Forrest: God, we praise you.
Forrest: We love you.
Forrest: In the mighty name of Jesus, everybody said amen.
Forrest: Well, goodness, we uh had a pretty amazing Sunday last week with uh packed house for Easter Sunday.
Forrest: If you were here last Sunday, uh you got to experience if you if you missed it, we had uh quite a good time last week hanging out together, and it was uh it was quite a beautiful moment, and not only that, but also, and I didn't get to shout this out really last week because we were just preparing for friends and guests and people who've been prayed for.
Forrest: But uh the new renovations and ask is a a lot of hard work from team members in our church, uh uh diligently working and preparing this space for guests.
Forrest: And so if you were new last week, welcome back.
Forrest: Glad that you are here.
Forrest: You are among friends, you're among family.
Forrest: And if I've not met you yet, if you're new this morning, which uh every Sunday is somebody's first time here at Multiplas, so I'm Forrest Leap Pastor here.
Forrest: Um it's great to meet you, would love to connect with you, and glad that you are here today.
Forrest: And I want you to know that uh oftentimes there's a lot of energies that go into the planning for Easter.
Forrest: But can I tell you this?
Forrest: Um, I started planning the week after Easter back in January.
Forrest: I started planning today, back in January, weeks and weeks, months now, four months ago, I started planning for today and for what we would experience today together as the body of Christ.
Forrest: Here's why, because uh yes, we had an amazing week this last week that happened to be a record attendance, by the way.
Forrest: Most people in this house are there uh was just over 400 people in the house last week.
Forrest: Isn't that crazy?
Forrest: And God moved in this place and it was beautiful, but then the Sunday after Easter, that's when the faithful show up.
Forrest: That's when the beautiful show up.
Forrest: That's when the ones who are carrying the gospel show up, and you show up because it's not just like some moment or a brief celebration, but for you, you know and have a gratitude in your heart of what God's done for you, and you are committing your life to him, not just for a moment or for one Sunday, but have seen him do something amazing in your life, and the response to that is that then your life then pours out to see other people impacted as well.
Forrest: So we're returning uh to the outpour today, and my title of my message is Power to Pour.
Forrest: Everybody say power to pour.
Forrest: I uh am excited about today, and again, to be among the faithful.
Forrest: And I love also, too, in the renovations that when we hit the door right there, the first thing that you see is the name, is the uh logo for Frankfurt Forward.
Forrest: Man, I love that.
Forrest: I love that because when we cross that threshold, I want us all to be thinking about okay, now what are we doing out there?
Forrest: What are we doing out there to take this step?
Forrest: And so just like what the team shared earlier about this week of being able to serve and being asked to serve to help with flood relief with the pick pack this week.
Forrest: You can sign up to be a part of that, and also this new beautiful station out here that says Frankfurt Ford, you can now also sign up out there to be a part of the Frankfurt Ford events, which I'm very excited for, so that more people can get connected into not just what's happening inside of these walls, but outside of these walls.
Forrest: Somebody say amen to that.
Forrest: As we look to the power of Jesus and we dig into and dive deeper into the aspect that we talked about last week of walking in Jesus' power, the power of the resurrection, the power that you and I now have access to and resides within us.
Forrest: As we go deeper into that today, we're gonna look at Jesus and his words to us as he's ascending to the Father and look at his final words, and we're gonna take a look at that.
Forrest: And final words are very important.
Forrest: And I told you guys uh a few Sundays ago, about a month ago, a very good friend of mine and mentor, Pastor Tim, passed away.
Forrest: And uh a couple of Sundays ago, I got to right after church go to his funeral, and there were some two or three hundred people there who were just telling stories after story after story about how PT had impacted their life.
Forrest: And I wanted to share with you all because I really think that this was a gift.
Forrest: Um many of you all didn't have the opportunity to meet Pastor Tim, and he and I had lots of plans for the future that we talked about, and even the last time I saw him in person, we were talking about when he would be here and when I could introduce him to folks.
Forrest: And so there was uh there was a lot of grief in that as well, of like, oh but okay, we had all these plans, and then now God, what what in the world?
Forrest: And Pastor Tim would send me prayers uh specifically.
Forrest: I was listening to his prayers about every single day for the last six months of his life, and I just want to share with you all kind of the the last prayer and the last thing that he spoke to me was that he sent me this prayer, and oftentimes his prayers were very specific to what was going on in my life at the time, but this specific prayer went on for four minutes long, and it was all about the future.
Forrest: And he was praying over the future, and I didn't realize it at the time.
Forrest: And the last thing that Pastor Tim said to me by way of a text was this I love you and I believe in your ministry.
Forrest: And at the time, I didn't know that that was the last thing that he was gonna say to me, and he didn't either.
Forrest: But now I have this gift of this prayer that he prayed over not just me, but over you all for years to come, and the final words of belief in what God is doing in and through this house, and those final words, they carry weight.
Forrest: They carry weight to me.
Forrest: And as now we walk it out and we are going to look at Jesus' final words to us and how they carry weight.
Forrest: I want us to just live in the tension and the friction of the last couple of Sundays as there's been decisions that have been made in a packed house.
Forrest: I want us to make sure that we don't confuse energy for effectiveness.
Forrest: I want to make sure that we don't confuse crowds for commitment to Christ.
Forrest: And today, as we zero in, I wonder, I wonder if the greatest move of God in your life would not start on a big Sunday, but maybe the Sunday after it.
Forrest: See, there's a tension.
Forrest: There's a tension where we can be tempted to mistake big Sundays for big faithfulness.
Forrest: There's a tension where we can confuse planning with power.
Forrest: There's a tension where we think that we need more strategy and we need more fancy slogans when really Jesus has promised us his power.
Forrest: See, we're gonna take these last words of Christ, and it's not just final words, it's actually a promise to us.
Forrest: Y'all want to take a look at it?
Forrest: The last recorded words of Christ at his ascension, this is recorded in Acts chapter 1 as the early church was about to begin and about to be birthed, and Jesus says to his people, but you will receive what?
Forrest: You will receive strategy, you'll receive a building, you'll receive comfortable chairs for Sunday morning, you'll receive cool renovations, you'll receive the playbook, you'll receive the manual, you'll receive a bigger budget.
Forrest: Is that what that says?
Forrest: It says you'll receive power.
Forrest: Are y'all tracking with me already?
Forrest: You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
Forrest: And in the very next chapter, God does it.
Forrest: In Acts chapter 2.
Forrest: For me, there's so often times for me that I get tempted into feeling like that I need more in order to do more for God.
Forrest: And maybe for you, you've even thought to yourself, like, I don't have enough to make a difference.
Forrest: And you know what?
Forrest: You don't.
Forrest: If you've ever thought, oh, I don't have enough, fill in the blank.
Forrest: Well, that's the truth.
Forrest: You don't.
Forrest: On your own power, you don't have enough.
Forrest: But by the resurrection power given to us by the Holy Spirit, you do have enough.
Forrest: I don't have enough skills, I don't have enough finances, I don't have to fill in the enough, fill in the blank to be able to make an impact for Christ, and without the Holy Spirit, you would be absolutely correct.
Forrest: But the beauty is that we now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, given to us by Christ and His ascension and promising to us that the Holy Spirit would come, and he would come in power, and that power would then allow you to be witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, and to the ends of the earth.
Forrest: And what happens as we walk with Christ closely, we have to let power prepare the outpour, prepare the poor for our life.
Forrest: We have to let the power of God be the preparation for what will ultimately be outpoured.
Forrest: Because Acts 1.8, it's not a plan, it's a promise.
Forrest: Jesus didn't give them a map, he didn't give them a playbook, he gave them the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Forrest: He gave them the Holy Spirit, and not just as like this suggestion, but as a promise, as a command, and as the source of the multiplication that was about to happen.
Forrest: But the world's gonna tell us, and there's all kinds of church experts that tell us, you know, you need better systems.
Forrest: Well, your church just needs better strategies.
Forrest: This is the kind of stuff that I hear all the time.
Forrest: And while there's nothing wrong with systems and nothing wrong with strategies, and it's good and it's helpful, Jesus didn't just give us his strategy, he gave us his spirit.
Forrest: And the early church did not have buildings and budgets or branding.
Forrest: They had the power of God and they had boldness.
Forrest: And God used them, and it was enough.
Forrest: This week.
Forrest: Yeah, the enemy might be trying to get me down and tear me down and make me to think that I don't have enough, but it's through Christ that we do actually have enough.
Forrest: And the early church, they had enough.
Forrest: Because one chapter later in Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost happened.
Forrest: When the Holy Spirit descended down into Jerusalem onto those that were there and that were present, and the Holy Spirit then then lit them up with tongues of fire and an outpouring of the Spirit that then led to this incredible move of God.
Forrest: The power that Jesus promised was then received.
Forrest: And then now that there was all this power that was happening, then we're gonna see in in the second chapter of Acts how what they started to do with it.
Forrest: And they started to eat meals together, and they started to fellowship together, and he started praying together, and they started listening to the apostles' teaching, and they started to be radically generous, and all of these things were happening because of the power of the Holy Spirit and the Lord was adding to their number daily those who were being saved.
Forrest: They're eating together, they're sharing their life together, they're being radically generous.
Forrest: God's moving and wonders and miracles, and they're now practicing the power of God.
Forrest: But I want you to see this.
Forrest: That Jesus didn't just die for them to throw dinner parties, he died so that they would make disciples.
Forrest: Boom.
Forrest: The Spirit descends.
Forrest: Peter steps up after all that he had just gone through, denying even knowing Jesus during all the scenes of the crucifixion, and then to experience seeing the raised to life Jesus.
Forrest: And to sit and to talk to him and eat with him, and then to watch him ascend back to the Father.
Forrest: And then he steps up in Acts chapter 2 and delivers a so-so sermon, okay?
Forrest: It's alright, it's okay.
Forrest: I'm not gonna read it all to you right now because it's really long.
Forrest: I mean, it's a good one.
Forrest: Obviously, it was good enough because it had the Holy Spirit's power, and 3,000 people were added to their number and were saved.
Forrest: And this is what they started to do in Acts chapter 2, verse 42.
Forrest: They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer, and everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.
Forrest: All the believers were together and had everything in common, and they sold property and possessions and uh to give to anyone who had need.
Forrest: Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.
Forrest: They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Forrest: It's a beautiful, incredible revival moment that's broken out in Jerusalem.
Forrest: People are saved, they're being transformed.
Forrest: Now they're in fellowship and in community and starting to meet together and seeing God's wonder and power flow through them.
Forrest: They're being radically generous.
Forrest: Revival has come.
Forrest: And oftentimes, for me, I ask for and I want revival, but then I don't do what revival requires.
Forrest: And God wants to do miraculous work in and through our lives, and some of us don't even want to open up our schedule.
Forrest: See, Jesus tells us that we're going to receive power, and when we receive power by the Holy Spirit, then we are then going to become witnesses.
Forrest: Not just do witnessing, but that we would now be his witnesses, that we would be the proof, we would be the evidence, we would be the representation of an empty grave.
Forrest: We would be the ones that people look at, and it's through the power given to us by God that then we would see a move happen in our Jerusalem, in Judea, and Samaria to the ends of the earth.
Forrest: And today in 2025, we are the ones that need to be faithful to Jesus' final word.
Forrest: We now have the torch.
Forrest: We now are the ones who get to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and see him outpour through our lives.
Forrest: But in 2025, it feels like the predominant thought is that church should be easy.
Forrest: That if you're a part of the church, well then like it should just it should feel good all the time.
Forrest: But here you have a people who are being faithful to Christ, and what that faithfulness then produces is signs and wonders, radical generosity, them sharing their lives together, them meeting together, their schedules are now changed.
Forrest: They're opening their homes, they're eating in groups, they're walking together, they're seeing people be changed, and the blueprint, it still works, but we have to actually want it.
Forrest: We actually have to want it.
Forrest: We have to be the ones that will show up, will pour out, and trust God to fill us up.
Forrest: We had Easter, and can I tell you one of my like favorite parts of this last Easter that we had?
Forrest: That we had Easter and we didn't do like any gimmicks.
Forrest: Or, you know, Jesus Christ slip and slide baptism, or whatever these things are that, you know, it's not all bad, and I'm not like taking shots, like people like pour out, do your thing, right?
Forrest: But I'm just thankful that we saw God show up and pour out, and the the fruit of what happened at Easter was because of you all inviting intentionally, for you making preparations in this space, for you serving faithfully and for you praying in secret and in public.
Forrest: Every single chair on Monday last week was prayed over by our leaders in preparation.
Forrest: This building looked totally new and was transformed in a lot of ways as preparation, as seeds planted so that God would then bring it to fruition.
Forrest: And what that feels like to me is Holy Spirit power.
Forrest: What that feels like to me is his people praying in power and asking God to move and then seeing him move.
Forrest: Because there were several baptism decisions this last week.
Forrest: And I've been excited to tell you about this one, and I haven't told this story yet, but I've been so looking forward to telling you this story.
Forrest: And it starts with uh one of these footballs that we gave out on Super Bowl Sunday.
Forrest: Y'all remember these footballs?
Forrest: So we gave out these footballs, we had these footballs honestly just to have some fun and to throw footballs around on Super Bowl Sunday, but it wasn't just for fun because I just love getting these little footballs at football games.
Forrest: Don't you love getting these little footballs when you go to the high school football game?
Forrest: I love getting these things.
Forrest: So we gave it a bunch of these and we walked out of here.
Forrest: And before we did, there was like an ask and commissioning, don't let this go into your trunk or to your trash, but like actually give it to a kid or give it to uh somebody or put it on your desk so that people could see it.
Forrest: And a few weeks back, uh, my new friend Josh was in a grocery store here in Frankfurt, and somebody walked up to him and handed him this football.
Forrest: And they had no idea that this football was being handed to Josh at the perfect exact time.
Forrest: Because he was already thinking about things.
Forrest: And he asked his coworker, who's somebody who's religious, he said, Hey, uh, do you think this is a sign from God?
Forrest: And the coworker said, Yes, 100% a sign from God.
Forrest: It's a sign from God.
Forrest: A few weeks ago, he came for the first time, has now gotten into a small group and made the decision to be baptized, and he's gonna be baptized very, very soon here at Multiply.
Forrest: And he's here right now.
Forrest: Josh, will you wave your hand real quick?
Forrest: I'm gonna throw this to Aaron because uh I just want to.
Forrest: You have no idea.
Forrest: You have no idea how the Holy Spirit power could outpour through you.
Forrest: You have no idea what it would be like if you just opened the door.
Forrest: If you ask for God to see revival happen in even just one person's heart through you.
Forrest: You have no idea what he could do.
Forrest: Now we looked at what the early church was doing in chapter 2, and they're enjoying all the faithfulness of all the people.
Forrest: It's like a super happy, amazing, wonderful time.
Forrest: The scripture even says that they were enjoying the favor of all the people.
Forrest: Like they were having a blast.
Forrest: And then Acts chapter 7 comes, and Stephen is the first martyr of Christ and gets killed.
Forrest: And then in the next chapter in Acts chapter 8, they scatter.
Forrest: There's a scattering, and it's no longer fun, it's no longer expanding, it's no longer like big and lights and pictures, it is like whoa, this is totally readable, and persecution is falling on the church, and it wasn't comfortable, but look at this.
Forrest: It was powerful.
Forrest: It was powerful because the Holy Spirit of power was flowing through them, and so oftentimes I want to receive the reward of Christ without taking the risk.
Forrest: So oftentimes I want to see God move through my life without stepping into the moment that has been prepared for me to give to him.
Forrest: And I know, I know that some of you, you you've come into the room, maybe it was weeks ago, maybe it's today, and you're thinking something to the effect of why in the world would God use somebody like me.
Forrest: But what we see from Acts and from the story of what happened is Jesus' resurrection power filled Jerusalem, is that it filled common everyday people.
Forrest: Just normal folks.
Forrest: And because it filled these normal folks, then it didn't stay in Jerusalem, but it scattered to Judea and Samaria, and now we're sitting here in 2025 telling the story of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus because of the power that happened way back then.
Forrest: By everyday common people that then carried the gospel through the known world.
Forrest: And so oftentimes, and I don't know at what point in church history this happened, but at some point there was this shift of this thinking, thought process of we'll just let the professionals do it.
Forrest: Well, that's just for the pastors, for them to do.
Forrest: That's just for the professional Christians.
Forrest: That's not what we saw.
Forrest: We saw people stepping into their moment of being a disciple of Christ, being baptized, being saved, and the Holy Spirit power flowing through them.
Forrest: Don't you know that revival is not waiting on a microphone, it's waiting on our obedience.
Forrest: To see God do something amazing.
Forrest: Been joking the last couple of weeks with the staff and with some others about having a t-shirt.
Forrest: This is probably a bad idea, but you know, having a t-shirt that says, multiply till I die.
Forrest: I don't know if we'll do it or not, but I kind of like it.
Forrest: I don't know about you.
Forrest: We've been joking about it.
Forrest: But what that truly means is just saying, like, hey, you know what, God?
Forrest: I'm gonna trust your power so that I can be a multiplier.
Forrest: And the only way that I'm gonna be a multiplier is by the power of Jesus.
Forrest: Now I want to tell y'all another story that I've been looking forward to telling you.
Forrest: A few years ago, an invitation was made to come to church, and at the time this invitation was made, they were probably not thinking about all that was about to happen in this chain reaction.
Forrest: But in back in the office space days, the turtults started coming to multiply.
Forrest: Isn't that right, guys?
Forrest: Boy, the office days, those were some weird times back then.
Forrest: They were weird.
Forrest: We were meeting this office space next to the treasury department.
Forrest: Well, that's another story for another day.
Forrest: But the Der Colts, they invited the Tiptons to come on launch day, and the Tiptons, if you know the Tiptons, they showed up on launch day in the movie theater.
Forrest: And that was in 2022, and then the Tiptons, Zach, started working at Hearn Elementary School, and Zach started inviting several of the teachers and administrators, and the Barton family showed up.
Forrest: Megan and their crew, and Bella, their teenage daughter, showed up as well, and last year, Bella took a step to be baptized last year.
Forrest: And their families started coming, and Miss Marsha Grandma's here.
Forrest: The families started coming, but the story didn't stop there.
Forrest: Because then also last year, then Bella, a senior in high school, then baptized her cousin Harper, who's also here.
Forrest: And then Emily also baptized her friend, and then and then uh Bella also baptized her friend Emily, who also has been coming and actually uh got married two weeks ago.
Forrest: Years ago, the Der Colts had no idea that they were starting off a chain reaction that was gonna lead to Okay, I'm gonna get upset.
Forrest: Teenagers in our city baptizing other teenagers, God invading the life of family and of people so that his power will be made manifest.
Forrest: And Jesus makes this promise to us, you will receive power, and you will be my witnesses, and this power of God, it still pours out, and the witnessing and the witness of God, it's still working right now, and we're building this chain reaction of his glory and of his grace all by his mighty power.
Forrest: We ask for revival to come, and it is already inside of us.
Forrest: God has already brought it inside of you, and inside of you, and inside of you, whether you're a teenager or you're a K-State student or you're somebody's grandparent.
Forrest: The power is within you, and we're carrying it, and we're not underqualified, we're empowered by the Spirit of God, and we're not just sitting around just trying to create a strategy or waiting on a plan because we're filled with God's power, and I wonder for us, and I wonder for you, what if you were able to be a part of just bringing one person to Jesus?
Forrest: And then they brought one person to Jesus, and the chain reaction kept going.
Forrest: Next week we're gonna celebrate baptisms.
Forrest: Who are you bringing to witness the baptisms and the life change that is gonna be on display so that they can see it with their eyes and start this chain reaction that could change an entire family's future?
Forrest: See, today, the week after Easter, we're not just remembering Easter, we're multiplying it.
Forrest: By his grace, by his power, and church, you're you're the one that is outpouring, and God is pouring through you here and now, and maybe you're in the room and you need to hear it is not too late for you to be baptized next week.
Forrest: It is not too late.
Forrest: Your obedience to him will be the preparation of the power that's gonna flow out in your life.
Forrest: Your obedience to him is then gonna produce fruit, and your life is gonna be changed in ways that you could never see happen for yourself because you said yes to him, and the power overflowed through you.
Forrest: So I think we should pray over the Sunday to come and all the celebrations that it's gonna be that from this Sunday into next Sunday that there will be new chain reactions that started, right?
Forrest: Of his mighty power.
Forrest: Will you bow your heads with me, Father?
Forrest: We thank you, Lord.
Forrest: We thank you, God, right now, Father, in a moment of gratitude for how you have changed, how you have rescued people who are in this very room, even within the last few weeks or months or years, and for those of us, God, who have had your Holy Spirit for years now as followers of you, God, I pray right now, Lord, that you would help them to see that they're not walking in their own power, but they're walking in your power.
Forrest: And that God, you have plans for them, for them to continue to see your kingdom come, your will be done every single day until their final breath on this earth.
Forrest: So, Father, I pray right now over this room, anybody who has not received you as savior, that today would be the day of their salvation, I pray today, God, that anybody who has not taken the step to be baptized, that today they would make the decision, they would check baptism on their card, that Father, they would be baptized in seven days' time because of obedience to you.
Forrest: Father, right now, all across the room, Father, I pray for anybody in this place who's not received you as Savior, that today would be the day of their salvation, that they would receive your Holy Spirit power, that they would be changed now and forevermore because of a decision that they made today.
Forrest: That they would pray, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: You I believe that you're the Son of God and that you walked out of the grave.
Forrest: Forgive me, cleanse me so that I can be in heaven with you one day.
Forrest: I am giving my life to you as you gave your life for mine.
Forrest: I commit my life to you now, from this day forevermore.
Forrest: Thank you for saving me.
Forrest: Father, in this place, we ask your Holy Spirit power to wake us up, to change us, to make us things in the strong name of Jesus.
Forrest: Everybody says, Church, stand to your feet now, right now, as we worship and as we sing.