Forrest: Everybody said amen as you grab a seat.
Forrest: Look at your neighbor and say it's summer.
Forrest: It is summer.
Forrest: Kids may not be out of school yet, but it's uh the first day of June.
Forrest: It is officially summer.
Forrest: People are thinking about all their trips and all the things that are going on in our summertime.
Forrest: And I'm so excited about this Sunday kicking us off into the summertime because we've got so much that is going on.
Forrest: I'll just put it to you this way.
Forrest: A lot of times uh in church, summer seems like this time that the church slows down.
Forrest: Um people are taking trips and that kind of thing.
Forrest: But what we've seen at Multiply the last few years is that summertime has been a time for us to serve our city and to meet new people and see people be invited into what God wants to do in their life.
Forrest: We've seen that over the last few years, and I just don't feel like any of that's going to slow down.
Forrest: Um at a time where people are thinking about trips and where you're gonna go and all that kind of thing.
Forrest: We've got a lot that's going on that you've already seen uh today, and so I want to encourage you that the different events that are happening across this summer, and there was a graphic up that uh we can pull up with our Favorite Forward initiative.
Forrest: Longest day of play that I would love for all of us to get to be across the street over at the park.
Forrest: There's gonna be thousands of people and kids that are over there and would love for you to jump in to just serve, to be a witness, and to have some fun with some kids.
Forrest: I mean, come on, somebody.
Forrest: There's gonna be all kinds of organizations.
Forrest: You know, last year we were one of the only churches that were represented last year.
Forrest: And we think about thousands of people descending on Juniper Hills, and it's cool that we even have the opportunity to be a part of that in a church that we're invited in, that we have the opportunity to get to serve in that way.
Forrest: And there's a myriad of different ways.
Forrest: I want to direct you to the church center app to see the rest of these.
Forrest: But we're gonna be serving kids with food distribution through the local schools.
Forrest: You guys know what we do around here, and if you're new, welcome.
Forrest: I'm Forrest Lead Pastor here at Multiply.
Forrest: What we like to do in our city is we like to we like to serve and connect, and we like to show up and say, What in the world do you need?
Forrest: instead of us just going and just doing a bunch of Christian stuff just because it makes us feel good.
Forrest: Instead, we like to go and ask our schools, hey, what would you like for us to do?
Forrest: And they said, Hey, we would love for you to hand out food to our families, our different food distribution sites at a couple of different schools throughout the summer.
Forrest: Doesn't that sound like a great opportunity for the hands and feet of Jesus to be represented to hand out some food?
Forrest: What's crazy is that they're just asking for us to come and serve.
Forrest: They're literally just like, we need volunteers.
Forrest: We just need some people who are willing to serve these kids.
Forrest: We don't even have to supply the food.
Forrest: Come on, somebody.
Forrest: They're doing that.
Forrest: We show up to serve.
Forrest: And I think you're I think you're getting what I'm saying because as we, as God's people, are thinking about this summer, and I want to encourage you right now, and even as I go through the message today, for you to begin to pray where in the world you're gonna invest this summer, because these are the things we're sinking our teeth into, and we're gonna talk about a few of those things as we are serving our city and being sent out.
Forrest: That's the title of my message today, is called the sending cycle.
Forrest: Now, when you're growing up in school, you heard about some different cycles, right?
Forrest: The life cycle, the water cycle.
Forrest: I cannot tell you it right now.
Forrest: I'm sure I learned it.
Forrest: I'm sure you did too in the fourth grade, but I couldn't recite it for you right now.
Forrest: But there's uh a sending cycle that we see in the scripture, and where we're going to today is seeing Jesus and how he has called us, commanded us for us to go out, and we're going to this place where Jesus talks about that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few, and that we need to find our field.
Forrest: And when I think about going into the field, a lot of times I like to think about being on the field from uh sports days playing football.
Forrest: And maybe you grew up doing playing sports.
Forrest: And isn't it interesting that in sports there's like an obsession to being on the field?
Forrest: Nobody wants to be on the bench.
Forrest: You want to actually be on the field.
Forrest: This uh happened to me when I was a teenager, and I had started playing football, loved football, and thankfully I started playing in middle school, so I wasn't burnt out by the time I was in high school, but I had invested a ton of my life into playing ball.
Forrest: In my junior year, I was getting no playing time, I was not uh getting any any uh the varsity games, and I remember standing in the driveway with my dad and telling him, I'm ready to quit.
Forrest: I want to quit.
Forrest: And he said, You're not gonna quit, Forrest.
Forrest: He said, uh, he just kept telling me, Your time is coming, your time is coming, your time is coming.
Forrest: And summer ball started, and I won a starting position, and then started every one of my senior games, my senior year, ended up getting recruited by Cumberland to play football for even a short time in college, which I had no idea that I was gonna get to do that.
Forrest: But I almost gave up because we're so obsessed, and we have this obsession about being on the field.
Forrest: But isn't it interesting that in our spiritual lives, for some reason, we're just okay with being on the sidelines or being in the stands?
Forrest: There's not this obsession about being in the game, being on the field, being in the field and walking out what God has called us to do and commanded us to do.
Forrest: And the thing is that is that the field is ready, but so many of us are sitting on the sidelines and sitting on the stands.
Forrest: And a lot of times it's because we get to thinking, well, you know, well, that the the field the field is for somebody else.
Forrest: And even some of you get into this place where you're waiting on a sign for something that God has already commanded you to do.
Forrest: You're sitting around waiting on a sign, and God's already called us to go out into the field.
Forrest: And oftentimes with our spiritual lives, we want to bear fruit, we want to grow, we want to see God move in our life, but in order for us to see fruit, we actually have to sow.
Forrest: We actually have to pour out.
Forrest: Or maybe what's happening in your life right now is that you're sowing the wrong thing, and so you're harvesting emptiness.
Forrest: And the way that you're feeling at times is because you're harvesting something that God hasn't called you to plant.
Forrest: See, oftentimes as the church, we can get so obsessed with our experiences and our preferences over the purposes that God has called us to.
Forrest: And we can be so worried about in the American church what we get and not about where we're sent.
Forrest: This is this is where we're going today.
Forrest: A big idea is that the problem is not that there is no field for us to go into.
Forrest: The problem is that we either can't see it or we don't want to step into it.
Forrest: And Jesus gives a very plain example, instruction to his disciples, and then to his followers for them to be sent out into the field.
Forrest: At first, Jesus sends out the 12, but then what we're gonna look at is later in the midst of his ministry in Luke chapter 10, he sends out the 72.
Forrest: That means that at first he sent out the trend of the 12, all the famous guys that we all know.
Forrest: But then it doesn't just stay with the professional disciples.
Forrest: Then he begins to send out 72 of his followers.
Forrest: These are common people, we don't even get their names.
Forrest: But Jesus commands them just the same for them to go out and for them to be sent and for them to minister and for them to go ahead of him in the message that he is going to bring.
Forrest: And so we're going to take a look at the middle of Jesus' ministry.
Forrest: This is Luke chapter 10, starting in verse 1.
Forrest: After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.
Forrest: Verse 2.
Forrest: He told them, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Forrest: Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his field.
Forrest: Verse 3, go.
Forrest: I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.
Forrest: And then Jesus gives them several different instructions about how they should go and what they should take and what they shouldn't take, and how they should engage people as they show up into places, and if they're actually received in the Jewish hospitality of the time that doesn't look a whole lot like American hospitality now, that for them to stay in a stranger's house, and he's giving them different instructions.
Forrest: And he goes on in verse 9 and says, gives them the instruction, heal the sick who are there and tell them the kingdom of God has come near to you.
Forrest: Everybody say, Come near.
Forrest: Verse 10.
Forrest: But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into the streets and say, Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you.
Forrest: Yet be sure of this, the kingdom of God has come near.
Forrest: I tell you, it'll be more bearable on the day, on that day for Sodom than for that town.
Forrest: Jesus gives us the example of what I'm calling the sending cycle.
Forrest: And what that means is that there's this cycle that we're in as believers, that we are being saved.
Forrest: We are then in the saving, then being sanctified.
Forrest: And then as we're being sanctified, then we are also called by God to be sent as well.
Forrest: See, the the saving is that work of grace that each and every single one of us, as we've placed our faith and trust and allegiance in Christ, his death, burial, resurrection on the cross, and him as King Jesus as Lord of our lives, we receive that salvation.
Forrest: And that salvation is just, isn't just supposed to stay with us, and it's not just for the pastors and just for the professional people.
Forrest: It's also that we see the salvation that comes to all kinds of different people in the life of Jesus' ministry.
Forrest: Common sinners, everyday people who Jesus is encountering, like the woman at the well that, and when he gives her the truth, then she goes into the towns and she begins to share about the Jesus that she just met.
Forrest: Like the man who was delivered from demonic possession, and once he was delivered and set free, then he went into the town and he told what Jesus had done for him.
Forrest: As people were healed of different ailments and diseases, they then picked up their mat and they walked and they told people what had just happened to them in the saving knowledge of Jesus that had just happened and they had just experienced.
Forrest: And they're living out what the apostle Paul tells us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, and we acknowledge that that is the beginning, not the end of the story.
Forrest: So oftentimes we can just get into that mindset of, oh well, I'm saved.
Forrest: I got saved when I was a kid.
Forrest: I checked that box.
Forrest: I'm good, I'm done.
Forrest: I got hellfire insurance.
Forrest: I'm good now.
Forrest: But God has so much more for us, and that's what this is this sanctifying process.
Forrest: So we go from the saving to the sanctifying, and the sanctifying process is that that's a big$10 church word, okay?
Forrest: Sanctification.
Forrest: But let me break it down for you.
Forrest: Sanctification means that you are becoming more holy.
Forrest: You are each day becoming more and more like Jesus.
Forrest: This sanctifying process that you're in as you come to know Jesus, but then you're walking with Jesus and you're growing with him, becoming more like him, and you're connecting your life to Jesus and to his people.
Forrest: And Paul puts it like this in Philippians, he says, He who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion.
Forrest: That there's a good work that has started in your life and salvation, but it's not done yet.
Forrest: God's bringing it to completion.
Forrest: There's a process that you are in, that you have your salvation, you've been saved, your land, your name has been written down in the land's book of life, and now you begin this process from now until the last breath on earth of you becoming more like Christ as you worship, honor, and glorify his name.
Forrest: This is this worships, work of sanctification, the word we use around here is discipleship.
Forrest: That you're growing as a disciple.
Forrest: And you're growing as a disciple in relationship as you are becoming more like Jesus, you're becoming more like him, that you are one of his disciples, one of his pupils, one of his followers, that you're following after his word, and you're doing that in community and in relationship with other believers who are trying to do the same thing.
Forrest: And what we're doing is we're pursuing spiritual maturity, not spiritual comfort.
Forrest: The spiritual maturity, which is for you to be a disciple and then help other people become a disciple as well.
Forrest: We just went through this sermon series for the last few weeks called Forged.
Forrest: And over the last few weeks, we've been going through and talking about spiritual formation and what's happening inwardly within us.
Forrest: But the inward growth that we have, it shouldn't just stay internal inside of us, it should begin to flow out of us.
Forrest: It should begin to pour out.
Forrest: As we are being filled up by God, we're being poured out so that we can then go, as Jesus tells us in the Great Commission, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Forrest: And he gives us this instruction that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Forrest: See what Jesus is telling us by sending out these 72, these common everyday followers of Jesus like you and me is that this isn't just something that's for missionaries.
Forrest: This is for parents and for teachers, for doctors and lawyers, for volunteers, for mentors, for people who work in all different kinds of industry.
Forrest: You are being sent out as a messenger of Christ on mission.
Forrest: This is what I'm saying to you is that you're not just saved from sin, you're saved for sending.
Forrest: And what we know is the reality of even just our city is that the need is great.
Forrest: The need is great.
Forrest: And it's so easy for me at times to look at all the needs that are going on in our city and all the people who are far from God and think, Lord, what in the world do you want me to do to try to make a difference in this?
Forrest: I feel like what I'm doing is a drop in the bucket.
Forrest: What's it really gonna matter if I'm showing up or not?
Forrest: And maybe you've walked in today, and as I'm already talking about being sinned, and I'm talking about us being a representation of Christ, you've already turned your brain off because you're like, Forrest, don't you know how crazy my life is right now?
Forrest: I got enough stuff on my own plate.
Forrest: I'm so overwhelmed and trying to figure out my life.
Forrest: How in the world am I able to help somebody else?
Forrest: I got enough mess just with myself, Forrest.
Forrest: But the truth is with Jesus, the reality is that, yeah, you may have a mess, but I guarantee you that there are other people outside of these walls that they're in a mess as well, maybe even more of a mess than you're in, maybe even more overwhelmed by the brokenness of sin and the and the difficulties of life and in need of the Savior.
Forrest: And even though you may be a mess, you're going to them with the message that you have Christ and He and they need Him too.
Forrest: Force, how in the world do you even want me to do this?
Forrest: And the beautiful thing is that we're not doing this on our own.
Forrest: See, the instruction that Jesus gives us, He tells us, the harvest is plentiful, the workers are few, and then he says, Ask the Lord of the harvest.
Forrest: So the first thing that we need to do as we're talking about being sent out in Christ and as we're walking out his purposes in our life is that we have to first plant the prayer that God called us to plant.
Forrest: He says, Ask the Lord of the harvest.
Forrest: And so it starts with a prayer.
Forrest: Plant the prayer.
Forrest: Jesus told them not to plan, not to organize, not to execute, not to have a whole bunch of conversations.
Forrest: The first thing he tells them and directs them to do is to pray.
Forrest: Is to take the time to ask the Lord, what it is it that you're wanting me to do, who you want me to speak to, where you want me to go.
Forrest: And it's a genuine prayer from your heart to ask the Lord of the harvest.
Forrest: See, we get into this mindset.
Forrest: And I think this is probably why most of us end up getting stuck or paralyzed at this point is because we get into this mindset of somebody else will do it.
Forrest: Well, somebody else, somebody else is better than me.
Forrest: Somebody else who knows more than me.
Forrest: Somebody else who knows more about the Bible than I do.
Forrest: Somebody else who has a more clean up life than I do.
Forrest: They don't have the same struggles as me.
Forrest: This is why Jesus says the workers are few.
Forrest: The workers are few.
Forrest: But the harvest is plentiful.
Forrest: Here's what God tells you.
Forrest: God is literally commanding you to pray and go.
Forrest: Pray first and then go.
Forrest: And so oftentimes there's many of us that instead of being sent in the way that God is intending you to, that you may be a person instead of being the one who's being sent, are you the person who's sitting in the stands?
Forrest: Are you the one who's sitting on the sideline?
Forrest: Now, this is the sending cycle that uh we we see from this passage, but then also just Jesus' ministry in general of the saving and then the sanctifying work, and then the sending out.
Forrest: And I was thinking to myself, what in the world is the opposite of this?
Forrest: What's the opposite of this sending cycle?
Forrest: And I've got a lot of experience in church.
Forrest: I've basically been in church for 37 years my entire life.
Forrest: I know a lot about how the church has operated over the last 30 years, and I feel like that the American church has drifted into, fallen into this other cycle that I'm calling the consumer cycle.
Forrest: The consumer cycle that you're consuming, you're showing up.
Forrest: You want to have a great message, the music better be like on point.
Forrest: Better not be too loud, better not be too soft so I can't hear it.
Forrest: Can't be too loud.
Forrest: It's gotta be just perfect for my ears at any seat in the in the worship center I'm sitting at that day.
Forrest: So I can hear it perfectly.
Forrest: Well, that message, it better be on point.
Forrest: The programs, everything that's going on in in the church, and you're you're in a situation where you you're going to church, and listen to me, listen to me.
Forrest: You're coming to church and you're going to church for yourself, for me.
Forrest: My worship style, my comfort, my preferences.
Forrest: And what that leads to, it leads to a shallow faith and a lack of ownership over what God has truly called you to do.
Forrest: And you end up with this stack of a laundry list of different preferences that you have over the purposes that God has called you to.
Forrest: All the preferences that you have that are arresting you and keeping you from walking out the God-given purposes that God has appointed for you to do here on this earth.
Forrest: And if you stay in the consumer mindset for too long, which I think that the American church has been in at least for the last 40 years, if you stay in that consumer mindset, what eventually happens is that you begin to critique.
Forrest: When you have this consumer mindset, then the critiques they begin to flow.
Forrest: Well, you know, you know, I wish that we would just be doing more as a church.
Forrest: And and why aren't why aren't we doing more of the things that I want to see the church do?
Forrest: Man, why don't we do this or that?
Forrest: Why don't we do it better?
Forrest: And our sanctification can get stalled as people default to a spectator mode.
Forrest: I'm just gonna sit on the sideline.
Forrest: I'm just gonna be in the seats.
Forrest: And what ends up happening is that if you're in the critique mindset for too long, eventually you're gonna fall into the temptation to complain.
Forrest: Probably one of the toughest scriptures as far as sin and not do is in Philippians chapter 2 when Paul tells us, do everything without grumbling and complaining.
Forrest: I've been having to quote that verse to my kids a lot recently.
Forrest: Do everything without grumbling and complaining.
Forrest: See, the complaining comes when it's like, you know what, this just is it's not meeting my needs.
Forrest: I need to find somewhere that does.
Forrest: Listen to me.
Forrest: This is a self-reinforcing cycle that will never move you towards the field.
Forrest: You just change seats in the stands.
Forrest: Are you hearing me?
Forrest: And it just compounds and compounds and compounds, and there's this cycle, this consumer cycle, it ends up leading to a spiritual stagnation where you it just keeps people sitting instead of going where God has called them to go.
Forrest: Let me tell you, here's the truth.
Forrest: The truth is that every believer is in one of these cycles.
Forrest: And one of the cycles leads to mission, and the other one leads to misery.
Forrest: One of these cycles multiplies fruit, the other one multiplies frustration.
Forrest: The harvest is plentiful.
Forrest: Which cycle are you in?
Forrest: Our Frankfurt Ford initiative, which basically is the outreach aspect of our church.
Forrest: Our church has basically been doing three things kind of from the beginning.
Forrest: We've been serving the Lord and worshiping on Sundays, serving kids and kids' ministry on Sundays.
Forrest: We've been meeting together in small groups and homes.
Forrest: Been serving in inside the church and outside of the church as we've served in outreach.
Forrest: And the outreach aspect of our church is what we call the Frankfurt Ford Initiative to see Frankfurt flourish economically, relationally, and spiritually.
Forrest: And we've invested a lot of time over the last couple of years of us serving outside the walls of the church.
Forrest: Now it's we've served outside the walls in the last year plus a few months, now probably close to 28 different different opportunities and events that we've done across the city.
Forrest: And our Frankfurt Ford team, which is so awesome, who is uh led by Jamie Oleika, who is right now on maternity leave with their beautiful baby boy, uh Mr.
Forrest: Samuel.
Forrest: Can you give it up for Jamie?
Forrest: And uh during the maternity leave, Shannon Athus stepping up to lead the Frankfurt Ford team of volunteers.
Forrest: Can you give it up for Shannon?
Forrest: And also another person who uh is on the team that we love is uh Dana Newland.
Forrest: And we were joking this week uh because Dana, like she's probably already signed up for every single event that went up on the board earlier, because she just loves to serve, she loves to serve the Lord.
Forrest: She she it's not because she's got nothing to do, she has a newborn baby as well, Mr.
Forrest: Judah, and kids and uh a life, but she also just loves serving, and she's on this team.
Forrest: And and a few weeks ago, out here in the lobby, as Dana was serving on a Sunday, she got into a conversation with one of the Frankfurt police officers who come on Sunday mornings to help us out, which by the way, in the short time we've been in this building, our Frankfurt police officers had helped us with multiple medical emergencies over the last few days.
Forrest: Can we give it up for our officers who help us out on Sundays?
Forrest: And she got into a conversation with one of the officers, and he was talking about something that is uh going on in his life as an officer.
Forrest: See, uh, we got first responders in our church, and uh the first responders, they were telling me even just weeks, some of our first responders are telling us about the difficult and traumatic kind of kind of events that they have to experience, but also that they're walking into with other people, and they joke about with one another about whether or not they always joke with each other about being heroes.
Forrest: But really, they're walking into circumstances, and this they're walking into circumstances, the there there's heroics that is good that's going on.
Forrest: But even in the midst of that, there's there's there's also traumatic things that are happening as well.
Forrest: Not just for those first responders, but also for the people that they're showing up to try to help.
Forrest: And so this officer was explaining, I love this, that in the back of his squad car, he keeps some stuffed animals, some teddy bears, that when he goes into a situation that have kids that are completely innocent in whatever situation he's a part of, he's got teddy bears in the back of his squad car to give to the kids.
Forrest: And they kind of had a conversation of do you think that the church would want to help to get some of these teddy bears?
Forrest: And I don't know if you're like my family, but I got two little girls, and we have more stuffed animals than you could ever possibly imagine.
Forrest: And so in July, what we're gonna do is that we're gonna collect stuffed animals so that we can see these officers be able to do this more and more and more across our city as they walk into difficult, challenging circumstances.
Forrest: And what Dana did in that moment is that she saw a need and she feeled a need.
Forrest: One of the values of our church that are out on the wall out here.
Forrest: She saw a need and then took steps to fill a need.
Forrest: And so what I'm excited about us getting to come alongside, and that's just one of the opportunities of several of the different opportunities to come.
Forrest: See, because the response that we need in the fact that the need is great, the response is that compassion is needed.
Forrest: Because it something that we say all the time, and I say all the time, is that love shows up.
Forrest: Love shows up.
Forrest: And and I can't personally show up for every single person in our church or in our city, and so it's a team effort, all of us together, isn't it?
Forrest: Because God has appointed people and circumstances, fields for you to be in, for you to bring compassion, for you to bring your heart.
Forrest: And it's easy for us to get in this mindset of thinking, well, yeah, I don't just I don't have time for all that.
Forrest: But with the prayers that we're praying and we're asking God to move and grow, he's not just gonna do it just all for us, he's gonna let us be partners in with him in the mission.
Forrest: And so the prayers that we're asking to come to fruition, we need to be in concert, in partnership with God, we need to be the ones to help it grow.
Forrest: What I mean is that for us to be the ones that show up, for us to serve, for us to water the seeds that are being planted with consistency, isn't it just so great that even though our sin is so great that God still wants to use us, that God still wants to have his purposes be made manifest through our lives, even though we don't deserve it, we haven't earned it, but the seeds that we're asking for the Lord of the harvest to bring to fruition, he's allowing us to partner with him to see the seeds grow, and it doesn't just say inside these walls.
Forrest: Something that I'm very excited about is that uh here soon we're gonna be launching a frankfurtforward.com website.
Forrest: Looks like this, or here's the example of it.
Forrest: And what this is gonna allow us to do is to invite people in our city into the connections of the things that we're working and doing alongside different local nonprofits, that we'll be able to send out a link, share it out, and not just anybody who has the church center app, which is uh, you know, that's the whole process in its own right to download an app.
Forrest: But that we'll be able to share it out and not just multiply church, but maybe, maybe just maybe, maybe God wants to activate some other Christians in our city as well.
Forrest: Maybe God wants to activate some other churches.
Forrest: Maybe God wants to activate some people that are in your friend group or that are people that are at your workplace.
Forrest: And for you to be able to send out and say, hey, I'm going to do this to serve our city, I would love for you to do it with me.
Forrest: Let me send it to you.
Forrest: I'm excited about that being an opportunity because I I don't know, I don't know what God could do.
Forrest: If God just wants for our church to serve and for us to be the only ones getting out there and serving in these different things, okay, fine.
Forrest: But we can at least ask God, the Lord of the harvest, and then for Him to trust us to help it grow.
Forrest: Can anybody hear me?
Forrest: Let's just give the Lord the opportunity.
Forrest: And what we're then going to do is then we're going to begin to reap the prayers that we prayed.
Forrest: And the reaping of these prayers, it's the ultimate harvest that Jesus is talking about, the harvest of souls.
Forrest: As we show up, as you show up, as you serve, as you share, what we're doing is the harvest that is coming to fruition is a harvest of the heart.
Forrest: It's not only about the food that's going to be given to families this summer.
Forrest: It's not only about Timber.
Forrest: It's about the opportunity to shove the lip of God, to be a representation of God for us to be able to then follow it with sharing what Jesus has done in our lives as a witness, and a witness of his church.
Forrest: Then oftentimes when people draw past a church, they just think about it the same way that they think about a funeral home.
Forrest: It's completely irrelevant to their life until there's an emergency.
Forrest: But the gates of hell are not going to prevail.
Forrest: The church is alive and well.
Forrest: We're going to show our city that we're ones that have been transformed by his grace and they can too.
Forrest: And as we're being sent out, we're in this cycle of seeing more people than be saved, then them follow Jesus and be sanctified and watch this.
Forrest: And then them be sent out so that God will do their His purposes through their life as well.
Forrest: This is the cycle that we're talking about.
Forrest: And so, if you don't hear anything else that I say today, I want you to hear this from me and to receive this from me.
Forrest: My ask for you as we head into this summer is that you find your field.
Forrest: Find it.
Forrest: One of these things that we're doing as a church together, jump in, sink your teeth into it.
Forrest: The field that God has you in, your workplace, with your family.
Forrest: And what's happening with this is that as we begin to pray, act, serve, grow, reap in a harvest that Jesus tells us is plentiful.
Forrest: What's going to happen is that we're going to find ourselves in the center of where God wants our lives to be in His will for us.
Forrest: Can you imagine?
Forrest: Can you imagine what it's going to be like when there's hundreds of stuffed animals in the back of patrol cars that got there because somebody who follows Jesus cared enough to fill a need?
Forrest: Do you not think that's going to be a witness to our police officers?
Forrest: When they grab that bear, they remember, oh, this came from God's people.
Forrest: This came from a church.
Forrest: And whatever's going on in their life.
Forrest: And as they share that with the child, there's heaven work from planting and reaping that's going on.
Forrest: To open the doorway.
Forrest: Imagine with me if every single person in this room today, if every single one of us found our field this summer.
Forrest: What can God do?
Forrest: What are the stories that could happen?
Forrest: And so sink your teeth into one or more of the things that we're doing.
Forrest: Maybe you need to take some intentional time for you to pray, for you to find that field, and maybe that even maybe even require you to take a break for some meals and to fast for the Lord to show you.
Forrest: You don't have the church center app, that's okay.
Forrest: We got a station out here that says Frankfurt 4 with iPads, and there's a team there that's ready to help you and to show you all the different options.
Forrest: If you're one of the beautiful people who have a dumb phone, you don't have a smartphone, that's okay.
Forrest: We've got you hit we got you covered.
Forrest: Go out to the station.
Forrest: You can find where you can jump in.
Forrest: So why in the world is this important?
Forrest: It's important because of the last thing Jesus said.
Forrest: Jesus said that not everybody who you share with, who you're sent to, is gonna receive it.
Forrest: Some are gonna reject it.
Forrest: And those of you that as you're going and being sent, and as you're sharing, if people reject it, what's gonna happen is that there's going to be eternal implications.
Forrest: That if people reject Jesus, what he said is it it would be better for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day that the city was destroyed than for the people that reject him.
Forrest: That literally there are there are there are cosmic heaven and hell implications as we go and as we're sent.
Forrest: And I'm not saying that to scare anyone, I'm saying that to show you the stakes of what it is to be sent.
Forrest: The stakes are high.
Forrest: So we need to go.
Forrest: We need to go to a world who doesn't know who Jesus is and be a tangible representation of him.
Forrest: To move out of a mindset of consuming and into a mindset of letting God literally send us out to people that He's already appointed, good works, He's already appointed for you.
Forrest: Ephesians says, before the foundation of the world for you to be walking in his will for you and purposes for you.
Forrest: And in church, I'm believing in faith that God's gonna use us this summer.
Forrest: Are you believing it?
Forrest: I'm believing it.
Forrest: We don't even know what all the Lord wants to do.
Forrest: But I know this the harvest is plentiful, the workers are few.
Forrest: Will you be the one that's on the sidelines, or will you be the one that's being sent?
Forrest: Eternity at stake.
Forrest: And maybe for some of you in the room right now, eternity is at stake with you right now because you've not yet given your life and heart over to Christ and received his death, burial, and resurrection for you on the cross, and you're here today, and you're just kind of seeking and you're searching, or maybe you've had different hangups.
Forrest: But can I tell you today that Jesus loves you so much that he died for you?
Forrest: And then he wants to then implant his purposes in your life so that you can be a part of what he's doing and redeeming this entire world and seeing other people that you know be saved so that one day that your last breath on earth will be your first breath in heaven with him, because you've been forgiven, washed clean, cleansed, so that you can make you more like him in sanctifying work and to send you to more people who need it.
Forrest: If that's you today, today's the day for you to step across the line, for you to receive Christ as your Savior.
Forrest: If you're somebody who's been a believer and you've been on the sidelines and you've given a ton of excuses of why you can't be in the game, today's your day to just take a step forward into loving and serving and caring for others, to growing spiritually, serving people inside of these walls and outside of these walls.
Forrest: Would you pray with me right now, God, all across the room?
Forrest: I'm praying right now, Father, for myself and for all those here this morning, part of our church, who, God, as we as we head into this summer, as we as we refocus in on what you've called us to and your mission, God, thank you, Lord, that you don't leave us on our own.
Forrest: And instead, God, you literally chose to partner with us and let us get to be a part of the party.
Forrest: And Father, I just pray, Lord, right now, all across the room, God, that you would help us, Father, to have your your rhythm, your calling, your cycles that are happening in our life, and that Father, we wouldn't fall into the trap that the enemy wants to ensnare us in, but instead, God, that we would be activated for you.
Forrest: Father, I pray that over every believer in the house.
Forrest: God, I also pray right now for anybody who's in this place who's not received you as Savior, that today will be the day of their salvation.
Forrest: That today that they would ask you to forgive them, to cleanse them, that they would commit their heart to you, that you would become the Lord of their life, that they would believe in your death, burial, and resurrection.
Forrest: And if that's you today, I ask you, pray, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: Pray in your heart and mind, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: I believe that you're the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sins, and that you walked out of the grave and are seated on the throne of heaven.
Forrest: Cleanse me, wash me so that I can be in heaven with you one day.
Forrest: I give my life to you as you gave your life for mine.
Forrest: I commit myself to you from this day forward.
Forrest: Thank you for saving me.
Forrest: If you prayed that today, to receive Christ as your Savior, for you to be forgiven, for you to be set free, for you to be cross crossover from death to life.
Forrest: If you pray that I want you to make a sign before heaven, before God, and so that I can pray for you.
Forrest: I want you at the count of three to raise your hand if that's you.
Forrest: Ready?
Forrest: One, two, three.
Forrest: Anybody in the house, raise it high.
Forrest: Father, we pray right now to the Lord of the harvest, that God you would use us to be the ones that get to see the harvest come home.
Forrest: Father, as we step out in faith in you, God, we know that we can trust you and that you're not gonna let us go, you're not gonna forsake us, but instead, God, you're to you're gonna help us and you're gonna hold us in your hand.
Forrest: So, God, we pray, Lord, for more people to come to know you as Savior in our city and beyond.
Forrest: We love you, we praise you in the strong name of Jesus.
Forrest: Everybody said, Amen.
Forrest: Church, will you stand to your feet now as we worship together and sing?