Forrest: We're in the series High Hopes.
Forrest: Today's message is titled Against All Hope.
Forrest: And I wonder today if there's anybody in the room who needs some hope from the Lord.
Forrest: I know that there is.
Forrest: I know the those of you who are here that I've not yet met.
Forrest: My name is Forrest Coleman, lead pastor here at Multiply.
Forrest: It's great to meet you.
Forrest: Great to have you here today.
Forrest: And um this is a church that is multiplying the love of God, his grace, and his disciples through this community.
Forrest: We're gonna continue to, we're gonna continue to love well, we're gonna continue to care, we're gonna continue to go outside the walls, and we're gonna continue to have high hopes in the power of God to work in and through us.
Forrest: And um I'll will uh as your pastor, it thrills me to see a room like this that is filled with people who worship the Lord and pour out their heart at a movie theater, walking into the unknown, stepping into the unknown, and it thrills me because I know that God can do so much with the faith in this room.
Forrest: God can do so much with people who are willing to step out and step into something that is not yet sure, not yet known, but with full faith and trust in the Lord.
Forrest: And we know that God's faithful.
Forrest: He's faithful and faithful to us, and we won't always be in this movie theater.
Forrest: You all know we've got a future home that the Lord is preparing for us.
Forrest: Had some guys uh that jumped in and did some concrete work, finishing it up uh over uh this weekend, and I'm thankful for the team that jumped in uh to pour that concrete back, and and uh we have a future home that's coming that's over across from Juniper Hills Park, the uh in the plaza right across from there, and the Lord's doing great things.
Forrest: I'm thankful.
Forrest: Can uh can we give it up for the team that was helping this weekend put that together?
Forrest: And for those uh of you who are not yet joined into or include into a team, uh a way of signing up for this was by way of you being on a team.
Forrest: And so if you haven't joined a volunteer team yet, I encourage you to do so.
Forrest: I don't want you to miss out on opportunities to be able to serve the Lord well.
Forrest: Uh my father and mother-in-law have built a home and for their retirement, and over the last few weeks have been moving into this home, and they've been definitely using their son-in-laws to do the moving into this new home.
Forrest: And um uh a disproportionate amount of work has gone to the uh youngest of the brother-in-laws, the really strong ripped guy that plays drums here, Hayden.
Forrest: Uh and that guy, he's so buff, and he really helps out the rest of the brother-in-laws by getting a disproportionate amount of weight uh on things when he's carrying.
Forrest: The other night he was doing some work for the in-laws by himself, which is normal, uh, and he was asked to take some things up into the brand new attic of the house.
Forrest: And so he uh was carrying some type of box or some type of extremely heavy uh uh box or books or whatever it was into the attic.
Forrest: Now it doesn't matter that it's a brand new attic, an attic is still an attic, okay?
Forrest: And he stepped into the uh the attic doorway, and there's insulation everywhere, and there's a platform there that stuff is being put on, and so he stepped into the dark attic onto the platform, but instead he didn't step on the platform, but instead his foot came falling through the ceiling.
Forrest: My sister-in-law, Becca here, uh, looked up to see her husband's cue dangling out of the ceiling.
Forrest: This uh which was not the sight that she was expecting to see.
Forrest: Uh, thankfully, he's totally fine.
Forrest: He's all good, he's strong and caught himself and pulled himself out of there just a little banged up and bruised up from it.
Forrest: Uh, but uh what he did was he stepped into the unknown in that attic, and there's some of you today, and you're stepping into the unknown, and you don't know if there's going to be footing there or not.
Forrest: You're not sure whether or not where God has put you and the circumstances of your life, the relationships, your marriage, your singleness, your children, what whatever it is that you're walking out in your life, your career, your job, your income, your finances, you're stepping out, and there may be like stepping into a room where you can't actually feel everything that's in front of you, and you don't know if there's sure footing beneath you, but I'm here to tell you that as we step in the Lord, He's right there with us, keeping us true, keeping us in his way.
Forrest: Like I said, the title of this message is Against All Hope.
Forrest: And I wonder today if there's anybody in the room that instead of feeling filled with hope for the future, you're being trapped in hopelessness.
Forrest: You don't know what the future holds.
Forrest: You can't see what's right in front of you.
Forrest: You're not sure what tomorrow holds.
Forrest: And in doing so, the enemy so oftentimes can get us taken from a place from instead of us walking in the hope and the truth of the gospel and the love of God, to then tearing us down and trapping us in a place of hopelessness.
Forrest: You just have to look at the recent statistics of suicide here in this country, particularly among teenagers, to know that there is an epidemic of hopelessness right now.
Forrest: That people are walking into darkness and getting to a place where they lack so much hope that they're in the depths of despair, not feeling like that they can get out.
Forrest: Today we're gonna look at a story from the scripture of someone who stepped into the unknown.
Forrest: One of our far forefathers in the faith, Abraham.
Forrest: The first portion of Genesis tells us all about creation, the first book of the Bible, and talks about uh the flood and the people of God and building up, and then the last half of Genesis is all about the family of this one man named Abraham.
Forrest: This one named This one man named Abraham who God made a covenant with, who made a promise to, that he was not expecting.
Forrest: The promise would be that though he and his wife had no children, went able to have children, that God was going to make him the father of many nations.
Forrest: Be a blessing to all.
Forrest: Look at what God said to Abraham.
Forrest: Abram before he accepted this call.
Forrest: Genesis chapter 12, verse one.
Forrest: The Lord said to Abram, Leave your native country, your relatives, your father's family, and go to the land I will show you.
Forrest: I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others, and I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all families through you.
Forrest: Remember, this is a man who has no children.
Forrest: So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him.
Forrest: Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
Forrest: Fast forward to chapter 15, and then the Lord took Abram outside, and he said to him, Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can.
Forrest: That's how many descendants you will have.
Forrest: And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his what?
Forrest: Faith.
Forrest: Because of his faith.
Forrest: Abram, a man without children, 75 years old.
Forrest: God comes to him and tells him that he is going to be the father of a nation, that through his blessing, that many peoples and all the families and nations on earth will be blessed to someone who's 75 years old and does not have any children.
Forrest: But it was God who was the one who promised purpose for him.
Forrest: And today God also promises purpose over your life.
Forrest: Each one of you who have walked in this room, we know the from this series we've talked about how God has given us a hope and a future.
Forrest: That he's given us a hope and a future, that he's given us a purpose as we walk out our faith in him, that you each one of us who has in this room right now, that if you are on this earth, God wants to be in relationship with you, wants to get a hold of your life and wants to implant in you a desire for him and the purposes of God and for you to walk out the purpose of his calling.
Forrest: So you may be here today and you feel like you're a nobody, you feel like that you're not somebody, but let me tell you, with Jesus, you are somebody in him.
Forrest: And he loves you and he cares for you, and he's a calling and a purpose for you.
Forrest: And part of what we do here on earth, and as we're walking out this life, is that we discover the purpose that God has for us.
Forrest: For Abram, Abraham, for him, he was going to be the father of the nation of Israel.
Forrest: That eventually the Messiah, Jesus, would come from.
Forrest: And doing so, the blessing of the entire world, every family through Christ.
Forrest: The Apostle Paul, thousands of years later, speaks of Abraham's faith in Romans chapter 4.
Forrest: He says, Therefore the promise comes by faith.
Forrest: So that may be a grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, not only to those of you who are of the law, but also of you who have the faith of Abraham.
Forrest: He is the father of all of us.
Forrest: It is written, I have made you a father of many nations.
Forrest: He is our father in the sight of God in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.
Forrest: And listen to this in verse 18.
Forrest: Against all hope.
Forrest: Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed, and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been said, which it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be.
Forrest: Without weakening his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and that Sarah's womb was also dead.
Forrest: Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith, and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.
Forrest: Don't miss the fact that in this passage, as Paul writes of the faith of Abraham, he says that against all hope, even though they were didn't have any children, even though that he and his wife, 75 years old, had no children, that God had made a promise to him to be a father of many nations, and then at a hundred years old, the promise came true.
Forrest: Twenty five years later of faithfulness, believing God, walking in the truth, believing in the truth of his promise, not wavering in unbelief, is what Paul said, but instead that it was his faith that counted him righteous as he walked with God, and twenty-five years later the promise came true.
Forrest: I wonder if our prayers are too short.
Forrest: I wonder if the thing that we're praying for, the thing that we're asking for, if we're not having the longer view.
Forrest: And what God wants to do in and through us in the hope that we have.
Forrest: Now I've had a very interesting week.
Forrest: I've had a very interesting week.
Forrest: And there's been several different things that I've gotten to be a part of and gotten to do on the course of this week.
Forrest: And this week has led me from the jailhouse to the field house with football.
Forrest: It started with the jailhouse this week.
Forrest: I got to be a part of the graduation of the first men's parenting class that happened here at our jail with five men to the Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation, and Donna was there and made it all happen, and Sally helped out, and it's just a small number of people that even led in to be able to do these things.
Forrest: That this parenting class is led by Antoine, who's one of our creative volunteers, creative team volunteers.
Forrest: His father, Eric, is the one who's leading this class, the first one ever that was happened, had been at our jail.
Forrest: And when we sat there, and and the director, Amy from Wanda George Robinson Foundation, who's the one who's been working and working and working at this since 2018, sat there and told these men, you are an answer to prayer.
Forrest: You are a miracle that after the long work of coming alongside children who have incarcerated parents, now they're saying, you know what, let's go straight to the parents.
Forrest: We know that these men and women who are currently incarcerated, that they're they've got children, and so let's teach them while they're still there.
Forrest: And while we were there, there was a man in is in green, his name is Phil, and they asked part of the graduation for some remarks, and and uh they said, Does anybody have anything to say?
Forrest: And Phil said, Oh no, I don't have anything to say.
Forrest: And then he pulled a whole paper worth of lined paper that he had written out, a speech.
Forrest: And he got up in front of everybody and he began to talk about the newfound hope that he had in the fact that he was going to be able to use what he learned in this class to be a blessing to his family.
Forrest: And also he talked about that before he got in, that that that he was in the logistics as his industry, and that he wanted to use that to be able to help men who are now coming out of jail, that now he's seen how hard it is to not get back in.
Forrest: He's like, I want to use now the tools that I have to help other men who are gonna get out, and I want to help them when I get out of here.
Forrest: And filled with hope, he read through this letter and thanked every single person, including our church, for being there to help celebrate.
Forrest: Also, this week I had the pleasure of getting to speak a devotion to the Frankfurt High School football team.
Forrest: And Daryl was there with me and took this picture, and uh Coach Davis, who's a part of our church, they won on Friday night.
Forrest: Praise the Lord.
Forrest: First week's exciting for the season.
Forrest: Got to speak with them and got to share hope with them of the gospel and some of my testimony.
Forrest: The next day I got to be at the KSU field house.
Forrest: Saturday morning, I got to speak and give a devotion to players, talking about the power of God and our lives and how they instead of quitting should fight.
Forrest: Fight for their future, fight for their future family, for them to be winners in life.
Forrest: And then yesterday before the game, I got to pray with probably 30 different players who came to me and asked me to pray for them.
Forrest: Aaron was there with me.
Forrest: And I think about for us, as we are carriers of hope into our community, that for each one of us that are here, there are people that are right outside of our door, right outside of our walls, that are desperately in need of hope.
Forrest: And just needing someone who'll say, Hey, let me share some hope with you.
Forrest: Let me love you, let me care for you.
Forrest: I know that was powerful for me.
Forrest: You guys know I love football.
Forrest: I played football, I played football in college at Cumberland.
Forrest: I love football when I when I the Lord changed my life as a junior in high school, then as a senior in high school.
Forrest: My senior year was totally different than my junior year.
Forrest: And I was thinking about this time because as I was speaking to these high school students, I was looking at them and thinking, man, God can do such powerful work through them at this age.
Forrest: And I was thinking back to that.
Forrest: I was thinking about I love football, but I hated the running.
Forrest: I hated the wind sprints, I hated the conditioning.
Forrest: That's why I played football because you only run it like 15 or 30 seconds at a time between plays.
Forrest: That's why I didn't run cross-country.
Forrest: Just short bursts, you know.
Forrest: And as a senior in high school, knowing that I was gonna have to run every single practice, I memorized this verse as a teenager, as a 17, 18-year-old.
Forrest: This verse is Isaiah 40, 30.
Forrest: It says, But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
Forrest: They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Forrest: And I'll be weary over and over again.
Forrest: Over and over and over and over again.
Forrest: And I wonder how much more in life now I need to remind myself of that truth than then.
Forrest: A few years ago, I had the pleasure, honor of getting to go and to do some uh mission work in uh South Africa with a team for a short time.
Forrest: While we were in South Africa, we went to the Swaziland, uh former Swaziland region of South Africa, and on the way we got to pass by the Nelson Mandela uh museum that they had, and Nelson Mandela, who was imprisoned in South Africa for 27 years as an activist and freedom fighter to see the segregationist apartheid government be done away with and fall.
Forrest: And I remember being there at the museum, and they had they had kind of a a uh a mock version or a or a a a replica of the jail cell that he was in.
Forrest: And I got inside of there, and I'm not very big, very tall, but I could almost touch the walls of my wingspan.
Forrest: And to think about that for him, for 27 years, he was locked in this prison cell until eventually the uprising and the symbolism of his sacrifice and his hope led to in 1995 him being the president of the nation and tearing down the segregationist government.
Forrest: Abraham waited twenty-five years.
Forrest: And I wonder if we get weary in the waiting.
Forrest: For those of us who hope and trust in the Lord, we can run and not grow weary.
Forrest: We can walk and not be faint.
Forrest: And so today we have to tell ourselves and encourage one another to keep walking.
Forrest: Keep walking.
Forrest: You don't know how many years.
Forrest: You don't know how long it will take for God to do through you what He's called you to do.
Forrest: You don't know if it's going to be tomorrow.
Forrest: You don't know if it's going to be 25 years.
Forrest: You don't know if it's going to be 27 years from now.
Forrest: But you walk in hope because we have hope in Jesus.