Here to Stay - Do For One

Welcome to the very first 11 o'clock service.

The multiply church.

Come on, somebody.

Woo man, we've had a great day already.

The uh 9 o'clock service had a great energy, and you guys had two hours on them, so I'm sure y'all are gonna have even more, right?

Amen.

And you know, I had no idea that people were gonna show up and post-service, and you did.

Praise God! Praise God! If you haven't met you before, I'm Forrest Lee Pastor here at Multiply.

Myself and about a hundred other people began the work of Multiply Church two and a half years ago in our amazing, beautiful, dirty old movie theater.

And the Lord got us out of the movie theater in Jesus' name.

Of sticky floors couldn't hold us back.

And it's been amazing to see what God is doing.

And now to think six months in, and we are having two services.

And so if you're new with us, welcome.

Glad that you're here.

And uh I want you to just feel at home.

We're jumping into this new series that's called Here to Stay.

And what we're gonna be doing in the course of this series over the next few weeks is we're gonna be talking about digging deep roots, deep roots, and planting deep roots into what God is going to do in and through your life and the life of Multiply Church.

See, what we're going to do over the next couple of weeks is we're gonna be looking through the value statements of Multiply.

And the title of my message today is Do for One.

Everybody say Do for One.

And uh what this looks like is that over the next couple of weeks, even though we have these 10 value statements, and there's 10 of them, we're not gonna be going through all 10 of them, but just a few of them and diving down into these value statements.

Now, what in the world are these value statements?

Well, it's kind of like this.

When you a lot of times when you set out to start a church, or begin a church, or plant a church, even if it's just the very beginnings, just uh a pastor and his family, you normally start thinking about church name, and uh you start thinking about vision statements and mission statements and value statements, and then you end up coming up with a few statements like, we love to worship, and we're gonna be generous, and other very generic statements like that.

And you come up with these things, and in a lot of ways, these are aspirational.

But what I was encouraged to do and coached to do in the process was instead of just putting some words on a website or putting some words on a wall, is instead over the life of the church and the course of the church the last couple years to actually discover who our church actually is in reality.

Not just what we say we will be, but who we actually are.

And I've sat at all kinds of different conversations with planters and guys who are getting started, and they start telling me, well, our church is gonna be like this, and our church is gonna be like this, and and our church is not gonna be like this church, it's gonna be it's gonna be like this.

And I look at them and say, How do you know?

How do you know?

How do you know that that's actually how it's gonna turn out?

Because it this isn't just about making a statement and an aspiration, but truly, who are you gonna be?

And it's probably gonna turn out and look a little bit differently than what you think.

And so when we go through and look at these 10 value statements, I want you to have that backdrop to know that as we go through these, that that these are connected to story, these are connected to moments in the course of the life of Multiply Church, and that these are actually things that we have lived out.

For instance, in 2021, before our church even launched at Christmas time of that year, before the church union began, we had our year in giving.

And a small group of people that was meeting in the old office building over on the west side of town, and this small group of people, a year-in-giving, came together and gave$40,000 locally to four different nonprofits here in our community that we had relationships with.

Ones that were serving women that were in situations of domestic violence, kids and teens that were impacted by incarceration, people that we had actual relationships with.

And so the reason why is because I wanted for us to actually be a genuine blessing and for us to actually have a generous church, not just something on a website somewhere.

Are y'all with me?

So, not just some statement that we put up or something that's not actually truly reality, but what is actually real.

And so here's what we landed on, and I'm gonna read these ten, and we're gonna hone in on one of them.

It starts with the first one, which is 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.

Amen.

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.

Number eight, 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 then number ten, we bring others with us.

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

And so as we hone in on one of these, as we hone in on uh number three, do for one, my hope is that as you stepped into the room today, that you felt welcome and at home, and that you felt like this is a place where you could be here to stay.

See, because we're a couple years in now, we're here to stay in the community of Frankfurt.

Amen?

We're here to stay, to serve, to love, to care.

Over the course of the last couple of years, now the Lord has allowed us by your generous giving and by bringing your tithes and offerings, now we have been able to invest in the community by now over$150,000 in the last couple of years.

Praise God.

Praise God.

And that's not just a check, that's tangibly us stepping out and serving and loving our neighbors here in our community, and we are here to stay, and I want you to be here to stay too.

For you to be able to plant roots, and for this to be a place for you to plant yourself for God's purposes.

It's kind of like uh, this is gonna date me, but this there's an old commercial from Motel 6, and uh says, We'll leave the light on for you.

I'm Tom Baudette.

We'll leave the light on for you.

The kids are like, What are you talking about right now?

We'll leave the light on for you.

We want you to be here.

We want you to be here to stay.

So we're diving into we do for one.

What does that mean?

We do for one.

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

We know that one invite, one blessing can change someone's life forever.

Jesus left the 99 to go after the one, and we will too.

You know, it's possible at one time or another in your life that you were someone's one.

You were someone's one person that they wanted to see God change your life.

Maybe it was a family member, maybe it was your grandmother, maybe it was a coworker, someone who genuinely loved and cared for you, who wanted to see God transform you, save you.

But here's the problem.

Here's the problem.

Not everyone has someone who wants to see their life change for God.

That's just the reality of where we live in 2024.

The lostness of our world, and at times we may have had someone like that before, but not everybody does have someone that like that.

And the reason why, and here's why it is, and here's why I know that that's true, is because the enemy so desperately wants you to be too busy, too bashful, or too bitter to care about somebody else.

Too busy.

And that the one is not somebody else, but instead you make yourself number one.

The latter of being too bitter to love someone else is where we see Jesus interacting with a group of people in the book of Luke.

This people, these people that that Jesus is interacting with are these religious leaders called the Pharisees.

And these would have been the guys that had most of the Old Testament memorized.

They knew all the rules, they knew all the laws, they tried, they followed them and tried to follow them to the best and made sure, try to make sure everybody else did too.

They were like religious police.

And they're constantly angry at Jesus because they're because Jesus is not doing it the way they want it to be done.

And they're bitter, and they're upset, and they're angry that Jesus is hanging out with sinners, with tax collectors, with sex workers, and Jesus looks at this group of people and he tells them a story about how much joy there is in heaven when just one person turns to God.

In Luke chapter 15, starting in verse 1.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.

This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people, even eating with them.

In verse 3, Jesus told them this story.

And when he's found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.

And when he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, because I've found my lost sheep.

And in the same way, everybody say, same way.

In the same way, there's more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and turns to God than over 99 others who are righteous and haven't strayed away.

See, these Pharisees, these religious leaders, they should have been model disciples of Jesus.

They knew all the Old Testament, they knew the prophecies about the Messiah that was to come, but they couldn't get over who he had around them.

They couldn't see it.

And so if today you've come into this place and you feel unworthy to even be at church, you have found the right spot.

This is the place for you.

You've come to the right place because Jesus is finding his disciples and people who were notorious.

Notorious.

Well, I'll put it to you like this way.

I'll tell you like this.

I'm one of these people that tries to never pass up an opportunity to pick change up off the ground.

When I'm out and about, and if I see, you know, a quarter or a penny or a nickel down there, I'm like, I'm getting that change that somebody left behind.

Because somebody didn't care about this nickel, but I'm about to put this nickel in my pocket, and then I get into my car and I throw it into my center console, and then I never use that change because nobody uses change ever anyway.

But I always, I'm always like, I'm picking up this this uh this this piece of change off the ground.

But the other day, I passed on a penny at a gas station because a penny was down in some dirty water.

Now I try to stay looking good.

Look at these white kicks I have on right here.

And in that moment I was just, you know, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna deal with all that.

I'm not picking up that dirty penny.

Aren't you glad?

Aren't you glad that 1%, one penny, 1% was worth it to God.

The one that got away.

Jesus cared enough to leave the 99 and to go after that one.

You know, oftentimes when we think about who are the people that that Jesus is talking about in our own lives, it's probably whoever fills in the blank after you say those people.

Or somebody around you says, well, those people.

You know, you know, you know, those people, you know, you know what they're getting into?

You know how their kids act?

Those people?

You shouldn't be associating with them, you shouldn't be around them, you shouldn't be hanging out with them.

But aren't you glad?

Aren't you glad that God thought 1% worthy, that he would, no matter where you were at in life, and whatever mess and dirt and grime that you are in, that God loved you enough to reach down and to grab you and to pick you up and to put him into your into his family so that you can be with him in the kingdom of God.

Then no matter where you are at, Jesus said you are worth it.

I'm glad of that.

Because you are worth it.

If you believe that, say I'm worth it.

I'm worth it too.

I will uh met a senior saint this week, Miss Robbie, who was in a training that I was in, and she was talking about how she has taught Sunday school for 150 years, and she was talking about how she grew up in church when she was a kid, and that she just kind of just kind of slid into Christianity.

Her family were believers, and she was in church every single, every single week, multiple times a week growing up, and she said, you know, I just don't really have a testimony.

I don't really have a testimony like these other people.

But you know what Miss Robbie could have said?

She could have said that Jesus saved her from a life of drugs and sex and crime at the age of seven.

It was Jesus that picked her up and saved her from a life that she didn't have to live that was filled with pain and hardship.

Because she does have a testimony.

She has a testimony because every single one of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

No matter how good or how bad that you think you are, Jesus at one point picked you up out of the mess that you were in, whether you were a child or a teenager, whether you were in jail, like my friend Michael, who heard the gospel for the first time when he was in prison, no matter where you are and where you're at, Jesus saved you out of it.

You know what Miss Robbie said, and this was so profound.

She said, now later in her years, she said, the closer that she gets to God, the farther away from perfect she realizes that she is.

And that all of us are equal at the foot of the cross.

See, these religious leaders thought that they were so much better than the people that Jesus was hanging out with, but they were just as lost.

Jesus illustrates this with the story that he tells in a couple chapters on in Luke chapter 18.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

He says, Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else, these religious leaders.

Verse 10.

Two men went to the temple to pray.

One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector.

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer.

I thank you, God, that I'm not like other people.

Cheaters, sinners, adulterers, and I'm certainly not like that tax collector.

Verse 12, I fast twice a week, and I give it a tenth of my income.

And then verse 13, but the tax collector stood at a distance, and he dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed.

Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, Oh God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.

I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, return home justified before God.

For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted.

You ever felt like you're not good enough?

You felt like you don't know enough.

I know I feel this way at times.

And I feel this way when I meet different people, and I think to myself, you know, this person don't really want to hear what I have to say.

They don't want me preaching with them.

Because this happens to me a lot when I'm out and about, and somebody asks me at some point in the conversation, well, what is it that you do?

And I'm always like, oh man, I gotta tell them I'm a pastor.

Because I always think like maybe I can tell them I'm an insurance or something.

Because I know as soon as I say I'm a pastor, every weird church experience and the strange pastor they knew when they were a kid, they're gonna put all of that baggage on me for no reason.

And this happens over and over again.

And the other day I was meeting a guy, a young guy, and he asked me what I did, and I and then I literally said this, I was like, hey, don't make it weird, but I'm I'm a pastor.

And he was like, Oh, that's not weird.

No, he thought it was weird.

And I think to myself, these people, they don't want to, they don't want to hear, they don't want to hear me preach to them.

You know, if I'm at a community meeting or if I'm out on the golf course, I meet somebody new.

But what we what we learn from the story of the 99 and from the story of this Pharisee and this tax collector worshiping in the temple is that it's not about how much you know, it's about how much you go.

See, the Pharisee, they knew it all.

Thought they knew it all, thought they were better than others.

But it was Jesus in Luke 15, 4 who said, if you have a lost sheep, aren't you gonna go and search for it until you find it?

We think, oh, you know, I don't know enough about the Bible, I don't have all the answers.

Like, we're gonna get a written SAT theology test before we enter into the pearly gates in heaven or something.

That's not gonna happen, by the way.

Instead, they're gonna be looking to you to see if the blood of Jesus is covering you because you believe his death, burial, and resurrection is true and real and that he died for you and you believe it with all of your heart and all of your mind.

It's not about how much you know, it's about how willing you are to go to people that folks will say, you know, you really shouldn't be hanging around them.

You really shouldn't be associated with them.

And you go to the foot of the cross where Jesus is, and you bring others with you, and you go after that one.

And you're willing to go.

If you're with me, say here I go.

Here we go.

Here we go, because I know for for me, there's often times where I think about the state of our community or the lostness of our world, and I just get so overwhelmed.

And I start to think, you know, does it really even?

matter what I do for this person for that person.

And I don't know if you ever felt like this at times, but you feel like you know what just a just a drop in the bucket.

What what could what can I do that could actually make a difference?

And there are people that will say something like you know that person.

They're a lot of those wasting your breath.

We know with Christ.

Nothing is wasted.

I'll put it this way in Galatians chapter 2 verse 20 my old self has been crucified with Christ.

Galatians 2:20

It's no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.

So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Jesus who gave up his life for me and love him doesn't just say Jesus done for the whole world which you couldn't say but he made it personal Jesus done for me and Jesus done it for me and Jesus done for you.

Which means when he was hanging on the cross 2000 years ago the way of since present and future were placed upon the bank of Jesus on the cross for him to die in your place that meant he had you in mind.

He had me in mind on the cross when he died for us.

And it was his death and taking our sins and allow for us to be alive in him and be in right relationship with him to move from this life into eternity I can sit here and tell story after story after story about people in the life of multiplied church that did for one person what they wish that they could do for everyone.

One of those stories is about a friend of mine named Chance O'Neill Chance who is the younger brother of Liberty O'Neill who's hosting the service this morning you know Liberty.

He's her younger brother but he's like four feet taller than her and Liberty was the first person in the life of Multiply back when we were living in Charleston together and the Lord put it on our heart to come to Frankfurt and to begin and plant this work.

Liberty living in Charleston at that time she was the first one to say you know what I'm going to join this.

I'm going to be a part of this as a 20 something girl in Charleston she's from originally Anderson County here locally her family here and I remember the the day when she said we were packing up the boxes at our house to move to Frankfurt she was helping us pack the boxes and she looked at us and she said I'm coming with y'all and I know that she had in mind as she made the choice to move her life back to Kentucky like us that she had people in mind including her younger brother.

See because Chance had found himself in a place where he was following the crowd he was following the crowd and he he had a family that went to church and loved him but as he began to follow the crowd and follow the world a wedge began to grow between he and his family because he felt like they were disrespecting him and his life choices and he was pushing them away and he was pushing God away too he felt like his family was disappointed in him because he had gotten in this cycle of drugs and alcohol and the party lifestyle and his sister Liberty continued to talk to him to invite him to love him and at times it was tough love judgmental or hateful but it actually was faithful.

Because she was inviting him and I remember the first time that Chance accepted the invitation and came into the service one Sunday at multiply in the in the MUG theater.

And I remember the Sunday that he raised his hand high up in the air to come to God.

And then in February of this year when we had just moved into this space got to baptize her younger brother on a Sunday in this very room I remember this Sunday so well because Chance told me that when they were about to baptize him that whoever was hosting on stage said this is Chance O'Neill he's being baptized today by his sister and a lot of us have been praying for him for a long time.

And he said when he heard that he said it meant the world to him that people around him loving him praying for him reminds me in the small groups in Liberty we talk about praying for chance and we would pray for chance together.

And after chance was baptized he had no idea this was going to happen.

But this is so God.

After he got baptized the Lord opened the door for him to have a great job opportunity in Tennessee.

He had no idea at the time that the company that he had this great job offer from was a faith-based company called Faith Technologies.

And he accepted the position and he's in Tennessee right now and is going to an amazing church and has an incredible community around him.

He's doing so well walking with the Lord he's got a new truck he is doing great and he's in the service today right now here he is right here.

He came up today and God is doing so incredibly wonderful things through this man's life and it's and it happened because someone was willing to do for one one invite one love what what what is it that you could do what is it you could do for one a meal a conversation a phone call an invitation what's what's the one what's one thing that you can do because here's the thing we we can't we can't do everything for everybody we just can't we can't pay everybody's rent we can't help out every single nonprofit but Emily and I we're we we're buying one lamp for the one apartment that fresh start is getting completely set up so that family after family after family that comes through that place can have a space where they can begin a new life just one lamp one little light what difference could it make what could one act that you do what could God do with it one Bible study.

One wheelchair ram and what we're going to do church is we're going to continue over and over and over again not to be overwhelmed by all the needs and all the things that we could do but instead we're going to we're going to together band together and we're going to do for one what we wish that we could do for everyone and God's going to use it for his glory.

Amen he's going to use it for his glory what's he leading you to do what's he calling you to do see because I know in a room this size there's probably already people that are coming to your mind of the person that you know that's your coworker or your friend or somebody that you know who's who's having a difficult time far from God not in church what could God do what could God do with you stepping up and say you know what we take one step let me help in one way have one conversation or maybe you're the person who's walked in today and you're the one percent that has strayed away and Jesus wants so much to wrap you up to pick you up to put him on to put you on his shoulder and to carry you carry you into freedom and new life with him that you feel like you're far from God but God is literally chasing after you to come and find you and he can find you today maybe that's you maybe you're the one who needs to let Jesus pick you up and carry you to the cross to be saved.

Can we all pray together Father I just want to lift up to you God and just want to thank you Jesus that even though while we were still sinners that you died for us thank you Jesus that you thought that we were worth it to reach down and to pick us up out of the mess that we're in and to put us on solid ground and to save us and to give us new life and to give us your spirit and to give us the power that comes by the cross and by the empty grave.

And so Father I pray right now all across this room Father as we think about what it is that God you're leading each one of us to do for one that we might wish that we could do for everyone but we we know that Lord we know that we can do it for this one.

And so God right now Father in the name of Jesus Father I pray that you would put conviction on minds and hearts about who that is and what it should be.

For those in this room who say that they believe in you and follow you that God they would follow it through to love someone to care for someone.

And Father right now I pray all across this room for anybody who's in this space and in this place right now God that they are needing to come to you for salvation for forgiveness.

They've not yet trusted in the salvation that was purchased for them in their place on the cross but today is their day of salvation and today is their day to ask for forgiveness to commit their mind and heart to you God and that today is the day Father for you to forgive them and cleanse them and wash them so that they can be in heaven with you one day.

And so if that's you right now I'm just going to encourage you right now to pray something like this Jesus save me in your mind and heart Jesus save me I believe that you're the Son of God that you are alive and that you walked out of the grave forgive me cleanse me thank you for finding me I give my life to you I give my heart to you now and every day forward thank you for saving me.

Now with nobody looking around today was the day that you prayed that for you to receive forgiveness from Christ and for you to be saved and for your destiny to be changed to going to heaven and today was that day for you I'm going to ask for you to make a psalm before heaven for myself so I can pray for you.

If that's you today at the count of three I'm going to ask you to raise your hand up towards heaven like chance did so many weeks ago.

And so if that's you today at the count of three raise your hand ready one two three anybody in this place God I pray all across this room Lord as we walk out of this place thinking about the people that are in our lives who are needing your love needing your salvation needing your cross Father I pray God that you would make us a people who would be willing to love that would be willing to show up willing to care so that people can be found so we thank you we praise you we love you in the strong name of Jesus everybody said amen church will you stand together now as we sing together