Base Camp Series | City on the Summit — Forrest Coleman

Hey, I'm Pastor Forrest, and welcome to the Multiply Church Podcast.

Each week we open God's word together to help you meet God and multiply good in your everyday life.

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Now, let's dive into this week's sermon.

As we're jumping into this last installment of our series, Base Camp.

And we've been talking over the last few weeks about what it looks like for us as we're on this climb of life.

And we we started the base camp.

We started a place that where we build a foundation so then we can see God move and so that we can walk out the things that we say around here, like that we want to see people meet God and make friends and make disciples and multiply good.

And as we zero in on talking about multiplying good today in the light of Christ, uh I'm I'm excited to get to just for us to collectively together look at God's word and look at what Jesus has to say about us shining our light from him.

A couple of weeks ago, there was uh this trend that was online that was going around on social media, and it was about people getting old.

If if your birthday starts with the 2000 and next to it, would you just raise your hand real quick?

Okay, there's a few of us that are around.

Uh the rest of you who were born in the 1900s, like me, I won't make you raise your hand.

But apparently, according to social media, we're old now.

If you're if you're uh if your birthday starts with the 1900s, uh so if you're 25 years old now, you're apparently you're old.

We'll see how all those 2,000 babies feel in 10 years from now.

See, I I'm a millennial, and that that means that I'm the last generation who remembers a phone with a cord on it.

Um film strips and overhead projectors in school, these kids don't even know what these things are.

Uh and we were referred to as streetlight kids because we would just play in the neighborhood until it got dark and the streetlights would come on, and at that point you had to show up at home, and for some reason, our parents they just weren't worried about us until it got dark.

They're like, well, if they're not here by the time it's dark, maybe then I'll get worried about them or call somebody.

Yeah, the world's a different place, isn't it?

Now I saw a commercial this week for some Sketcher shoes that have a place for an air tag tracker that you can put in the shoes for your kids so you can track your kids.

These kids have tracking devices on them now.

We just had hopes and prayers back in the 1900s.

You know, we were good because we were never too, you know, too many miles away from home, the streetlights.

I uh a few weeks ago I went down to Cumberland Falls, and as I was driving out there, I was driving out there uh in the evening time and it got dark, and I was out on these winding roads and there were no streetlights, and I just forgot just how dark it gets out there when you're driving without the streetlights.

It's something that I if if you live in town like I do, it's something I rarely think about.

But maybe for you, you live out of town, and uh it's it's something, these street lights that help us with safety that's on the road, and maybe if you live out of town, you notice as soon as the streetlights stop as you're heading there.

See, there's there's this light in the darkness is something that Jesus talks to us quite a bit about.

And there obviously weren't any streetlights in Jesus' day, and so only the only way that you knew that you were getting close to the place you were going at night, the town that you're traveling to, was because of the torches and the fires and the lamps there in the city.

This morning I'm talking to us about being a city on the summit.

Because we here at Multiply, we want to be a city on a hill.

We want to be a city on a hill that's shining a light for Christ so that we're able to invest in generosity in our city, for us to step out in faith like we did this last year when we got to serve in our city 28 different times through our Frankfurt Ford initiative, show up to serve in a variety of different ways.

The fact that we got to celebrate 22 baptisms last year as we shine the light, including one of those baptisms being my oldest daughter, is that's not a number to me.

That's my family.

These are our friends, these are our kids and our loved ones.

That we would practice what we preach when it comes to multiplying good in our city.

And as we're climbing this mountain, that we're climbing in this life, and we're climbing this mountain as we're ascending with God and the plan that he has for us, when we get to a certain altitude, things become visible from a perspective on the summit that you can't see when you're down low.

And maybe for you, as you think about multiplying good.

But see, most of us want to be a good person or say that we're a good person.

We want to try to live the best life that we can and follow Jesus.

And we want to grow and have a stronger faith, but there's times when our faith sometimes is basically invisible.

There's some of us in the room that if there was a court hearing about whether or not you were a Christian, there wouldn't be enough evidence to convict you.

Maybe there's there's people that you have worked with for years alongside every single day, and they still have no idea that you go to church or you're a Christian.

And by no means does that mean that you've walked away from God, but somewhere along the way you started hiding.

And hiding seems like a good idea, a good idea, until things are so dark that you can't find your way anymore.

See, I somehow for me, when I'm in the house and I don't have my phone and I need a flashlight, for some reason, every time I go to grab that flashlight, the batteries are about to go out.

Anyone else have that happen to them?

Every single time I'm trying to find a flashlight, it's like the batteries, it's just flickering.

And maybe for you, you've already started off this year and we're just in February, and for some reason, you're already tired.

You're already flickering.

The battery's already low.

See, that's exactly what it felt like when I was driving out to Cumberland Falls, and all of a sudden the style the street lights they stop shining.

The thing is, is sometimes we don't even realize that the light, what the light does for us until the light is gone.

And maybe for you, maybe you haven't even realized that you've been hiding your light until the moment that all the things all of a sudden things seem darker than they actually should.

And you're trying to navigate through life with this low battery faith.

And you're trying to make it.

And so for most of us, we know that we we we don't just need more faith.

What we need is more visible faith.

Because Jesus is gonna point to us in the passage that we look at today and it's gonna tell us that the light that we have, that the light that we have from Christ is not just for our private comfort, it's for a public impact.

It's not just to make us feel good.

And some of us are mad because you have kept Jesus so private in your life that you wonder why you're not experiencing him in your real life.

Being an undercover Christian, being private about your faith and it never going public.

And what happens is that you begin to lose out on a lot of things if you do that.

You lose out on the confidence that you have of walking with God, knowing that he wants to shine a light through your life so that you can be connected to the light, so then you can reflect the light for the kingdom impact that he has planned for you.

And that you are not losing the power that God has for you and the light that you're supposed to be shining because you're disconnected from the fuel.

And the people around you are gonna lose the chance to see Jesus in and through you.

We've been going through this New Testament chronological plan that we started in January.

And for those of you who've who are rolling with it, got 11 guys in the men's group that I'm in who are going through it right now.

And and last week we finished up on the Sermon on the Mount, this this beautiful, it's the best sermon of all time, greatest sermon of all time from Christ in Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

And we came to the close of it, and in the midst of this sermon on the mount, which is just is just every single line, just as it's just a truth bomb after truth bomb.

And listening to the guys in my group who are their reflections as we were going through it on the Bible app was just so encouraging.

And there's a verse in the Sermon on the Mount that sets up the top of this series, this last Sunday of this series, so plainly.

Here's what Jesus says to us Matthew 5, verse 14.

Matthew 5:14

If you have your Bible turned there, your phone app, you want to highlight these three verses.

You are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.

No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket.

Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see.

And then watch this.

So that everyone will praise your Heavenly Father.

What's the reason for us to be a light that's not under a basket or under a bowl or covered over, but shining out for those to see, not so that people will see us, so that people will praise our Heavenly Father, so that we'll see Jesus.

And so what we do here in this body is that we have this call on our lives that we would multiply good so God gets glory.

Not so that we get seen, not so that people pay attention to us, so that we know this promise from Jesus that He tells us that if we will stand and shine our light, it's not gonna be us trying to get the glory.

What's gonna happen is that others are gonna see God in and through us, and in turn, God's gonna get the glory, that he's gonna get the credit.

And it's easy for us if we're trying to be an ever undercover Christian to confuse just believing with God for then than shining with God.

Because you can stay all kinds of busy just believing in God, but you're still hiding your life in the everyday life that you're walking through.

Jesus doesn't want us to be these undercover Christians.

And maybe for you, you you've you've kind of fallen into that place because you're tired, because you're discouraged, because you're hurting.

And and it just feels easier just to hide and feels like you're just trying to survive, but that's not what we're gonna do.

For us to multiply good so God gets glory.

What we're gonna do here is we're gonna light the fuse and we're gonna refuse to burn out.

Jesus didn't save you to stay in the dark, but to shine.

The forest, I'm too busy, I'm too tired.

I don't want to be that Christian.

Bible thumper, I uh I or maybe it's oh, well, you know, I need to protect my peace and I need to make sure that I have enough energy, and I maybe, maybe I'm gonna burn out.

We want to stay connected to the vine.

We want to stay connected to the fuel, we want to shine our light, and we can't dislocate ourselves from Jesus and then complain that we don't feel on fire for God.

Because burnout is much more about fuel than it is about heat.

A candle doesn't burn out because it gets too hot.

That's not the reason.

It comes to the end of its rope, comes to the end of its wick, it gets snuffed out because it doesn't have any oxygen left.

There's it's it's like it's been put under a basket.

And for some of us in the house who are in your 20s, you're in your 30s, and you're just worried about your energy and your peace, and if you're gonna burn out, can I just tell you you're not gonna burn out?

You have so much energy, you have so much energy in life right now, and you're connected to the fuel of faith in Christ.

I I wonder as we read the scriptures and what people are going through in the scriptures and the disciples, and and and we look at each other, and there's times where I think to myself of, man, I may be feeling like some kind of way and feeling tired, and I think like the Apostle Paul was probably tired too.

And Peter was probably tired, and John was probably tired as they were going through all the things that they were going through.

See, we can't dislocate ourselves from Jesus and the fuel that he has to provide for us and then expect for us to continue to be on fire.

And so it has to do with what the input is and what we're feeding on and what's in our feed.

Is it the word of God, or are we spending more time on TikTok than we are in the word of God?

And what's what whatever we're feeding into our life, whatever informs us, is going to form us.

Or as we're rolling down the street, what's the music that we're listening to in the car?

Is it bringing us closer to God?

Is it taking us away from God?

Listen, this is why the base camp exists.

Because if you're going to get to the top, if you're going to go with the Lord to the top and shine a light on the top of the hill, you need to have a firm foundation in Christ.

And I have literally watched people do this over and over and over again.

They've started out strong, then they've started to drift from Jesus, and then they've kept the same pace.

And then they blame God when they feel empty.

It's not that God left you.

It's that the light got put under a basket and got cut off from the oxygen.

Burnout's more about fuel than it's about heat.

It's about oxygen.

You know, when you're climbing, you can't just muscle your way up to the summit.

You have to actually acclimate to the altitude.

You have to spend time at the base camp so that your lungs can learn how to breathe at that altitude.

And if you just try to skip steps and you try to just sprint up the hill, you're not going to be Superman, you're going to be stupid.

Because you're going to end up with altitude sickness.

And so we've got to acclimate ourselves and have a firm foundation in Christ at the base camp so that we can build up the oxygen that we need, which is prayer, which is worship, which is the word of God, which is serving God together, which is loving others, which is which is walking out our faith in a tangible and visible way.

And if we don't do that, that we shouldn't be shocked when we're gasping for air.

We need the firm foundation for us to be flowing out the formation that's happened in our soul and in our bodies and in our minds and in our spirits for us to not just do things for God, but to do things with Him.

Or do something with God.

Can I tell you, if your child or your friend steps out to help somebody do something, do you judge them?

No.

You're proud of them.

You encourage them.

How much more will our Heavenly Father do that for us when we step out in faith for Him, with Him, walking with Him, for us to do visible good with our God?

That's the next thing we need to do.

Do visible good with our God.

This is what that means.

We need to shine when it doesn't feel shiny.

When it doesn't look good, doesn't smell good, doesn't feel good.

Everybody says they want to be used by God until they feel used.

Because we're not just doing things for God, we're doing things with Him.

We're walking with Him in this life.

We're connected to the vine.

We're connected to the fuel.

We're flowing out as we're making this climb.

And for those that just want to keep your light hidden and keep your faith private, there's probably somebody in your life who doesn't have the truth of Jesus, who has a destiny headed, separated from the Father, that would really appreciate you stepping up and showing up in the love of God so that you could see them go to heaven instead of hell.

If our faith stays private, it's gonna make just an invisible impact.

But we're gonna we're gonna believe with Jesus, we're gonna walk with Jesus.

We're not gonna just gonna stay private, we're gonna do good, visible good with him.

We're gonna be a city on a hill.

You know, when we do visible good with God, what Jesus tells us that if our light is shining, it's God who's gonna get the glory.

This is not going to be spotlight on me Christianity.

This is gonna be spotlight on Jesus Christianity as we do visible good with him.

And that that makes us to show up, to serve, to forgive others, to listen, to pray, to invite, to give, to speak up.

And this is not things that that's us seeking attention.

We're not the ones that are gonna get the credit.

Jesus is gonna get the credit.

The Father is going to get the credit because Jesus is the one that the light comes from anyway.

We can't produce it ourselves.

We can't be good enough.

We can't do enough good things.

Jesus is the one who's gonna get the credit because he's the one who's the good shepherd.

That doesn't mean that at times we can fall into, and even I can fall into finding yourself doing things for God.

Start feeling like it's about me.

I want to get the credit, I want to look good.

And I think there's this fear in us what the world's gonna say if we step out for Christ, if we step out for Jesus, if we actually speak about the one that has saved our soul, that we're gonna be doing too much.

I think people are gonna judge us, oh, they're doing too much.

They're being one of those kind of Christians.

How about we be known not for being judgmental Christians, but ones who just want to give Jesus the glory and the credit and the goodness to flow out from us to Him.

Because ultimately what's gonna happen is that we're gonna give God the glory and him the credit completely.

But Forrest, I don't wanna be weird.

I I don't wanna sound preachy.

I I don't wanna be, I don't want people to think that I'm preaching at them.

Like, I just want to keep this to myself.

Can I tell you, don't steal what belongs to God.

Don't steal what belongs to him.

The glory and the credit that belongs to our God as we step out and do visible good with him, it's it's at that point that we're going to look back and we're gonna see that everything that we're doing, that it's pointing back to our God, that he's the one who's gonna have all the glory, all the praise, because Jesus is the one who has told us that this is how it's gonna look.

That if we don't hide our light, the praise is gonna be given to the Father.

But if we try to hide our light, then the whole mission breaks down.

A couple of weeks ago, Fernando Mendoza, who is the Heisman Trophy winner and now national champion for uh Indiana Hoosiers, went 16-0, the first time, first team to ever do that in this century.

And they won this national championship.

And I don't know if you've got to hear any of his uh interviews post game after their 16 wins and in the in the playoffs in particular.

Every single time he started talking before he got into the answering whatever question that the interviewer answered him, he said, Hey, first and foremost, I want to give all All the glory to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I want to give all the glory to God.

And there were strong believers that were on the uh other side of the ball in this game.

And one of the players was asked, Why do you think that these are the two teams that made it into the championship?

And they said, I think that these are the two teams because God knew that these two teams would give him the glory.

I remember going up, and my dad, when we were sleepy teenagers and on the weekdays, and we weren't waking up when our alarm was going off, I would hear my dad's big footsteps coming up the stairs.

And halfway up the stairs, he would start singing at the top of his lungs, not in like a pop singer voice, but just in an old man choir voice.

He would sing over and over again.

I think that's the only words he knew to the song.

You can imagine how annoying that was to some teenage boys who were smashing the pillow over our heads and pulling up the covers.

I wonder if God sees us as selfish teenagers with a world that's desperately in need of his people to get up and get going in your kingdom purposes instead of pulling the covers over our head in apathy.

The summit.

The summit is where the glory of God, the light of the world, becomes visible.

A city on a hill that won't be hidden.

All throughout this series, we've been talking about Galatians chapter 5 and the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

Against these things there is no law.

These are the things that should be flowing out from us as formed believers who have a foundation on Christ and are shining our light before men.

And a few verses before that, in Galatians chapter 5, the scripture says this the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

Let me read it again.

The only thing that counts.

Then the scripture.

Those are the things that are the things that count.

And I just want you to imagine with me.

Imagine with me here at Multiply.

What if Multiply wasn't just a place that you attended, but it was a place that you carried a light from this place into the city?

And people saw the light flowing.

Can you imagine?

If so much good was being multiplied out of this house, and it was so visible that Frankfurt couldn't ignore it, that the surrounding cities couldn't ignore it.

They couldn't hide it.

But it'd be so visible.

Imagine your workplace, your street, your family.

That they couldn't be people who could just pretend that Jesus isn't real because he was shining through you so brightly.

So what are you gonna do?

Just start small.

Start small.

Do something that's a visible good this week.

And give God the glory for it.

Give him the credit for it.

Start small.

Scan that QR code that's in front of you and join a group.

It's really hard to shine your light from your couch by yourself.

Those fruit of the spirit, they have to be overflowing in relationship with other people.

Love for who?

Joy for who?

Gentleness with who?

With other people.

Something that you're you're literally shining out through you.

Take a step.

Early in my ministry, when I started as a pastor, I was spending some time with a guy who was an atheist.

And we would talk about God, and I really wanted to try to share with him and show him the light.

But most of the time that we got would get together, this guy was so hurt, and it's so much darkness that he would just spend the entire time just trashing God and trashing faith.

And I was just enduring it in love because I knew that Jesus wanted me to show him love.

But this constant drip of cynicism and of darkness, it just started weighing heavier and heavier and heavier on me.

And all these negative comments about the church and about faith and about the Bible, all of a sudden I just started just to start questioning just like my calling, just obvious truths from the scripture.

I was just starting to question.

I mean, I just I was getting in this negative, dreary mindset.

You know, it's Jesus who told us that if somebody rejects him, that we should dust off our feet and that we should move on.

Because that spirit of darkness, whatever is attached to that, it can begin to drag us into a pit.

And we're gonna love people, we're gonna we're gonna share with them, we're gonna shine our light, but at the same time, we're gonna stay so connected to the light, to the fuel, to the vine.

We're gonna make sure that a non-believer doesn't have an outside voice in our life because they're not God.

He is.

And and I wish I could tell you that that that story ended with this amazing conversion of this guy, and that he came to Christ.

But honestly, I don't know where he is anymore.

I don't live in that city anymore.

But I know this today, I'm still shining the light.

And I didn't get dragged into a place where all these negativity and all this cynicism pulled me into a place where I threw in the towel or gave up.

For you, you're in the house today, and maybe for you, the light in your house, it started to flicker or started to be covered over because somebody turned the light off.

And for you, it's time for you to turn the light back on, to uncover, to not let negativity, doubt, anger hold you back in a place where you think hiding is better than being in the light or showing the light.

Or maybe for you, there's somebody in the house today that's here today that there's not light on in your house because there's not power flow into it because you haven't given your life over to Jesus, the one who has the true power, who can actually bring the light to you.

You haven't been able to access the light because you haven't given your life over to Jesus who paid the bill in full on the cross and walked out of the grave victorious.

We're gonna shine the light.

And for you, maybe it's not the fact that you just need to try harder, do some more self-help.

No, you need to be made new through the light of the world.

We're gonna multiply good so God gets the glory.

Don't hide your light, don't let it burn out.

Don't try to take the credit or steal the credit from the Lord.

Sean.

Let me pray for us.

Father, you are the light of the world.

The city on a hill that can't be hidden, and you've given that light to us now, God, that we would be the city on the hill that can't be hidden.

Right now, Father, I pray all across this room, all the homes that are represented here, God, I pray, Father, for any of them, Lord, that the light is flickering, or that somebody's turned off the switch, that God, this morning, Lord, they would return to you.

That God, they would begin to shine their light before men so that you would get the glory and the credit.

Father, I pray now all across this room for anybody who's in here who has not received you as Savior, who's not asked for forgiveness, and received your blood and your sacrifice poured out on the cross in their place.

That today would be the day of their salvation, today would be the day that they give their life to you, that they repent, ask for forgiveness of their sins.

If that's you, uh I encourage you right now to pray to Jesus.

Jesus, save me.

In your heart and your mind, Jesus, save me.

I believe that you're the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sin.

Forgive me, cleanse me as I give my life to you.

I repent, I turn, and commit my life to you today and into eternity.

Thank you for saving me.

Thank you for making me new.

We're so grateful you joined us for this week's message.

At Multiply, we believe life was never meant to be lived alone.

If today you made the decision to follow Jesus, we'd be honored to walk with you on this journey.

Visit multiplyky.com to let us know.

We love you and we'll see you again soon.