to be a peacekeeper, he calls us to be a peacemaker.
Forrest: In Matthew 5, 9, Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Forrest: So be a peacemaker.
Forrest: Be a peacemaker.
Forrest: We're going to live in attention of grace and truth.
Forrest: We're going to preach the word of God.
Forrest: And we're going to stand on God's word.
Forrest: And we're also going to have a posture of humility and of grace and of love so that people who walk through the door can find the peace of God.
Forrest: We're going to embrace attention.
Forrest: But that's okay.
Forrest: Because we're going to embrace it.
Forrest: The next one is we do for one.
Forrest: We do for one person what we wish we could do for everyone.
Forrest: We know one invite, one blessing can change someone's life forever.
Forrest: Jesus left the 99 to go after the one, and we will too.
Forrest: Luke chapter 15.
Forrest: Jesus tells us this parable of in the chapter of Luke 15.
Forrest: There's three different stories: one of a lost sheep, one of a lost coin, and one of a lost son that we talked about a few weeks ago.
Forrest: In chapter 15, tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.
Forrest: That's verse 1.
Forrest: Verse 2.
Forrest: This made the Pharisees and the teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people, even eating with them.
Forrest: Can you believe it?
Forrest: Verse 3.
Forrest: So Jesus told them this story.
Forrest: If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do?
Forrest: Won't he leave the 99 others in the wilderness and go search for the one that was lost until he finds it?
Forrest: And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.
Forrest: When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me because I found my lost sheep.
Forrest: In the same way, there's more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over 99 others who are righteous and haven't strayed away.
Forrest: This is a powerful teaching.
Forrest: That there may be 99 people who are righteous and know Jesus, but the one that is lost, we have a God that will go and search and find that one because he loves and cares about them and he's calling us to do it.
Forrest: We do for one what we wish we could do for everyone.
Forrest: This is a mantra and something that Emily and I have tried to live out for a long time.
Forrest: We can't give everybody a place to stay in our house, but we could do it for one person.
Forrest: We can't pay everybody's bills, but maybe for one person we could step up and do something and do what we wish we could do for everybody and do it for one person.
Forrest: And that involves and includes an invitation to be in relationship with God.
Forrest: A few weeks ago, somebody here in our church told me one of our teachers, we have some amazing teachers in multiply.
Forrest: One of our teachers told me a story.
Forrest: This do for one is something you've heard me say many times over the last few months.
Forrest: This is a team of tried to embody.
Forrest: And one of our teachers came to me and told me a story, and she said that there was somebody that was uh in her classroom that she got wind of and found out that this family was struggling, struggling so much that they had this hundreds and hundreds of dollars electric bill that they were unable to pay.
Forrest: And so they came to her asking if there was any resources, and she was trying to figure out what to do and if she could get assistance somewhere, and she said, you know what, we just decided that we just wanted we just stepped up and we paid it.
Forrest: Me and my family.
Forrest: And then she said, Because we do for one.
Forrest: She connected the story of that generosity and for them being called to help this one family that they can't pay for everybody's electric bill, but for this one child and this one family.
Forrest: They said, you know what, we we'll we'll do for one.
Forrest: And when when she said that, it just it blessed me.
Forrest: It blessed me.
Forrest: It blessed me because it was true, true generosity there.
Forrest: And going outside of the walls of the church to love someone well, and we're gonna be known by our love.
Forrest: Jesus tells us that as disciples, that the world they're gonna know us by the way that we love one another.
Forrest: There's so many things that we can focus on, so many different principles from the scripture, so many different principles for the ministry and life of Jesus.
Forrest: But if we miss love, we've missed it all.
Forrest: If we miss that Jesus calls us to love the Lord our God and our neighbor as ourselves, we've missed it.
Forrest: And so we get to do for one.
Forrest: It makes me think about the early days of our church.
Forrest: Two years ago, now, a little over, a little, a little under two years ago now.
Forrest: Our church was just beginning to meet in a living room.
Forrest: We were beginning to do some service things in the community, try to come alongside some folks and fuel the fire.
Forrest: And when I say like this is the beginnings, I think that we had like less than 20 adults who were a part of multiply at the time.
Forrest: We were a long way away from having Sunday morning services or anything like this.
Forrest: We didn't have any of this equipment and all that, none of that stuff, trailer, none of those things.
Forrest: All it was just literally a living room.
Forrest: And some people saying, hey, we're gonna see God do something from nothing.
Forrest: And we, in connection with one of our partners that we have gotten to serve many times, the Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation, we got connected to this grandmother who was taking care of her grandchildren because the parents were incarcerated.
Forrest: And she found herself in a state because of uh of an illness, an infection in her leg that had taken over, and that she was coming up for a surgery that she she so desperately needed, but she was literally homebound in a house north of town.
Forrest: Now we got wind of this that she needed to uh she needed to be able to get to these doctor's appointments, and she literally was locked in her house.
Forrest: The steps down, she couldn't traverse them.
Forrest: And so the Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation came to us and said, Hey, what would would you guys, would y'all be able to like do something for this grandmother?
Forrest: Like, could you maybe like build a wheelchair ramp?
Forrest: And I'm like, How are we gonna build a wheelchair ramp?
Forrest: Like, we just got like a small group of us, just a few guys.
Forrest: And I just said, Yes, yes, we can.
Forrest: We're gonna do that.
Forrest: I really had no business saying yes at the time.
Forrest: But the Lord just presented a need in front of us, and and it was like, hey, could your church do this?
Forrest: And I was like, hey, where there's a will, there's a way, like, let's figure this out.
Forrest: And so we went and and and met her, and I was just I was just recruiting everybody.
Forrest: I I recruited my neighbor, I recruited my my neighbor's landlord to help us out.
Forrest: He did the drawings, and I was just recruiting all these different people, and a couple guys came from Southland, and and one guy came from another church here in town, and we we we ended up scrounging together like 10 guys, went and got the materials, and we went out and built this wheelchair ramp for Miss Tammy.
Forrest: And I'll never forget when she came wheeling out the back door in her in her wheelchair and just a huge smile on her face, and she said, Can I go down it?
Forrest: I said, Yeah, for sure.
Forrest: Like, let's let's test this thing out, you know, fingers crossed, kick it, you know, it's this thing standing.
Forrest: And so she wheeled down it and wheeled back up it, and you would have thought that like she was at Disney World because she had been having to come out of her house up front, and she'd had to scoot down on her bottom each stair to somebody at the bottom to help her get her back into her chair to get into a car, and now she was able to get her wheelchair down.
Forrest: And I'll never forget, I went back into her room where she was laid in her bed, it was dark in there, and she just said, Thank you all so much for doing this for me.
Forrest: She said, Years and years ago, we were attending a church, and my son at the time there ended up being this kind of abusive situation that was going on in the church, and so we've never been back.
Forrest: I've never been back to church since.
Forrest: And honestly, to be honest with you, I've I've kind of given up on God.
Forrest: But she said, You all coming here today and building this wheelchair ramp, it's restored my faith in God, that God sees me.
Forrest: I said, Hey, Miss Tammy, God loves you, He loves you so much.
Forrest: And I bent down by her bed and got to pray over her, pray over her circumstances, her surgery, pray for God's miracles and modern medicine.
Forrest: And she ended up getting well.
Forrest: And all the way back then, almost two years ago, before most of us even were in this room, we would do for one.
Forrest: Because Jesus, all that he's done for us.
Forrest: You know, I I I met Jesus a long time ago now as a teenager here in central Kentucky, and I want to see more people meet Jesus here in central Kentucky.
Forrest: Maybe think about what Jesus did for us.
Forrest: Jesus saw us in need, and when he saw the need, he filled the need, and despite the difficulty of going to the cross, he embraced the tension of the call of God on him to go and to sacrifice himself in our place, that he would come after us and that he would do it for one of us.
Forrest: That's what Jesus did for us.
Forrest: And we get to follow his example as a church, and we get to follow his example in our families.
Forrest: We get to see God change this community, beyond this community.
Forrest: I believe he's gonna do it.
Forrest: I know that he's doing it.
Forrest: That the baptism water is gonna continue to be stirred here at our church.
Forrest: Because people are meeting him.
Forrest: I know some of you all here today, this is your first time ever being here.
Forrest: You don't even know what I'm talking about, but I just need you to trust me that this group of people that you've stepped into, what I've talked about today, this is not something that just is aspirational.
Forrest: This is who we are, and this is who we're gonna who we're gonna continue to be.
Forrest: So join with us.
Forrest: Join with us.
Forrest: We need you.
Forrest: We need you to step in.
Forrest: We need you to say, you know what, yeah.
Forrest: I'm gonna pick this up and I'm gonna I'm gonna go after what God's called me to do here in this place.
Forrest: And I believe he's gonna do it.
Forrest: Maybe for some of us in the room today, maybe today is the day for you that just like Miss Tammy, you've you've just you've just lost your confidence and your faith in God that even sees you and cares about you.
Forrest: Can I know?
Forrest: Can I just tell you today Jesus loves you so deeply?
Forrest: He knows every hair on your head and he loves you so much that he wants nothing more than to be in relationship with you, for you to believe in him so that you can be with him in paradise for eternity.
Forrest: Today can be your day of salvation.
Forrest: Receiving him.
Forrest: Can I you bow your heads with me right now?
Forrest: Father, I pray, Lord, right now in this place.
Forrest: God, I thank you, Lord, for the people that God, you have uh brought here today, God, on purpose.
Forrest: God, I pray right now, Lord, that any person in this place, God, that is not yet right with you, has not yet received you as their savior, that's lost their way, that today, God, that that they would know that you are here, God, that you want to find them.
Forrest: That out of the hundred sheep, the one that strayed, that God, you're coming right for them today.
Forrest: So, God, I pray, Lord, all over this place, if there's anybody in the room today, God, that needs to receive you as Savior, that they would pray to you right now, God, would say, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: I believe that you're the Son of God and that you are alive.
Forrest: I give my life to you as you gave your life for me.
Forrest: Thank you for saving me.
Forrest: Wash me as white as snow.
Forrest: In Jesus' name.
Forrest: Nobody looking around, multiply church.
Forrest: Today, today is the day that you prayed that prayer to have God save you.
Forrest: Would you just very quickly, just so I can see you and pray for you, would you just raise your hand up?
Forrest: Just raise it high.
Forrest: I see you, I see you, I see you too.
Forrest: I want to pray right now, God, these two that have made this step today, God, to receive you as their savior.
Forrest: God, I pray right now, Lord, that that you would seal that prayer.
Forrest: God, as they step into right relationship with you, God, that it's not gonna be easy and it won't be perfect, but God, they're gonna have you walking with them.
Forrest: So, God, I pray, Lord, for grace and peace to descend on their heart and mind right now, Father.
Forrest: Now and into eternity.
Forrest: We thank you, we praise you in Jesus' name.
Forrest: Amen.
Forrest: Celebrate together, celebrate together, celebrate together.