Forrest: Well, it's been a great week.
Forrest: We got some things to celebrate.
Forrest: First thing is that we had our group connect small group connect last week as our small groups launch out this week.
Forrest: And last Sunday, we had 18 new people get plugged into small groups here.
Forrest: Multiply.
Forrest: Praise the Lord with more to come.
Forrest: And also, this last week, great thing happened.
Forrest: Football is back, baby.
Forrest: Yeah.
Forrest: Woo! Man, free season started yesterday, and I got to go out and speak to the K-State team this week.
Forrest: I'm excited about it.
Forrest: And uh this morning, I before we get into this new series called For the Wind, I I want uh you to meet a friend of mine.
Forrest: This is uh uh a friend that I've known for uh going on a year now, probably far longer than a year now.
Forrest: Uh and this uh person and friend in my life is a coach of uh Frankfurt High School.
Forrest: This is Coach Stephen Davis, who's about to come in a second.
Forrest: But I want you to know the first time I met Coach Davis, he began to speak to me about his faith the first time we talked.
Forrest: And since then he's had me come and speak to his players, and I'm excited for you to get to meet him this morning and talk to him for a minute.
Forrest: So if you would help me to welcome Coach Davis this morning as he comes to share with us now, brother.
Forrest: Great to see you, great to see you, great to see you.
Forrest: Grab a seat.
Forrest: Now, Coach, I really just have one question for you this morning, and it's got two parts to it.
Forrest: Uh, but I would love for you to share because I've heard some of this before from you, but to share your mentality about winning both on and off the field.
SPEAKER_00: There we go, there we go.
SPEAKER_00: All right, can y'all hear me now?
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
SPEAKER_00: All right, um, but first for us, I just want to say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm honored at you to have me up here.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and like you said, you've been a true friend to me, um, my wife in the back with our new edition, Ruby, um, and our daughter Lola.
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to thank you and Multiply Church, uh, because y'all have been good to me and the football program and my family since I've been here.
SPEAKER_00: Um But uh, you know, the winning mentality on and off the field, you know, it draws back.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I'm born and raised in Florida.
SPEAKER_00: I grew up apostolic.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my grandfather was a pastor, my mom, she's a pastor now.
SPEAKER_00: And um one of the verses that stuck out to me growing up was Philippians uh two and three.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's um do nothing out of vain conceit.
SPEAKER_00: I believe.
SPEAKER_00: Let me see, I got it on my phone.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want a lot of y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure I got it right.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but this this verse right here, um, it kind of defies uh me as a person and how I try to live my life every day.
SPEAKER_00: Um And one of the reasons why I think God has blessed me uh uh with the position that He has blessed me with.
SPEAKER_00: But um do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit rather than humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others.
SPEAKER_00: Um And so for that right there, something I something I try to model and instill in my players is uh unselfishness, right?
SPEAKER_00: Not being selfish, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Um and I think it draws back kind of to that verse and just kind of being humble and just doing things the right way, you know, and um, you know, and having integrity and having values about the way you carry yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Um, because you know you hear a lot of people say, you know, I don't care what people think about me, or you know, I'm gonna do me, I'm gonna be me, but I don't think that's the way I go about it.
SPEAKER_00: I think the way people look at you and the way people, the way you treat people is very, very important to um your blessings, right?
SPEAKER_00: And and and how you are gonna um, you know, how how God is gonna bless you moving forward.
SPEAKER_00: So that's just something I try to do with my players, and just anybody, like in the school, in the community, just anybody I meet, you know, I try to um exemplify that and show that, just say, hey, you know, regardless of your role, regardless of your position, humble yourself, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because just as God gives to you, he can take it away.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's just kind of my mentality, just moving through, just me personally, to try to instill that into my players, is just being unselfish, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just making that sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, because it's not all about me, it's not all about you, you know, it it's it's all of us in this thing together.
Forrest: Church, isn't it refreshing to hear one of our head football coaches talking about God like this right now and his relationship with the Lord and his mentality for our young people?
Forrest: And uh we've got some things in common.
Forrest: Obviously, we love football.
Forrest: We uh we uh both have little girls named Magnolia.
Forrest: Lola's real name is Magnolia, right?
Forrest: Yep, it is, yeah.
Forrest: And uh Ruby, how old is Ruby?
SPEAKER_00: Uh Ruby, she's sitting right there in the back.
SPEAKER_00: She's I don't want to lie, two months.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, thank you, babe.
SPEAKER_00: Two months old?
SPEAKER_00: Two months old.
Forrest: Can you give it up for Lucy and for their family?
Forrest: Amazing.
Forrest: Now, coach, I want to ask you specifically with the players, and uh how do you instill this type of mentality winning in life, like you're talking about spiritually, in these players, in the kids.
Forrest: Uh how do you instill that in them throughout the year?
Forrest: Tell us more.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I I think uh for one, it goes back to modeling, right?
SPEAKER_00: And and I I have to model that.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: You know, um and you know, I go through and you know, I got here when I when I first got to Frankfurt, um, you know, it was a culture thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: It was the culture here.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and you know, I get there, and you know, you got you know, hear about you know kids getting cussed out, being chewed out, being disrespectful, and being the kids being disrespected and degraded.
SPEAKER_00: And for me, I don't think it takes all that.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, um, because they're young men and they need to know like you're you're valued, right?
SPEAKER_00: Your thoughts, your feelings, they're valued, right?
SPEAKER_00: And it don't take me to come out here and I get old school coaching and new, but I don't have to look at you, young man, and and cuss you out, call you out your name, and disrespectfully get a lot out of you.
Forrest: Amen, church.
SPEAKER_00: Um so my my approach to my kids is for one, you know, I can get a lot done with the look on my face, and I can say, and I can and the tone of my voice, um, I can get a lot done that way.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so something for at and so you know, we pray um every day at the end of practice, we circle up uh at the end of practice and we get in a prayer circle.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, something I every day, my prayers, and it's it's it's it's the same prayer, you know, because I gotta get them out of there.
SPEAKER_00: I don't try to, I don't want emails in the morning, y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Trust me.
SPEAKER_00: I love my parents, any of my parents here, I love y'all, but you know, y'all send them emails quick.
SPEAKER_00: Um so you know, we get a real quick prayer circle, and and something I ask God every day.
SPEAKER_00: Um, number one is, you know, whatever my players or my staff, whatever they're going through, uh sorry.
Forrest: It's a lot.
SPEAKER_00: But one thing I ask God to do is um if if whatever they're going through, God, I ask that they seek you out for comfort and understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Number one.
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Them my boys.
Forrest: That's right.
Forrest: We can see the love that you have for them.
SPEAKER_00: So I ask God, whatever they're going through, to seek him out for comfort and understanding because we all know there's other avenues out here to deal with stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of going those ways, that's right, God, you, and then the the next half of that is use me as a vessel.
SPEAKER_00: So they know you ain't gotta be ashamed.
unknown: Right.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing to be ashamed of.
unknown: Right.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You ain't gotta go out and and I know you, you know, I tell them all the time, guys, you want you wouldn't ask for your situation, right?
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't ask for your circumstances, you won't ask to be born in this, in your circumstances, but there's a way out.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And and maintaining your faith and and and being being comfortable talking to somebody, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just being able to talk to somebody.
unknown: Right.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Don't feel like you gotta go and and and and hold this all in or you know, um, and try to figure it out by yourself because you'll you'll never be able to get it done that way, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so um that's my prayer every day.
SPEAKER_00: We get in that little prayer circle is one, God, let if they're going through anything, let them seek you out first.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And then number two, continue to use me every day to exemplify that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh sorry, but that's something that I that's something that I try to do with them every day.
SPEAKER_00: And then just, you know, just going through in the hallways, you know, I'm in the school with them.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm I work, I do credit recovery at the high school.
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, just every day I'm in school, I'm upbeat, I dress nice, you know, I'm good morning, have a good day, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, you never know them kids get out of the car, you don't know what kids got going on at home.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, for sure.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You never know what kind of, you never know what they're facing when they when they um when they come in school this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So just as simple as a smile and good morning.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if any if y'all ever come to end the school in the morning, I'm always the same.
SPEAKER_00: I'm always I I try to dress nice and I'm always smiling, I'm always good morning, have a good day, right?
SPEAKER_00: You come in my classroom, I try to have snacks in there, you know, or something, something for them, right?
SPEAKER_00: I come in there, hey, they come in there with me problems.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm having this, I'm having a girlfriend problem, having boyfriend problems, you know, I'm having XYZ, and it's like, hey, you know, y'all come and talk to me about that.
SPEAKER_00: You see what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: Let me, I'm gonna tell you what you want to hear, but I'm gonna tell you what you need to hear.
SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of time with, like you said, with the instilling and them guys, and my coaching staff.
SPEAKER_00: I even got some of my coaches, you know, who will say last year were like, man, you know, I don't cuss as much as I used to.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't, you know, I don't use the words that I and they coach it, and they say coaches think, you know, it's because of you.
Forrest: That's an impact.
SPEAKER_00: Um because I don't have like I said, I don't have to go out there and and and and I can get a whole lot done.
SPEAKER_00: I know the phrase that you catch more flies with honey, then y'all know the other part of it.
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, you can say vinegar, but you yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So, but but um but but just that's that's that's how I try to instantly and just being consistent every day, you know, just doing it, and I go through stuff, you know, I got a wife, I got two daughters, um, you know, and it's a lot.
SPEAKER_00: I'm from Florida, my mom's in Florida, my sister's in Florida, my my all my family's in Florida.
SPEAKER_00: Um so you know, being I I left home when I was 18, you know, played football in North Carolina.
SPEAKER_00: I know we talked about that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then, you know, left North Carolina and moved to Kentucky, and then I've been I've been away from Florida for 13 years.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I have a lot personally going on, but I know where my strength comes from.
Forrest: That's right.
SPEAKER_00: Um and I know I know the source that I can draw from because I can't solve these problems here.
SPEAKER_00: Like y'all heard it, it's in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know the I ain't gonna try to bring up the verse, but when I say y'all know what I'm saying, but you can't solve earthly problems, you know, by us.
SPEAKER_00: You can't solve earthly problems with earthly methods.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Like I can't, I can't, I can't, when my kid comes to me and he ain't ate nothing or he got some stuff going on with his family, like I can't draw from I can't draw from myself to try to help them solve that out.
SPEAKER_00: So I know for a fact when I'm dealing with certain situations and people come to me, oh my God, you so patient, and you know, oh my God, I would have done this, and I don't know how you handled that, and I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because it's not me.
Forrest: It's a spirit in you.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like you looking at me physically, but like when I'm up, when when it's here and I'm and I'm about to input or I'm about to act, like I know it's not me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm praying the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: Like, God help me.
SPEAKER_00: Like, God help me, God help me, God help me, you know, like give me, give me, give me power, give me strength.
SPEAKER_00: Um and so, but I exempt I do that every day, you know, and you can ask anybody, you can ask my my co-workers, um, you can ask my coaching staff.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I I try I try to be the same every day, and obviously I'm human.
SPEAKER_00: Incredible, we all make mistakes, right?
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, like I said, I I just I draw from that, and and that that's how I try to instill that every day, just being consistent.
Forrest: Thank you, Coach.
Forrest: Church, will you affirm this coach right now?
Forrest: Put your hands together, what you just heard.
Forrest: You you may be aware, you may be aware of how rare it is to have a coach lead a team in prayer every single practice, but it's very rare.
Forrest: And uh, right now I know that um as you're walking out your faith and being an example and having an impact on these young men, uh, your family also needs to be affirmed and encouraged and lifted.
Forrest: And so, church, would you join me right now as I pray over Coach Davis and his family?
Forrest: Let's pray together.
Forrest: Father, we thank you, God, for your goodness and your mercy.
Forrest: Father, we thank you, Lord, that you have brought Coach Davis to this town at this season, this group of young men, Father.
Forrest: Lord, we pray, God, and thank you, Father, for how good you are to us.
Forrest: Lord, I pray right now, favor over his life.
Forrest: I pray protection over he and his beautiful family.
Forrest: Father, we know the enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy.
Forrest: Father, we know, Lord, as he's stepping out in faith in you, that God, you will meet him there.
Forrest: Every single day, God, as he loves, cares, impacts, and leads these young men that you called him to.
Forrest: So, God, we thank you for it.
Forrest: We affirm him and lift him up to you now.
Forrest: In the strong name of Jesus, everybody said, Amen.
Forrest: Church, we get your hands together one more time.
Forrest: Love you, love, we love you.
Forrest: This series for the win and football getting off the ground is so, so exciting for me.
Forrest: And I know as a football fan, if you're a true fan, you love your team.
Forrest: But if you're a true, true fan, that means that there are other teams that you cannot stand.
Forrest: Okay.
Forrest: That, like for me, I don't know about you, but for me, that's teams I can't stand, like Tennessee.
Forrest: Yeah, like Alabama, like Florida, and of course Ohio State.
Forrest: Oh, man.
Forrest: I don't know about you, that's just me.
Forrest: But what one thing this that I can, one thing that I can uh say for this week that I can come alongside and affirm with Ohio State is that this week, I don't know if you saw this report, but there are several, there were several of the players of the Ohio State football team who showed up for practice and for camp, and they were wearing this shirt and all of them matched, and it said Jesus won.
Forrest: Did anybody see this this week?
Forrest: It didn't get a whole lot of press coverage, but five days ago, the official uh social media accounts of Ohio State football posted this photo of their players walking in with a Jesus won shirt on, and that's the first time I can ever say amen to Ohio State.
Forrest: That's the only thing I've ever can ever be for.
Forrest: Because isn't it true, church?
Forrest: Isn't it true that Jesus has already won?
Forrest: That we have victory and we walk out of the grave because he walked out of the grave before us.
Forrest: Because Jesus is already won.
Forrest: We've in the title of my message today is we talk about uh what it looks like to be for the win and for uh the winning in our life.
Forrest: Today, the title is A True Friend for the Win.
Forrest: And it's we talk about Jesus and how he has already won the victory for us.
Forrest: I know because I've read the last page.
Forrest: I've read the last page of the scripture.
Forrest: And I know that the scripture tells us that he's already won.
Forrest: We've already won.
Forrest: That he's the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
Forrest: And so as we walk into this series over the next few weeks, we're going to, in joining Jesus in his victory, talk about what it looks like for us to win in relationships and resources and eternal rewards.
Forrest: And today specifically, we're going to zero in on the earthly relationship of having godly friendships, having a bond.
Forrest: The scripture speaks all throughout the scripture of this brotherhood and sisterhood that we have as the body of Christ.
Forrest: And it takes the brotherhood and sisterhood of Christ, having godly friends that will look at you no matter what's happening, and to say to you in the eyes, you will get through this.
Forrest: You will get through this.
Forrest: Even if you go to heaven, you will get through this.
Forrest: It takes godly friends.
Forrest: It takes somebody in your life not just to say, Oh, I'm thinking about you.
Forrest: Oh, I'm praying for you.
Forrest: But to say, in the victory of Christ, you will get through this.
Forrest: What I know is true is that you cannot receive that type of strengthening from your unbelieving friends.
Forrest: The people in your life who are not believers, they cannot strengthen you in that way.
Forrest: And our relationship with the Lord, it's an upward relationship with God, but then it moves as God pours out through you outward to those that are around you.
Forrest: That's why in the very beginning, God looked at Adam and said, It's not good for man to be alone.
Forrest: That's why the Ten Commandments, the first few of the Ten Commandments, talk about our relationship with God, but the rest talk about our relationship with other people.
Forrest: See, if you ever had somebody say before or tell you, or maybe even you think today that, you know, it's just it's just about a personal relationship with God only, you've not read the whole word.
Forrest: You've not read the whole book.
Forrest: Because God has designed us in our Christian walk to walk our relationship with God out in relationship with brothers and sisters in Christ.
Forrest: And we're gonna take a look at today the most famous friendship in the Bible.
Forrest: It's a friendship between David and Jonathan.
Forrest: This is David, the same David of David and Goliath, who was anointed as a boy that he would take the throne from King Saul one day, and King Saul who had a darkened heart.
Forrest: And King Saul hated David because he was the anointed to take the throne and tries to kill him in the scripture 16 different times.
Forrest: Failed attempts to kill him.
Forrest: Even though David's best friend is Saul's son, Jonathan.
Forrest: And with Jonathan's help, David runs for his life from King Saul, and we're going to take a look at one of those 16 moments where the people of Zip have ratted out David's location to Saul.
Forrest: And Saul is on his way to try to kill David.
Forrest: We're in 1 Samuel chapter 23, verse 15.
Forrest: David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life.
Forrest: David was in the wilderness of Zith at Horish.
Forrest: And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horish and strengthened his hand in God.
Forrest: He said to him, Do not fear, for the hand of Saul, my father, shall not find you.
Forrest: You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you.
Forrest: Saul, my father, also knows this.
Forrest: And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord.
Forrest: And David remained at Horish, and Jonathan went home.
Forrest: These two, David and Jonathan, were best of friends.
Forrest: They had a bond.
Forrest: They had each other's backs.
Forrest: Actually, when they first met a few chapters earlier in 1 Samuel chapter 18, we see that there was, the scripture says there was an immediate bond between them.
Forrest: Jonathan loved David.
Forrest: They had this bond, they had one another's back.
Forrest: They were true friends.
Forrest: With our cell phones, with social media.
Forrest: Yet we're more lonely than ever.
Forrest: We're more disconnected.
Forrest: We have most everyone that we know on the edge of our fingertips with our phones.
Forrest: Yet we find ourselves feeling alone.
Forrest: That's why we need true friends.
Forrest: The scripture tells us some things about what it looks what it looks like and what it means to be a true friend.
Forrest: Proverbs 17 17.
Forrest: A friend is always loyal.
Forrest: And a brother is born to help in time of need.
Forrest: Have you ever had a friend that some would say would give you the shirt off their back?
Forrest: Praise God.
Forrest: It's a blessing to have a friend like that.
Forrest: And I believe that's in line with the spirit of generosity that Jesus would call us to.
Forrest: But I would wonder do you have a friend that would have your back in prayer?
Forrest: That could actually encourage you and open their mouth to pray for you.
Forrest: Now see, I'm I'm I'm fortunate that some of my best friends in the world are leaders in our church, attend our church, have invested heavily in our church, friends that I talk to practically every day, stable, consistent friends.
Forrest: Look at what Proverbs 1824 says about friends.
Forrest: One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin.
Forrest: But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Forrest: See, having friends is about priorities.
Forrest: It's about us as parents, us as individuals, and all the busyness of life, and all the different excuses that pour in that we would still be able to have friends in our life that are loyal and close to us who walk with us.
Forrest: And I know this.
Forrest: To have friends, you need to be a friend.
Forrest: My course of ministry, I've had people to come to me and say, I just can't find any friends.
Forrest: I I just there's nobody that that's trying to help me grow in the Lord.
Forrest: And if that's you today, you have to be a friend to have friends.
Forrest: You have to be the one to initiate, you have to be the one to step forward.
Forrest: You have to be one that's going to step out and begin to encourage love and strengthen others, and also recognize the fact not everybody's going to be your friend.
Forrest: I I had a great perspective uh shift a couple years ago when I was in a meeting and somebody said about relationships that we have.
Forrest: And what they stated was is that people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
Forrest: And as soon as I heard that, I thought, that's true.
Forrest: That's right.
Forrest: I've experienced that before.
Forrest: And it's given me an encouragement that there are people who come into my life, and maybe it's a reason, and maybe the reason is for me to encourage them.
Forrest: And maybe it's for a season of time.
Forrest: And it's even more rare to have those that are with you for a lifetime, isn't it?
Forrest: This is why.
Forrest: This is why small groups is so important.
Forrest: Because it puts you around people.
Forrest: It puts you around others.
Forrest: Who are potential people who could come alongside you, you can be friends with, you can encourage, they can encourage you back.
Forrest: I know for many of us, probably the list of people that are in our life who would be able to encourage us in the Lord to even pray for us is probably short.
Forrest: That's just what it's like to be in 2024, isn't it?
Forrest: Somebody who would actually open their mouth and try to encourage you from God's word or to say a prayer for you if you're going through something, and for you to put yourself in an environment where you could meet other people, you could be friends with other people, you could encourage someone, and they could encourage you is something we need to be doing as we walk out our faith.
Forrest: Church, this is something that I have been practicing for some time now.
Forrest: For the last three years, as your lead pastor, I have either led or been a part of a small group.
Forrest: That's rare.
Forrest: Something that you get to walk out as you get to be with other people in a time of sharing a meal together.
Forrest: And listen, our small groups, they're not stale.
Forrest: They're growing, they're multiplying all the time.
Forrest: God is using them.
Forrest: And I want to share this passage of scripture with you that is so important.
Forrest: This passage of scripture from Hebrews that speaks exactly to why we need other believers, why we need to step into relationship here in our church to be involved in a team, in a small group.
Forrest: And I want us to examine this passage of scripture together because it's so important.
Forrest: Listen to it with me.
Forrest: This is Hebrews 3, verse 12 through 14.
Forrest: See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
Forrest: But encourage one another daily, as long as it's called today.
Forrest: Everybody say daily.
Forrest: So that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.
Forrest: In verse 14, we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.
Forrest: The scripture tells us to encourage one another daily.
Forrest: Some of the other versions use this Bible word.
Forrest: It's like a big Bible word, but it's actually short, the word exhort.
Forrest: That we should exhort one another daily, that it should be an everyday thing.
Forrest: And what this this word means, it means that we should strongly encourage or urge someone to do something.
Forrest: It's in a sense of pushing someone forward.
Forrest: This word exhort, it comes from the Latin words of thoroughly and encouraged, that we should be encouraging one another every single day.
Forrest: So no matter if you're retired, if you're a working mom, if you're a teenager, you and we all need other believers who encourage us every single day, not just on Sundays.
Forrest: That's why small groups are so important.
Forrest: Because the scripture tells us that we need this every single day.
Forrest: We need it daily to be encouraging one another.
Forrest: And some may be in the room and you feel like, ah, you know what?
Forrest: I did my time in a small group, you know, small group, that's for people who you JV Christians who need to learn.
Forrest: No, if you're a varsity Christian, that means that you're walking out, encouraging someone every single day in the Lord.
Forrest: If you're a mature Christian, that means that you are seeking out others to encourage, to pray for, to walk with.
Forrest: And why is this so important?
Forrest: Why is it so important?
Forrest: Because the scripture tells us that there's hardness of heart, deceitfulness, sin, evil, and unbelief that is just waiting to overtake us, even as believers.
Forrest: Just like a lake, when the weather freezes, that ice slowly overtakes that body of water.
Forrest: In the same way the deceitfulness of sin can begin to overtake and harden our heart.
Forrest: What the scripture tells us to hold, to hold firmly.
Forrest: Verse 14.
Forrest: We have come to share in Christ.
Forrest: If indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end, you know what was incredible?
Forrest: A couple weeks ago, we got to celebrate 11 people being baptized here at Multiply Church and stepping into the kingdom of God.
Forrest: And what you need to know for those who are baptized, that is just the beginning.
Forrest: That is just the beginning of your journey because what this scripture tells us is that we should, if we are going to be in Christ, if we're going to walk out our relationship with God, if we're going to walk from this life into eternity, we are to hold firmly to the very end.
Forrest: And if we're gonna do if we're gonna do that, we need one another.
Forrest: We need godly friendships, we need encouragement, we need folks in our life who will actually send the text, pick up the phone.
Forrest: I have a friend who sent me a prayer over voice text about two or three weeks ago.
Forrest: And it encouraged me so much that I I made a commitment and put a reminder on my phone to listen to that prayer every single day.
Forrest: And so for every single day for the last two and some odd weeks, I've been listening to this prayer that a friend of mine sent me.
Forrest: Why?
Forrest: Because I need the encouragement so that I can hold on firmly to Christ to the very end.
Forrest: To the very end.
Forrest: This week I met a guy, we'll call him Jimmy, just a few years younger than me.
Forrest: We were having a conversation, and I was talking to him about his life and his story and his relationship with the Lord.
Forrest: Kind of asked him what his testimony was.
Forrest: And this is what he said.
Forrest: This is how he started his response to me.
Forrest: He said, The only reason I know God is because of Daniel.
Forrest: And then he went on to tell me about how he met Daniel when they were in grade school, that even though his family didn't go to church all the time, but Daniel's family did, and Daniel was strong, the Lord, even as a kid, encouraged him.
Forrest: And years later, when he was in his mid-20s and his long-term relationship with a girl ended because of sexual sin, his friends were there.
Forrest: Daniel was there.
Forrest: A few years later, when he went through the darkest time of his life, when he was working in a horrible job with a terrible boss, and there were moments as he was driving to work in the morning when he contemplated and thought about driving his car off the bridge.
Forrest: And he's telling me this.
Forrest: And he's telling me his story, and it just made me wonder for me and for you.
Forrest: Could anyone make this statement about you?
Forrest: The only reason I know God is because of fill in the blank.
Forrest: Because of Brittany, because of Haley, because of Bo, because of Jim.
Forrest: Because of Tessa.
Forrest: Because of Bobby.
Forrest: Because of Willie.
Forrest: Because of Andrew.
Forrest: How many could say that?
Forrest: Because here's the thing.
Forrest: We don't just want friends that will give us a hand, but we want friends that will strengthen our hand.
Forrest: Like what Jonathan did for David.
Forrest: He came to him 30 miles.
Forrest: And he came to him with immense pressure.
Forrest: I couldn't imagine what it would be like for running for your life, knowing that someone's coming to kill you.
Forrest: And Jonathan showed up and he strengthened the hand of David by telling him the truth.
Forrest: One day you will be king.
Forrest: Because God anointed you and spoke it over you when you were just a child.
Forrest: And you're going to step into what God is calling you to and is called you to, and I'm going to be there with you.
Forrest: Jonathan showed up and he strengthened his hand.
Forrest: Very simply.
Forrest: Your true friends, they turn you to God.
Forrest: Very simply.
Forrest: And can you be that friend for somebody else?
Forrest: Will you be that friend for somebody else?
Forrest: If you don't have that kind of friendship yet, God wants you to have it.
Forrest: He wants you to be able to step into it.
Forrest: It's going to take some work.
Forrest: It's going to take showing up.
Forrest: It's going to take reaching out.
Forrest: It's going to take encouraging someone.
Forrest: See them encourage you back.
Forrest: It's going to take open up your mouth to pray for somebody, what they're going through.
Forrest: And you can start small.
Forrest: Start small.
Forrest: Church, what if just this week you made a commitment that you were going to encourage someone, a friend of yours, every single day?
Forrest: Can you imagine the stories we would have?
Forrest: Can you imagine the stories we can have on the other side of that?
Forrest: Could you imagine what it would be like if we would be people that when we're going through the trials of life, that you would have someone and you would be somebody that you would look at another believer, and just like the song says, you'd say, Hey, don't stop believing.
Forrest: Don't stop believing.
Forrest: When you get the bad news from the doctor, don't stop believing.
Forrest: When you get foreclosed on, don't stop believing.
Forrest: When the business fails, don't stop believing.
Forrest: When your wife hands you divorce papers, don't stop believing.
Forrest: When your kid's addicted, don't stop believing.
Forrest: When the bills are piling up, don't stop believing.
Forrest: When you feel alone in a room full of people, don't stop believing because Jesus has already won.
Forrest: And then we can join him in new life, step out of the grave, that we would stand firm, that we would make it to the very end today, church, that we would just just as he is the beginning of the end, we would join him from the beginning of the walk with him all the way to the last breath that we have on this earth as we walk with Jesus and that we can stand firm with one another because we have brothers and sisters in Christ who would encourage us and would speak a word to us.
Forrest: And so I ask you today, there's some in the room, you need to take the step in.
Forrest: There's a card under your seat to join the 18 other people who've taken a step in to be around a group of believers throughout your week, not just on Sundays, to eat a meal together.
Forrest: That's kind of my favorite part.
Forrest: To share with one another, to have people that you know that if you say, Hey, would you pray for me?
Forrest: They're gonna do it.
Forrest: That's what happens in my group.
Forrest: For you to step in.
Forrest: Maybe for you today, it's that you need to reach out and begin to be one who begins to encourage and exhort others daily.
Forrest: To send an encouraging word, to shoot a scripture.
Forrest: You know what's so crazy right now, church?
Forrest: This day and age in church, there is no shortage of Christian content.
Forrest: We've got content everywhere.
Forrest: We got Bible apps, we got the internet.
Forrest: You can get all kinds of devotions, all kinds of content.
Forrest: We don't have a content problem, we have a consistent friendship problem.
Forrest: So be the friend.
Forrest: Be the friend that God's calling you to be.
Forrest: And for some of you in the room, this is your moment to hear this.
Forrest: Maybe for the first time you're truly hearing it.
Forrest: Jesus wants to be your friend.
Forrest: He loves you so much that he died on the cross for you 2,000 years ago and took all of your sin and shame and mess ups and put it on his back so that you could be a friend of God.
Forrest: So that you could walk into eternity with him today, very well, maybe that day for you.
Forrest: So I want to encourage you right now, church, take a step to the daily command that God has given us to exhort, to encourage one another.
Forrest: Bow your heads with me.
Forrest: Father, I pray all across this room.
Forrest: We're believers that are here present with you today, Father, that Lord, we know, God, that we need you.
Forrest: We cannot do this on our own.
Forrest: God, you are Alpha and the Omega, you're the beginning and the end.
Forrest: You're unstoppable, God.
Forrest: And Father, we know, God, that we can come to you and we can ask for you.
Forrest: Father, in your name to intervene in our lives.
Forrest: And God also, Father, you also command us and call us, Father, to be in a brotherhood and a sisterhood, to have godly friends and relationships.
Forrest: Lord, to not do this life on our own.
Forrest: So, God, I pray right now, all across the room, Father, that Lord, you would be transforming minds and hearts, to squash the excuses and to take a step into God what you're calling them to.
Forrest: Father, I pray for every single believer in this room, every single person who's already a part of a small group that God, they would enter into their small group this semester with the heart to encourage daily.
Forrest: Father, you would open their mouth.
Forrest: Father, I pray too, Lord, right now, all across this room, anybody in this place who has not taken the step to receive you as Savior, to believe in the power of the cross, and the power that was purchased for them 2,000 years ago by your death, burial, and resurrection, that today, God, today would be the day that they step from this life and Father with a destination in eternity because their belief in you, and that God, this would be the very beginning, and that they would hold fast and stand firm all the way to the end.
Forrest: And so, if that's you today, and you need to begin your relationship with Jesus, you need to receive his salvation on the cross of the forgiveness of your sins.
Forrest: I'm gonna encourage you right now, ask you right now to pray something like this: Jesus, save me.
Forrest: I believe that you're the Son of God, that you are alive.
Forrest: Forgive me, make me a friend of God.
Forrest: I give my life to you, as you gave your life for me.
Forrest: I turn from my sin.
Forrest: I walk towards you.
Forrest: Cleanse me, forgive me, that I can be in heaven with you one day.
Forrest: Thank you for saving me.
Forrest: No one looking around.
Forrest: This morning was the day that you prayed that to the Lord of a genuine place in your heart and mind to receive his salvation, his freedom and healing from the cross.
Forrest: Today was your day.
Forrest: I want you to take an action by raising a hand towards heaven.
Forrest: If that was you and you prayed that at the count of three, I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand as an action towards heaven, a confirmation of what you have just decided and prayed.
Forrest: So if that's you at the count of three, ready.
Forrest: One, two, three.
Forrest: Anybody in the room?
Forrest: Father?
Forrest: Anybody in the room, God?
Forrest: Lord, I pray this morning, Father, as we step towards you, that God, you would take our minds, our hearts, our decisions, and Father, Lord, you would give us the boldness and the strength to walk with you and with others every single day.
Forrest: In the strong name of Jesus.
Forrest: Everybody said, Amen.
Forrest: Church, will you stand to your feet as we worship?