Here to Stay - Embrace the Tension

Hey, if I've not met you before, I'm Forrest Coleman, Lee Pastor here at Multiply.

Myself and about a hundred other folks began the work of Multiply Church two and a half years ago, and we are in this series here to stay.

And the title of my message today is Embrace the Tension.

Everybody say embrace the tension.

Well, when I moved to Frankfurt now three years ago almost, uh, we were looking pretty quickly, looking for a place to live, and looking for a house, and this was during COVID times, so there was only like five houses on the market.

And we were looking at this house downtown where we ended up moving.

I love live in downtown Frankfurt, just like 20 seconds from here.

And we're looking through these houses, and my wife sees this house and she says, I want this house.

And so I had to get my tail in gear because mama says she wants this house, so I can go see this house.

So schedule the showing and show up, and we put in an offer.

We end up getting the house, and as the inspector is inspecting the house, the home inspector, he says, Yeah, I don't really know how old this house is.

It's at least a hundred years old.

It could be older than that.

And so if there's anybody in the room who has ever grown up in or lived in an old house, you know that there is a game that we play.

What's wrong with the house this week?

Because always there's always a new creek, there's always a new crack.

And Emily and I were sitting in the living room a couple weeks ago and saw some new cracks are up and around the chimney, and we're like, well, look at that.

That's brand new right there for the for the week.

And what Emily didn't know, and that uh I told her is that the chimney actually, the chimney, on the outside of the chimney, uh, there's this little piece of decoration that's not actually a decoration at all.

It looks like this, this is actually what's called a tension rod.

And what in the in the in the ceiling and the raptors of our house, there's actually a metal wire that is holding our chimney onto our house, keeping our chimney from falling off and rumbling down the hill.

Now, you may see these on old buildings in around town, something like this.

Sometimes there's a star, but literally it's a tension rod that's holding the place together.

And so our house is being held together, praise God, right now, from this tension rod.

And it made me think a lot of times when we hear the word tension, we think negative.

We think, oh, well, there was a lot of tension in the room.

That meeting was filled with a lot of tension.

But actually, tension at times can be a good thing because tension can hold things together.

And as we take a look at what it looks like for us to embrace the tension, we're in this series here to stay.

And what that means is even though we have a young church, a new church, our hope, my hope, is that you and your family will dig down roots deep into this place and into this place of multiply, this community that we have together, not just for your sake, but also for the sake of others who do not know Jesus yet, and so that you and your family can grow in Christ.

And to dig down deep.

And as we talk about being here to stay, and we want to say, what does it look like to be in this community of multiply?

And we have 10 value statements that we have here in our church, and uh to give a little bit of a review from last week, these value statements that we have, oftentimes when you see a new organization begin, or maybe your company has different value statements, and a lot of times these are things that just kind of sit on a wall, on a on a document somewhere, on a website, nobody looks at them, and a lot of times they're things that are aspirational, things that may not actually be true, but that's not the process that we used here in Multiply.

Actually, we let our church grow and begin, and over the last two years, we kind of looked at what is it like to be a part of Multiply Church and what are we actually living out, and then we put pen to paper on those things.

We didn't have these written down from the beginning.

This was over time to see, okay, what actually will it look like to be like, to feel like, to be a part of this community, multiply church.

And so for a little bit of review, here are those 10 value statements that we talked about last week.

One, we see a need, feel a need.

We look to sacrificially serve one another.

Number two, we embrace the tension.

We love the truth of God's word and his limitless grace.

Number three, we do for one.

We do for one what we wish we could do for everyone.

Number four, we know it's crazy.

Multiply it's crazy in all the best ways.

Number five, we bring our best.

We get to bring our best because God brought his best to us.

Number six, we are trailblazers.

We blaze a trail of faith together.

Number seven, we fuel the fire.

We want to be a blessing to others outside of these walls.

We are builders.

We're builders, not a building.

Number nine, we find the X factor.

We want to discover your gifts and deploy them for your purpose.

And number ten, we bring others with us.

Our church is meant to be a team sport, not a solo assignment.

Amen.

And that today we're going to dig down into the second of these values.

We embrace the tension.

This is what it means.

We are bold about grace and truth.

We love the truth of God's word and his limitless grace.

We have tough conversations and we call each other up to the next level.

We are bold and filled with humility when it comes to resolving conflicts swiftly and completely.

Matthew 23, Matthew 5, 23 through 24.

And what that means for us is that here in the life of Multiply Church, we are endeavoring, we are trying, we are doing our best to have grace and truth, not grace or truth.

To live in this tension.

Between the things that we know are true from God's word, and Jesus himself embodying truth and being the truth, and also God's limitless grace that he delivers to us.

Chris Voss, who is an author and former FBI hostage negotiator, said this.

Everybody loves someone who will tell them the truth as long as that person is worried about how it lands.

And we see a moment in the scripture where Jesus is giving his famous sermon on the mount.

And he's going through and he's saying all of these amazing things about how we are to be blessed.

That we're blessed if we're meek and that we inherit the earth, that we're blessed if we hunger for God's righteousness.

We're blessed if we're peacemakers, we're blessed if we're persecuted, that we're the salt of the earth, that we're the light of the world.

And then he gives an example of one of these embrace the tension conversations after he talks about and gives instructions about anger.

You want to hear what he says?

This is Matthew chapter 5, verse 23.

Matthew 5:23

He said, So if you're presenting a sacrifice to the altar in the temple, and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, everybody say you.

Verse 24 leave your sacrifice or gift, leave your sacrifice there at the altar.

Go and be reconciled to that person, and then come and offer your sacrifice to God.

The words of Jesus, amen.

Now, if I was writing the Sermon on the Mount, I wouldn't have written it this way.

Praise God, I was not the one writing the Sermon on the Mount.

It was King Jesus.

Because if I was to write this passage, and what I would have expected Jesus to maybe say in this passage was something like this if you've got something against somebody else, then in the tradition of confession that we're called to as believers, you go to them and you try to make it right.

But that's not what this passage says, is it?

He says the complete opposite of that.

He said, if if if somebody else has something against you, then you go and you make it right.

And it's so important to embrace that tension and to have that conversation that Jesus is literally telling us that we should lay our offering down and that we should be making peace with our earthly relationship so that we can be in peace with our heavenly relationship with God.

That's how important that Jesus says this is.

Now, I don't know about you, but from me, if I hear that somebody has something against me, somebody's talking about me behind my back, my natural inclination is to say, forget you.

Forget you.

And I know I'm not the only one in this place that has ever ghosted anybody.

I know I'm not the only one who so-and-so was talking bad about you behind your back at school, and you blocked them.

Blocked.

I know I'm not the only one.

But what is it that Jesus has called us to?

What is he leading us to do?

What is he asking for us to do?

What he's asking for us to do is to lay it down so that he would be lifted up.

That whatever it is, this circumstance that's happening, for you to truly worship him is for you to lay it down at his feet.

To lift him up by going to that person and the people around you, the people that love you, your friends, oftentimes their response instead is that person who said that about you, they're not worth your breath.

That person is toxic.

Did you hear what she said?

Did you hear what he was saying?

Forget that person.

But Jesus says that if they have a problem with you, now it's your problem.

Now obviously, we know we use wisdom.

If the person we're talking about, somebody who's not safe for you to be around physically or for your children, obviously use wisdom.

But we see what Jesus is saying that we should at the same time seek the truth of the gospel and also display grace at the exact same time.

That we would step into the tension, the conversation.

And the only way that we're able to do that is not on our own, but by the help of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Because it's Jesus Himself who's the one who embodies both grace and truth.

And he's asked for us to do that as well.

Now, I think oftentimes we get off track in this, specifically within the church, where we feel this pressure that we should be serious about sin.

And that we must be serious about sin.

And there are some people and some believers and some Christians that are so focused on being so serious about sin that they leave out the grace of Jesus.

The picket sign of Christianity that meets people with judgment before they can even cross the front door.

And also, we have churches that have gone so far away from the truth into grace that there's no standard of God's glory and holiness and anything goes.

And that's not what we're supposed to do either.

We're supposed to have both grace and truth.

Because that's what Jesus embodied.

Let me prove it to you.

In the first chapter of John, John is talking about Jesus, how he came to this earth, how he put on flesh and dwelt among us, the king of the universe, the creator of this world, came in the form of a baby to be born fully human, fully divine.

And he tells us in verse 14, the word became flesh, the word, Jesus, the word, the logos, the everything.

Jesus, the word, became flesh and dwelt among us.

And we have seen his glory and glory as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Verse 15, John bore witness about him and cried out, This is he of whom I said, He who comes after me raised before me, before he was uh because he was before me.

In verse 16, for from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

Everybody say grace upon grace.

In verse 17, the law was given through Moses.

Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John speaks of John the Baptist and said, John was calling to Jesus and lifting him up and saying, Jesus is the one who ranks before me, he's above me, he's on high because he's the one who fulfills all grace and all truth.

And then he emphasizes grace upon grace just for our benefit.

Because when you lift up Jesus and you recognize the fact that he is the one who is filled with what we need, that's truly worship.

That's truly worship.

And isn't it funny that at some times I feel like that God needs my help?

I feel like, oh well, I need to have this conversation with somebody.

I need to talk to them about it, but what if they disagree?

What if they get offended?

And we end up silencing ourselves.

I saw something that was surprising, not surprising the other day when I was on Instagram and somebody had posted something that was an encouragement on Instagram and uh in the comments, one of the comments in the in the post was an encouraging verse.

But Instagram had taken that verse and had put it down in the hidden section of the comments and hidden it just because it was a Bible verse.

And I thought to myself, the time is coming, or who knows.

The world would just want us to be silent.

In the meantime, we shouldn't silence ourselves.

And dwelled among us the word be manifest for you that he came down so that you would speak up in grace and truth.

That you would speak up and say what's true, and say what's right, and say what's holy.

But it would be wrapped in grace.

I want to give a quick shout-out, real quick, uh, to my friend Marcus Wise.

Marcus, uh, he his wife, Raina, got baptized uh uh a few weeks ago, and uh Marcus a couple weeks ago, he joined our production team and he's serving this morning.

He's in the back.

Can you all give it up for Marcus right now?

Love it.

Um also just an extra shout out.

Our production and worship team, they're the ones who get to church while it's still dark outside in the morning.

They're rolling up and I roll up and they're rolling up and it's dark outside.

Those folks love Jesus, can we give a get up for our production and worship team?

Because they're uh you know you love Jesus when you're coming and it's dark outside.

Uh and also Marcus has also stepped up and has become a mentor with the Amachi program with the Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation that serves over 450 teens and kids who are impacted by incarceration, and he's been doing that, which is amazing.

And if you want to learn more about that, know more about that, you can get on the Church Center app.

There's a place that you can sign up and find out more about what that looks like.

And also, Marcus the other day posted on his Facebook and he posted this encouraging word, and it really encouraged me because uh I love football, and he was giving an example about football, and he was talking about how we're like a wide receiver that we need to be in the position to be able to receive from God, but you have to be open.

You have to be open to receive from the Lord.

And I appreciated him stepping out and for him speaking the truth, but also in grace and using his platform.

And why is it important?

It's important because the stakes are high.

The stakes are high.

Because do ver two verses before what we just read.

In John chapter 1, the two verses before what we just read about Jesus coming and putting on flesh and and dwelling among us, in verse 12, the scripture says, But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.

John 1 · chapter mention

Now there's a there's a misconception, there's an untruth that permeates our culture.

It's probably something that you have heard from artists or musicians, politicians, that goes something like this.

We're all children of God.

And that's said all over our culture.

But actually, Jesus didn't teach that.

Now, what is true from the scripture is that we're all made in the image of God.

We all have the Imago Day, the image of God, the spark of the divine that's put upon us, and that that that people we are set apart because we are made in his image.

Well, other things that have life are not made in his image, but we we bear the image of our Creator God.

But you only become a child of God when you're adopted into the family of God and born again in Christ, and he gives you the right to become his child.

Here's how I know that's true because just a few chapters later in John, Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders who thought that they were so righteous and thought that they were working their way towards heaven, and he tells them plainly, he says, that if God was their father, that they would love him because he's come from God, but God is not his father.

He goes on to say that you are children of the devil because you love evil things, he does.

He's a murderer from the beginning, he always he always hates the truth because no truth is in him.

He when he lies, it's consistent with his character, for he is a liar, the father of lies.

Jesus looks at the religious leaders and says, You're a child of Satan.

And the stakes are so high because, church, don't we want every single person to know the love of Jesus and to be adopted into his family in this life and into the next?

And the world wants nothing more than to shut us up from saying you need to become a child of God.

You need to be given the right to become a child of God by believing in Christ, who said of himself that he was the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father but by me.

Very exclusive.

Jesus is uh uh telling a story to these Pharisees, these religious leaders.

And over the last three weeks, we've looked at Luke chapter 15, Luke chapter 14, and now Luke chapter 16, as Jesus tells this story in front of these same religious leaders.

Luke 15 · chapter mention Luke 14 · chapter mention Luke 16 · chapter mention

He tells a story in Luke chapter 16 about a wealthy man who lived in a big house, lived a life of luxury, and outside of his house there was a beggar by the name of Lazarus who had sores all over his body and was incapacitated to the point that dogs would come and lick his, come up and lick his sores.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

And he longed for just the scraps off of the table of the wealthy man who was right inside.

And Jesus goes on to say that these two men suddenly die.

And the beggar, Lazarus, is taken by angels and ushered up into heaven.

And the rich man is separated from God in torment in hell.

And the rich man can see Lazarus in heaven.

And he sees him with Abraham.

And he sees him at a banquet table.

And he's pleading with this at one-time beggar.

And he's asking, would you please just just give me a drop of water on my tongue?

And they say that can't be done.

Because there's a chasm between us that's separating verse 26.

And besides, there is a great chasm separating us, and no one can cross over to you from here.

And no one can cross over to us from there.

And verse 27.

Then the rich man said, Please, Father Abraham, at least send him to my father's home.

For I'm gonna have five brothers, and I want him to warn them so that they don't end up in this place of torment.

But Abraham said, Moses and the prophets have warned them.

Your brothers can read what they wrote.

The rich man replied, No, Father Abraham, if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.

But Abraham said, if they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, they won't be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.

Jesus says this story in front of the religious leaders, knowing that he would very soon be the one who would be killed and will walk out of the grave and rise from the dead.

That he would be the very one.

And the stakes are so high.

And there are times I know, I know me, I know for me there are times where I feel like, oh, you know, if I'm if I'm if I'm gonna say something to someone who may not believe the same way that I do, or someone who I know that is believing something that is that is not the truth of the gospel, I think, oh, I don't want to call somebody out.

I want to put them on the spot.

But we're not calling somebody out, we're calling somebody up to the next level with God so that one day they can be with God in heaven and they can go up and be with him.

We're not calling people out, we're calling people up.

And the way that we do that is that we embrace grace.

I think, you know what, I can think about I can think about that stuff about God later.

I can think about eternity later.

I know what a church are solved and even know that there are some who come into this place in space on a Sunday that you don't believe in God.

You don't believe that Jesus is the way to God.

And let me tell you that the stakes are high.

The stakes are high.

And we don't know.

We don't have we don't have an alarm clock, a time clock, we don't have a looking glass to see when is going to be our last day.

And so I ask for you to embrace the grace and the truth of the Lord Jesus, to repent, to follow him, to be baptized, and walk with Jesus always.

And as we embrace the tension together, church, as we embrace the tension, it's gonna hold this house together.

It's gonna hold this house together, like a tension rod of faith, of grace and truth.

Say that we love God's word, because we just read John say that Jesus is the word, and we love his limitless grace, and I love his limitless grace because I need it every single day.

You know, as we think about stories of what this looks like in our churches and in our church in particular, sometimes it's hard to think of an example of what this might actually look like.

But I want to share an example with you today of a wife and a mother who's in our church that embraced the tension in a relationship with her father that was strained for many years.

He is a believer, she is a believer, and in order to do it justice, I'm gonna read her words if that's okay.

Here's what she said.

She said, Over the years, I began to feel more and more hurt by my father's actions.

First with divorcing my mom and not spending quality time with me growing up, then progressing to acting like he was supportive, but being constantly critical, and ultimately how he acted and spoke in front of my children.

When addressed, he blew up in anger and insulted my character to my husband and extended family, and I chose to distance myself from him to prevent further verbal abuse, and this lasted a couple of years.

Prayer and therapy through those years helped me get to a point of forgiveness with my father.

Meanwhile, a couple of years later, I realized my dad had been struggling with for some time with the weight of past mistakes that had strained our relationship.

He gathered his courage and approached me one day with what I could tell was hope and fear.

I've hurt you.

And I'm sorry, he told me.

His voice trembling with tears in his eyes.

He explained how every time that he tried to pray each day, he felt a deep sense of unworthiness, haunted by the hurt his actions had caused.

He realized that the words of his prayers felt empty, overshadowed by the need to seek forgiveness and mend our bond.

As we talked, tears flowed and the walls began to crumble.

I listened, my heart softened by his honesty, and I share my own pain.

And in that moment, we both realized that redemption wasn't just about forgiveness, but about rebuilding trust and love.

Together, we embarked on a journey of healing, discovering the ultimate strength and vulnerability and the power of second chances.

And our relationship is still healing, and both of us are still far from perfect, but we're trying.

And the Lord is redeeming our relationship every step of the way.

Someone being willing to lay it down and go to make things right.

Embracing the tension to step into the conversation, leaving it at the altar to go and make peace.

Because Jesus is the one who said, Blessed are the peacemakers, not the peacekeepers, not the ones that sweep it under the rug, to shy away from the conversation, but for the one who steps in to the tension.

What could God do through you?

What could God do through your life?

If you were to start small, step into the tension to schedule the call.

Have a conversation.

Make the coffee day.

So that you could tell somebody the truth in grace.

So you could see a relationship restored.

You could see somebody turn from sin that's destroying them and step into freedom in Christ.

Leaving the past behind.

And with your help, guiding them into a future with Jesus as their God in love.

What could God do?

What could he do?

Or maybe it's that someone in the room today, you need to finally cross over from death to life.

And you need to, because the stakes are high, you need to give your life over to King Jesus, who died for you in your place on the cross 2,000 years ago, so that you might be forgiven and free and be able to be a child of God that steps from this life into the next with him.

Not in separation and torment in a place called hell, but in eternity and perfection with God in heaven.

And today is your day to not delay, to not stop, to not give up, to not press it down, to not sweep it under the rug, but for you to take the step into a new life in Christ today.

Maybe that's your day.

Today is your day for you to do that, for you to receive Jesus as your Savior to be forgiven and free in new life.

And so I'm gonna ask you right now to stand to your feet because I'm gonna pray over every single one of us.

So stand to your feet now, God.

I pray all across this room, God, for you to make us and continue to make us into people that embrace the tension of grace and truth.

That you make us into people, Father, that would step in and step up to have the conversation with someone who's our friend, our family, a coworker, a child, a mother, a brother.

Father, I pray right now, Lord, that you would make us people who would embrace God, your holy truth and your limitless grace.

Father, I pray right now, all across the room, if there's anybody in this place, Father, that has not received you as Savior, that today would be the day of their salvation.

Father, I pray, God, that today someone would step over from death to life.

And that God, you would inspire right now as I speak, you would put onto minds and hearts people who are in our lives, Father, that desperately need to cross over from death to life.

And if that's you today, I pray right now in the name of Jesus that you would ask him for his salvation by praying in your mind and heart, Jesus, save me.

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

Father, I pray, Lord, that you would cleanse me.

Forgive me so that I can be in heaven with you one day.

I give you my life as you gave yours for mine, and I step to you now into heaven.

Thank you for saving me.

No one looking around today is a day for you to receive Jesus as your Savior.

I want you to take an action towards heaven by raising your hand up at the count of three, so I can pray for you, so that I can affirm you, so I can encourage you if that's you today.

So if that's you at the count of three, raise your hand high.

Ready, one, two, three.

Anyone in this place, Father?

Anyone here, Lord?

God, I pray right now, Lord, in this place, in this space, that God, you would help each one of us, God, to step towards you in faith, in love, in baptism, in courage, and in strength, God.

We love you, we praise you, we thank you in the strong name of Jesus.

Everybody said amen.

Church less.