The Outpour - The Outpour

This morning is a morning of outpour.

And if you haven't been around for a while to fill you in, that today is a day that we over the last few weeks have been talking about having a collective act of faith for us to give to the Lord today with this outpour offering, and we've been talking about what it means to be generous and live lives of generosity.

And so if you're in the house today for the first time, or you're new around this place, you've come at the perfect moment because you're today going to see faith in action.

You're going to see people who are taking steps of faith, some for the very first time, and we're just grateful, aren't we, church?

We're just grateful.

And so the title of my message today is Outpour.

Turn to your neighbor and say outpour and grab a seat.

We are thinking about over the last um year and thinking about 2024, and I was thinking about all that God has done from the beginning of this year all the way through to the end, and uh, it's hard to believe, and it was like crazy when I was reminded of the fact that in January we were still in the movie theater.

We were still in the movie theater in January, in the beginning of this year.

And I think about what God has done in the course of this year, and praise God, we are uh have been able to see God move in this place, but also outside of this place.

The fact that over the last year we've gotten to participate, step in, have for opportunity to serve 24 different times outside the walls of our church with our Frankfurt Ford initiative that wasn't going on before the beginning of this year, and we're grateful for what God has done.

And I want to recap a little bit of even what we've uh gone through as far as God's word and what we have learned over the course of this year, starting again in January when we were in the movie theater, and we were asking God to move and to move us forward in faith together and to see a miracle of multiplication.

And he did that as we moved into this space debt-free in Jesus' name.

And God used it's time from last year for us to take this step into this space and immediately tackle spiritual and physical growing pains.

And then throughout the year, we stacked brick by brick to build God's kingdom here in Frankfurt as bricklayers, and then eventually we saw our church and our kids' ministry double in size, and then we jumped into Easter, searching with lost and found, seeing K-State students and friends be saved and baptized.

Then we took a step for us to discover how God has gifted each one of us because he's given each one of us a specific gift by the power of the Holy Spirit that we're able to utilize not just uh for our lives but for his glory.

And so we stepped in to figure out, okay, and discover God, what is the X factor that you have in my life?

And then we journeyed together in this uh crazy story of the story of Jacob's dysfunctional family and his family drama as we worked to build our families that were fit for the fight with our family feud series.

And then we charged into summer to take the hill of the second half of the year by coming to the water, and in one Sunday in July, we saw 11 people be baptized in the middle of summer when people don't go to church and all the excuses that 11 of our friends got baptized in one Sunday, and we saw God move powerfully, and we moved right into for the win.

With the Olympics was going on, and we had some coaches and some friends from our community come and talk about spiritual warfare, and then we planted our flag deep and built deep roots as we multiplied into two services with our Here to Stay series as we focused on what it means to be a part of multiply and who we are, and then we bowed our knees as we recognized that the fear of God is the only thing that's going to keep us grounded in our faith in the midst of crazy times, even a crazy election.

It'll be our groundedness in God Himself, and now for us to ask God for an outpour.

And as I think about last Sunday and the four people who were baptized last Sunday and the story of their life, I just I don't know about you, church, but I feel like God has been outpouring to us all year long.

I feel like we've been experiencing God's outpour from the beginning of the year all the way till now, and he's not gonna stop, is he, church?

He's not gonna fail us, he's not gonna abandon us, abandon us, he's not going to leave us, but today instead, we're gonna step out in faith.

And as we have talked about over the last few weeks, us bringing an empty vessel, an empty jar, and an empty opportunity and possibility for God to fill up today.

What we're gonna do at the end of this service is for you and your family, those who have prayed over the last few weeks about what it is for you to give generously to God.

We're gonna come forward in these jars that you see in front of us here that represent an empty vessel for God to fill up with his presence and with his glory, and we're gonna drop our gift into these jars as an act of faith to Jesus, amen.

And so we collectively together are going to be expectant of what God's gonna do, amen.

And I know many of you have been already thinking and praying about okay, God, what in the world is it that I'm to do this Sunday, this outpour offering?

What are you calling me?

What are you leading me to do?

God, I'm wrestling, I'm wondering, are you gonna come through?

And here's what I know the devil, the enemy in your life, desperately wants for you to have a short memory.

Desperately wants for you to forget all the ways that God has shown up and shown out in your life before, and for instead of you to think about all of those ways for your memory to be just here and now.

I was talking with a friend just a couple of weeks ago, and we were talking about how you know business and life wasn't necessarily going exactly how that they wanted, and my friend said something very powerful.

He said, I felt I felt convicted, though, to not be like the Israelites in the desert, complaining about discomfort and asking to return into slavery in Egypt because they had a full belly when they were in slavery.

It's sometimes easier for us to stay in the known of slavery than for us to step out into the unknown of the freedom that Christ has for us.

And so let us not let the enemy try to keep us in a state of not remembering what God has done and what he's delivered us from.

We were laughing over the last couple weeks.

I told y'all, you know, as soon as you decide to be generous, your car breaks down.

And you all have it's been funny over the last few weeks.

Several of y'all have come and told me a lot of funny stories that are just like that.

And on Thursday, um, I had to replace two try two tires on my vehicle for$450 right before giving weekend.

And I mean Emily just had to laugh about it because um the distraction's trying to come.

But what the enemy doesn't know, he doesn't know how long my memory is.

The enemy doesn't know how long my memory is.

All the ways that God has shown up for me in the past, and how many what times I remember the fact that he stepped into the moment right, not when I necessarily wanted it, not when I thought it made sense, but at the exact right moment God showed up in my life, and I remember those moments, and I got a long memory, and so the devil can come along someone trying to get me discouraged and think about right here in this moment because I got a long memory, and you can too.

You can have a long memory of what God has done in your life and what he's going to do in your life, and today we're going to look at a story where Jesus literally implants a memory of multiplication into the disciples that weren't even disciples yet.

They didn't even know how this memory was going to serve them later on, but he implants a memory in them in the beginning, very beginning of his ministry.

And so we're going to take a look at that passage in that story today.

Is that okay with you?

Jesus is beginning his earthly ministry.

And in the first few chapters of Luke, we see that Jesus is out and he's preaching and he's healing people, and there's miracles that are happening, and he's beginning to amass crowds that are listening to his teaching, but he doesn't yet have his disciples around him yet, but he's beginning to build the clout of being a rabbi, a teacher.

See, in this extremely religious culture that they were in, the rabbis were like the religious rock stars.

And as a rabbi would come and teach it, a crowd would amass, but something was different about Jesus because he wasn't just teaching, but he was teaching as someone with authority, and there were miracles that were following his ministry, like healings.

And on this particular day in Luke chapter 5, Jesus is preaching to a crowd.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

And so if you got your Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter 5.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

If you've got your Bible app on your phone, turn to Luke chapter 5.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

We're also going to have it on the screen, and this is the story.

One day, as Jesus was preaching on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God.

Verse 2, he noticed two empty boats at the water's edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets.

Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, who's Peter, its owner, to push it out into the water.

So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Now go out to where it is deeper.

Everybody say deeper.

And let down your nets to catch some fish.

Verse 5, Master, Simon replied, We worked hard all night and didn't catch a thing.

But if you say so, I'll let down the nets again.

And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear.

A shout for help brought their partners to the other boat, in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish on the verge of sinking.

When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, O Lord, please leave me.

I am such a sinful man.

For he was awestruck by the number of fish that they had caught, and as were the others with him, his partners James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed.

And Jesus replied to Simon, Don't be afraid, for now you'll be fishing for people.

And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.

I don't think it's too hard to use our imagination to think about how frustrated Peter probably was.

The fact that he'd been out fishing and hadn't caught everything, hadn't caught anything, and they come in and were cleaning their nets.

And then all of a sudden, this rabbi, this teacher, walks up and just gets all up in his business.

Literally steps into his boat and begins to teach.

And then this rabbi tells him how to be a fisherman.

You ever had somebody tell you how to do your job?

Especially somebody who's not even in your profession.

A few weeks ago, somebody sent an email telling me how to preach.

This person was not a preacher, you can imagine.

I don't know if you've had somebody try to tell you how to do your job, like maybe a boss who tries to tell you how to do some process, and all you think is this person is so out of touch, they do not understand anything that I'm going through, right?

They're trying to tell me what to do.

They don't even know what they're talking about.

Jesus steps up to Peter and into his boat and into his business and he says, Go and do this.

When he had already been working, already been doing it, and not getting the results that he wanted.

I know I've been there at times where I feel like I'm doing everything I can, but and my effort is there, but I'm just not seeing the return.

But Jesus gives an instruction.

And Peter trusts it.

He says, go out a little deeper.

Launch out a little deeper.

And in the same way, you and I, we need to launch into the deeper things of God because that's where we meet the God of abundance when we're willing to trust what he says and meet him out in the deep.

He said, Go out a little deeper.

Do some of the deeper things.

See, Jesus didn't allow Peter to quit.

They were done, they were cleaning the nets, they were finished up.

And Jesus said, Go on out a little bit deeper.

And Peter trusts what he says.

And so oftentimes we think to ourselves, well, the shallow water is safer.

Maybe I'll just hang out over here in the baby pool.

Over here in the in the low tide.

But Jesus tells Peter to launch out into the deep.

And it's in the deep things of God where our faith grows and we meet him and we trust Jesus, and he's the one that will fill us up.

Amen?

When we meet him, when we go out, when we take steps.

And there are some really amazing stories already over the last few weeks of the people in the life of our church and also outside of our church who are taking steps into the deep.

One of y'all's grandmas, I found out this last week, uh, got an insurance settlement from being in a car accident.

And what she decided to do with that is to tithe to her grandchild's church, multiply church for this year and giving.

A tragedy that was in her life, a tragedy for her, has now turned into transformation that other people are going to come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord because of her obedience to walk into the beat to the deep.

What the enemy meant for evil, God can transform for good.

So thank you, Grandma.

Thank you, Grandma, out there.

Thanks for stepping out.

See, I I I mean, obviously, none of us were there, but I can imagine Peter getting back in the boat and going out into the deeper water and thinking, this ain't gonna work.

This is not gonna work.

This is not going to make one difference at all.

I'm a professional, I've been doing this this whole time, and now you're just gonna tell me how to do what I'm supposed to do, and I imagine because you're probably like me, and at times you felt that way about when God tells you to do something, and Jesus is laying something on your heart, and the enemy wants to tell you, like, is it really that big of a deal?

Is that really gonna make a difference?

If I start to step out and to follow God and and try to walk in generosity, is it even really going to amount to anything?

What could possibly happen?

But Peter trusted.

And he took the boat out to the deep.

And then he learned about overflow.

And we too, we have to learn to overflow.

See, Peter's trust in Jesus led to overflowing nets, more than he could even handle, had to call out the friends to help him out.

The boat was sinking, and this miracle of multiplication happened right before his eyes.

And what was his response?

He fell to his knees in respect to God and said, Leave me.

I'm a sinful man.

See, when we come face to face with the God of miracles, it should show us just how much he is worthy and we are not worthy.

And Peter says, he sees this miracle, and his response is to follow on his knees and say, I'm not even worthy to be in your presence.

I don't know who you are, but I'm not even worthy to be in your presence.

Leave because I am sinful, and God does a work in that moment, and Jesus does a work in his heart.

And from that point forward, he begins to overflow.

And we can overflow too.

And I'm not just talking about finances, I'm talking about love and joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Overflowing and welling up out of our lives as we're trusting Jesus in the deep and walking with him, and all of a sudden we're overflowing in love to people that are around us.

And people are taking notice of what's going on.

But there are people out there who say, just keep it to yourself.

I know you got this like Jesus thing that you do, a church you go to.

But you know, I got my thing, you got your thing.

Just keep that to yourself.

But Jesus is asking for us to overflow.

To overflow his abundant grace, his abundant love, his his power that is made perfect in our weakness of our witness of what God's done in our lives.

And I want you to listen to me really good.

Everybody listen to me.

Sometimes the greatest breakthroughs come not from trying harder, but trusting deeper.

And trusting God that He's the one that's going to fill us up and overflow out of us.

I know of at least three people this morning who are making the decision.

There's probably more, but I know of at least three people who are making the decision to begin to tithe for the very first time today.

Can we put our hands together for that?

For the very first time.

They are taking the step and walking with God and trusting him deeper to see him do more than they could possibly imagine.

And they're learning to overflow.

Overflow.

Overflow with God's goodness.

Now it's at this point that this story takes a turn.

And if I was one of these prosperity preachers, this is where the sermon would end.

It would end with if you listen to Jesus and you trust his words, then your business is going to flourish and overflow.

If you just do these steps that Jesus says, then you're going to be healthy and wealthy.

Even though Jesus in his walk on this earth didn't give us the example of that, or his disciples that followed after him, they didn't experience the health and wealth.

But the story takes a turn.

Because while I may not have a mansion here on earth, there's one waiting on me in heaven.

One day, because of Jesus, I'm going to literally walk on streets of gold because of what he's done.

Because Jesus is the one who died on the cross during my sins and paved a way for me to be in right relationship with him, that one day I will not be lost and separated from God, but instead I will be literally in glory with a table set with food in the presence of my enemies and overflowing with milk and honey because of God's goodness in my life.

That what I couldn't do and what you couldn't do for yourself, God's going to provide for us one day in eternity.

When we trust Jesus, Jesus is the one who told us that as we follow Him, that in this life we will have troubles, but take heart because I have overcome the world.

Because Jesus overcame death and walked out of the grave.

One day you will overcome the world as well.

That one day you will be in eternity with him.

And you will be an overcomer.

In this life that is so short and brief here on earth, but an eternity is a long time.

That you get to be with God and to be in perfection with him.

Now the turn in the story is that Jesus looks at Peter and he says, Okay, leave it.

And follow me.

Now if I was Peter, I in that moment, I would probably be thinking something like, say what?

After all this?

You now want us to leave this?

Now, Jesus, don't you know how much cash is in these nets right now?

My boat almost sank because of all of this blessing, and you want me to walk away from it?

What in the world are you asking for me to do?

Why in the world did we just go through all this?

It's because surrender feels risky in the moment, but you have everything to gain.

You have everything to gain.

See, Peter trusted in that moment.

And his life transformed beyond his wildest dreams.

The fact that Peter, then, Jesus one day would look at Peter and say, Peter, which means rock, upon this rock I will build my church.

So 2,000 years later, sitting in Frankfurt, Kentucky, there's a group of people right now worshiping Jesus in this church, and it flows back to a moment where Peter was asked to leave it and he walked away.

And then a few chapters later, we see God literally building the church of Jesus Christ and many people coming to faith and doing it in and through the work of Peter's life.

He allowed Peter to be into a miracle of multiplication when he stood in front of 3,000 people and asked them to follow Jesus in the first beginning of Acts.

And 3,000 people accepted Christ and were baptized, and the early church was born.

And you're sitting here right now.

And I'm here right now because of the fact that he was willing to leave Jesus and leave everything behind so that he had everything to gain.

See, Peter at first trusted Jesus with his hands.

Get your nuts, pick them up, get back into the boat.

And then Peter trusted him with his head to go out into the deep.

But it was at this moment that Peter trusted Jesus with his heart.

And he stepped out in faith.

And he left it behind.

See, Jesus is the one who said in Matthew 16, whoever wants to save their life will lose it.

But whoever loses their life for me will find it.

See, we need to be people who lose to find.

Who are willing to give our whole life over to Jesus so that we can find true life in him.

But the world will tell you.

Accumulate.

Get that new piece of furniture because then you'll be happy.

You'll be happy if you have more, spend more, work harder.

Instead, what we get to do is surrender our life to Jesus and gain everything in return.

More than we could ever imagine.

I've told you all about uh the last few weeks about how a couple of years ago I wrote a letter of what multiply could, hopefully would look like in the summer of 2025.

And I've read a few different clips from that letter that I wrote, many of those things that have come to fruition.

And I want you just to envision with me for a moment we're in the summer of 2025, and we are celebrating on a Sunday, and the baptismal pool is out, and there is a K-State student who's found Jesus, and she's beginning to tell her story about how she felt lost in her first year of college, but then she met somebody from Multiply through Frankfurt Forward, and that she began a relationship with Jesus, and on this day she's making it public, and as she rises up out of the waters, there's her family and friends there who are cheering her on, some of them hearing the gospel for the very first time.

This is what I wrote.

Another group of people are standing in front of the side-of-the-stage baptismal pool, getting instructions on when and how to come up during the service.

I notice multiple small group and team leaders in the circle preparing to baptize new believers from their groups and teams.

I wave to the production team members, dimly lit by the blue light of computer screens at the back of the room.

I love you all.

Everybody give it up for them real quick.

Someone sits on a raised platform with a tall swivel chair behind a tripod with a camera ready to capture the moments of the day.

Taylor, a worship coordinator, appears in front of me and she hands me a copy of the worship flow and tells me good morning, and she reiterates to me the transition from baptisms to music to message, and we celebrate with Jade, a K-State student.

We both know who's about to be baptized today.

What I love is that before 2025, actually in April of this year, we saw two K-State students be baptized in this house.

And just a few weeks ago, we saw another K-State student be baptized right over here just a few weeks ago.

And all of that has happened before we've even gotten into 2025.

Can somebody say amen?

Because God is the God of miracles, and God is the God that even though I was writing this down and didn't know when it was gonna come to fruition, God just decided he wanted to do that early, and I think that's because we're walking in faith and daring him to do something that nobody else is asking, and nobody else is thinking, and God is just waiting on somebody to dare him to do something big.

Can I get an amen?

He's just waiting and asking for somebody to ask something that's his size.

It's something that actually requires him to invade.

And so today, as we step forward to these jars, we're making moments in the future possible by us overflowing with generosity to see more students and families and kids come to know Jesus.

And so I gotta ask you, will you meet him in the deep?

See, the question is not what you give.

It's how you trust.

How we collectively are trusting Jesus.

See, after this moment, the disciples left everything and they followed Jesus, and then they saw Jesus do unbelievable miracles and a ministry that led to one day in the Garden of Gethsemane praying late in the night, that one of the disciples, Judas, showed up and sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and kissed him on the cheek.

And Jesus is arrested and taken to trial, and the disciples scatter.

Peter follows from a distance behind Jesus as they're leading him to these trumped-up trials, false accusations.

And Peter stands outside of the trial, and three different people say, Hey, you're one of those people who follow Jesus.

You're one of those disciples, and he says, I never met the guy.

I don't know what you're talking about.

I never knew him.

And then Jesus went to the cross, and he died in your place and in my place to forgive us of our sins and to be the sacrifice for our sins and mess-ups that we can never save ourselves from.

And then he went into the tomb, and three days later, he rose from the dead, and then began to appear to the disciples and to show himself, and on one of those occasions in John 21, after Jesus has resurrected and not yet ascended to heaven at dawn.

In John 21, Jesus was standing on the beach with the disciples, but the disciples couldn't see who it was in verse 5.

And he called out, Philippus, have you come to me fish?

No, they replied, sound familiar?

Then he said, Throw out your nets on the right side of the boat, and you'll get some.

So they did, and they couldn't haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.

Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, It is the Lord.

And when Simon Peter heard it was the Lord, he put on his tunic, for he had stripped for work and jumped into the water and headed to shore, and they sat and they had breakfast together, and Jesus looked at Peter, and three times he asked him as an opportunity to restore him for the three times that he denied him.

He looked at Jesus in the face and said, Do you love me?

And he asked him three times over and restored Peter to his rightful place in a moment of a memory, a memory of the miraculous power of Jesus, and a restoration of faith in Peter that led to a world-changing movement as Jesus ascended back to the Father and said, You'll do even greater things than these.

And Peter stepped into a ministry that led all the that has led all the way to today.

So y'all know what we're doing.

Y'all know that we're giving in generosity so that we can see more kids and teenagers grow in their faith, have custom spaces and environments for them to come to know Jesus, and for us to expand our footprint in this house and in this building, and not just expansion, but also for us to create some spaces for guests as they come into this place for them to be able to connect with what was happening outside the walls with Frankfurt Forward and different stations and for us to upgrade what's around here, but not just in these walls, but also we're gonna give towards future church planting, and we're gonna kick over a domino so another capital city and another state will have a church that is opening doors so that people can get saved by the gospel of Jesus, and we don't know where that's gonna be and what's gonna happen.

We're gonna kick that first domino, and God's gonna provide, isn't He?

And we're gonna kick over that first domino to see God continue to move, to build our team, and today, as we in just a few minutes step forward to give into these jars, I pray that each one of us will come with a heart of gratitude, and with a smile on our face, and to give cheerfully, because we know what God can do through it, and with it.

And so, here in just a few minutes, what's gonna happen is each one of you you've got an envelope and you've got a card.

There's a place for you to write down on the card what you're giving today, and to talk with whoever's in your household.

And in just a minute, the worship team is gonna play a song, and so prayerfully with a prayer in your heart, come to give.

Also, that we've made it super easy for you to be able to give online today, because the way that I normally give, so you can scan this QR code like you do at the restaurant menu, it'll take you exactly where you need to go to be able to give today, and there's a place on your card where you can say, I've given online, so then you can prayerfully come and in an act of faith, drop it into the jar.

There's a pen that's under your chair, and so we're gonna, in a in a moment of worship, we're gonna give to God.

And so you prayerfully come and give in just a moment, and before you do, I'm gonna pray a blessing over all of us and over every single gift.

So will you bow your heads with me?

Jesus, we thank you, God, for how much, Lord, we have seen you do in this house and outside of these walls.

God, we know, Lord, that you have so much more yet that you want to do.

So, Father, I pray, God, that Lord, you would hear our prayers and you would see our acts of faith, God, Lord, and that you would receive them and that God, by your power and your might, you would multiply them for your glory.

Father, I pray for the homes that are represented in this room today, God, Lord, that in these homes that God, you would overflow with your love and with your joy and with your grace and with your abundance, Father.

God, and that we would be a people that would be surrendered to you and meeting you, Jesus, in the deep places and receiving the blessing for it.

So, God, we thank you, Lord.

We're grateful.

So, God, help us, Lord, today.

As we bring back to you in Jesus' name, everybody said, Amen.