Base Camp - Storms

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.

We ended 2025 really strong, and at the end of the month, we'll celebrate some of the stories from that and everything that happened.

But we also have started off 2026 strong.

And the fact that last Sunday somebody gave their life to Christ and made a decision for baptism last Sunday on the first Sunday of the year.

Thank you, Jesus.

As we jump into this series, Base Camp as we're talking about having a foundation in Christ and talking about what it looks like for us to go back to the basics and to make sure that we are standing on a firm ground in Christ.

Today's my message is called Storms.

I did a little hiking this week because I got away to Cumberland Falls at the beginning of the year, the last few years.

I've gotten away to pray and to plan for the year ahead and just unplug, get away, get away from the hustle and social media and the news.

And so I got out and I did a hike that I had done before, this hike to Eagle Falls.

And uh a ranger told me before I started the hike that this was a strenuous hike.

And I told her that I had done this hike before many years ago, and boy was it many years ago.

Because there wasn't actually any climbing per se in this hike, but there were like a million stairs going up and down the ravines to make it to the falls, and these were man-made stairs, and they were also just rocks just stacked on top of each other, and about an hour into the hike, as I'm like climbing down these stone stair rocks, I I uh I thought to myself, if I were to fall down these rocks right now, how in the world would I get to safety?

How long would it take somebody to find my body if I fell right now?

And I I told my wife when I got home about this, and she said, You were thinking about Lone Survivor, weren't you?

And I was like, Of course I was thinking about Lone Survivor, which is uh the story turned into a movie of Navy SEAL Marcus Latrell, who was trapped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan that uh had a number of injuries falling down uh this this giant cliff face, and he ended up crawling with a broken body, including two broken bones and his tongue bitten off, climbing or crawling to safety.

And, you know, as I was telling my wife this, she said, she said, I expect that if anything like that ever happens, you fall on a hike, I expect you to crawl for at least a mile.

I want evidence that you actually tried to get back to us.

If you just laid there and died, I would not be happy, is what she said.

Thankfully it all went well.

And I had this incredible moment of reaching the falls, and I sat and prayed and prayed for you and prayed for our church by the side of this beautiful water.

But isn't it true that life can change in an instant?

Maybe you've had a week before where everything was fine and then one phone call and everything changed.

Or maybe it wasn't just one big call, but it was the pressures just stacking up of life, of the bills and conflict, sickness, the feelings of loneliness or even a temptation.

And when all of that is stacked up, it it's easy to feel yourself just grabbing for anything that's sturdy.

Because storms in our life, they don't schedule a meeting with us before they hit.

Schedules don't care about, or storms don't care about what your schedule is or what you have planned.

And when they hit, we don't just reach for something that we believe that we say that we believe in, we believe in, we reach for what we actually trust.

And for you, it makes me want to ask the question today as we're going through storms in our life, and you're going through storms in your life.

What are you gripping?

What are you holding on to?

What is your foundation?

Because when we go through the storms, the storms will expose your faith faster than a hundred worship services ever will.

The storms are gonna reveal what's real in your marriage and in your mind and your habits and your money and your anger and your anxiety and everything across the board because the storms they expose what our life is built on.

And Jesus has told us that our following of Him, that it should be built on the solid rock that is our Savior, Jesus Christ.

And the discipleship, us being disciples of Jesus, that that is how we both be and are made disciples of Jesus, that we would be a disciple, a follower of Jesus, and that we would also through discipleship help others to stand firm when the storm hits, too.

Around here at Multiply, we say it like this make disciples.

Everybody say, make disciples.

People who are in this house who are committed to not just uh just following Jesus, but being truly a disciple of Jesus as he's called us to and asked us to, people who are truly following him, not just the idea of Jesus or not just some religious affiliation to make your grandma happy, but real disciples, people who are following Jesus because when the storms of life hit, what you're built on, it shows when the storms show up.

And if we're built on the foundation of Christ through our discipline, what we're holding on to is front and center.

Now, if we don't have a firm foundation on Jesus as we're going through the storms, we're gonna miss some things.

We're not gonna have the stability of a firm foundation in the storms.

Instead, we're gonna be reactive, we're gonna be panicked, we're gonna try to numb ourselves out, we're gonna be controlling, try to control every detail.

Maybe even as the storms hit, if you don't have the foundation on Jesus, you may even lose relationships because in the middle of the storm, you're gonna say things, you're gonna act in ways that you regret later.

Or maybe you lose the momentum of all the spiritual growth that's been happening in your life and all your forward progress, because when you get into the storm, all you can think about is just how you can get through it instead of what God is trying to teach you in the midst of it.

Or your kids or your family will watch you as you're going through the storm, grab for the wrong things and have the wrong response.

Grabbing for control and shortcuts and fixed, quick fixes, panic, numbing ourselves, or just survival.

See, when the the storms hit us, what we grab a hold of in the midst of it is truly the problem.

Because when the when the pressures of life rise up, your true foundation shows.

And we talked last Sunday about what should overflow in our life as followers of Jesus with the fruit of the Spirit.

That the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Against these things there is no law.

Those are what flow out of a firm foundation in Christ.

And Jesus talks about this specifically as he closes his famous Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus gives us this picture of two lives in the same storm with completely different outcomes.

And so at the tail end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 7, if you have your Bible turn there with me into verse 24 of Matthew chapter 7, if you have it on your phone, grab your phone, pull your phone out so you know where this scripture is and where you know what this famous message is of the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention Matthew 7 · chapter mention

It's also going to be on the screen.

Here's how Jesus closes this famous sermon.

He says, Anyone who, verse 24, anyone who listens to my teachings and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.

Though the rain comes in torrents and the flood waters rise and the wind beats against that house, it won't collapse because it's built on bedrock.

But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish.

Like a person who builds a house on sand.

When the rains and the floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority, quite unlike their teachers of religious law.

Jesus ends this famous sermon, a sermon on the mount, giving this picture.

Same storm, two different outcomes.

And ends this famous sermon of the Sermon on the Mount.

Now, I love a good sermon.

I love a good sermon that inspires me.

I've been listening to this sermon every single day this year as the year is kicked off, just to be able to have that input into my life.

And I love that we can have messages that inspire us, but if I'm being honest, when the storms come, I have to make a decision whether I'm going to follow the teachings of Jesus or I'm going to do my own thing.

And some of you right now, you know the right thing, and the right thing that you should be doing, and the right thing, and the right decision, and the storm that you're going through right now, or you just came out of, or you'll be going into that's going to expose this foundation and whether you can stand.

And some of us are even saying, you know, I believe in Jesus, but when the pressure hits, there's something else that becomes our savior.

Control, anger, numbness, just scrolling ourselves to death, pornography, spending, shutting down.

And what we need to do as we have this firm foundation is that we need to cling to, we need to grip to, we need to hold fast to a Savior, Jesus Christ.

And as we hold fast, it's what 1 Thessalonians 5.21 says to us, hold fast to what is good.

Because Jesus, in 2 Timothy 2.19, the scripture says, but God's firm foundation stands.

So we're going to hold fast to and cling to, hold fast to what is good, the firm foundation that we have in Christ.

Because oftentimes when we get into the storm, all we can think of is just like, oh, God, will you just make this pass?

Like, can I just get through this?

I'm just trying to survive.

I just need a little bit more time to get through this.

But what the truth is, is that you don't rise to the storm, you fall to your formation and your foundation.

It's said like this: you don't rise to the occasion, you fall to your preparation.

And the base camp is the preparation.

The base camp is where you get all ready for the climb of this life.

Where you get everything lined up and you make sure that you have every single thing that you need for the journey, and you have all the supplies, and you make sure that you have a firm foundation before you ever step out.

And Jesus gives us this teaching about two different people, and we have to ask ourselves the question and to ask you, are you going to just be only a hearer of the word or a doer of God's word?

Because the same rain, the same wind, the same floods come, and there's two different outcomes based on whether or not you build on sand or build on solid rock.

The sand holds until it doesn't.

Trying to build our life on things that are temporal, that aren't actually permanent, aren't actually eternal, our careers, our self-esteem.

All these things that we can try to build our life on that's really just sand through our fingers, and it'll hold for a while, but it doesn't hold forever.

It's in the storm that reveals whether you have the base or not.

Last week I told you about Nims Perja, who is this Nepalese Sherpa, which is an expert climbing guide.

And uh Nims and his team set out in 2018 to do this impossible task that they actually named Project Possible for them to climb the tallest 14 peaks in the world in record speed.

Now, Nims and his buddies, again, are these Nepalese Sherpas, what they are, they are the climbing guides for all the tourists that show up to climb the greatest and tallest peaks on the globe.

These guys have gone up and down Everest multiple, multiple, multiple, multiple times, and they set out to climb the top 14 peaks and to beat the record, and they completed all 14 in just six months and six days, crushing the previous record of seven years, 310 days.

These guys are the elite, the best of the best.

Nims himself was even special forces in the Nepalese Armed Forces.

These guys are elite.

And on one of the climbs, as they were climbing one of these 14,000 meter peaks, Nims and his team, they're climbing up and they come along a climber who is stranded that has run out of oxygen.

He's in the death zone, this 800, 8,000 meters up to the summit, where the oxygen is only one-third of the normal level of oxygen.

And Nims makes the decision to not leave any man behind and gives this man his oxygen.

And they start to try to get him down the mountain.

Nims is off of his oxygen for over 11 hours.

And as he was trying to make his way down, he began to develop haste, which is high altitude cerebral edema, which is basically when you start, you have your oxygen so low, you start to lose control of your body and your functions.

And you start to lose function of your mind, you start to hallucinate, and he was scared.

This expert of expert climber was scared.

And in the snowy conditions, as he was trying to find his way down, he looked out and he saw what he thought was a Yeti.

A giant yeti.

Now obviously he was hallucinating.

Because it was another climber who was making his way to him who also had haze.

And they were there together, stuck on the mountain, and they worked their way together, these two climbers all the way down and made it back to the camp, working together.

The climber who had run out of oxygen that Nims gave him his oxygen, that climber didn't make it.

But Nims and this other climber they did.

So how do you survive in the storm?

How do you have the right preparation and foundation?

What starts not just by knowing, but also doing the Word of God.

Last week I uh invited us all to start in this new year with a reading plan of the whole New Testament for 182 days in chronological order.

And if you miss it last week, there's a card that's on your chair as you walked in.

And uh if you miss it last week, you're not too late.

You can start it now.

I I got to start this last Monday with a group of guys from my men's group and uh some other guys, 10 guys who are now going through the New Testament, and all this week as we were reading, I was just being so encouraged by the comments that were being put in the Bible plan by these other guys as they were talking about how the scripture and how the New Testament was applying to their life all during this week.

Now, I just want to make a couple of distinctions there.

First, I need to let you know that um me serving as uh lead pastor here at Multiply, I'm a part of a men's group and in relationship with other guys who are walking through the scripture together.

Um, I've known plenty of lead pastors who never attended a Sunday school, never attended a small group, didn't have a uh didn't want to be in relationship with anybody.

I I want you all to know this.

Uh, four days from now is uh five years since my family and uh and a handful of others moved to Frankfurt.

And I want you to know I'm still as passionate about making disciples today, five years later, than I was five years ago when we showed up.

Making disciples of Jesus.

Because I want to see God move in the city.

I want to see people come from death to life in Christ and then grow in discipleship to have a firm foundation so then they can then make disciples of others, and we can continue to see God's work, God's work move and change this entire city in Jesus' name.

I've still got a fire for us to continue to see God move and to change men and women and children for them to come and to know Christ.

So, how in the world do you build your life on the rock?

Because I don't know about you, but for me, if I have something I need to do, I want to know the answers.

I want to know the checklist of what needs to be counted off and what I need to do so then I can actually do it.

And maybe for you, you're in the same way.

You think, okay, I want to have this stormproof life, I want to have a shelter, I want to have a storm shelter of a life and a foundation that's in Christ.

And how in the world do I do it?

The stability only comes from your surrender to Jesus, which translates into us following him closely.

We hold fast to him, but we don't stay stuck.

We then follow Jesus closely, because Jesus is the one who said and promised to us, in this world you will have trouble.

But take heart, for I have overcome the world.

Jesus promises us and warns us, hey, you're gonna have storms, you're gonna have troubles, you're gonna have hardship.

Now let me show you the way to stand in the storm because Jesus has already overcome it.

Every single thing that we've gone through, Jesus has overcome by his blood, death, burial, and resurrection on the cross and out of the grave, so then we could follow him.

And you say, Okay, Forrest, well, how do I actually do that?

How in the world, how do I actually do that in real life?

Well, Matthew 7 that we just read and the storms, that shows us these two outcomes and show us the outcomes.

But a couple chapters before that.

Earlier actually shows us the process of what that looks like.

And Jesus is gonna show us the process as he steps towards some guys that he's gonna call to follow him closely.

And when he calls them, he doesn't give them the syllabus and all the answers.

He starts with one sentence, follow me.

When I was years ago when I was in college, before that, and in high school, uh at 18, the Lord called me into ministry, really young.

I had grown up in church, and there was a stint in high school when I just walked away and were running, running from God and got into the party scene, and the Lord drew me back to him and called me back to him, and then in my senior year, called me into the ministry.

And so then I went to college to study to be in the ministry and to start that trajectory.

And when I was there, I got a part, I got to be a part of this campus ministry.

And the mantra of the campus ministry was growing as disciples while making more disciples through authentic relationships.

Now, college was a long time ago for me now, okay?

But I can still remember that mantra because what the call was is that we were gonna grow as disciples while then making more disciples through authentic relationship, in the same way that Jesus modeled and showed us in the scripture when he went to a handful of guys, and then and then that expanded beyond them to families and women and children.

He said, Follow me in relationship, Jesus in relationship with 12 gods, and and three, even beyond that, it is even closer to an authentic relationship growing as they're growing as disciples.

And so Jesus is by the seashore of Galilee in Matthew chapter four, just a few chapters earlier, in the beginning of his ministry.

And this is what happens in verse 18.

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets.

And he called them.

Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Now, I don't know if you're like me, but when somebody asks me to do something, I want the details.

Like I want the itinerary.

I want to know, I don't, I want to know what we what are we getting into here?

So that I can make sure that I can actually do what I mean asked to do.

And maybe for you, maybe as you're trying to follow Jesus and there's storms that are coming up in your life, and you you feel like that you're just not just not ready, or you feel like you're just waiting to be ready.

Well, the thing is, is the storms are already here in life.

And if you want to have a life that's built on the rock, you have to stop delaying your obedience to Jesus.

Jesus came to these guys and he said, Follow me, and they immediately dropped their nets and they followed him, knowing that he was this rabbi, this teacher, but not knowing everything that they were about to get into.

But they dropped their nets and they followed after Jesus, even leaving their boat, even leaving their family, and to follow after him, not delaying.

And so for us, as Jesus is calling us and calling you to follow him.

It doesn't just stop there, it continues on as we're following Jesus and as we're growing as disciples by making more disciples through authentic relationships.

We're following our God who is Christ Jesus.

And as we're doing that, we also at the same time are also becoming a guide for others.

See, this is what Jesus called these guys to, very simply, to be disciples.

And Multiply, we talk about what it means to be a disciple pulled from this verse, Matthew 4.19.

You can throw it up on the board.

Matthew 4.19, Jesus simply says, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

He says, Follow me.

And the first thing that we do as followers of Jesus, we should actually be following Jesus and not delay, not waiting to be obedient, but following him fully.

And then Jesus says, I will make you.

And so then, as followers of Jesus, as disciples of Jesus, we should be being changed by Jesus.

What that means is that you don't have to change yourself.

Good news, it's not all on you.

You've got the God of the universe who's walking beside you and saying, Hey, let me make you.

Let me mold you, let me change you.

Let me, by the power of the Holy Spirit, cut things off of your life.

And and cut things off and throw them into the fire that aren't that are holding you back and that are entangling you.

Walk with me, follow me, know my word, and then do it, and then be changed by me.

And then the overflow of that is then Jesus saying to them, be fishers of men, which means being on mission with Jesus.

We're followers of Jesus here, we're following Jesus, we're being changed by Jesus, we're on mission with Jesus.

And so oftentimes the following of Jesus is the place that we stop.

Well, I said yes to Jesus one time when I was a kid.

Well, I said I would follow Jesus at this camp, or but Jesus is calling us to even more to not only just follow, but for us then to be changed by him and then to join him in the mission that he's called us to, so that you can become strong as you're helping somebody else become strong.

And you say, Forrest, well, you know, I can't do all that.

I'm not qualified for that.

I don't know enough.

That's like for the super spiritual.

You stand because you have the foundation of Jesus.

Because you've built on the solid foundation of following Christ and being changed by him.

And for you, that may just be one more step following after him.

One more step, one at a time.

On another occasion, Nims and his team were actually descending from one of their 14,000 meter peak climbs.

And as Nims was making his way down the mountain, he slipped.

And as he slipped, he began to roll over end over end, completely out of control.

Every second that passed was another 50, 100 feet that he was barreling down to this mountain, thinking that he was gonna die.

And out of the corner of his eye, he saw a rope that had been laid.

And with all of his might, with all of his might, he shot out his hand and grabbed onto the rope and stopped him from barreling to his death.

The only reason that that rope was there, it was because a guide had put it there.

One of the other Sherpas had put that rope, that rope that became a lifeline.

That for him, a Sherpa that is a guide who had laid that lifeline that literally saved his life.

And when the storms come, and when the the the weather on the mountain changes and it turns, the the difference isn't between tough people or weak people.

The difference is between people who have a guide and people who don't.

These shirpas, they're the ones that know the root when you can't see it.

These shirpas are the ones that set the pace in the climb so that you don't panic.

They carry the weight on their back so that you can keep moving.

These sherpas, they don't just survive themselves.

They're the ones that help others survive in the storm.

And maybe you've come in today, and maybe for some of you, as you've walked in, you're saying, you know what, for us, I need a God, and that's real.

Jesus never meant for you to just stay alone and stay a tourist and stay at the base camp forever, but at some point, and you're following of Jesus, that you're following after the God, because you know what's better than a shepherd, a shepherd, a Sherpa is a shepherd that we have in Christ, who loves us and cares for us, so much so that he's saying, follow me, come after me.

Let me tell you what to do.

The greatest news is that Jesus in the midst of the storm, in just telling you to try harder and to do more, he's telling you, follow me, come after me, come close to me.

And Jesus is this foundation that's not going to wash out.

Because Jesus is the one who overcame the ultimate storm, which was sin, death, and hell.

And he died on the cross in your place, doing something you could never do for yourself, purchasing for you new life as he walked out of the grave.

And so, for you and me, as we're building this life, we're building it not on our own strength, but on the victory that Christ has purchased for us.

The victory that Jesus has invited us into for us to follow after him.

Could you imagine when the next time that a storm hits your house and instead of you spiraling out, you're able to stand on the firm foundation of Christ?

Could you imagine the next time that you're going through a storm, that your kids actually get to watch you worship through it and follow Jesus through it?

Or the next time that there's a storm in your marriage, instead of you just surviving it, you actually get stronger because you're following Christ and His call on your life.

Can you imagine being that person?

And when others somebody else has a storm that hits their life, that you're the one that they call not because you're perfect, but because you're steady, because you're on the rock, because you have a foundation and they can see it.

And so that that doesn't mean that you have to be some big hero.

What it means is for you to take that next step of obedience in Christ and following him, to be rooted in his word, to be in relationship with God that's overflowing to other people.

One relationship that you would be on mission with him, that you would help somebody else just take one step towards Jesus.

Because at the end of Matthew, we looked at the beginning, at the end of Matthew, Jesus expands this call, not just to his disciples, but to everybody who's standing there before he ascends to the Father, all of his followers, and he says, Therefore go in Matthew 28, 19, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you.

And surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age.

The Great Commission, that that that right there could just feel huge, but can I tell you?

There have been teenagers who've baptized other teenagers in this church.

There's been school teachers who have baptized their students here at Multiply.

There have been guys that have baptized other friends of theirs.

There's been moms and dads who baptized their kids.

There have been people all across the last years that have helped somebody else make their way to Jesus.

And around here we we say this and we say we do for one.

But let me ask you this.

Who is one more?

Everybody say one more.

Who is one more person that God has put close to you?

That you know is not walking with them, that you can take, help them take a step toward Jesus.

Who could that be?

Who could that one more person be?

Maybe even I say that somebody comes to mind, a coworker, a friend, a classmate, somebody in your family.

Can I encourage you?

Write their name down on your phone, put it on your prayer list, make a sticky name note, and put it on your bathroom mirror so when you're brushing your teeth, hopefully twice a day at least, you pray over that person.

That person that one more that you can help.

See, come closest to God.

And for you, as you're doing so, that you're you're built on the solid rock of the foundation of Christ.

All across this room.

I'm believing in 2026 that God is gonna help us to both be and make disciples, to follow the God who's Christ, and for us and too, to help guide others to his light.

And I'm believing that in faith.

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.