Forrest: Amen.
Forrest: Good morning.
Forrest: I'm Forrest Coleman, Lee Pastor here at Multiply.
Forrest: My family, along with a bunch of others, now uh well over a year ago, um, seemed to to launch Multiply Church, and I'm glad to meet you.
Forrest: If I've not met you, welcome, glad that you're here.
Forrest: Um, I've got something right here.
Forrest: This is a set of blueprints.
Forrest: Mm-hmm.
Forrest: These blueprints uh represent uh a year and a half worth of hours and work and the Lord's provision.
Forrest: I told you guys a couple of weeks ago that we got our building permits to start construction.
Forrest: Praise the Lord.
Forrest: And I'm happy to announce today that in less than a week's time, construction is scheduled to begin for the future home of multiplied church.
Forrest: And I'm just so excited for what the Lord is doing.
Forrest: I'm so excited for us to be able to step into a space that we can make and call our own and for the Lord to do all the work that he's gonna do so that we can uh do more ministry, serve our city better because of what he's gonna provide and is providing for us right now.
Forrest: Now, when we get into this space, it's gonna be bare bones.
Forrest: If you're expecting it to be a retirement home, it's not gonna be.
Forrest: We're not retiring there, we're moving forward.
Forrest: If you want it to look like something like that, if you think it's gonna be all the carpet and nice and all that, no, that's not, it's gonna be a forward operating base for us to do the work of the Lord together.
Forrest: It's gonna be a place for us to see our children trained.
Forrest: It's gonna be a space for, I'm gonna start, I need to stop.
Forrest: It's gonna be a place for us to see God move powerfully among us.
Forrest: And it's not our destination.
Forrest: The old Save a lot is not our savior.
Forrest: We are builders, not a building.
Forrest: When we think about construction, uh last year, Emily and I, we did a little renovation project at our home at our home with some help of some friends of ours, and there's an attic space that we had, and uh our our uh baby magnolia was on the way and we needed some more space, and so we're like, let's transform this little attic area and we can transform that into a nursery room.
Forrest: And so we started the process of the we started the process of renovation, and we had different contractors and folks who were coming in and out.
Forrest: If you've gone through any kind of renovation or done any kind of construction like that, you know there's people that are in and out all the time, and there was a uh an HVAC guy that was up there, and we were standing in this attic space and this explode exposed plank floor, and this guy looked down on the ground, this uh contractor, and he saw what looked like a little metal knob on the floor with the floorboards, and he bent down there and he picked it up the knob, this little thing that he thought was a knob, and he's like, Oh man, I thought that was a knob, that was a trapdoor.
Forrest: I thought there was gonna be a million dollars in there.
Forrest: You'd split it with me, wouldn't you?
Forrest: I'm like, uh, this is my house, so you might get a finder's fee, but I'm definitely not splitting it with you.
Forrest: Uh there was no trapdoor, there was none of that.
Forrest: But you know, when you're getting into uh building project and renovation, as you peel back the layers, you don't know what you're gonna find.
Forrest: You don't know what's going to come forward.
Forrest: And I don't know about you, but does anybody in the room feel like today that your life is always under construction?
unknown: Yes.
Forrest: Like that you should be going around with a sign around your neck that says, excuse our mess.
Forrest: Construction being done.
Forrest: I feel that way.
Forrest: Any of y'all in the room, do you want to be a better version of yourself tomorrow than you are today?
Forrest: I feel like there's there's there's a lot of people who are in that place that they want to improve, they want to be better, they want to grow, they want to be in a better place than they were, that tomorrow would be a brighter future than the day before.
Forrest: But there are also some of us in the room that are so arrogant that we think that we don't need to change.
Forrest: That we don't need to improve, that everyone around us should just acquiesce and accept us exactly how we are, versus us knowing that we need to step forward to make our life look, feel, smell, talk, act more like Jesus.
Forrest: And that our life should be continually under construction.
Forrest: John speaks to our motivations about a life that should be under construction.
Forrest: Briefly in 1 John 2, 15.
Forrest: If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them.
Forrest: For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, comes not from the Father, but from the world.
Forrest: The world and its desires pass away.
Forrest: But whoever does the will of the Lord lives what?
Forrest: Forever.
Forrest: Some of us in the room today that aren't recognizing the fact that, you know what, we we should be under construction, that the walk and the process of us following Jesus is that we're never fully perfect.
Forrest: There's only one perfect man, and that's Jesus.
Forrest: That was we submit ourselves to him, that it's an ever-growing process for us to grow more in Christ, and that there are desires, and the world is just at our doorstep waiting for us to give in to the lust of the flesh, the eyes, the pride of life, the flesh.
Forrest: Those desires that are not gonna lead to our flourishing but our destruction.
Forrest: The lust of the eyes, our selfish ambitions, the pride of life, believing that our way is better than God's way, and turning away from his word.
Forrest: Now we're not gonna dive into each of those today, but in the coming weeks we are gonna dive into those more.
Forrest: But the fact that we need to seek desires that are not of the world but are of the Lord, that us have desires in alignment with God and what he's calling us to do.
Forrest: Jesus speaks to us very clearly about what and how we should be praying for and what we are going to receive from the Lord.
Forrest: Not the world, but from the Lord.
Forrest: In Matthew chapter 7.
Forrest: Jesus says this keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for.
Forrest: Keep on seeking and you will find.
Forrest: Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.
Forrest: For everyone who asks receives.
Forrest: Everyone who seeks finds.
Forrest: To everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
Forrest: You parents, I love this.
Forrest: You parents.
Forrest: If your children ask for a loaf of bread, would you give them a stone instead?
Forrest: That's the words of Jesus.
Forrest: Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake?
Forrest: Of course not.
Forrest: So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more?
Forrest: How much more?
Forrest: Will your Heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask them?
Forrest: I love my daughters.
Forrest: And I want to give them good gifts.
Forrest: And there are times where for me, even I have to do things like take things away from them because they're calling their mom stupid or they're acting up and they're doing the wrong thing.
Forrest: And so there are times I have to take a doll and put it up on the mantle and say, you can't have that for a day or two, even a negative consequence.
Forrest: But when I do that negative consequence, it's not because I don't love them.
Forrest: It's not that I don't love her, it's because I'm giving her discipline.
Forrest: God wants to give good gifts to his children.
Forrest: You ask for bread, and are you gonna get stoned?
Forrest: No.
Forrest: And we're ever in this process of us aligning ourselves with God's will for our life.
Forrest: When Jesus says this in this passage and says, hey, what you if you ask, you shall receive.
Forrest: That's in alignment in accordance with what God's good and perfect will is for your life.
Forrest: Just because you ask for a Maserati doesn't mean that it's God's good and perfect will for your life.
Forrest: It may be for somebody's, it may not be for you.
Forrest: That's between you and the Lord and the perfect plan that God is in the story He is writing in your life for you.
Forrest: That when you ask, that you're asking for you to come in alignment and to receive from God what He has lined out for you as a good gift that's going to prosper you and move you forward in life.
Forrest: He's gonna give you the good.
Forrest: The goodness of God.
Forrest: That is when you seek him, then you'll find him.
Forrest: And then God is good to his kids and loving kindness.
Forrest: See, I'm gonna I'm gonna share a passage with you this morning that you probably you maybe you have heard it before, maybe you haven't, but this is a transformational scripture that that coincides with Jesus and his statement right now that God wants to give his kids good gifts.
Forrest: And it this is in Romans 2, verse 4.
Forrest: If you don't have this passage memorized or marked down, this is one to highlight in your Bible.
Forrest: The scripture says this, or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance, and patience?
Forrest: Not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance.
Forrest: Now let me break it down.
Forrest: This word repentance at the end, this big$10 church word.
Forrest: You hear it all the time, or maybe you hear it when you're at church, and what does it actually mean?
Forrest: It's the Greek word meta-oe.
Forrest: Everybody say meta-oe.
Forrest: It's a Greek word, it's actually a military term.
Forrest: It's akin to where you would see a drill sergeant say about face, and all the soldiers turn around and begin to march the other direction.
Forrest: That Paul is instructing us and he's telling us, don't you know that it's God's kindness that's gonna lead you to change your life?
Forrest: Don't you know that it's God's kindness that he loves you and his goodness, that he wants to give you good gifts that's gonna be the motivator for you to step forward to change?
Forrest: Maybe I uh tell it to you like this.
Forrest: Um, when my family used to drive down all the time to Alabama to see my grandparents on I-65 on the way down, there was a sign that we would pass, and uh it looks like this.
Forrest: I don't know if you have ever seen it before there, uh, but it says, go to church or the devil's gonna get you.
Forrest: And so every time we would drive down to Alabama, there's this sign on the side of the road on I-65.
Forrest: It's still there, and this beautiful sign that's made and everything, and the message is clear.
Forrest: Go to church or the devil's gonna get you.
Forrest: I saw this as a kid all the time driving down there, and I just think, oh man, I better go to church or the devil's gonna get me.
Forrest: He's gonna come after me.
Forrest: My friend Heather, who grew up in a uh kind of a backwoods church, and she's uh when she was young, evangelists came through and was giving the gospel message and talking about following Jesus, and he must have given an illustration, uh, which, you know, I can understand the sentiment, but he was talking to a group of children, and he said, If the if the floor, if an earthquake was happening, the floor was gonna open up right now, which of you would fall down into hell?
Forrest: And so Heather, out of fear that the floor was gonna open up and she was gonna fall down into hell, accepting Christ as her Lord and Savior.
Forrest: And now Heather's amazing, she's a wonderful woman of God, but even now she recognizes the fact that as it's good, obviously, to be aware of eternity and the end of our life.
Forrest: That here's the thing it's not God's judgment that leads us to repentance, it's not God's anger that leads us to repentance, it's God's kindness.
Forrest: Some of you walked in today, and you may be a church for the first time in a very long time, and your perception of God is that he's this big cosmic cop that's just waiting for you to mess up so he can slap the cuffs on you.
Forrest: But instead, we have a God above who's looking at you and saying, I want to give you a good gift.
Forrest: I want to be good to you, I want to love you, I want to show you what the right path is.
Forrest: Yeah, the life, your your world, it's not gonna, it's gonna have troubles, and there may be some discipline involved along the way, but God is good and he's for your good.
Forrest: And the motivator us coming to God is not out of fear, but out of loving-kindness.
Forrest: Maybe today you're coming to this place, and maybe you grew up in an environment like that where God is just, you perceive that God is just angry at you.
Forrest: Can I tell you that God is not mad at you?
Forrest: He's not mad at you today.
Forrest: He loves you.
Forrest: He wants you to change, he wants you to repent, he wants you to meta oe.
Forrest: He wants you to move forward into the flourishing that God has called over your life.
Forrest: But he's not burning with anger at you and wrath.
Forrest: You want to know why?
Forrest: Because that wrath was satisfied on the cross of Jesus Christ.
Forrest: When Jesus was hanging on that cross 2,000 years ago, the wrath, the full judgment of God poured out onto his back, and it was satisfied in the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the perfect Lamb, Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, the sinless one.
Forrest: And so, because of that for us, are there things that we do that displease the Lord?
Forrest: Yes, but his response to us is I want to be kind to you, so please come and change.
Forrest: Please come to me and let me help you.
Forrest: Uh, anybody know this couple?
Forrest: Chip and Joanna Gaines?
Forrest: Anybody seen them?
Forrest: Hit show, fixer upper.
Forrest: I like that show.
Forrest: It's been going on for a long time.
Forrest: You've probably seen an episode at a time or another.
Forrest: Now they have a whole absolute empire, the Magnolia Empire, Waco, Texas, you go down to the silos.
Forrest: Some of y'all probably have taken your pilgrimage down there to the silos to see the magnolia wares and go to the bakery and do all the stuff, or you're wanting to, you're putting back money to go.
Forrest: They got a whole empire.
Forrest: But you've probably seen the show before, and it's this hit show, and it kind of follows the same pattern that when uh a couple is wanting to look for a home that they want to buy and renovate and to be a fixer-upper and to make beautiful, and Chip and Joanna is this force of a team together that do the renovations, and she does the design, and Chip's the one who gets out there and does most of the renovation work.
Forrest: And so they're going and they're searching, and they present three different homes to the potential buyers, and they say, we want to find the worst home in the best neighborhood.
Forrest: So they're going to find one that so they can maximize their profits, maximize their equity in the place.
Forrest: And so they go through the process of looking through.
Forrest: I've always thought, like, we're going to choose one of these houses.
Forrest: I don't know why we're going through this whole process of looking at two others you didn't choose.
Forrest: Like, let's just start with the one that you're going to do.
Forrest: But anyway, they go through three houses and then they choose which one they're going to go with, and then Joanna, and then she uh builds a a uh a plan for them with blueprints, and then they start to work through a process of doing the renovations, and as they go from plan to process in the in the process portion of the show, inevitably in the middle of it, something goes wrong.
Forrest: Something goes wrong in the renovation every time.
Forrest: It's really the drama is super high because these people they're putting their money in, and Chip's gotta get on the phone and gotta call them and say, There's water damage here, this wall, the the cabinets won't fit, whatever the the problem is, and they say it's gonna be ten thousand more dollars, and these people are just like, okay.
Forrest: I'm like, who are these people?
Forrest: Who it's just like, yeah, we're gonna do this extra, okay.
Forrest: Well, I guess we're gonna have to do that.
Forrest: It's like, who are these people?
Forrest: Where do they come from?
Forrest: Um and something goes wrong, and they have to overcome that, and and then finally they they they end with the final product.
Forrest: That what they have, what what the the production of it all in the ends where they've got the big picture up of what the house used to look like, and they say, Welcome home, and it opens up, and then they go through the walkthrough of this new renovated house, and every time somebody's tearing up and crying, and they end with them handing them the keys, and it's just a beautiful 30 minutes of life.
Forrest: Every time, you know what's gonna happen, and they go through this process, this this planning out of what God may have for them, the process of going through it, and then ending with the final product.
Forrest: And Jesus has already told us in the passage before that we also have a process that we go through.
Forrest: The process is that we ask, then we seek, and then we find.
Forrest: This process that we go through of the plan, the process and the final product coincides in our mind with the fact that we're asked to ask God in accordance with his will.
Forrest: Ask him for what you're wanting to receive.
Forrest: And if you're what you're wanting to receive, if it is in alignment with God's will, that is you continue, that you knock on the door and you continue to seek.
Forrest: Jesus is the one that says, seek first the kingdom of God and righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you.
Forrest: That as we ask God, ask to receive Him, ask for God to give us good gifts, that there's then a process for us to go through of where we are seeking first the kingdom of God, and we have to ask ourselves, is God first in my life?
Forrest: Is me seeking after God?
Forrest: Is that the number one aim of my day, of my hour, of my life?
Forrest: Am I truly seeking God's kingdom and his righteousness?
Forrest: Because if I do those two things, then all the things will be added unto me.
Forrest: But am I seeking first?
Forrest: Am I knocking so that the door will be opened to me, and then ultimately you get to find God's will.
Forrest: You get to find God's will for your life.
Forrest: You get to find God's blessing.
Forrest: Jesus gives us this clear instruction that we are to align ourselves with his will.
Forrest: And as you ask and you ask and you ask, eventually what you're asking for, it's going to coincide with what God wants for your life and what he wants you to be asking for.
Forrest: And as you knock and you seek him and you seek his righteousness, then all the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, the flesh, those things will go away.
Forrest: I don't know if you ever try to kick a habit, but if you just focus on kicking the habit, you have to replace a bad habit with a good habit, okay?
Forrest: You got to replace the bad habit with something that is better or something that you can focus on.
Forrest: Because if you just focus on the bad thing, then you're just focused on the bad thing.
Forrest: But Jesus tells us, seek first Him.
Forrest: Seek first the kingdom, and He's gonna help you walk through a plan, a process, the final product.
Forrest: I've seen this in a powerful way over the last couple of years.
Forrest: Can I share something with you real quick?
Forrest: I saw this picture this last week, and I don't talk about this part of our story very much, but I want to show you uh multiply church Easter 2021 two years ago.
Forrest: This was multiply church two years ago.
Forrest: In Emily and I's living room at the Deepwood house, we don't even live there anymore.
Forrest: That's not even my living room anymore.
Forrest: There are a couple of families that aren't represented, but on the Sunday evening of Easter 2021, we didn't have anything in the morning.
Forrest: We said, hey, we're gonna get together, a few of us, for uh Easter evening.
Forrest: We're just gonna hang out.
Forrest: We hadn't even had our first event yet.
Forrest: This was April the 4th, 2021.
Forrest: Our first event for the church was April the 18th, 2021, where 12 people joined the launch team that first, this is before that.
Forrest: This is just walking in faith.
Forrest: This is just a bunch of people sitting around and saying, hey, wouldn't it be crazy if one day we got to serve people in a jail and help them move their life?
Forrest: Could you imagine what it would be like if we had like a worship service on Sunday mornings where anybody could come?
Forrest: We don't even know where it'd be held.
Forrest: Maybe it'd be held at a school, maybe held at a movie theater.
Forrest: We don't know where it's gonna be.
Forrest: What could you could you imagine?
Forrest: Could you imagine what it would be like if we had a church and a whole bunch of people that were able to serve and love people near the hands and feet of Jesus here in our town, in our community?
Forrest: This is so early, we're barely this is this is not even strategic.
Forrest: Math multiplied church with just a a dream, just a whisper, just a nothing.
Forrest: Just a just a step of faith.
Forrest: Each person who walks into the room now, you are taking up the mantle of the faith of the people who were in this room.
Forrest: No different or better than you.
Forrest: They just got there before you.
Forrest: But for you who are walking in the room today, you're invited into a faith of asking God, will you do it?
Forrest: Will you do it?
Forrest: Do you want to?
Forrest: God, will you give me that good gift?
Forrest: Will you bless my marriage?
Forrest: Will you bless my kids?
Forrest: Will you use me for your kingdom?
Forrest: Listen to the words.
Forrest: Psalm twenty-three.
Forrest: The Lord is my shepherd.
Forrest: I shall not want.
Forrest: He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters.
Forrest: He restores my soul.
Forrest: He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake.
Forrest: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
Forrest: Your rod and your staff, they come from me.
Forrest: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
Forrest: You anoint my head with oil.
Forrest: My cup runs over.
Forrest: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
Forrest: And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Forrest: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
Forrest: As we talk about us being fixer-uppers, we're starting with the perspective that we need to trust the fixer.
Forrest: That we gotta fix our eyes on the fixer.
Forrest: And the motivation behind us growing in our faith is not out of judgment or for us all just to feel bad about ourselves or feel guilty.
Forrest: But instead for us to receive the kindness of God.
Forrest: Receive his kindness.
Forrest: To say, step forward with me.
Forrest: Put sin to death in my name, in your life, for your family, for your future, for your kids.
Forrest: Let me come alongside you and help you.
Forrest: Because we can't do it ourselves, can we?
Forrest: We can't fix ourselves.
Forrest: We have to have the Holy Spirit's power.
Forrest: For us as a church, as we walk forward, we cannot do it on our own, let me tell you.
Forrest: We haven't been able to do it the whole time on our own.
Forrest: But instead to fix our face, fix our eyes on Jesus and say, God, you you build the path, you make the plan, you walk us through the process, you help us, God, to receive the good gifts that you have for us.
Forrest: And today you may have come into the room right now and you haven't yet trusted the fixer who is Jesus.
Forrest: Can I tell you that Jesus loves you?
Forrest: He died on a cross for you 2,000 years ago because of how much he loves you, and he wants nothing more than to be in the right relationship with you, to give you the good gift of forgiveness and salvation today.
Forrest: So that you can trust him and trust his goodness.
Forrest: There's somebody in the room today you walked in, you don't know whether or not you can trust God.
Forrest: Bad things have happened.
Forrest: You've been sinned against, you've been harmed, you've been hurt, and you are wondering, where is God?
Forrest: Can I tell you that we have an enemy, Satan and his demons, who want to destroy you, want to come against you, crouching like a roaring lion, wanting to devour you.
Forrest: And when you take up the shield of faith and say, Jesus, I'm going to trust you, when you do that, God's perfect plan, he's faithful.
Forrest: He's faithful.
Forrest: He's faithful to love you, to restore you, to redeem you, so that everybody on this planet will have the opportunity to.
Forrest: But instead, he's giving us a chance for us to turn, for us to come in repentance to him, including the worst of the worst.
Forrest: The apostle Paul was a murderer.
Forrest: Moses was a murderer.
Forrest: And God put him on a path and a plan and a process for him to use them powerfully for his kingdom.
Forrest: None of you, none of you are too far gone for God to redeem.
Forrest: Me included.
Forrest: I need God's help and his fixing of me as much as anybody else in this room.
Forrest: And I want to pray that over you right now.
Forrest: You pray with me.
Forrest: Father, it's by your power that we have breath in our lungs that we are able to live.
Forrest: God, we thank you, Lord, for your goodness.
Forrest: God, we thank you, Lord, for your mercy.
Forrest: We thank you, Lord, for your power that you've given us access to by the blood of the Lamb.
Forrest: Father, I pray right now across this room, Lord.
Forrest: I pray faith over this room, Father.
Forrest: Belief.
Forrest: God, I pray and trust in you, God.
Forrest: That your ways are higher than ours.
Forrest: That God, your plan for our lives, that it's better than we could ever imagine.
Forrest: So, Father, right now, Lord, I pray all across the room that right now you would help each person here to imagine what it would be like for them to fully trust you.
Forrest: To allow you to fix those places that haven't yet been touched.
Forrest: Father, I pray, Lord, that every person across the room, Father, that Lord, today you would help us to trust in your goodness.
Forrest: That ultimately, God, even though this world will pass away, that God, we will live forever.
Forrest: That we'll never die.
Forrest: And be in eternity with you.
Forrest: Father, in this place, across the room today, God, there may be somebody in this room who's not received you as Savior.
Forrest: Father, I pray right now, God, that they wouldn't let another day go by without making their life right with you.
Forrest: God, that right now they would pray in their mind and their heart, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: Believe that you're the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sins.
Forrest: Forgive me.
Forrest: Wash me so that I can be in heaven with you one day.
Forrest: Give you my life.
Forrest: As you gave your life for mine.
Forrest: Thank you for saving me.
Forrest: In Jesus' name.
Forrest: Nobody looking around.
Forrest: Today, if you prayed that prayer to the Lord for him to save you, for you to receive his forgiveness on the cross, if you prayed that today, and I embarrass you.
Forrest: I just want to ask you if I can pray for you just to raise your hand across this room.
Forrest: If you prayed that prayer today.
Forrest: Father, I pray over the room today, Father.
Forrest: Lord, any of those that are coming to you, make a decision, Father, to follow you.
Forrest: Lord, that you would seal it.
Forrest: God, I pray for those that are in our lives who don't yet know you, Father, our friends, our family.
Forrest: God, you would help to use us in your perfect plan.
Forrest: See them come to be made alive.
Forrest: We thank you, Lord.
Forrest: We praise you.
Forrest: In Jesus' name.
Forrest: Amen.
Forrest: Church, will you stand with me as we worship and sing?