Forrest: Where we're going to in the message today is that the joy of the Lord is our strength.
Forrest: And not only that, and I'm gonna preach before I'm preaching here, but the joy of the Lord is not just something that happens because of our circumstances.
Forrest: Galatians 5 tells us it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Forrest: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Forrest: Against these things, there is no law.
Forrest: So as we walk in today, we should be walking in with people who have joy in our heart no matter what we're going through right now.
Forrest: You want to know why?
Forrest: Because I'm going to heaven.
Forrest: And I have the hope of heaven.
Forrest: And those of you who are in Christ, you do as well.
Forrest: So do not let the enemy steal your joy today.
Forrest: Woo.
Forrest: But right now, I'm I'm I'm burdened over this word today because I want it to encourage you so deeply.
Forrest: And so let me pray for us.
Forrest: Father, right now, Lord, I pray today, God, as we receive your word.
Forrest: God, I pray in family dynamics that are complicated and painful.
Forrest: Father, today I'm I'm praying right now, Lord, that we're going to receive your word and that it's going to encourage us, it's going to teach us, it's going to help us.
Forrest: Father, it's going to change us.
Forrest: So, God, I pray today, Father, that Lord, joy that's been lost will be restored.
Forrest: Father, I today I pray, Lord, that your joy that it's given to us and flowing out of us, that it will be our strength.
Forrest: Father, I pray, God, today that, Lord, you would have me behind your cross.
Forrest: So you speak truth and love today.
Forrest: We praise you in the strong name of Jesus.
Forrest: Everybody said amen.
Forrest: Tell somebody good morning as you grab a seat.
Forrest: Say good morning to somebody.
Forrest: Glad that you're here.
Forrest: We uh we've had a heavy few weeks here at Multiply.
Forrest: Uh, we had our Hills sermon series.
Forrest: Praise the Lord, we're through that.
Forrest: Now we moved into this family trip series that kicked off last week from Pastor Seth Nolan out of Nashville, Tennessee, who gave a great word about what to do when the family breaks.
Forrest: And so uh I would encourage you all to go and listen to that message from last week on our website, multiplyky.com sermons, to listen to the beginning of this sermon series that's setting this course for us as we take a look at the family, because so many of us we we uh we just have challenging, difficult, sometimes hard, sometimes filled with joy, sometimes filled with pain, relationships with our family.
Forrest: I saw uh this funny quote last week.
Forrest: It said, Vacations might be expensive, but you can't put a price on arguing with your family in a different place.
Forrest: So welcome to Family Trip Series, everybody.
Forrest: We're we're helping you and your family find your way.
Forrest: I was reading a story this last week of a man who realized mid-flight that he was flying to Panama City, Florida, instead of his desired destination of Panama City, Panama.
Forrest: Apparently, this happens actually more than you realize with places that have similar sounding names like Greensboro, North Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, and Columbia, Missouri.
Forrest: People just showing up the wrong place.
Forrest: Rochester, Minnesota versus Rochester, New York.
Forrest: The European country of Austria's airport had a funny advertisement for people who thought that they were coming to Australia and showed up in Austria.
Forrest: There's no kangaroos in Austria, okay?
Forrest: And as we jump into this next installment of Family Trip, the title of my message is That Annoying Question from Your Kids, Are We There Yet?
Forrest: When you're on the family trip.
Forrest: Your family, and I have some questions for you as we think about are we there yet?
Forrest: Has your family arrived?
Forrest: What's the destination that you're going for?
Forrest: If you're anything like me, you want to see things improve and become better in the relationships with your family.
Forrest: And so, have you arrived yet?
Forrest: Where are you going?
Forrest: Growing up, my family used to drive the 12-hour trip twice a year to go see my grandparents in LA.
Forrest: That's lower Alabama.
Forrest: And my brother and I would fight like cats and dogs the whole way.
Forrest: Have I gotten a spanking on the side of the interstate?
Forrest: You bet you I have.
Forrest: I sure have.
Forrest: Because when it comes to family, it's rarely a smooth ride.
Forrest: Actually, I was thinking back to all the hardship conversations that I have had with people in ministry over the last 18 years.
Forrest: And oftentimes those things have to do with people's jobs and hardship and career or health issues.
Forrest: But by and large, the conversations that I've had with people in ministry that are working through hardship and hurting have to had to do with their family relationships and strife.
Forrest: Because here's the thing no one is immune because our families are made of people and people make mistakes.
Forrest: And so what if the the journey that you're on right now with your family, what if it doesn't look like what you imagined it would look like?
Forrest: Or maybe you're someone who felt has felt like that you're behind, or maybe that you're alone, or that your family's off course.
Forrest: And how in the world are you going to keep going if you're not sure you're even heading in the right direction?
Forrest: We hear this all the time: this statement, it is what it is.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say it is what it is.
Forrest: It is what it is.
Forrest: You know that's a lie when it comes to your family.
Forrest: What if Jesus took that approach?
Forrest: Oh wow, you know.
Forrest: Well, they're sinful, they're they're dead in their sin, and well, you know, it is what it is.
Forrest: Well, compared to my perfection, uh, well, I know I should extend them grace, I could, but you know, it is what it is.
Forrest: What if the person who took you to church or led you to Christ had given up earlier in their life on their faith and said, you know what?
Forrest: Well, it is what it is.
Forrest: Have you given up?
Forrest: Have you thrown your hands up?
Forrest: Today we're gonna take a look at a family in the scripture that isn't talked about a whole lot.
Forrest: And we're gonna talk specifically about the young leader, the young pastor named Timothy.
Forrest: Timothy was raised in a divided home.
Forrest: He was spiritually formed by his mother and his grandmother.
Forrest: And he was discovered by Paul in one of Paul's missionary journeys, where he met this young Timothy, who he refers to as young.
Forrest: And even though he was young, Paul mentored him and discipled him and placed him as a leader, the pastor of one of the most influential churches of its time in the port city of Ephesus, a diverse city and an affluent city that had major leadership problems and major spiritual issues.
Forrest: And what I want us to zero in on today is the legacy of faith that Paul calls out over this young Timothy, who's living out his purpose with Christ and living out a life of faith with Christ.
Forrest: And so we're gonna be in 2 Timothy as Paul's writing this letter.
Forrest: He writes two letters to young Timothy.
Forrest: This is the second one.
Forrest: If you've got your Bibles, turn to it.
Forrest: If you've got your Bible on your phone, pull it up, go to 2 Timothy.
Forrest: It's also gonna be on the screen, 2 Timothy chapter 1.
Forrest: We're gonna start in verse 5, as Paul talks about his spiritual legacy and calls us out in Timothy.
Forrest: He says, I'm reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois, and in your mother Eunice, and I'm persuaded now lives in you also.
Forrest: For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
Forrest: For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.
Forrest: So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, his prisoner.
Forrest: Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.
Forrest: He has saved us and called us to a holy life.
Forrest: Not because of anything we have done, but because of his purpose and grace.
Forrest: This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.
Forrest: But has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Forrest: And then Paul goes on about Timothy's spiritual heritage and lineage in verse 14, a few verses later.
Forrest: He says, But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have been convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Forrest: Paul calls out this spiritual legacy and the fact that he's now received the knowledge of the holy scriptures from his mother, Eunice, from his grandmother, Lois, and that from infancy they're teaching young Timothy the scripture, and then ultimately, as they become followers of Jesus, they are now teaching him what it means to follow Jesus in the gospel that has interrupted their Jewish life.
Forrest: Now, it's interesting that Paul talks about Timothy's mother and grandmother, but leaves out his father.
Forrest: But there's a clue in the book of Acts as Luke talks about Paul's missionary journeys of why Paul leaves out his father in chapter 16, verse 1.
Forrest: Paul came to Derby and Elisha, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer, and whose father was a Greek.
Forrest: So from this description, and Paul leaving out his father, what is to believe be believed is that his father was not a follower of Jesus, but of Greek culture and paganism.
Forrest: And so Timothy is growing up in a household that's divided.
Forrest: And even in the midst of what's happening in their household, his grandmother and his mother are helping him to learn the scriptures and teach him even from when he was a small child.
Forrest: And us as believers, we need to do the same thing for our children.
Forrest: We need to be reading the scriptures to our kids.
Forrest: My wife, she's done a great job.
Forrest: And my wife, she's been reading to them the storybook Bible that is it gives the gospel and talks about the story of scripture at a child's level.
Forrest: And I want to let you know that the faithfulness of my wife over the last five years to continue to read the scripture, my oldest has begun to understand the gospel and she's gotten saved this year.
Forrest: Which is amazing.
Forrest: And I know for me, I I want to keep continuing to teach our kids the scripture as well, and they're and they're learning so much in the kids' ministry.
Forrest: The other day, my five-year-old said, Dad, my favorite story in the Bible is Esther, because she was created courageous and saved her people.
Forrest: And I said, I didn't even know who Esther was until I was in like college.
Forrest: How do you even know that story?
Forrest: And then she brought over to me this little face mask thing that they had made of Esther's face and put it over her face, and she said, I'm I'm courageous because she'd made it in kids' ministry.
Forrest: And taught my little girl a story that I didn't even know until I was in college.
Forrest: And blown away.
Forrest: See, we need to be teaching our children about Christ and the scriptures from infancy.
Forrest: But we as followers of Jesus, for us to be able to do that, we have to make sure that we graduate out of infancy and we don't stay stuck in infancy.
Forrest: That we have to know the word of God and the wisdom of the scriptures.
Forrest: So us moms and dads, grandparents, can teach the next generation, teach our children inside of our home and outside of our home what it means to follow Jesus in a life and in a journey that's going to take them in a lot of different places and a lot of things that they don't understand and aren't going to be anticipating, these things called detours.
Forrest: And for you, as you are teaching your children, for you to be an example, what it looks like to endure the detours.
Forrest: That's my first point.
Forrest: We need to endure the detours.
Forrest: See, Timothy's grandmother believed the gospel.
Forrest: She was probably living a great Jewish life when she was in when she encountered the story of Christ, gave her life to Jesus, and it disrupted her daughter's life, Eunice, and then passed on to her son, and they didn't let any excuses or the excuse of the fact that their home was divided keep them from sharing the truth.
Forrest: And they didn't give the excuse, well, I didn't I don't have any support.
Forrest: Instead, what they did is they built a legacy of faith, because listen to me a legacy of faith is not built on perfect families, it's built on persistent faith of you showing up, for your family in Christ, for you being the example, because listen to me, God can use your faith to change generations, even if you feel behind right now, even if you feel behind today, God can use you for your children's and children's children's salvation and for the story and legacy of faith in your life.
Forrest: Now, I'm not much of a cook, but I do love to cook barbecue on a smoker.
Forrest: And it takes hours, and it's very annoying because there's times when I tell my family dinner is gonna be at this time, but then the meat's not done on the smoker, and then it's like two hours after the fact and everybody's mad.
Forrest: All right, okay, maybe I'm the only one.
Forrest: But it's so good when it's done right.
Forrest: That's why you don't cook barbecue in a microwave.
Forrest: If you do that, you should go straight to jail.
Forrest: That's not how it's supposed to be made.
Forrest: Do you know your spiritual legacy?
Forrest: It should be slow cooked.
Forrest: You can't microwave it.
Forrest: The present chaos and the complexity of the situation that you're in with your family, it's a slow cook of the legacy of Christ that you're going to be a witness to and show them what it means to know and follow our King Jesus.
Forrest: Yesterday we had baby dedication in this room and several families.
Forrest: It was so beautiful, guys.
Forrest: It was so cute, these little babies.
Forrest: And these families are sitting at tables and dedicating their children to the Lord.
Forrest: And at the end of the baby dedication, have a time where the families have an opportunity to surround the baby and the parents and to pray over the baby silently or out loud.
Forrest: And I couldn't help but think of the grandmothers that were in the room praying over their grandkids, probably in the same way that Lois was praying over Timothy.
Forrest: A spiritual legacy that these children were being grown up in the family of faith.
Forrest: Because growing in your faith isn't just limited to grandparents and parents.
Forrest: Let me let me take you.
Forrest: I started us, we're gonna stay in in 2 Timothy chapter 1, and I started in verse 5, but let me take you up to the beginning to verse 1.
Forrest: As Paul talks about his relationship with Timothy, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my dear what?
Forrest: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Forrest: The beginning of the first letter to Timothy in Timothy 1, verse 2, Paul addresses him as his true son, his dear son.
Forrest: And as far as we know, there was no blood relationship between Paul and Timothy, but instead there was a relationship of mentor and mentee of disciple and disciple maker.
Forrest: And I I know I'm challenged, and a few weeks ago I was specifically challenged.
Forrest: I was on a phone call with a very prominent, uh, longtime really great pastor out of Nashville who's led this gigantic church with all kinds of campuses and church planning, who's now retired after 32 faithful years of ministry.
Forrest: And we were on the call and he challenged me and said, Forrest, you now need to get some Timothy's in your life.
Forrest: And I've only been a lead pastor for now you know four or three years.
Forrest: And we were having this conversation.
Forrest: I was thinking about now, I felt like a Timothy, but now I'm at a place and to not only just discipling people, then to see other people be raised up into ministry and people be launched to pastoring.
Forrest: See, because what I want you all to know is that my wife and I, this entire journey of planting multiply church over the last four years, we have either been leading or been in a small group this entire time so that we can be in the making of disciples and be disciple makers.
Forrest: Can could I this isn't to my own horn, but I'm gonna tell you that's rare.
Forrest: So that we are leading the way in making disciples of Christ.
Forrest: We talk about around here being and making disciples a whole lot.
Forrest: And I wonder for you do you have any true sons and daughters in the faith?
Forrest: Whether they're inside of the four walls of your home or outside of them, because here's what I need for all of you in the room to be.
Forrest: I need for you to be the parent in the car on the trip.
Forrest: Now, this should be an encouragement to you in the room, whether or not you have kids or you don't.
Forrest: That for you to be called into what Jesus has led us into, for us to be the one who's the adult in the room, the parent in the car, and you're saying, and maybe you've said this, you know, forrest.
Forrest: I just I don't know, I don't know the Bible like that.
Forrest: I couldn't help anybody like that.
Forrest: I couldn't possibly try to open the word of God with anybody or help anybody in that way.
Forrest: I've got too much going on myself.
Forrest: Do you know that you don't have to be perfect to be a God?
Forrest: You have to just be a little bit ahead of where somebody else is.
Forrest: And do you know that your spiritual presence could be the turning point in someone else's story?
Forrest: If you're willing to do it.
Forrest: Again, we talk a lot about being and making disciples.
Forrest: And we talk about how, just like Timothy, who began at infancy, that when you become a follower of Jesus, you begin and you start out and being an infant, just like Paul talks about on the in uh the comparison of where you would receive the milk versus the meat, that you were a child and then grew up to then be a man and put away childish things, that you're growing in your relationship with God in a similar way as we grow up in our lives.
Forrest: And as you give your life to Christ, then you begin in spiritual infancy, which is basically you come to Christ, you you you fill with joy just.
Forrest: Like a little baby brings a whole joy to the room and a smile on everybody's face, but you have to be spoon-fed everything.
Forrest: And somebody else has to constantly be cleaning up your messes.
Forrest: Do you know that I have known a lot of 80-year-olds in my last 18 years of ministry who are still spiritual infants?
Forrest: Who never grew in their faith, never began to do what it just a spiritual child could do, just like our children that you could, just like a kid, you could begin to read the word for yourself, begin to feed yourself, do things in the kingdom of God.
Forrest: But just like a child that is normally just like my kids, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, oftentimes our spiritual maturity at that point of being a spiritual child, it really things just are revolving around yourself.
Forrest: Like, you know what?
Forrest: I'm gonna read the scripture and I'm gonna bring my family to church because it makes me feel good.
Forrest: And it's good for my family.
Forrest: And I'm gonna do certain things because I want to make sure that I'm in the right spot.
Forrest: But there's a time when you begin to cross over.
Forrest: Just like Jesus said, that he came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.
Forrest: That we see that Jesus wasn't self-focused, instead, he was others focused all the way to the cross to lay his life down.
Forrest: And so we, as we grow in our faith in Jesus, we need to begin to be others focused just like Jesus was, and so the minute says like the minute your mindset becomes like this.
Forrest: You know what?
Forrest: I'm gonna serve in the kids' ministry so that other people can go to church and understand the scripture and so that they can have a distraction-free environment to learn from the word of God.
Forrest: You know, I'm gonna hold this baby in the kids' ministry.
Forrest: I'm gonna teach, I'm gonna teach somebody, or I'm gonna, I'm gonna welcome somebody who's coming through the door because I remember what it was like for me when I first came to church and how nerve-wracking and how anxiety-ridden it was.
Forrest: And I was already like in anxiety, just getting out of the car, walking in here, and I want to be the joy that somebody needs to receive in Christ on a Sunday, and it's not just all about me.
Forrest: Is anybody hearing me?
Forrest: So, what I need for all of us to be, I want us for all, and wherever you're at in your spiritual walk, I want for each one of us to be growing in order that we are the parent in the car.
Forrest: I'm so grateful for our current team leaders and small group leaders who have literally crossed the line already and said, you know what, I know I may not know everything, but I'm going to I'm gonna step into loving, caring, serving, showing others the scripture, praying for them, and that that they've been doing this, and you know what, we need more.
Forrest: Can we put our hands together for our current leaders, volunteer leaders?
Forrest: We're growing, we're growing in our faith, we're helping others to grow in their faith as well.
Forrest: And what we need to be doing is that with our own children, and just like Paul and Timothy, where we have also, listen to me, we're walking in our spiritual motherhood and fatherhood.
Forrest: We're just like Paul and Timothy, he says, You're my dear son, you're my true son.
Forrest: You know, Paul doesn't say that about everybody in the scripture, he says this about Timothy.
Forrest: And not only that, he goes on to talk about what it's even like just being around Timothy.
Forrest: Go to verse 3.
Forrest: I thank God, whom I serve as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers, recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with what?
Forrest: I'm reminded of your sincere faith.
Forrest: Again, starting back to verse five.
Forrest: I'm reminded of your sincere faith, which lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I'm persuaded now lives in you also.
Forrest: Oh my goodness, you all.
Forrest: I'm I I am such a type A personality, I can get so bogged down in all the details and all of the tasks to get done that I'm missing out on the joy of the relationships that I have.
Forrest: In my family, and then outside of my family, in that family of faith.
Forrest: And and I know I can get so task-oriented, and I can just get you know laser focused, and people get frustrated with that.
Forrest: I've already had somebody roll their eyes at me today, this Sunday morning, irritated with me.
Forrest: I want to make sure as as I'm stepping into this place, that I'm stepping into this place, not just focused on the task to get done, but the joy that Jesus has for me and for you.
Forrest: And maybe, maybe right now, your family, maybe even your church family, it feels more like a burden than a blessing.
Forrest: Can I tell you this?
Forrest: Paul says of Timothy, I can't wait to be in your presence because there's joy.
Forrest: And I wonder for you, and I would like for you to make it a joy to journey with you.
Forrest: Are you a joy to be around?
Forrest: You say you're a Christian, you say you're in faith, you say that you know Jesus.
Forrest: And in Galatians chapter 5, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Forrest: But I grew up in a church which the people who've been walking with Jesus the longest looked the meanest.
Forrest: It was like the more spiritual you were, you know, the mean of your face looked.
Forrest: There wasn't a whole lot of joy going on.
Forrest: And maybe that was because they were just beaten down by life or what all the things that have gone on.
Forrest: But I just know this is that as we are walking with Jesus, there should be the fruit of the Spirit that's pouring out of us.
Forrest: And Paul says to Timothy, I can't wait to be around you because it's gonna be filled with joy.
Forrest: And you know, you're and I'm there's I'm sure many of you right now that are this thinking, you know, for us, people wear me out.
Forrest: All these people wear me out.
Forrest: Don't you think that you wear other people out too?
Forrest: Don't you think that they're saying the same thing about you?
Forrest: God wants you to be someone that others love to walk with.
Forrest: I learned years ago when it came to hiring and church staff and chemistry and all that, somebody asked me uh and told me that don't it there's this thing called the Atlanta test.
Forrest: Anybody ever been in Atlanta traffic before?
Forrest: It's crazy.
Forrest: And they said the Atlanta test is if you wouldn't take a road trip from here to Atlanta with this person, don't hire them.
Forrest: Because the the chemistry is not there.
Forrest: Does somebody want to go on the journey with you?
Forrest: Are you a joy?
Forrest: Are you living out and flowing out the fruit of the spirit?
Forrest: And it's not just it's not just touching you.
Forrest: It's being manifest in your kids and your grandkids and your spiritual kids.
Forrest: So I've got some questions for you.
Forrest: Are we there yet?
Forrest: Yep.
Forrest: I know it's an annoying question these kids ask, but it needs to be asked spiritually.
Forrest: Are we there yet as a family?
Forrest: Are we there yet as parents?
Forrest: Are we there yet in the healing that we need to receive from Christ to put away the bitterness and the shame and let that go to the pit of hell where it came from and be healed by the Father so then we can be the one who is a joy to journey with?
Forrest: Are we there yet in our walks with Christ?
Forrest: Here's what I want you to do: I want you to know your destination.
Forrest: I got more questions for you.
Forrest: What kind of family are you building right now?
Forrest: What kind of son, daughter, parent, or friend are you wanting to be in five years?
Forrest: What spiritual legacy do you want to pass on?
Forrest: What will you do to become a spiritual parent?
Forrest: Because you need to expect detours.
Forrest: You're gonna hit roadblocks.
Forrest: How in the world are you gonna respond?
Forrest: Because if you stay in the center of God's will and his purpose, you're never off track.
Forrest: No matter the barriers and the roadblocks.
Forrest: Lois didn't expect to become a Christian.
Forrest: She just heard the gospel.
Forrest: Do you think that Eunice expected to be teaching her son without her husband's help about the gospel in Christ?
Forrest: But listen to me, they stayed faithful on the journey and in the detours.
Forrest: What does faithfulness look like for you right now?
Forrest: And make the journey joyful.
Forrest: Are you a joy to be with, or do you drain the life out of the room?
Forrest: What's one way that you can become more joyful and life-giving in your home?
Forrest: Because listen to me, imagine this.
Forrest: Imagine if every single child in this church had somebody praying for them by name.
Forrest: What could God do?
Forrest: Imagine if the next generation could say, you know what, I saw a genuine faith in my mom or in my mentor or my small group leader, and now I have it too, because what I've seen.
Forrest: It starts so small.
Forrest: I was in a conversation this week with some guys in one of them said that there's a he has a friend that will just text him randomly and say, Hey, praying for you.
Forrest: And he said, Whenever I get that text, thinking about you praying for you, he's like, it's it's just like my day stops.
Forrest: And I think about this friend of mine and my relationship with the Lord, and I just a moment that I receive that and changes my whole perspective.
Forrest: I I'm not saying you gotta be a biblical scholar, but what I'm not saying is that like you're just gonna smile at somebody at the groceries, grocery store, and then say, like, well, I told him about Jesus because I smiled at him one time or gave him a bottle of water.
Forrest: Talking about you actually just stepping into a a spiritual motherhood and fatherhood to just start with prayer, start with praying, and we have no idea what God can do with it and through it.
Forrest: I love the summertime.
Forrest: I love the summertime in church because the real ones come to church in the summertime.
Forrest: And I think about this fall, and I don't know what's gonna happen, and I don't have a crystal ball, but but I think about how many more people in our city are gonna encounter Jesus, are gonna come into our faith family.
Forrest: And we need for us to have more parents in the car to love, to share, to pray, to teach.
Forrest: What's God gonna do in you?
Forrest: What are you gonna give him as you grow?
Forrest: Now you may be in the room and you're you're saying, Force, I don't know what in the world you're talking about.
Forrest: I'm just I'm here for the first time, or I'm here, I'm just trying to figure all this Jesus stuff out, and I'm just I don't even know, I've got all these questions.
Forrest: Can I tell you that Jesus loved you so much that he died for you on the cross 2,000 years ago so that you can be in right relationship with him and so you can journey with him now and into eternity.
Forrest: And today is the day of your salvation.
Forrest: If you will ask for his forgiveness that he gave to you on the cross, if you'll receive it, if you'll believe it in your heart, if you will confess your sin and acknowledge the fact that you have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and as you commit your life to him, he will carry you through till the very end.
Forrest: And today can be the day of your salvation.
Forrest: Can I pray for all of you?
Forrest: Would you bow your heads?
Forrest: Father, I pray over every home right now that's represented, every mother and father, and grandparent, and spiritual mother and father.
Forrest: Lord, we we know that it's a joy.
Forrest: But God, we also know, Lord, that our family dynamics and life is also filled with pain.
Forrest: So right now, Father, I want to pray specifically for those in the room who is whose heart is filled with pain and disappointment when it comes to their family, their earthly family.
Forrest: God, I pray right now that you would bring peace overflowing to them.
Forrest: That God, they are grafted into your holy family, spiritual family, and that God, you are writing a new and beautiful story through them.
Forrest: Father, I pray right now for strained relationships.
Forrest: That God, by the by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you would help our people to be a witness.
Forrest: Even in the most chaotic scenarios.
Forrest: And Father, right now, I want to pray over anybody in this room who's not received you as Savior, who's not crossed over from death to life, who've not given you their life, their heart, that today would be the day of their salvation.
Forrest: That Jesus, they would right now be ready to step across the line to receive you.
Forrest: And if that's you, I want you to pray in your heart and mind, Jesus, save me.
Forrest: I believe that you are the Son of God.
Forrest: That you died on the cross for my sins.
Forrest: And you walked out of the grave.
Forrest: Forgive me, cleanse me, wash me so that I can be in heaven with you one day.
Forrest: I give you my life as you gave yours for mine.
Forrest: I commit my life to you.
Forrest: Thank you for saving me.
Forrest: Nobody looking around today.
Forrest: If you prayed to receive Christ as your Savior, to be forgiven and free, I want at the count of three for you to raise your hand so I can acknowledge you, so I can pray for you as a sign before heaven.
Forrest: Ready, one, two, three.
Forrest: Raise your hand.
Forrest: Anybody right here?
Forrest: I see you, sister.
Forrest: I see you right here in the back.
Forrest: Keep up, hold them high.
Forrest: Hold them high.
Forrest: I see you back here, see you here.
Forrest: Keep holding them up.
Forrest: Father, right now, I pray in this room for those that are.
Forrest: I see you back here, brother.
Forrest: I see you.
Forrest: Father, for those right now who are moving from death to life, Father, I pray that this moment right now is a day that they will remember receiving your grace, your love, purchased for them on the cross, that they were bought with a price, and that you're sealing them in salvation.
Forrest: Father, I pray, God, that each hand that was just raised, that it comes from a genuine heart, that they would take the steps of obedience to follow you from this day forward.
Forrest: So, Father, I thank you, Lord.
Forrest: Salvation has come to the house today.
Forrest: And God, we're gonna we're gonna respond in the joy that you've given us.
Forrest: We love you.
Forrest: In Jesus' name.
Forrest: Everybody said, Church, will you put your hands together and celebrate Christ?