Forrest: Today, I want to say happy Memorial Day on this uh holiday weekend.
Forrest: And uh, you know, those who show up to church on Memorial Day are the real ones.
Forrest: You are here, ready to worship God, ready to grow, ready to be taught from God's word.
Forrest: And I'm grateful for those of you who are here on this Memorial Day weekend as obviously we celebrate and as we have a holiday weekend, as we think about those who have given the ultimate sacrifice, and then we now together we worship our King Jesus who gave the ultimate sacrifice for us as well, right, Church?
Forrest: And we acknowledge him and we uh are thankful.
Forrest: I'm thankful to see you today.
Forrest: If I don't know you, I'm Forrest Lee Pastor here at Multiply.
Forrest: And uh this last week we actually got to celebrate our graduating seniors and our student ministry.
Forrest: And uh I just want you all to know that uh not only are we ministering to students here at Multiply, we have students in ministry here at Multiply.
Forrest: I just want to some of y'all may not know this because I haven't really talked about this very much, and so I want to kind of let you all know kind of behind the curtain of what has been going on, but literally we have students who have been coming to Multiply that are now serving and teaching other children about Christ and about God's word.
Forrest: They are ministering on Sundays, they're serving in various different capacities, and they're also meeting together in a small group throughout the week.
Forrest: And uh I just have to give it up for the leaders and the volunteers who have helped in ministering to students as our students have been ministering to others over the last couple years.
Forrest: Can you put your hands together for the Hoods and for the Jennings and for Amy and for for uh Lolita and a ton of different folks who have gone into serving and seeing the group that meets together?
Forrest: We have a group of students who meet together weekly, and they had a game night this last Sunday night.
Forrest: There's a picture in here of them meeting together and having a good time, and they're gonna be meeting throughout the summer and doing some fun things throughout the summer.
Forrest: Uh yeah, there they are.
Forrest: Look at them.
Forrest: They're very intense going through a game of spoons right there.
Forrest: They're not bored, they're playing spoons, they're very focused.
Forrest: Um, and uh they're gonna be doing some fun things over the summer, and I would love for your student to jump in, and so you can sign them up out there at the next step station to be a part of the group.
Forrest: And um, I don't know about you, but I want to see God continue to do an amazing work in our students, don't you, church?
Forrest: And we want to see them continue, not uh to be uh to be put to the side and pull them out and for them to be in this kind of little own thing, but for them to be built into the ministry that God's doing here in our church.
Forrest: And for them to have opportunity for God's power and for his purpose to be flowing out of them even at a very young age.
Forrest: And it excites me to no end to see students that are growing.
Forrest: And I know for you, you as well as me, you want to see that group right now, that that group of youth, you want to see their group multiply, don't you?
Forrest: I want to see it multiply.
Forrest: I know that God is gonna do it as we continue to see God move powerfully.
Forrest: Now, we're in this last week of our series called Forged, and we have been walking through this idea and in kind of the analogy of a blacksmith, and how a blacksmith uses the fire and the hammer and quenching with water and to form something beautiful, and God also uses what happens to us in our life, even the trials and the hardships and the challenges, to make something out of beautiful out of us as well.
Forrest: And we're being forged through the fire.
Forrest: And last week we heard from Pastor Seth Nolan out of Nashville, Tennessee, a church planner who taught to us about the quenching.
Forrest: And if you missed his message, you want to hear it from last Sunday.
Forrest: Go to the website, go to sermons, listen to Pastor Seth's message as he taught to us about what it meant to be tempered, that the the blacksmith uses water to quench the metal after it comes out of the fire, and he does so that then the metal or the sword or the blade that it won't crack under pressure, that it's tempered, that it's been made strong.
Forrest: And we're gonna talk about something today that's even deeper.
Forrest: We're gonna talk about layering.
Forrest: And we're gonna talk about the manifold process today in the message that is called layers of grace.
Forrest: Everybody say layers of grace.
Forrest: Now, I brought something with me today.
Forrest: I've been uh at the camp out for Memorial Day with my family, and uh uh I brought this giant knife up here today.
Forrest: Nobody get nervous, okay?
Forrest: But uh this is a very special blade.
Forrest: This is a Damascus steel knife.
Forrest: This is a full-tang knife for the men in the room.
Forrest: This is a good one, okay?
Forrest: This is a nice knife.
Forrest: And you can't really tell maybe from where you're sitting, but there's a beautiful and stunning pattern that is in this knife because this knife is unique because of the Damascus steel process that it is strong, and it's not just strong because of the metal, it's strong because of how it's made.
Forrest: It's strong because it's layered.
Forrest: See, you can see uh in the picture there, there's there's these layers that go through, and and literally what happens is that as these knives are being made, the person who is forging them, they will take the blade and they will heat it up and they will layer it sometimes up to 200 times.
Forrest: And so, like rings of a tree, these these layers upon layers there are they're folded on top of one another, they're reheated, and then they're forged and they're layered after layered after layered.
Forrest: And in between each layer, the blacksmith will put a flux, which is like a cleaning agent, that will expel impurities in the blade and will make sure that the bond is clean, that it's tight, that it's whole, that will hold, that it will, it will last.
Forrest: And it's extremely strong.
Forrest: Now, here is a butter knife.
Forrest: It's a little bit different, isn't it?
Forrest: Now, it's also a knife.
Forrest: So if somebody said, hand me a knife, they could hand you this beautiful piece of artwork, or you could hand you this butter knife all the same.
Forrest: But this butter knife, as you know, uh, is not as strong.
Forrest: It's not been meticulously made over.
Forrest: I'm sure it was pressed in some factory.
Forrest: It still is utilized, but it hasn't quite gone through everything that this beautiful blade has endured.
Forrest: That's much stronger, that's more capable, that's able to do even more.
Forrest: And as we think about the things that we go through in life, oftentimes we can think that the challenges and the trials that we're experiencing, that they're just like as chaotic portions of our life and sometimes even random.
Forrest: But I wonder if these areas of our life aren't just chaos, they're opportunities to be crafted.
Forrest: Opportunities to be forged.
Forrest: And I wonder, is that true about you as well?
Forrest: That the challenges that you're experiencing in life, they aren't just random, but with God, they're able to be layered with purpose.
Forrest: Just like the blacksmith will use a flux or a cleaning agent between each and every layer, you have the opportunity with God in the trials and the challenges that you're going through to allow God to refine you at every single layer of challenge that you're experiencing.
Forrest: Now, I want to go in deep with this because we're talking about layers and we're talking about this manifold process.
Forrest: And so oftentimes as we're walking through the fire and the challenges that we have in life, we are experiencing sometimes challenges and just feels like everything is piling up and it's just compiling and compiling, and there's a complexity of things that we're dealing with, and we're trying to figure out how in the world we can navigate through the challenges of our life.
Forrest: And I wonder if you would receive the fact that those moments that may not just be a compounding of trials and of hardships and complexity and feeling like you're drowning, maybe you can see it as strengthening your soul.
Forrest: It's not just about us just surviving in the face of adversity or bouncing back when we have had failure or had setbacks, but it's about us continuing on and wisely persevering with God in the middle of the challenges that we face.
Forrest: That we don't just go through things, but we're formed by them.
Forrest: We're forged by them.
Forrest: This process that we've been talking about of the heat and the hammer and the hold and the quenching, and then this manifold, multi-layered process that we're gonna talk about today.
Forrest: I wonder if what feels like challenges are actually opportunities for craftsmanship in your life.
Forrest: Because the reality is, oftentimes when we're going through hard things, and this very week, there's people in the lives of our church, in the diversity of folks who come to our church.
Forrest: This has been one of the best weeks of some people's lives in our church, and some of the worst of weeks in people's lives in our church.
Forrest: I know that.
Forrest: I know that over the last week of what folks have experienced.
Forrest: And oftentimes, we don't want to go through the hard things.
Forrest: We just want to get out of the fire as quickly as we can, and we can miss the opportunity to be forged.
Forrest: We just want it to stop.
Forrest: We just want the whatever we're going through, whatever pain we're experiencing, we just want it to end quickly.
Forrest: And as we're going through the process of going through the fire, God is making something beautiful on the other side.
Forrest: Now, last week, Pastor Seth preached out of James chapter one, and he talked about probably one of the most annoying scriptures in all the Bible.
Forrest: Can I say that?
Forrest: I don't know.
Forrest: But it's James chapter 1, verse 2.
Forrest: Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.
Forrest: Now, what that doesn't mean, and what he said last week, what that doesn't mean is that we throw a party every single time something difficult or hard happens in our life.
Forrest: That's not what we do.
Forrest: But what it means is that we look for the joy and we're able to name the good of what is going to come from the present trial that we're in.
Forrest: And know that inside of this trial that we're going through, and specifically in verse 2, the book of James, it mentions trials of many kinds.
Forrest: That Greek term there that we're going to press into today for the many kinds, it's this Greek word piki los.
Forrest: It's fun to say.
Forrest: Say it with me.
Forrest: Pikyl loss.
Forrest: It's kind of fun to say.
Forrest: Piky loss.
Forrest: And what this term means of these many kinds of these various trials with this Greek word pikyloss, what it what it means is that uh it means multifaceted, it means diverse, it means multicolored, it means manifold.
Forrest: So, no matter if your trial is big or your trial is small, in the midst of it, think about what joy could come from it.
Forrest: Consider it.
Forrest: Consider the fact that some joy could happen and let God work.
Forrest: See, as you're going through the layered, complex, unpredictable trials of this life, don't waste them.
Forrest: Don't waste them.
Forrest: Let God work in and through you.
Forrest: But oftentimes for me, I'm like, God, I don't want you to work on me.
Forrest: God, I'm good how I am right now.
Forrest: Like, I don't want any of these trials you're talking about.
Forrest: This diversity of trials, like, just I don't need to grow.
Forrest: I've grown enough, Lord.
Forrest: And maybe for some of you today, you've walked into the room, and maybe because some sin in your life that has caused some serious challenge, or maybe because of something that's been outside of your control, because you're living in a fallen world, you've got to let God layer purpose in your pain.
Forrest: That's the first big idea today.
Forrest: You need to let God layer in purpose in what you're going through.
Forrest: Because the world is going to tell you, you know what?
Forrest: It's too complicated, it's overwhelming, it's too much.
Forrest: But is it possible that it's in those moments that God wants to do his deepest work?
Forrest: We're not just layering pain and purpose, we're also layering something else.
Forrest: One of the other books that we have looked at in this series is 1 Peter.
Forrest: And in 1 Peter chapter 4, we see that God is layering something else into us as well.
Forrest: This is Peter verse 1 Peter verse 4, chapter 4, verse 10.
Forrest: As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Forrest: There's that word again, pikilos.
Forrest: Something else that's layering into our lives is the multi-faceted, multicolored, diverse, picylose grace of God as well.
Forrest: See, I always, when I'm going through something difficult, I always just think God doesn't know what I'm going through.
Forrest: How could God possibly understand what in the world I'm going through?
Forrest: But what we see is that for every single diverse, manifold trial that we're going through, God can meet you with a tailor-fit, multifaceted, manifold grace for the situation that you're in.
Forrest: And so you have to receive God's tailored grace in everything that you're going through.
Forrest: See, God's meeting you in as many forms as trials as you're going through in life.
Forrest: Are you hearing me?
Forrest: That whatever thing that you're going through, this manifold, this multifaceted trial that you're experiencing, God also wants to deliver to you a tailored fit, multifaceted grace to meet you in the middle of that trial.
Forrest: Because he does know what we're going through.
Forrest: And as you're being pressed by that trial, God's pouring out his grace onto you.
Forrest: Sometimes the hardest thing isn't to believe in God's grace is to be still long enough to receive it.
Forrest: That means something needed to take five minutes this week behind a locked door or in your car or in a moment of quiet.
Forrest: To receive the grace that God is trying to layer into your life.
Forrest: Say, God, you in prayer this week, you say, God, I receive the grace that you're giving to me, that you're sending to me, that you're layering into my life.
Forrest: Now, what's the point?
Forrest: Why in the world are there so many trials and challenges?
Forrest: Why are there so many layers?
Forrest: Why is there so many fires that we're in?
Forrest: Our city has just experienced a ton of hardship with the floods that have happened.
Forrest: There was a meeting that happened just this week in this room of agencies and FEMA and several different organizations and churches from across the city that met together to talk about the continued flood relief.
Forrest: Are you aware of the fact that there's still over 50 children who are in hotels right now displaced because of the flood?
Forrest: And there was this big conversation that happened in this room of these agencies as we were just the hosts for this meeting of the CARES Coalition as they talked about different solutions and what to do as these 50 kids get out of school here in a week or two, and how to minister to them and how to help them, and what different things that these families are needing.
Forrest: And uh I I don't know about you, but if your family is in a hotel right now because you've lost everything, that seems like a complicated trial.
Forrest: But God has this big plan in what's going on.
Forrest: What's the purpose?
Forrest: What's the point?
Forrest: There's so many layers, there's so many fires, and Paul is speaking to the church in Ephesus, and he's talking about some of the trials that he's going through, and he gives us this word in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 10.
Forrest: To the intent that now the manifold, there's that word again, pikilos.
Forrest: To intend that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the what?
Forrest: The church.
Forrest: To the principalities and powers in the heavenly realms.
Forrest: See.
Forrest: The manifold, the multifaceted, the many aspects of the wisdom of God.
Forrest: That it at first the trial that you're going through, it doesn't make sense at first glance.
Forrest: But there's grace that's being delivered to you in the middle of the trial that you're on, and what's going to happen is by God's people, he's going to display his matchless wisdom through your life if you would just walk through the fire with him.
Forrest: If you would just allow him to forge you in the midst of what you're going through, for us as followers of Jesus, we have to be the ones that let God's wisdom be revealed through you.
Forrest: That's the third thing.
Forrest: For us to let God's wisdom be revealed in and through your life, that you would be, you would be the living proof, the living proof of the fact that you can trust God now into eternity.
Forrest: That in the middle of the fire, in the middle of the challenge, in the middle of the hardship, you don't just walk away.
Forrest: Because it's possible for you to walk away and turn your back and not be a representation of God's wisdom to the world around you.
Forrest: You can choose to isolate.
Forrest: To say, you know what, I've got this all figured out on my own.
Forrest: And to disconnect from what the Lord is trying to do in and through you, what he's trying to have you to receive his grace and then to reveal to the world.
Forrest: That you would just receive this signal.
Forrest: I don't know why in the world, when you're driving down I-64 towards Louisville, there's a spot on I-64 where there's no cell phone service.
Forrest: Y'all know what I'm talking about?
Forrest: I mean, it's 2025, and we don't have cell phone service between here and Shelbyville.
Forrest: What is going on?
Forrest: And it's so annoying every time that we get to that place, and I'm driving through there, and I'm like, why in the world is this some kind of a dead zone?
Forrest: It's 2025.
Forrest: I should be able to talk to whoever I want to talk through all the way down the highway.
Forrest: And it's possible, it's possible, it's possible for us to shut off our mind, to shut off our heart, to shut off and harden up to where we find ourselves in this dead zone.
Forrest: But you gotta stay connected to the grace for wisdom to flow out of your life.
Forrest: To know that God's meeting you in the complex situation that you're trying to figure it out financially or with your health or with whatever's going on in your world right now, and in school and challenges and tests, or maybe it's relationships that are all messed up.
Forrest: And you, as you're going through the fire, you have to do everything that you can to stay connected to the signal that God's trying to send you and receive the grace that He's trying to receive, He's trying to send to you, so then you can reveal it to the world.
Forrest: So the message can be received.
Forrest: So the communication of God's wisdom can go out.
Forrest: Now, as we're being formed in this manifold process, as we're going through the fire, and there's layer on layer on layer, and fold on fold on fold.
Forrest: What we see is that God is making something beautiful.
Forrest: As Paul continues to speak to the Ephesians, he tells them in chapter 2, for it's by grace that you have been saved through faith.
Forrest: And this is not from yourselves, it's a gift of God.
Forrest: Not by works, so that no one can boast.
Forrest: For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Forrest: This word handiwork, workmanship, craftsmanship.
Forrest: It's polyema.
Forrest: It's the Greek word that means beautifully made, a masterpiece.
Forrest: And as you're being forged in the fire, God, because of his grace that's being sent to you layer upon layer upon layer, that you could not earn on your own.
Forrest: This salvation that comes from the grace of God, that we can walk out our faith, not of yourself or anything that you've done or I've done to be so great, so that we would not boast in ourselves, but instead we would acknowledge God's handiwork in our life.
Forrest: That we would acknowledge that we are his workmanship, that we are his masterpiece.
Forrest: That as we walk out this life, he has already prepared in advance good works for us to accomplish.
Forrest: God has a plan and a purpose for your life.
Forrest: And even in the pain, don't waste it.
Forrest: See the purposes that God can reveal.
Forrest: Even in the trials, even in the fire.
Forrest: Hear this from me.
Forrest: God's wanting to afford you.
Forrest: He's layering you, he's intentionally shaping his creation and molding you.
Forrest: And if you don't hear anything else that I say today, listen to me.
Forrest: I want you to hear this.
Forrest: When the fire tests you, let faith forge you.
Forrest: Let the faith that's been given to you, not because anything that you've done, but everything that God has done for you already on the cross, and walking out of the grave.
Forrest: See, God's complex wisdom is on display through his people when we're forged through a variety of trials and we're upheld by a variety, by a multifaceted grace that only comes from God.
Forrest: God is forging something manifold in you.
Forrest: He's layering purpose that's tested by fire, that's revealing his wisdom to the world, and you're being forged into a masterpiece.
Forrest: Into a masterpiece.
Forrest: The grace that he's delivering to you is for your good and for your healing.
Forrest: The wisdom that's being revealed through you is so that you would be God's instrument of his grace.
Forrest: I debate on whether or not telling you this what's going on, but I just it feels it's so heavy on my heart.
Forrest: Um a beautiful young couple that's in our church, Douglas and Cheyenne Bowman, earlier this week, uh they had their little baby girl, Miss Addie Jane, in the hospital.
Forrest: And shortly after having the delivery, the doctors let them know that there was complications that were going on, and they rushed them to UK.
Forrest: And so last night I went to see Douglas and Cheyenne at the NICU at UK hospital with their little girl Addie Jane in the NICU.
Forrest: And Addie's having some complications with her heart and with her breathing, and it's continuing to decline.
Forrest: And I showed up last night and Douglas walked out and he met me, and he said, It's so crazy that you're here because we just got some news that Addy Jane has continued to decline.
Forrest: And so I was I literally told Shine, Do you want to go to the chapel to pray?
Forrest: And then you showed up.
Forrest: And I don't think you mind me telling you this because this shows a faith that God's working in and through him right now.
Forrest: As a father and as a follower of Jesus, and Pastor Daddy said that right before I got there, that he looked at Cheyenne and he said, Cheyenne, whether or not Addy Jane goes home with us or goes home to be with the Lord, either way, she still goes home.
Forrest: Can you imagine a husband?
Forrest: A father?
Forrest: Looking at a mother and saying that to her.
Forrest: Because of faith that's inside of him right now.
Forrest: And as we walked out of the hospital, and we he walked me down to get some fresh air.
Forrest: And he said, Forrest, I can't, I can't stop thinking about this forge series that we've been in.
Forrest: And he said, I didn't think it was gonna look like this.
Forrest: But they're trusting God in the midst of it.
Forrest: And so our volunteers this morning in our huddle, we all came together and we prayed healing over Addie Jane.
Forrest: Now I'm gonna ask you to pray healing over Addie Jane because last night in the hospital room we prayed healing over this little baby.
Forrest: And we're submitted to God to God's will.
Forrest: And either way, we know that that home is in her future, but it's in the middle of the complex, complicated, compounding trials that God is sending to you a multifaceted, multi-layered, tailor-fit grace for every single thing that you're going through in this life, if you will walk with Him.
Forrest: I've been waiting four weeks to read this scripture to you.
Forrest: Are y'all ready for it?
Forrest: We are premised, we are pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned, shut down, but not destroyed, with the people of God, and the power against us, whatever comes against us, whatever the people of the spirits, whatever destroying us, because of the power of God and in the Holy Spirit, I've been looking at this people that in the power and in the women of God You're not abandoned, you're not forgotten, you're not shut down, you're in the forge, and it's God's manifold grace that's delivered to us, that allows us to live a life in belief of the where the layered grace and wisdom of God that's on display in your life.
Forrest: And so, if you truly believe that God's layered wisdom was going to be displayed in your life through your trials, how would you change the way that you walk through your trials?
Forrest: How would it change the way that you parent?
Forrest: How would it change the way that you react when the fire comes to test you?
Forrest: Now, I want for us to be a people and to be a church that have believers in Christ, that our faith is strong.
Forrest: And you're not questioning God's love for us as we go through the fire.
Forrest: Because of one way or another, we're on our way home.
Forrest: You may be in the room today and you've not yet given your life to Christ.
Forrest: Can I tell you that today is the day for you to give your life to Christ so that one day you can be at home in heaven with Him?
Forrest: Stop holding back.
Forrest: There's no time to wait any longer.
Forrest: Give your life to Christ and receive the multi-layered, multifaceted, multicolored, beautiful grace that He wants to literally deliver to you, Tailor Fit today.
Forrest: And if you're a believer in Christ, make sure that your faith and your theology is strong in the midst of the forge that you may not be in right now, but we all know that trials and tribulations are to come.
Forrest: I want to pray for us all now.
Forrest: Father, on a week where some are celebrating milestones and the best weeks of their life, and others are in the middle of the forge.
Forrest: Father, I pray right now, God, that you would show them that you are delivering your tailor-fit grace to them even right now.
Forrest: So, Father, I pray all across this room for everyone who claims to follow Jesus, that Lord, we would be ones who, as we're walking through the trials and the pain, Father, we are believing in your purposes and that you're going to reveal through your people, through your church, your manifold wisdom that every single one should receive.
Forrest: And so I just want to, for a second, I want to, just like we prayed for little Addie Jane today, if you're right now, you're in the forge, you're in the fire, you're going through something that is complex and you feel like you can't overcome it, I want to pray for you right now.
Forrest: And so, if that's you, you're a follower of Jesus, or you're not yet following, but you're in the you're in the fire right now, and you need God's grace delivered to you, I want to pray that over you.
Forrest: So if that's you, would you raise your hand?
Forrest: Over here, I see you.
Forrest: Anybody else over here?
Forrest: You're in the forge, you're in the fire.
Forrest: Father, right now, for those that are hands raised to heaven, Father, I pray, God, right now, that you would deliver your tailor-fit grace to them.
Forrest: That, Lord, that they would know how much you love them, how much you care for them, how much, God, you want to mold, shape, and change them.
Forrest: That Father, that in every situation, God, you are present, you're there, you've not forsaken them, you've not given up on them.
Forrest: But God, in the middle of the press, that you're delivering yourself to them.
Forrest: And now I want to pray in this room for anybody in this place who's not yet received you as Savior.
Forrest: You can put your hands down.
Forrest: If you've not received Christ as your Savior today, today is your day of salvation.
Forrest: Today is your day to give your life to Christ.
Forrest: So if you've not yet given your life to Christ today and you need to make the decision to give your life to Christ today, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand.
Forrest: If that's you, raise your hand, huh?
Forrest: I see you, brother.
Forrest: Father, right now with hands raised, if you have your hand up to receive salvation, pray Jesus, save me.
Forrest: And your heart and your mind, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: I believe that you're the Son of God, that you die on the cross for my sin.
Forrest: Forgive me, cleanse me so I can be in heaven with you one day.
Forrest: I give you my life as you gave yours for mine.
Forrest: Thank you for saving me.
Forrest: Now and to eternity.
Forrest: In Jesus' mighty name.
Forrest: Everybody said.
Forrest: Amen.
Forrest: Church, will you put your hands together right now for new life in Christ?
Forrest: As you stand right now, as we worship God, as we sing to Him.
Forrest: Let's sing.