Forrest: There's so many, so many in this place who at one point the enemy had you in his grip, broken, in despair, beaten, separated from God, but because of Jesus and because of what he did for you on the cross, and three days later, walking out of the grave victorious, now you walk in victory.
Forrest: Now I walk in victory over the enemy.
Forrest: I have been so amped for this Sunday because it's been months in the making for this Sunday.
Forrest: You guys know at the end of this last year we had our outpour offering.
Forrest: And even before that, we got to sit down with the Juana Joyce Robinson Foundation here in our community that serves kids and teens impacted by incarceration.
Forrest: And we got to sit down months before and go to them and say, hey, what is it that you need?
Forrest: Because that's our posture.
Forrest: We're not trying to come out here and tell everybody, hey, you know, we know more about serving kids and teens who are impacted by incarceration than you do, so let's give you a suggestion.
Forrest: No, we didn't do that.
Forrest: We said, hey, what do you need?
Forrest: And we had this great conversation, and in faith, we collectively together began to believe that God was going to do something powerful through the outpour offering at the end of this last year, and God out, He did outpour, didn't He?
Forrest: He outpour.
Forrest: So as you grab a seat, I want to let you know that we've gotten to partner and got to serve and encourage a number of different organizations throughout our community.
Forrest: But Wanna Joyce has been very near and dear to our heart over the last few years as we've been able just to try to encourage.
Forrest: And this last year they also began this thing called Amachi, which is a one-on-one mentorship uh program that now of the people that they're serving, and you're this may blow your mind, this may not blow your mind, but Kentucky has the highest percentage in the nation of kids and teens who have a parent or guardian incarcerated.
Forrest: And there's a number of factors that play into that.
Forrest: But what that looks like is in Franklin County over the last few years, Wanda Joyce now, now they're they're serving, they're now serving over 400 families in our community that are in that situation with programs in schools, with serving these kids and teens, and now doing one-to-one mentorship through Amachi.
Forrest: And there's a number of people who are a part of Multiply who are one of these 40 now Amachi mentors that are uh mentoring kids who are in that situation and teens in our community, and they're they're able to pour into and invest in them uh constantly through this next year.
Forrest: And Wanda Joyce came to us and as in this conversation, they said, Oh, we said, What do you need?
Forrest: And they said, Hey, we're looking to hire a youth advocacy position to help in mentoring kids and to have this position that to serve kids all through this next year, and to the tune of five thousand dollars.
Forrest: And we were like, Okay, Lord, like this sounds let's do this, let's do this.
Forrest: And uh, I'm very thankful by the fact that there are this isn't just something that's like, oh, there's something that we're kind of we know of, or no, we've been able to encourage and be involved with this now for a long time, and then have people in our church who are Amachi mentors, and so I would like for us to keep the generosity going.
Forrest: And something we're doing today is in the lobby, there's a table, but also on your church center app, if you've been around here, there's an opportunity for you as we were talking about the Amachi mentors.
Forrest: What they do is they take the the kids and have a one-to-one mentorship, and a lot of times they take them to like get a treat at like Sonic or Dairy Queen, and they do that on their own dime.
Forrest: And so what we thought would be a good thing for us to do is this week, you can sign up to get a$25 gift card this week and bring it back with you next week so that we can give that to those 40 people who are being Amachi mentors so they can they're paying for it out of their own pocket, so that we could just give a little bit of a blessing to say, hey, we see you.
Forrest: We appreciate what you're doing, we love the fact that you're caring for some vulnerable kids in our community.
Forrest: So here's a gift card, go to Dairy Queen, go to Sonic.
Forrest: Y'all think that's a good idea?
Forrest: I think it's a great idea.
Forrest: And so if you want to be one of those ones that get to be a part of that blessing and grab one of those gift cards this week, you can sign up on the Church Center app.
Forrest: You can go to the table that's out in the lobby.
Forrest: But also, on top of that, I'm so thankful that we have the leader of the Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation with us today, Amy Snow.
Forrest: Amy Snow's in the house, and I'm actually gonna have her come up.
Forrest: Can you give it up right now for Amy as she comes to share with us?
Forrest: I'm so thankful for you.
Forrest: This woman is an angel.
Forrest: She's an angel.
Forrest: Can you tell us what you're excited about for this year?
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00: Anything just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Uh starting a boys and girls club.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have a boys and girls club.
SPEAKER_00: Let me help this for you.
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so that's coming to fruition.
SPEAKER_00: We actually have some uh strategic planning going on today, but um you know, we identified, like Forrest said, you know, it sounds amazing.
SPEAKER_00: We work with about 400 kids, but there's more than 800 in Franklin County.
SPEAKER_00: We're actually talking about a high school building.
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, we have worked um incredibly hard just with our board and our staff really putting together a plan of how in the world do we really help more than 800 kids.
SPEAKER_00: And so a piece of that is after school programming and summer programming.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's what we're working on in 2025.
Forrest: I I just have to say um about Amy when coming to Frankfurt myself four years ago, there's few people I have been more inspired by than this lady who has literally um served so many kids and families and had a vision to care for some of the most vulnerable people in our community, and it continues to inspire me, doesn't it?
Forrest: You to inspire you guys.
Forrest: Uh it inspires me.
Forrest: And I'm thankful that for our church, as God has outpoured to us at the end of this last year, that this isn't just like inside the walls, but that God would pour out through us into our city.
Forrest: And part of that is just to come alongside and fuel the fire of good that's going on.
Forrest: And so we uh at the end of this year with our year in giving, the Lord blessed us tremendously.
Forrest: And we got to do a lot of things that are gonna come in 2025 and set aside uh money for church planting.
Forrest: And I know that we had talked about giving you this money for this position.
Forrest: Um, but I want I want you to know is that God poured out so generously through his people and through his goodness that today we're not gonna give 5,000, we're gonna give 10,000 today.
Forrest: And so this is a$10,000 gift to the Wana Joyce Robinson Foundation.
Forrest: Isn't that just God?
Forrest: Isn't that God through faith, the faith of his people?
Forrest: And you've stepped in, if you're new with us today, you've stepped into a generous church.
Forrest: I'm glad that you're here.
Forrest: And I want us to collectively now pray for Amy and for her team and for Wana Joyce and for these kids.
Forrest: Does that sound good?
Forrest: So, what you can do is just extend your hand right now towards Amy together collectively as we pray.
Forrest: Father, we come to you right now, we thank you, God, for your goodness, for your mercy towards us.
Forrest: Father, we want to present to you today, Lord, present the Wana Joyce Robinson Foundation to you, specifically Amy, as she leads and the team of staff and volunteers, Lord, that we present them to you today, God, that they would feel, God, you shining and you smiling down on them as they serve and love kids and teenagers in our community, God, that would otherwise probably be overlooked.
Forrest: But God, thank you, Father, that you see us and you see them and you love them.
Forrest: And so, God, right now we pray for more.
Forrest: We God, we pray for more financial provision, we pray for energy, we pray, God, for opportunity, we pray, God, for you to show up and continue to show out your goodness, your love towards these kids and their families.
Forrest: God, we just thank you, Lord, for the fact that this year we're gonna just ask and claim right now and declare, Father, for more of these 800 families to be served.
Forrest: And God, you've grown Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation each year over and over, and God, we ask that you would do that this year.
Forrest: By your power, by your might, and by your the faith of your people.
Forrest: So we praise you, we love you, we thank you.
Forrest: In Jesus' name, all God's people, said amen and amen and amen.
Forrest: Can you give it up right now for Amy and for Wanda Joyce and for this crew?
Forrest: Thank you.
Forrest: Thank you, thank you.
Forrest: Woo! Y'all know why now I'm excited for this day and have been elated and amped up because all that God has done, and we've been in this, we've been in this series for the last few weeks called Multipliers of what it looks like to live a life that is multiplying the kingdom of God and faithfulness through Him.
Forrest: And we've walked together over the last few weeks, and we've talked about a number of things, but we've started by talking about what it looks like to meet with God, to motivate our friends to a life of godliness.
Forrest: Talked about what it means to be a disciple and to make disciples.
Forrest: And today we're zeroing in on God's call to us and calling over us to serve Him by serving others and collectively our church for us to multiply good together.
Forrest: And so that's the title of the message today is multiply good.
Forrest: Turn to your neighbor and say multiply good.
Forrest: See, with Jesus, with Jesus, we we don't just have good neat good deeds, we also have good news.
Forrest: And it's because of the good news of Christ that we are able to even do good deeds.
Forrest: But the only reason we have good news is because there's bad news, and the bad news is that each and every single one of us, the Bible says, has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Forrest: That no one in this room is perfect, including me, and it's Jesus who's the one who makes us perfect.
Forrest: By his blood-bought pathway on the cross for us to be saved.
Forrest: And so the bad news is that each one of us in this room, we have the scourge of sin, the disease of sin.
Forrest: And the only antidote is a life in Christ.
Forrest: The only antidote is freedom through Jesus and what he's done for us.
Forrest: And so, is that as the backdrop today?
Forrest: We're going to talk about what it looks like for us to be carriers of this good news that's going to lead us to good deeds, that's going to multiply good and the goodness of God in our city.
Forrest: But not everybody has that mentality.
Forrest: Not everybody has that mentality.
Forrest: Actually, uh there are plenty of people out there that people would say, uh, maybe you've heard this before, are energy vampires.
Forrest: They just suck the life out of all the people that are around them.
Forrest: These energy vampires that are at your work, maybe your boss, a coworker, somebody in your family, that literally every day you try to run away from them and avoid them because you know they're just going to suck the life out of you.
Forrest: So one of those people, maybe the Debbie Downer at your work that's always complaining and never helping to find a solution.
Forrest: Maybe the narcissistic dude that for some reason always has to redirect every conversation back to their own problems or achievements in life.
Forrest: Nobody knows anybody like that, do you?
Forrest: Uh, how about the drama queen that just thrives on unnecessary conflict and always stirring the pot at the office?
Forrest: Uh, maybe the criticizers, that dude who's always pointing out others' flaws but's never seen a mirror before.
Forrest: Or maybe somebody who's just that battery drainer who monopolizes the conversations and not only that, but then they ask you to validate them and reassure them after they've already wasted all of your time.
Forrest: See, that is there, there are plenty of people that we bump into like that, but that's not the people that we've been called to be.
Forrest: Let me put it to you this way: save people, serve people.
Forrest: And we say that a number of different ways here at Multiply.
Forrest: We say, see a need, fill a need.
Forrest: We say, fuel the fire of faith for others.
Forrest: And what I'm saying is that for us as the people of God, we should be people who are bringing light, not a dark cloud.
Forrest: See, I know that you have met someone who has the life out of people.
Forrest: The light that's in the room.
Forrest: Trying to hold others back.
Forrest: Tear people down.
Forrest: Trying to diminish it.
Forrest: Others and maybe you've acted this way.
Forrest: At one time or another.
Forrest: There's a difference, and there's there's a battle between being a multiplier versus a diminisher.
Forrest: And what a diminisher is, is somebody who's just a wet blanket on the situation, who's always thinking about themselves, tearing others down, have a bad attitude.
Forrest: And we talked about last week that for us to actually truly grow in our relationship with God, we can't be people who are rude and offended and irritable all the time if we actually want to grow in our faith and our relationship with the Lord.
Forrest: We can't be these people who are diminishers, but instead we should be disciples who are following Jesus and seeing him do a multiplying effect in and through our lives.
Forrest: And last week we talked about what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus, a disciple of Jesus, and talked about the definition of what it looks like and what it is to be a disciple here at multiply.
Forrest: And it's three parts of this unified definition from Matthew 4.19, where Jesus calls the disciples at first, and he says, Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
Forrest: And from this verse, we take what it looks like to be a disciple, which is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, Jesus saying, I will make you, and being on mission with Jesus, fishers of men.
Forrest: And what is so beautiful about this is that Jesus invites us into this life of following him and being his disciple.
Forrest: Following him, being changed by him, being on mission with him.
Forrest: But the beautiful part of it, as we're on mission with Jesus, doing the things that he gave us the example and the command for us to do, we're not doing it on our own.
Forrest: See, as we're serving Jesus, we're not just doing it for Jesus, we're doing it with Jesus.
Forrest: Because we ended with the Great Commission where Jesus says, and lo, I'm with you always to the very end of the age.
Forrest: See, Jesus is helping us to be on mission with him, and what that looks like, and what we say around here a lot is that being on mission oftentimes looks like us stepping up and stepping out to serve with our time, our talent, and our treasure.
Forrest: And Jesus gives us this truth and example in the Sermon on the Mount, as he tells us what it looks like for us to be on mission with him and ultimately, ultimately to multiply his goodness.
Forrest: And it's very short, it's just three verses of this large sermon, but it gives us this analogy, this example, this truth that we should follow.
Forrest: Y'all want to hear it?
Forrest: Alright, let's do it together.
Forrest: Let's do it together here.
Forrest: Matthew chapter 5, verse 14.
Forrest: I'll read it.
Forrest: You are the light of the world.
Forrest: A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.
Forrest: Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Forrest: Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.
Forrest: Verse 16.
Forrest: In the same way, everybody same way.
Forrest: In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds, say good deeds, and glorify, say glorify your Father in heaven.
Forrest: Short three verses, packed with truth of what it looks like for us to be on mission with Jesus, multiplying his goodness.
Forrest: And then the very first verse there in verse 14, going back to verse 14, you're the light of the world.
Forrest: A town on a hill cannot be hidden.
Forrest: I don't know about you, but there's often times in my life where I don't feel like the light of the world.
Forrest: Actually, I, you know, there are times where for whatever reason, you know, my flaws, mistakes, I'm just not feeling it.
Forrest: Being the light.
Forrest: But Jesus has told us that not only is he the light of the world, but he's also granted you the ability that you would then also be the light of the world as well.
Forrest: So he's through you given you the ability to shine, and sometimes I don't always feel like shining.
Forrest: I'll give you an example.
Forrest: Last year I got a new grill for Father's Day, and I was at Lowe's uh a while later to pick up this grill that was assembled, and I got there, and when I got there, I was supposed to pick it up and got the notification, and I went to go pick it up, and they didn't have it.
Forrest: And they were like, Well, we have one that's in the store, it's one of these display ones, and I'm like, we don't normally do this, but we'll get you we'll get you the display one.
Forrest: So I go back to the display area, and at this point, we're like 30 minutes into this situation, and the problem was that all the display grills all had this giant chain that was uh just chaining them all together.
Forrest: And uh this is no shock to you, no one in the building had the key to the lock for the chain.
Forrest: And so I'm standing there, I'm just doing my thing, hanging out, and there's associate after associate trying to help, they're calling people, managers who are off work or trying to figure out where the key is and what to do.
Forrest: And and at this point, like I I wasn't like, I was I was doing okay, but I was being sarcastic, okay?
Forrest: I was starting to say some things, uh, you know, like um nobody in this whole building has the key?
Forrest: Like, what are we doing here, you know?
Forrest: And I was like, hey, you know what?
Forrest: Do y'all sell bolt cutters?
Forrest: Because we could go get some bolt cutters from another aisle and come and we could just test them out, see if they work, and then return them.
Forrest: We don't even have to buy that.
Forrest: We just give a check out, we just do it, then put it back on the shelf.
Forrest: Y'all like that idea?
Forrest: They didn't like that idea.
Forrest: And at this point, we're like an hour in, and I, you know, these guys have been helping me so much and getting it figured out, and we're getting it out to the car, and we're loading in to my vehicle, and then one of the guys was like, Hey, you're that pastor of that church, aren't you?
Forrest: I know somebody that goes to your church, and in the moment I was like, I'm glad I didn't show my tail more than I did, but I was like, Yeah, that's right.
Forrest: Come on, multiply church, come on now, love to have you.
Forrest: I'm not gonna say that I was uh the brightest light that day.
Forrest: Sometimes you're just not feeling it, and maybe you felt that same way too.
Forrest: Like you'd rather blend in and stand out as a follower of Jesus.
Forrest: Or maybe you felt like that because of your past mistakes and the struggles of your life.
Forrest: From shining God's light to others.
Forrest: Maybe you just want to blend in.
Forrest: Maybe that's because you're the only believer who goes to church at your job.
Forrest: Or maybe you're the only one in your family who comes to church.
Forrest: And you're constantly feeling this pressure of like, man, you know, should I really be shining my light?
Forrest: And in those moments where you feel like maybe you're the only one and you feel exposed, don't you know that those are the moments that God wants you to shine the brightest?
Forrest: Not just to blend into the crowd, but for you to show others what God has done for you and your life by the way that you live and by the words that you say and the grace that it pours out of you.
Forrest: See, this light from Jesus ultimately is grace.
Forrest: And we need to be a people who are about God's grace.
Forrest: Here's an interesting thing interesting in this verse.
Forrest: Jesus already declares that you are the light.
Forrest: Like you've already got it.
Forrest: And so you really don't have to continually strive to shine.
Forrest: You just have to make one decision whether you're going to hide it or not.
Forrest: See, Jesus says, You're the light of the world.
Forrest: If you're in me and you are saved and you've trusted in me, my death, burial, resurrection, you've been sealed and saved.
Forrest: You now have the light.
Forrest: Now your choice is whether you're going to hide it.
Forrest: And see, it's God's grace that's reflected to the world, not because we're perfect, but because he's perfect.
Forrest: It's not, it doesn't mean that you have to be the one that's perfect.
Forrest: No, you need to point to the one who is perfect, who's given you grace for all the mistakes and mess-ups that you've done.
Forrest: I don't know.
Forrest: I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but a lighthouse, it doesn't light up itself.
Forrest: It simply lights a path to guide others to safety.
Forrest: See, the the lighthouse, it isn't focused on itself.
Forrest: It's focused on who it can help to save by focusing and shining this light.
Forrest: But you know, social media has told you, has told me, I've seen this before.
Forrest: You gotta be the main character of your story.
Forrest: You gotta have main character vibes.
Forrest: Your life.
Forrest: Not making this decision to hide.
Forrest: See, we shine bright when we are showing the grace that God has given us and multiplying it.
Forrest: This verse has been near and dear to our church for some time.
Forrest: 2 Peter 1, 2.
Forrest: May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Forrest: What this verse is saying is that for you and for me, we have the ability.
Forrest: What this word multiplies means in the Greek, it means to increase.
Forrest: And so for you and me, God wants to and allows us to participate in the fact that we are able to be his agents, to be his people, to be his instruments to multiply grace and peace in others' lives.
Forrest: We have an active role to play.
Forrest: And that starts with not hiding the light that God has given you.
Forrest: In 1856, a famous lighthouse on the coast of Maine had been in operation for over 50 years and had gone through a number of different storms.
Forrest: But in 1856, a tremendous storm came to the shoreline and beat against the lighthouse, and the foundation was cracked.
Forrest: Blocks in the walls of the lighthouse were broken.
Forrest: And instead of shutting down operation, the lighthouse keepers worked doubly hard in order to see the renovations and the restoration happen while they were still doing their duty and the light never went out.
Forrest: The light never stopped shining.
Forrest: And in the same way, when there are cracks in your foundation and in your life, Jesus wants you to do the same thing.
Forrest: Keep the light shining.
Forrest: Keep the light shining bright so people who you then can share about the grace that God's given to you.
Forrest: Don't you know that sometimes the most grace that you've received for the biggest mess up could be the guide for somebody else who's going through the same thing?
Forrest: Don't you know that if you would just share the light of Christ that's in you and not hide it, that you could be someone's safe way home.
Forrest: Verse 15 puts it this way Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Forrest: Instead, they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.
Forrest: I don't know about you, but there are times for me where I have definitely felt like somebody give me a bowl.
Forrest: I'm not feeling it right now.
Forrest: Like, I'm worn out, I'm tired of all these people.
Forrest: Somebody pass me a bowl because I need to get under it.
Forrest: And I'm just gonna guess that there's some of you all in the room that you've probably felt that way before.
Forrest: You're like, it's everything that I can do just to get dinner on the table for my family and get these crazy kids to bed.
Forrest: And if one more person asks me for one more thing, I'm gonna blow my lid.
Forrest: Somebody hand me a bowl.
Forrest: Somebody put me under a bowl because I'm not trying to shine right now.
Forrest: I've had enough.
Forrest: But we, as followers of Jesus, we have to be about not giving up on good.
Forrest: We have to be, as Jesus tells us, people that will put our light on the stand and let it shine bright and believe in faith that even when we're tired, even when we want to give up, even when we feel like that nothing is happening and nothing's working out on the other side, and I've done enough and I'm tapped out and I couldn't possibly help anybody else.
Forrest: We have to be the people that know the promise that we should not get tired of doing good, but instead, at just the right time, God's gonna bring a harvest.
Forrest: See, that's what the scripture teaches us.
Forrest: Galatians 6, 9 and 10.
Forrest: Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Forrest: Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people.
Forrest: Say all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Forrest: Don't you know that the enemy wants you to give up and wants you to give in and wants to hide your light because he knows that even the smallest good could make an outsized impact because of God's power in your life.
Forrest: Even the smallest piece of your day, a smile, a kind word, an invitation, a conversation, an encouragement, a prayer, you have no idea how that could be received by the person on the other end of the conversation or of the phone.
Forrest: What you've got to do is you've got to stand up and shine your light and stay standing.
Forrest: And if you're with me, say I will stand.
Forrest: See?
Forrest: There's times I know where I've I get tired and I'm wondering, okay, and I know you felt that way too.
Forrest: It's like, all right, church is doing another Frankfurt Ford event?
Forrest: Like, how many of these are gonna do?
Forrest: How many of these?
Forrest: Are you really asking me to do this?
Forrest: You really ask me to do, or I cannot believe this.
Forrest: Don't you know?
Forrest: Already here?
Forrest: What?
Forrest: You want me to take time, join a group?
Forrest: I'm not doing that.
Forrest: Why in the world would you ask me to do that?
Forrest: Don't you know my schedule?
Forrest: Don't you know how tired I am?
Forrest: Don't you know all the things?
Forrest: And for me, there's times where I get in that mindset where I'm like, whoo man, is it worth it?
Forrest: And not only that, I wonder sometimes, am I doing it for the right reason?
Forrest: Is this really for God or is it for me to make me feel good?
Forrest: And maybe you felt that way too.
Forrest: Well, you wonder what your where your motives are at.
Forrest: And if you're really thinking about it, it's like, okay, am I doing this out of an overflow of God's goodness in my life?
Forrest: Am I doing this out of obligation?
Forrest: But what we know is that if we would be people who would be about the goodness of God and his glory, it will not matter who gets the recognition as we shine, we know that God's going to use it for his glory and his purposes.
Forrest: See the last verse there, Jesus tells us that for us, if we will let our light shine and our good deeds shine before men, that they will then glorify the Father.
Forrest: That as we shine the light of Jesus, that's gonna cause other people to turn and to glorify God because what in the world you've stepped up and not quit and not dropped out and not forgotten and not let go by the wayside.
Forrest: But if you just would stand and keep shining bright, God promises us that He'll use it.
Forrest: Not just for your life, but for the people that are around you.
Forrest: And we get tired of doing good.
Forrest: God, are you ever gonna save my husband?
Forrest: God, are you ever gonna get me out of this crazy work situation that I'm in?
Forrest: Keep shining your light.
Forrest: Keep shining.
Forrest: Not for your glory, but for his glory.
Forrest: Because ultimately what we're doing is just reflecting God's glory to others.
Forrest: Let me put it to you this way.
Forrest: I got these bright lights up here.
Forrest: And uh this mirror.
Forrest: Jeremiah, that bright brother.
Forrest: It's pretty bright.
Forrest: Tessa, bright for you.
Forrest: A little blinding.
Forrest: Now y'all, you're feeling my pain.
Forrest: James, you feel that?
Forrest: That's my pain up here.
Forrest: I'm I'm talking to a train every Sunday.
Forrest: Uh Trisha, you good back there?
Forrest: Chris, y'all good?
Forrest: Y'all getting it?
Forrest: Oh, there's Willie.
Forrest: Willie, what's up, man?
Forrest: Willie?
Forrest: That's bright, isn't it, Bailey?
Forrest: Got this mirror here.
Forrest: You know what would be silly?
Forrest: Well, it'd be silly if I was like, you know what?
Forrest: This is all on me to shine.
Forrest: Like, and if I told you, look at how bright I am.
Forrest: Look how bright I am.
Forrest: No, what I'm doing is just reflecting the light from above and reflecting it down for other people to see his goodness, his grace, his mercy in our life.
Forrest: It's not about us.
Forrest: It's not about you, it's not about how good you are, or how great you think that you are, or how much you feel like it's all on your back.
Forrest: It's us reflecting the light of Christ to a lost and broken world that at one point we continue in our brokenness to seek his grace for us to be healed and whole.
Forrest: And introducing the world to him.
Forrest: And sometimes it is literally just us being willing to shine our light.
Forrest: Like last Sunday, when right before the nine o'clock service, the it just decided to just dump two inches of snow for some reason.
Forrest: And uh Shannon and Nate Newland and the parking lot team were out there, and you know what they were doing?
Forrest: They were shoveling snow on the parking lot so that we could continue to have church, and you all came last Sunday, and we had two services, and we glorified God because somebody was willing to just continue to shine their light and continue to do good without the recognition.
Forrest: Like guys that came up to church this week and built shelves and and and did projects and got prepared for for what was to happen, what's happening with construction wise or up through the week.
Forrest: Guys that y'all don't even know who they are.
Forrest: And like Bobby and like Bo and others, they they don't even, they're not even the only reason you know right now is because I know what I'm telling you.
Forrest: They're not seeking recognition, they're just shining the light.
Forrest: They're just reflecting the light.
Forrest: Let me bring it home with this verse that I hope is going to be an encouragement to you.
Forrest: Paul writes to the Colossians for this reason.
Forrest: Since the day we heard about you, we've not stopped praying for you.
Forrest: We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in knowledge, in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you might have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
Forrest: It's because of Christ, it's because of him that you can then walk in patience and have endurance so that then you can be a part of this kingdom of light.
Forrest: What if you what if you lived your life with the recognition that you're not doing this alone or on your own, but you're a part of a kingdom of light.
Forrest: You're a part of a network of believers in this building and across the nation and across the world who are part of this kingdom of light that is shining brightly before men, so that they would see those good deeds and glorify the Father and be drawn to him and come home to safety because the light of the kingdom of God that you are now a part of, if you are in Christ, the kingdom of light, this limitless, limitless potential of the Father's light shining towards us that we can shine to others.
Forrest: You know, a candle, it doesn't burn out because it gets too hot, it burns out because it runs out of fuel.
Forrest: And there's a lot of people who talk about burning out job and life, and maybe for you it's ministry and serving, and you felt, you know what, I'm just getting burned out.
Forrest: Can I just tell you it's not about the heat, it's probably about the fuel.
Forrest: Because God has a limitless supply of fuel for you to keep blazing.
Forrest: I keep thinking about Paul in Acts as he's at this place iconium, and he goes in to share the gospel, and then they kick him out of the city and they beat him half dead.
Forrest: And I just think about myself walking up to Paul in that moment, and he's on the ground, and I'm like, Hey brother, are you burned out?
Forrest: You burned out?
Forrest: You had enough?
Forrest: You know what Paul does?
Forrest: He gets up and he goes back into the city to continue to share the light.
Forrest: And because of that faith, and faith of many others, now we're seated and sitting in this room as believers in Freightford, Kentucky, in 2025, because they continued to blaze, to blaze, to blaze in the kingdom of light that's made of light of God's glory, so that you and I cannot be held back and diminished by darkness and the plans of the enemy to steal, kill, and destroy your life, your family, this church, but for us to blaze because of God's glory and because what he has done for us.
Forrest: And so we very simply march through for 2025 these actions for us, for us for Sunday gatherings, for us to increase our consistency in 2025, for us in small groups to be a part of a group of believers that will motivate each other and motivate friends for life and godliness so that we can continue to grow and show up for one another, to have spiritual growth, to make disciples who then make disciples, and for us to serve God and be a multiplier and a multiplier that is serving God in a way that reflects God's goodness by serving others through our time, through our talent, through our treasure, and shining the light of Christ and inspiring others to do so as well.
Forrest: For us to be multipliers, multipliers of his grace, multipliers of his goodness, of his peace, of his word, of his people.
Forrest: Now, in a room this size, I know that there are some people here today that your step is that you just need to begin to follow Jesus, and you need to begin to start believing in Christ, his death, burial, and resurrection, his perfect, his perfect sacrifice for you on the cross that died in your place, that you could not die for yourself, you could not save yourself.
Forrest: He saved you, he bought a way for you to be healed and whole, set free and holy in this life into the next.
Forrest: And today is your day that you need to receive it.
Forrest: You need to receive it.
Forrest: Jesus, he wrote the check, but you gotta actually take it and go cash it.
Forrest: He's wrote the check for all of us, his through his blood has bought and paid, but you gotta receive it.
Forrest: You gotta take it, you've got to accept Christ by way of asking forgiveness for your sin and recognizing that you're a sinner in need of a savior, by you believing in his death, burial, and resurrection, by you committing your life to him.
Forrest: That's how you do it.
Forrest: The scripture says that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved.
Forrest: So if you confess with your mouth and you believe in the heart and your heart, you will be saved.
Forrest: And somebody needs to do that today.
Forrest: We actually had one young man who already did that in our first service.
Forrest: And I wonder who else needs to begin.
Forrest: Who just needs to receive the light?
Forrest: And get lit up.
Forrest: And maybe you're in this place and you've you have uh claimed to follow Jesus for a long time, you've been following Jesus for a long time, but maybe your light has become dim because you've hidden, because you've spent years away from God's people, weeks, months, not in church, not in relationship with other believers, and your light has gone dim as you've hidden, but now is the day for you to stand up and for you to shine brightly and for change to happen in your life, so then you can be a multiplier of God's grace.
Forrest: So I'm gonna ask for you to bow your heads, I'm gonna pray for all of us, Lord, all across the room, so many of us in there are so many different places, Father, as students and moms and dads and grandparents and people who are employed and people who are out of work and people who are sick and people who are healthy, all these different factors, Lord, and in all of it, God, I pray, Lord, and despite all of all of the cracks and all of the brokenness, Father, that we would be a people that would shine brightly.
Forrest: God, that we would be safe in your arms and that we would help others and guide others to safety as well.
Forrest: Father, I pray right now across this room, if there's anybody in this place who's not received you as Savior, not asked for you to forgive them, not received your immeasurable love by dying on the cross and being resurrected, that today would be their day to receive you as savior, to be forgiven and free, to be made holy from this life into the next.
Forrest: Today, if that's you, I just ask you to pray, Jesus, something like this, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: Pray in your heart and your mind, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: I believe that you're the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sin, and that you rose from the dead.
Forrest: Forgive me, cleanse me, wash me so that I can be in heaven with you one day.
Forrest: I give you my life as you gave yours for mine.
Forrest: From this day forward, God, I commit my life to you.
Forrest: Thank you for saving me.
Forrest: Heads bowed, nobody looking around.
Forrest: Today was your day for you to pray to receive Jesus as your Savior, for you to put your full trust and faith in Him to receive salvation that He bought for you on the cross.
Forrest: I'm gonna ask you to take an action before God, before heaven, and so that I can see you and pray for you.
Forrest: If that's you, what I want to ask you to do is at the count of three for you to simply raise your hand up so that I can acknowledge you and pray for you.
Forrest: And as a sign of decision that you've made, if that's you, raise your hand at the count of three.
Forrest: Ready.
Forrest: One, two, three.
Forrest: Anybody in here?
Forrest: Yep, right here, I see you.
Forrest: I see you right here too.
Forrest: Anybody else?
Forrest: Father, right now, I thank you, God, that hands are raised towards heaven to receive you as Savior, to be forgiven, set free, to be healed by the power of Jesus' blood.
Forrest: And God, I thank you, Lord, for salvation that's come today.
Forrest: And Father, we thank you, Lord, that eternal destinations have changed today, God, because of your power and what you've done for us.
Forrest: So, God, we thank you.
Forrest: We praise you, we love you in the strong name of Jesus.
Forrest: Everybody said amen.
Forrest: Church, will you stand to your feet and celebrate right now together as we sing and worship God?