Forrest: Amen and amen.
Forrest: You can grab a seat as we are jumping into this third week of our series Multipliers.
Forrest: That we are starting off our year strong here with the flagship series talking about what it looks to be what it looks like to be a multiplier here at Multiply Church.
Forrest: I'm grateful that you're here if I've not met you before.
Forrest: My name is Fortis Lee Pastor here at Multiply.
Forrest: And last week we got to celebrate all that God did in the end of 2024 and how strongly ended 2024.
Forrest: 2025 has been about to be kind of a crazy start with all this weather and all this snow.
Forrest: But we ended 2024 strongly, and we got to celebrate what happened at the end of this last year in the generous giving that uh as a church we collectively came together, and I'm excited because we said, hey, 10% of this giving at the end of the year we're going to see God use to help another church and another capital city.
Forrest: If that's his will, he can help us to do it, that we would take a step to see God do something in another place.
Forrest: See, this week uh marks four years from January 15, 2021, that my family moved to Frankfurt along with others to see God do a work here at multiply church here in Frankfurt that at one point was just a dream and a whisper, and because of you, look at what God has done.
Forrest: Because of the Holy Spirit and because of his power working through his people, look at what God has done.
Forrest: And it gets me so excited and filled with joy about that happening again in another city, in another place for somebody else, so the fact that we have to set aside 10%,$27,000 to invest in a plant in the future.
Forrest: I'm excited about that.
Forrest: Anyone else in the room excited about that?
Forrest: I'm very excited about it.
Forrest: So that we can see God continue to move and He is doing so much.
Forrest: This series that we've been walking through has been showing us what it means for us to be multipliers, to meet with God, to motivate friends.
Forrest: And today we're going to be zeroing in on spiritual growth and how we do that by way of making disciples.
Forrest: Everybody say, Make disciples.
Forrest: That's the title of my message today, which is Make Disciples.
Forrest: Turn to your neighbor on the other side and say, Make disciples.
Forrest: They may be across the way.
Forrest: Yell it over to them.
Forrest: As we are talking about what it means for us to have spiritual growth, for us to grow spiritually.
Forrest: And this message, which I'm very excited about, by the way, and have a lot of joy for today, because you know what?
Forrest: It's a lot of fun to make disciples.
Forrest: It's a lot of fun to see God transform lives.
Forrest: It's a lot of fun to see people be set free and uh generations changed because of the power of God.
Forrest: And being able to be a part of his work and making disciples.
Forrest: So when we talk about spiritual growth today, really what we're doing is we're talking about the philosophy of ministry around here, why we do what we do as a church.
Forrest: And I'm hopeful that today that some dots will be connected in your mind about what it is that we do here at Multiply Church and why we do it as we walk through God's word together.
Forrest: You ever heard somebody say, I'm just not ready yet?
Forrest: Yep.
Forrest: Maybe you've said it yourself, something like, you know, I'll join a small group when life slows down.
Forrest: But life never slows down, does it?
unknown: No, it doesn't.
Forrest: I'll get baptized when I feel more spiritual.
Forrest: Or I'll serve when I have more time.
Forrest: And we don't ever have more time, do we?
Forrest: Sound familiar to anybody?
Forrest: There was uh been many a time in my life when I wasn't ready.
Forrest: One of those times I talked a couple weeks ago about how I came to Christ at a young age and then uh had a time of being away from the Lord and Him drawing Him uh drawing me back to Him after getting into a party lifestyle in high school and then God moving powerfully in my life as a junior in high school and then and as a senior in high school, God called me into the ministry very young.
Forrest: And what you probably don't know about that is that what the time when I submitted to God's leading my life to go into ministry, it was for music only.
Forrest: See, some of y'all don't know this, but for the first eight years of local church ministry in my life, I was a worship pastor and did music.
Forrest: And I vowed at the beginning of this that I would never preach.
Forrest: I'm like, that's not for me.
Forrest: I do music, I'm not gonna do that.
Forrest: Preaching's not for me.
Forrest: I may say something between the song or something like that, but you're not gonna find me preaching.
Forrest: And the Lord led me to, uh, as a young man, 18, take the step to go into uh study ministry at college, and I was there and leading worship and a junior year of college, a campus minister at the time asked me if I would consider leading campus ministries uh on the campus as a student, which was uh uh a few hundred students at the time, but it required preaching.
Forrest: And I I didn't know this at the time, but the mantra of the campus ministry there at college, I had no idea that it was going to continue to be helpful for me almost 20 years uh later now.
Forrest: But the mantra was this growing as disciples while making more disciples through authentic relationship.
Forrest: I've said that so many times that I have it memorized, and it was something that got implanted into my mind and my heart about what it looks like to follow Jesus and what ministry should look like in making disciples and growing as a disciple of Jesus and that being in the context of relationship.
Forrest: And so I ended up saying yes to taking that step, and I remember uh my first sermon that I ever preached.
Forrest: It was at a chapel there close to campus.
Forrest: There was no seats in the room, all the students were sitting on the floor.
Forrest: I prepared and prepared and prepared this 30-minute message, and it was over in like nine minutes because I talked so fast.
Forrest: I told some terrible bathroom joke.
Forrest: Uh, it was awful.
Forrest: The that first message was terrible.
Forrest: Uh, but I did it.
Forrest: And people have been wanting me to preach for nine minutes ever since to go back to that.
Forrest: Um, but I began to lead in small groups and large groups and growing in my relationship with God and others, and what I was beginning to discover was Jesus' model for ministry and discipleship.
Forrest: See, what if being a disciple of Jesus isn't about being ready, it's just about taking one step forward.
Forrest: See, Jesus didn't call perfect people, he called hesitant, unsure people to follow him, and then he changed their lives one step at a time.
Forrest: See, spiritual growth isn't something that happens by accident.
Forrest: And what what in the world do we even mean when we talk about being a disciple of Jesus?
Forrest: Well, sometimes we confuse it with knowledge, but what we're looking for is something deeper than that, a life that's following Jesus and being transformed by Him and joining Him with His mission.
Forrest: And it takes intentional decisions for us to step forward into the things of God.
Forrest: And you may be wondering what in the world that step is for you.
Forrest: Well, that's what we're diving into today.
Forrest: Last week we talked about the beginnings of the early church in Acts 2 and the explosion of these disciples, that then we're making disciples.
Forrest: But before all that, we're gonna start back at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry and look at some of his statements along the way, and then look at his final statements and commands to his disciples before he ascended back to the Father.
Forrest: And we're gonna look through this together to give us some picture of what it looks like for us to grow spiritually, have spiritual growth, and to be people who are disciples of Jesus.
Forrest: Y'all ready for that?
Forrest: You go on this journey together?
Forrest: So we're gonna start with one simple verse, Matthew 4, 19, that says, He said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Forrest: Now, this is the beginning of Jesus' ministry, and this is him calling the first disciples, and so a couple more verses here to give you some context of what's going on.
Forrest: Verse 18.
Forrest: While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
Forrest: And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Forrest: Verse 20.
Forrest: Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Forrest: Jesus.
Forrest: Beginning his earthly ministry, asked these common everyday people to follow him, and then he promised them that he was going to make them.
Forrest: And so he was going to do the work to change them, and for them that they were going to go from their ordinary occupation of being fishermen to then moving into an amazing purpose beyond just their ordinary everyday life to then making a spiritual impact and making disciples whom they make disciples.
Forrest: See, most churches are gonna tell you and would tell you that they exist in order to make disciples.
Forrest: But if you were to that to ask them the most basic of question, what is a disciple?
Forrest: You're probably gonna end up with a bunch of different answers, even from their top leadership.
Forrest: And so moving target's really hard to hit.
Forrest: And so here at Multiply, we have a definition of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, and it's taken directly from this verse, Matthew 4.19.
Forrest: And that definition of being a disciple is very simply that you are someone who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and then on mission with Jesus.
Forrest: And we're gonna unpack that together.
Forrest: Now, I don't like to say yes to things that I don't have all the details for.
Forrest: Invited to something, and I don't have all the details, you're probably the same way, thinking, okay, what am I getting myself into?
Forrest: You want me to say yes to do something, but I need some more information.
Forrest: But that's not what the disciples got when following Jesus.
Forrest: See, the disciples, they didn't get an orientation before Jesus told them to follow him.
Forrest: They didn't get the syllabus, they didn't get an interest meeting about what it would look like to follow Jesus.
Forrest: No, instead, they took the step, and even though they weren't perfect, they began to follow Jesus fully.
Forrest: And you may be in the situation where you're thinking, you know what, I'm I'm not perfect.
Forrest: How in the world am I supposed to follow Jesus fully?
Forrest: And the answer is that you have to start.
Forrest: We collectively, we have to start following Jesus.
Forrest: Your work and life and your discipleship, it begins by you saying yes to Jesus, even though you may be unsure about what the next steps are.
Forrest: See, your discipleship, it starts with this decision, following Jesus, prioritizing him and his teachings above everything else in your life.
Forrest: And there are people probably in your ear, or maybe the enemy that's telling you, am I really gonna call myself a Christian?
Forrest: I'm really gonna become some goody two shoes.
Forrest: You know, do you know for us everything that I've done in my life?
Forrest: How in the world could I possibly call myself a Christian?
Forrest: But it was Jesus who was the one who called fishermen, tax collectors, and skeptics, not experts, to follow him.
Forrest: And Jesus invited them to follow him.
Forrest: No, no, no.
Forrest: He didn't just invite them.
Forrest: A lot of times in church, we like to pretty it up and say, Jesus invites you, invites you.
Forrest: Yes, he does invite you because he's choosing you and you have the opportunity through the power of the Holy Spirit to then make the decision to follow Jesus, but Jesus commands you to follow him.
Forrest: This isn't just an invitation, it's a command for you to follow him as your Lord and your Savior.
Forrest: And that command is given to you because one day every knee will bow and every tongue he will confess that Christ is Lord.
Forrest: And that command is so that you can one day be in glory in heaven with Jesus, perfectly made because of his sacrifice on the cross, not because of anything you've done.
Forrest: Instead of being separated in a place called hell in eternity, he's commanding you to follow him.
Forrest: Jesus isn't just an option or a suggestion.
Forrest: He's inviting you, he's calling you, he's commanding you to follow him just how you are to start.
Forrest: It's kind of like a marathon.
Forrest: You know, it's not like a video game, the old school video games when you know you're playing and then you die, and then you game over and you have to start back at the beginning.
Forrest: They don't have video games like that anymore.
Forrest: Now it's just like you play for your whole life.
Forrest: But if you're in a marathon, you start running, and maybe a few minutes in or a mile or two in, say you trip and you stumble and you fall on the ground.
Forrest: You don't start back at the beginning.
Forrest: You don't start back at go.
Forrest: You get up right where you are, and you dust yourself off spiritually.
Forrest: That looks like you asking for forgiveness, confessing what has happened, what's had you falling and stumbling, and you get back up right where you were on the race and in the race, and then you continue to run from where you were where you were.
Forrest: You don't start back over at the beginning.
Forrest: You're following Jesus and following after him each and every single day.
Forrest: And we have seen God do some amazing things in and through the lives of people that have said yes to him here at Multiply in the last couple of years.
Forrest: In three months' time, our church turns three years old.
Forrest: And we have seen God do some incredible things.
Forrest: There are people in our church who started with asking the question to me, what do you mean saved?
Forrest: That are now have been baptized, have baptized others and making disciples in relationship.
Forrest: I'm gonna celebrate some stories along the way in this message today.
Forrest: We've got people in our church who came to multiply, and when they came, they didn't own a Bible.
Forrest: But now they've been baptized and serving the Lord and helping to make disciples in relationship.
Forrest: One of the best compliments I ever got and ever received about my preaching was from someone who started following Jesus at multiply.
Forrest: They started following Jesus and got baptized, and they told me, Forrest, I like the way that you preach because you break it down Barney style.
Forrest: Like the purple dinosaur.
Forrest: Now I could choose to be offended by that.
Forrest: Or I could recognize the fact that Jesus is allowing us to be a place where people can meet God and then grow spiritually to the point where they're helping other people to meet God as well.
Forrest: And God do that here in this place.
Forrest: And us not be so head down, not so obsessed with things that are trivial and second and third issues, that we miss the fact that there is a world that desperately needs to meet God and grow spiritually.
Forrest: I remember when we were in the movie theater and we were doing setup and teardown, and you know, that's a lot of manual labor each and every week.
Forrest: And I counted 13 weeks straight, somebody cussed in front of me.
Forrest: In front of the pastor.
Forrest: And even from then, and it still happens in the lobby, you know, it happens at times.
Forrest: I can choose to be offended by that, or I could celebrate the fact that this is a place where people can meet God and then be changed.
Forrest: You want to know what's annoying?
Forrest: It's annoying when something can't be microwaved.
Forrest: When I can't just get a quick fix.
Forrest: See, you've probably just wanted to skip to the end result before, but it takes time to do what Jesus says and bearing fruit.
Forrest: Jesus all the time is using this example of agriculture and of growing, and he talks about bearing fruit, growing fruit, which takes seasons of time.
Forrest: It's a long, long process to get to the apple or the orange.
Forrest: There's a process that it takes for us to begin to grow and to change, and it's a long process that takes seasons and seasons, and we often want to just focus on the surface level changes like attending church and serving and reading the Bible, but then we're neglecting the deeper issues like pride and unresolved pain and unhealthy patterns and sexual sin.
Forrest: These things that need to be transformed by Jesus.
Forrest: That's what we're doing together.
Forrest: We're starting to follow Jesus, and then we're being transformed by Jesus.
Forrest: And if you feel stuck, that doesn't mean that God's not working.
Forrest: It means that he's digging deeper.
Forrest: See, Jane, Jesus wants to transform what's beneath the surface so that we can live out this greater purpose and calling and joy that comes from him and true transformation.
Forrest: Transformation that you allow Jesus to address what's beneath the surface.
Forrest: Emotions and motives and the parts of our lives that we want to avoid.
Forrest: Transformation that involves addressing the hidden areas of brokenness, past wounds and unhealthy patterns and blind spots.
Forrest: Jesus put it this way in the middle of his ministry in John 15, 5, he said, Yes, I am the vine and you are the branches.
Forrest: Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit.
Forrest: For apart from me, you can do nothing.
Forrest: You can't grow spiritually in isolation.
Forrest: God changes us in relationship with him and relationship with others.
Forrest: But the world tells you, do life on your own terms.
Forrest: Social media tells you, you do you.
Forrest: You just do you.
Forrest: But Jesus tells us, apart from him, we can do nothing of eternal consequence.
Forrest: We can do nothing without him.
Forrest: See, the transformation that happens, it isn't just about quick fixes, it's about changing the parts of our lives that are often hidden, the 90% that's beneath the surface.
Forrest: You know, if you are a rude, offended, and irritable person, you're probably not going to grow spiritually.
Forrest: Because there's a 90% that's underneath the surface that needs to be addressed by Jesus.
Forrest: There's more that meets the eye that you need Jesus to transform.
Forrest: I'll put it to you this way Author Pete Cesero talks about an iceberg and how the tip of the iceberg, the top 10%, that's what everybody sees actions and words.
Forrest: But the bulk of the iceberg is what lies beneath the surface.
Forrest: And so for us as followers of Jesus, we have to allow Jesus to transform what is beneath the surface.
Forrest: Things like fears and wounds and our desires and let Jesus transform what is unseen.
Forrest: See, true discipleship, it means that you're letting Jesus into the hidden places of your life to heal them and to reshape them.
Forrest: Dealing with your habits, hang-ups, with your history.
Forrest: Author Peter puts it this way.
Forrest: You've got hurts, you've got habits, you've got history.
Forrest: You've got family things that have gone on that are unhealthy patterns that just because you've been in that environment, now you've taken into your life, and you have to let Jesus get below the surface so that He can transform things for your children and their children and their children so that you can begin to let those parts of your life that are unseen be transformed by Jesus and that you can be truly changed.
Forrest: And there's more than meets the eye.
Forrest: That we need to step towards God to identify those areas of brokenness in our life.
Forrest: And through honesty with yourself and with others and with God, embrace the change that he wants to do in you.
Forrest: And that change is ultimately to follow the example of Jesus and what he did.
Forrest: His practices, his disciplines, like serving, like study and prayer, to process through emotions and Sabbath for you to rest and for you to recalibrate your week.
Forrest: So that then you can continue to follow Jesus and you can foster authentic relationship with God and with other people in your life, and that you're stepping into the fact that you need other people beside you to help you grow.
Forrest: You're not just gonna do it all on your own.
Forrest: And allow other people and the vulnerability of being in relationship with others to help you grow and for you to become who God truly has called you to be.
Forrest: What more does God want to do?
Forrest: Us being on mission.
Forrest: What Jesus has called us to.
Forrest: See, at the end of Jesus' earthly ministry before he ascended back to the Father, he gave some final instructions to his disciples and those following him.
Forrest: And the fancy title for this is the Great Commission.
Forrest: It's the end of the book of Matthew and Matthew chapter 28.
Forrest: And Jesus says to them, Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you.
Forrest: And surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age.
Forrest: It is so easy for us to feel unqualified and hesitant to share our faith or to make disciples.
Forrest: But Jesus is the one who said, You're not doing it on your own.
Forrest: He says, I'm going to be with you.
Forrest: I'm going to be the one that is changing you and transforming you and helping you to see that happen with somebody else.
Forrest: And so oftentimes, and I know you've probably felt this before, thinking, I just don't know enough to be able to disciple somebody else or help somebody else.
Forrest: But do you know what God has done in your life?
Forrest: See, because the things that we go through and we walk through in life, these tests that we go through, they then become our testimony.
Forrest: And it's then when we have joined the mission with Jesus, when we realize the fact that us growing in our faith and allowing other people to be able to see that and help to share that with them, that that is completely motivated by love.
Forrest: The love of God that's pouring into you and to somebody else, and it's not about how much you know, it's about how much you love.
Forrest: See, Jesus is the one who is helping us every step of the way by filling us with his love and his truth that then we're able to share with others.
Forrest: Being on mission with Jesus doesn't mean to preach a sermon necessarily.
Forrest: It can be inviting a friend into your life, into church, you praying for someone, you simply showing kindness to someone.
Forrest: See, it's it's these small steps that have us growing every single day that what is what makes a difference.
Forrest: Listen to me.
Forrest: It's the small steps that Jesus multiplies for a giant impact.
Forrest: Everybody say small steps.
Forrest: Realizing that this isn't about you being perfect.
Forrest: Listen to me, look at me.
Forrest: This isn't about you being perfect, it's about you being willing.
Forrest: To not feel like that, oh well, I'm just not qualified for that.
Forrest: Jesus is the one who qualifies us.
Forrest: You know, right now in our church, there are people in our church right now who are completely rearranging their lives in order to serve teenagers and see them be discipled.
Forrest: There's conversations happening in homes about how 2025 is gonna look different and rearranging schedules and priorities so that they can serve teenagers and see them grow in their faith and come to Jesus.
Forrest: There are people who, over the last couple years, have opened up their homes to see people be discipled and be in a small group and be able to host a place where people can have conversation, where they can be in a relationship, encourage one another.
Forrest: That's been happening.
Forrest: And it's been motivated by the love of God and the maturity to see what Jesus did and to model our life and ministry after his work.
Forrest: I'm so grateful that the disciples and those that follow Jesus didn't only just care about their own household and their own children.
Forrest: Because obviously, we need to make disciples in our home.
Forrest: That's where it starts.
Forrest: But I'm sure I'm glad that Peter went over to Cornelius, the very first person who wasn't a Jew, and he had the wherewithal to go and lead him to Christ, and his whole family came to faith now in 2025 because they can left enough to get out of there and to get out of somebody else and to left them and to share the truth of Jesus with them so that then they can be discipled and transformed and the world changed forever.
Forrest: And now we're sitting here right now because of it.
Forrest: Who is going to be in the kingdom because of you now?
Forrest: Who's going to be in eternity in heaven because of you now?
Forrest: So, what's your next step?
Forrest: For some in the room, it's a simple yes.
Forrest: You need to start following Jesus and say yes to him.
Forrest: You've been holding back, you let in all the thoughts of not knowing what's going to happen, what the next steps are, not having all the details hold you back from saying yes to him.
Forrest: For others of you, you got to take a step in to relationship with others by getting to one of these groups that are launching out Sunday night that are going on.
Forrest: Take a step in out of anonymity and isolation and into relationship and wherever you are, to start where you are and let Jesus lead you forward.
Forrest: We've been talking very simply the last few weeks about the actions of us gathering together on Sundays, being in small group, growing spiritually, making disciples who make other disciples, serving God, following his example, and for us to be multipliers, that means that we are people who are following Jesus and are transformed by him and helping others do the same.
Forrest: That's what it means to be a multiplier.
Forrest: And God has done it over and over and over again in this place in the last couple of years.
Forrest: And I'm just overjoyed thinking about what more he has in store for us, what more he has planned for you.
Forrest: And maybe that you need to say yes to Jesus, you need to take the first step to be baptized.
Forrest: You have an opportunity to do that, and so if that's you, I want to invite you.
Forrest: There's a card underneath your receipt for you to grab it, for you to check baptism so that you can start this journey with Jesus, so you can begin with Him.
Forrest: Maybe for you, it's you connecting the dots of okay, this walk that I'm in, this spiritual walk, this isn't just about me.
Forrest: And I can't just do this on my own.
Forrest: I need to be in relationship with others outside of my house to be able to grow spiritually and to see God do a powerful work through my life.
Forrest: So for some of you, that's just you need to keep coming.
Forrest: Keep coming back, be consistent, take steps into relationship with others.
Forrest: Find your find people, find friends who can help you and can motivate you for a life of godliness.
Forrest: I'm gonna pray that over all of us right now.
Forrest: So if you would bow your heads with me, Father, I pray right now, God, every household that's represented in this place, Lord, every single one of us, God, are we on this spiritual journey and this walk with you, Jesus.
Forrest: And Father, we we need you so much right now to help us to grow and to and to model our life after your Son, Jesus.
Forrest: And Holy Spirit, we need you to change us and to mold us and to make us.
Forrest: Father, that we can have an impact on not just our children, our children's children, but people that are around us, God, that you have appointed and you've placed in our path, God, for us to be able to share your love with.
Forrest: And so, God, I pray right now over every home that's represented, God, that they would start with a small step.
Forrest: What you're calling into, what they're what you're leading them to, Father.
Forrest: To see them be your disciple and be somebody who makes disciples with their life.
Forrest: Father, I pray right now, by the power of your name, that God we see more people come to know you as savior and be transformed in this year because of the work and because of the commitment and because of the love and because of the grace poured out from this room.
Forrest: And Father, I pray right now, all across this room, right now, if there's anybody in this place who's not received you as savior, that today would be their day, that they receive you as savior, that they follow you, that they take the step to change and repent so that they can be in heaven with you one day, and that God, you would right now, you would put it on their heart, God, for them to take the step to be baptized.
Forrest: So, Father, I pray right now, Lord, that you would do this work by the power of your Holy Spirit, and we agree and we believe in faith, God, that you will.
Forrest: We thank you, we praise you in the strong name of Jesus.
Forrest: Everybody said amen.
Forrest: Church, will you stand to your feet as we sing and worship?