The Blessing of We

Well, happy Sunday.

How you guys doing?

Good, man.

Yeah, all right.

I like the energy here.

Well, my name is Kyle, and uh man, y'all feel like family.

Uh I love being with you.

I think this is like my fifth time here, maybe.

And uh what God is doing at Multiply, like you you you know it's it's a miracle, right?

Like you know that, right?

Uh what's the I love that quote.

Familiarity breeds contempt that there's just something about when you become familiar with something, you know, you just kind of, yeah, we just we show up on Sundays and we just, you know, we just kind of casually hand out over a hundred shoes to the city of Frankfurt, you know.

We just casually have 11 people get water baptized last Sunday.

You know, we just casually have record attendance in the kids' ministry last Sunday with 62 kids back there.

You know what I mean?

Like, let's not forget, you know, hey, what God's doing here is miraculous.

You know that, right?

So we can put our hands together and thank God for the way he's using multiply for the city of Frankfurt.

The city of Frankfurt needs multiply.

It needs a church like multiply.

It needs you.

Needs you.

And so I'm excited to be with you today and to celebrate all that God is doing through you.

And I love your pastors, uh, Forrest and Emily are just, they have become real close friends to Jess and I.

Uh, church planting is not fun uh at all.

Uh in fact, it sucks.

So uh if I could say that, I don't know if I'm allowed to say that.

Uh I hope I don't get in trouble later for saying that.

Uh, but it's not fun, and uh, and you guys did it.

So anytime I'm in this kind of environment, it's so encouraging because you're like, okay, maybe it can happen, maybe, maybe this can happen.

But uh your pastor, Pastor Force, calls me all the time just to encourage me, just literally just to encourage me, and uh, because he knows he's done it, and so uh, so thank you.

Thank you for uh being you.

Honestly, you don't realize it, but you have encouraged me and Jess.

And so love you guys so much.

And why don't you give yourself a round of applause, man, just for being awesome.

Well, uh, I'm gonna get a little closer to you.

Is that okay?

Thank you.

One person's okay with that.

Everybody else is like too close.

Uh I'm excited about the message today.

Uh, if you're taking notes, write this down.

The blessing of we, the blessing of we, W-E, we.

Uh, and uh, we'll open up our Bibles to Psalm chapter 133.

Psalms 133 · chapter mention

I'll get there in just a second.

I'm gonna kind of tee up where we're going.

Normally, uh, how many all know every great sermon has three points, right?

Uh, I don't have three points today, so I hope that's okay.

Uh, we're just gonna talk about the blessing of we, and we're gonna really drive that home today.

Uh, and so uh before we jump into Psalm 133, uh, I was reading a story.

Uh maybe you've heard this name before.

I remember learning about this guy uh when I was in school, I think it was in college, uh, the story of John Paul Getty.

How many of y'all remember John Paul Getty?

Uh, he was the oil tycoon.

He founded the Getty Oil Company in 1942, and by 1957, uh Getty would be named by Fortune magazine the richest man in the world.

What an accomplishment to say I am the richest man in the world.

Uh he is really the quintessential self-made man.

Uh John Paul Getty uh represents really what you would say is the American dream.

Uh but here's the reality: the the more you look at his life and you read his biography, uh the wealthier he became, the more famous he became, the more successful he became.

That actually didn't translate to happiness.

In fact, it did the opposite, the more miserable he became.

Uh at one point at the and how many all know we're going somewhere, okay?

I'm always taking you on a journey.

I hope you know that.

At one point, at the height of his success, someone, this is a true story, it's a crazy story.

Someone kidnapped his 16-year-old grandson, John Paul Getty III, for a ransom.

And so the kidnappers, uh, what they did is they severed off part of John Paul Getty III, his grandson, uh, severed off part of his ear, sent it to him, and asked for this ransom money.

And uh Getty wouldn't pay it.

For his own grandson, wouldn't pay it.

Uh, in fact, he has this famous quote: John Paul Getty said, if I pay one penny, I'll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren.

What a great grandpa.

Uh so John Paul Getty III, so the grandson, was held in captivity for five months.

Think about that.

Five months.

And his grandpa could have just paid the ransom until finally Getty ended up negotiating the original$17 million that was requested down to$2.2 million.

Uh Getty had well over a billion dollars, so you can just do the math there.

You're talking about pennies to the dollar.

Uh, and so finally they were able to negotiate it, and and uh actually the grandson ended up living a horrible life, uh, just not good at all.

Uh, but I mean all the trauma and things that he had gone through.

Uh well on Getty's deathbed, okay, he complained about medical bills.

You're like a billionaire complaining about medical bills.

Uh so here's this billionaire living the American dream, the quintessential self-made man who won't pay his grandson's ransom, complaining about medical bills.

His wife ends up writing a memoir about their marriage, and she titles it Alone Together.

Think about Alone Together.

Uh, and then I found this picture of him.

It's a haunting photo of here's Getty.

He is in his prime.

This picture would have been taken in 1960.

So here is the richest man in the world alone.

Nobody.

Here he is at the head of a table that could easily fit 50 people.

The plates are gold, the cups are gold, the bowls are gold, the little candle stands are gold, but he's alone.

Deep down, each of us wants and needs more than just colleagues or coworkers or acquaintances.

Each of us deep down want to be known.

We want to be seen, we want to be loved, we want to be accepted.

And by the way, this starts at childbirth.

Uh, I love this quote from Dr.

Kurt Thompson.

He said it best.

He said, We are all born into the world.

I love this phrase, looking for someone, looking for us.

How beautiful is that.

That each of us are born looking for someone to see us, looking for someone to love us, looking for someone to accept us, looking for someone to know us, and then this we remain in this mode of searching for the rest of our lives.

The percentage of Americans who say that they have no close friends quadrupled from 1990 to 2020.

Over half of Americans say, quote, no one knows them well.

Think about that.

No one knows them well.

That's that's basically me saying there's not a single person that really knows me.

Can anybody relate?

36% of Americans report feeling lonely either frequently or almost all of the time.

That number goes up to 51% for moms.

Moms, 61% for young adults.

Uh Vivek Murphy, the Surgeon General for the United States, said this quote, think about this, loneliness is a social epidemic.

And then he goes on to say that loneliness is the number one health threat in America.

Loneliness.

They uh actually compare loneliness, uh, it's equivalent to you smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

That's what it does to our health.

Loneliness.

It's almost like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.

Uh, I'm reading a book right now called The Anxious Generation, and it's talking about Gen Z and even some of the younger millennials uh are the loneliest and most anxious generation to ever live.

They're, think about this, the most connected generation to ever live, yet the loneliest to ever live.

Think about that.

You can you can literally FaceTime with the click of a button somebody across the world right now.

You're we're the most connected we've ever been, yet we're the loneliest we've ever been.

Uh half of Americans report sometimes or always feeling alone or left out.

This is the climate.

Are y'all feeling that?

It's gonna get real good.

Just get you're not even ready.

You're not even ready.

Gang, this is not how God created us to live.

We were not designed to do life alone.

Circles are more important than rows.

Rows are important.

Sunday gatherings are very important.

Your walk with God.

Rows are your circles are equally as important.

Each of us needs a circle.

We we need a group, we need a people that will know us and see us and accept us and love us.

We need a circle.

Life change happens in a living room, at a kitchen table.

Contrary to John Paul Getty, Jesus didn't sit at his table alone.

And neither should we.

So I want to talk to you about the blessing of we.

Everybody say we.

Psalm chapter 133.

Psalms 133 · chapter mention

David says, I love this, it's a very short Psalm.

It's literally three verses.

It's beautiful.

David says, Behold how good and pleasant it is when people dwell together in unity.

How many of y'all know you can dwell together, but not in unity?

Dwell together in unity.

The last prayer that Jesus prayed in John chapter 17 before being arrested, he prayed multiple times.

John 17 · chapter mention

He had this phrase.

He kept saying, make them one.

Make them one.

Make them one.

Don't go do life by yourself.

Make this crew, make all these followers, make them one.

The unity was a big deal to Jesus.

Uh, if the enemy can divide us and isolate us, he can conquer us.

That's always been his strategy.

He loves separating us and making us feel like we're on this island by ourselves.

He he loves when you feel isolated and alone.

It's part of his agenda.

It's part of his strategy to divide, to isolate.

And he realizes that when you're in that place, you become vulnerable, you become susceptible, and he knows that you can be conquered when you're going at things alone.

And he knows, the enemy knows that his power is dismantled over your life when you're dwelling together in unity.

Uh back to Psalm 133, verse 2, uh verse 2.

Psalms 133:2

It is like the talking about the uh when people dwell together in unity, uh, this imagery that David gives, he says it's like the precious oil on the head.

So the oil represents God's anointing, it represents uh God's divine enablement in your life.

And he gives this beautiful picture of it starting from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet.

This is really a beautiful picture of what the church is, right?

We know that Jesus is at the head of his church and we represent what?

The body.

And so this divine enablement, I want you to get this imagery of this anointing coming down from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet.

It goes down, running down the beard on the beard of Aaron, running down the collar of his robes.

For there, where people dwell together in unity, I love this phrase, the Lord has commanded the blessing life forevermore.

There is an anointing, a commanded blessing on a group of people that dwell together in unity.

I love that David says not just any blessing, a commanded blessing.

How many of y'all want that?

How many of y'all want to be part of an anointed and blessed church?

Okay, last scripture, Joshua chapter 24, verse 15.

Joshua 24:15

You probably have heard this scripture.

You maybe even have this passage of scripture, maybe on a painting or a portrait in your house.

I love this passage of scripture.

Joshua says, but as for me and my house, we, everybody say, we, we will serve the Lord.

There is an anointing and a commanded blessing on a people that move from me and my to we.

We will serve the Lord.

It's the blessing of we.

We will dwell together in unity.

Come on, everybody say we.

And by the way, we all know this.

This isn't some mind-blowing revelation, right?

We know that a marriage that's all about me and my doesn't work, right?

A marriage that's about me and my way doesn't work.

It's about we, right?

A business, a team.

That's all about me and my.

How many y'all know?

It doesn't work, right?

If the Kentucky State football team, are we Kentucky State fans here?

Okay, nice.

Are we UK fans here or no?

Wow, okay, yeah, man.

So if you're a Kentucky State fan, are you also like a UK fan?

Like there's not a rivalry there?

Okay, well, great, man.

This is great.

Look at this, man.

We're bonding.

Go, Kentucky State and UK.

Let's go.

But how many of y'all know if any Kentucky sport, well, we don't like Louisville, right?

Okay, great.

Sweet, sweet, sweet.

Okay.

Yeah, they suck.

But I get in trouble for saying that again.

How many of y'all know, though, if Kentucky State or UK, if any of their uh basketball teams, football teams is all about me and my?

We're gonna have a disappointing season.

A church that's all about me and my won't work.

We need each other.

This is the way that God has designed it.

It's not about me and my walk with God, it's about our walk with God.

That's why when Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, what did he say?

Our Father.

He didn't say my Father, although he could have.

When he was teaching him, he said, no, our Father.

Y'all okay?

This is all over the scriptures.

The Bible tells us even to weep with those that weep and to rejoice with those that rejoice.

So, according to scripture, you're not allowed to weep alone.

You're not allowed to even rejoice alone.

We're supposed to do this together.

It's the power and the blessing of we.

On the day of Pentecost, the Bible says that they were all with one accord and in one place.

And what happened?

God commanded his blessing on that place.

There was no me and my in the upper room.

It was a group of people dwelling together in unity.

Uh AA even understands this.

They have this beautiful quote that they often will quote uh at their meetings, and they say, quote, if I get drunk, we stay sober.

How powerful is that?

If I get drunk, we stay sober.

What are they saying?

I, when I go at life my way, when I'm the captain, when I'm the boss, I'm vulnerable.

I'm susceptible.

But there's something powerful that happens when I put myself in a we type environment.

Multiply church, in case you want to know, is not a me and my church.

It's a we church.

What me and my can build is very limited, but what we can build is limitless.

A great church is a we church.

Everybody say we.

Now, the greatest example I've seen of this, just to illustrate this, uh, the power of we, the blessing of we, uh, is the sport of rowing, known as crew.

Everybody say crew.

I didn't realize that the sport of rowing is not called rowing.

I guess it's called crew.

And it's the perfect illustration of really what the church is uh supposed to look like.

And so as I'm explaining this, I want you to be thinking about, see if you can pick up the similarities between the sport of rowing and the church.

Uh, rowing is a sport or crew is a sport that is dependent on the team.

Each member is playing their specific part.

Rowing, though, doesn't have a one-man superstar.

So you're not going to have a LeBron James of rowing, okay?

This is about the crew.

The only way you can be the best in this sport is by having the right crew.

Every person and every muscle is involved in the crew.

The race itself only lasts about six minutes because it literally takes all of you.

A well-conditioned rower uh will consume pound for pound the same amount of oxygen as a thoroughbred racehorse, which is about eight liters of oxygen per minute.

The average athlete, just to put this in comparison, uh consumes about four to five liters of oxygen.

Whereas if you're in crew, you are taking in eight liters of oxygen per minute for six minutes.

And if one person is off and they are in complete unity, it'll cost them the race.

This is a sport that demands the complete abandonment of self.

There are no stars in rowing, there is no Michael Jordan of rowing.

It's a team effort, like an orchestra, like a like a symphony.

If the church was a sport, it would look a lot like rowing.

Church requires a crew, not a one-man superstar.

The church is not about me and my, it's about we.

It's about the body of Christ and each part of the body working with the other parts of the body.

Now, there's something, this is mind-blowing.

This there's something in crew, in rowing, that happens when a team is in perfect unity.

So picture that.

When a crew is in literally perfect unity, they actually have a term for that and they call it swing.

Everybody say swing.

So this is an actual term.

They say swing is that hard to define feeling when the boat is perfectly synchronized.

Swing only happens when everyone is unified.

Swing can't happen if someone on the boat is about me and my.

When everyone on the boat is depending on each other.

And when the crew hits swing, some commentators say they call it poetry.

They say it's almost like the boat lifts up out of the water.

They actually said that there may be a team that's rowing at 45 poles per minute.

They're just putting in all this effort, all this energy, so much toil, but then a crew that's only rowing 35 poles per minute, 10 less poles per minute, will literally, if they hit swing, will soar past them.

It's the power of unity.

It's the power of when the swing hits.

One rowing coach, uh, he literally heard a grown man shriek when they hit swing.

Think about that a grown man screaming out when the swing came.

Uh there, he said the The coach said it's an unforgettable experience because it's a what he referred to as a fourth dimension of rowing.

Now I want to close with a true story of a crew that hit swing in the 1936 Olympics.

There was a story, uh a book that I've read about this, and then even the movie I've watched.

You probably maybe have heard of this, The Boys in the Boat.

How many of y'all have ever seen this?

Watch this.

You should go watch it.

It's a great movie or read it.

Here's a pick of the boys.

So this is a little JV uh crew of rowers from the University of Washington in 1936.

And this little JV team, they did the unthinkable.

They beat out the varsity team, they went undefeated their season, and then they ended up winning an event that qualified them for the 1936 Olympics.

The Olympics that year were being held in Berlin, Germany by Adolf Hitler.

Hitler was using the Olympics as uh propaganda to kind of show his superiority of his race.

This was a couple years before World War II, and this was all really just uh uh a big show and part of Hitler's evil plan.

Uh well, this little underdog JV team, follow me, we're going somewhere.

This little underdog JV team from the University of Washington, they get to Berlin and they prepare for the big race against Germany.

Uh Germany at this point was just dominant.

And on the day of the race, Germany had already won five gold medals in rowing.

Uh all the pressure now was on this little underdog JV team.

And there were tens of thousands of fans.

One article said estimated about 75,000 fans that were there to witness this race.

And Hitler was there and he desperately wanted to see America lose.

Well, before the race, one of the oarsmen, one of the eight oarsmen, they would normally have eight oarsmen, and then you'd have uh a guy at kind of like the which by the way, I mean, there's so much in this illustration I wish I could go into, but I but I'm not going to.

Uh, there's usually you would have eight oarsmen, and then there'd be one little guy who is usually the tiniest of the bunch, and he'd be squatted down and he would have this little like megaphone, and he would be talking and giving direction and trying to get them on sync.

So these boys, they're not looking at where they're going, they're just trusting the voice of this coach, giving them direction.

And so they're they don't know where the finish line is, they're just listening to this guy barking orders.

And so, so here they are uh before the race, one of the eight oarsmen gets sick, and so they bring in someone to replace him.

But this replacement isn't the same, and the team are missing their eighth man.

The crew doesn't feel complete without their eighth man.

They're not on the same page, they're they're just not the replacement is just not driving.

And so the team decides that they don't want to race without their guy.

And on a side note, when I read this, I just thought the imagery is so beautiful because what this team is saying is they don't want just anybody.

We don't we don't want just some replacement, even if the replacement is stronger, we want him.

They wanted their eighth man, even though their eighth man is sick, he's weak, the team says, we don't care.

Our team is incomplete without him.

Our strength will make up for his weakness.

We want him on the boat.

In the story, you need to know that there's a seat on the boat here at Multiply.

There's a seat here for you.

You may be weak.

You maybe came in here with all these struggles, all this opposition.

You maybe came in here and you weren't feeling strong and you feel like I don't have it all together.

That's okay.

We don't need you to be perfect.

We don't need you to be strong.

We choose you.

There's a seat here for you, and we're better together.

What you and I, what our church, what we can build together is so much better, so much richer than what you and I can do alone.

We're better together.

We want your ore in the water here at Multiply.

So the crew gets together, they have their squad, they have their eighth man back, even though he's sick, even though he's weak, they have their we.

And here we are, we're on the day of the race, and all the boats are lined up and they're at the starting line.

Before the race starts, Hitler walks out and the crowd is going crazy.

They're shouting, Deutschland, Deutschland, they're going nuts.

Hitler has his binoculars.

You can see pictures if you Google this of him looking down at the boys in the boat.

And the crowds are going so loud, so crazy, that the American boys couldn't hear the start of the race.

So everybody else takes off, jumps out ahead, and the boys are just sitting there motionless.

Germany jumps out ahead to first.

Germany thinks that they've got it.

Hitler thinks it's over, they got another gold medal.

But just when everyone counted out the American boys, just when everybody thinks it was over, just when the enemy thought that he won, the unthinkable happens, and the boys hit swing.

Are you I hope you're picking up on this imagery?

The boys are in perfect unison.

All the other boats are putting so much energy, they're pulling so hard, so much toil.

But the boys, it almost looked effortless, they hit swing, they're in perfect unity.

The race ends up being a photo finish, and after looking at the photo, the boys did it.

They won.

They pulled ahead.

But when I heard this story, man, I couldn't help but think that's exactly what David is saying in Psalm 133.

The boys in the boat and their story illustrate for us the importance of dwelling together in unity.

God designed us to be in a crew, and when the crew dwells together in unity, God anoints that crew and commands his blessing on that crew, and you and I together will experience the swing in life.

You can't experience the swing on your own.

Swing only happens when you're in a crew.

And when you experience that, I wasn't gonna share the story, but I'm but I'm but I'm going to.

She's so sweet.

Her name's Valentina.

And so Valentina came and she slammed her finger in the door.

Uh, and the door it was a heavy door, and it closed all the way.

And the the the the piercing sound, it it's like it would give you a nightmare.

I mean, it was jarring.

And so everybody runs in, they jump in immediately, they're they're tending to this little girl.

She's just devastated.

And uh, and so she ends up going to the ER, and our team is just flooding her with prayers and support.

We prayed for her, of course, at the event, and then we the the church sent her a goodie basket just of all of her favorite snacks, everything.

And then this is what's crazy uh that we got a picture from uh her so her parents don't go to church.

We just know her aunt and uncle.

Her aunt and uncle are part of New Circle, and they're unbelievable.

But that little girl's parents, they're not Christians, they're not Christ followers, they don't go to church.

Well, the aunt sent Jess a picture of Valentina and then said, quote, that the parents were so moved by the church that stepped up to pray and to support and to love and to serve that family that now they want to go to church and they want to get saved.

Think about that.

What's that the power of?

That's the power of we.

What you and I can build together is so much greater that what you and I, the life that you and I can build alone, our table is not meant to look like John Paul Getty.

Our table is meant to look like Jesus' table.

One gospel commentary, I'm getting way ahead of myself, but one gospel commentary uh that I read on the Gospel of Luke said that Jesus, if you read the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is either going to a meal, leaving a meal, or at a meal.

Jesus is either going to a meal, he's at a meal, or he's leaving a meal, okay?

And then two times the scripture says in the Gospel of Luke why the Son of Man came.

First time, the Son of Man came eating and drinking.

The second time, the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.

So how do you seek and save the lost?

What was his strategy?

By eating and drinking, by being at meals, by breaking bread together, by recognizing that we can't do this alone.

We can't look at his life and his meals and the decisions that he made as just kind of like a symbolic thing.

No, when Jesus, what he was doing is this was meant to be application.

This was meant to be something that as a model for what you and I, our lives should look like.

After they win, Hitler takes his binoculars, he puts them down, and he walks away in silence.

The enemy is left speechless, doesn't say a word.

And see, the enemy thought he was gonna win.

The enemy maybe even thought that he had you at one point.

But the enemy didn't factor in the swing that hits, the commanded blessing that hits, the anointing that hits a group of people when we dwell together in unity.

And as a crew, as a church, as a community, we will see victory in the city of Frankfurt, in our families, in our school system.

Come on, together, we will see victory in Jesus' name.

I'd like you to bow your head and close your eyes.

I'm gonna pray for you.

We're gonna go back into worship.

And in fact, let's stand to our feet.

Let's stand to our feet really quick.

And then bow your heads, close your eyes.

I'm gonna pray for you.

I really before every message in my kind of prayer time on my way here, I always ask the Lord, God, what do you want to do with this message?

What do you want to do with this message?

And I felt like he reminded me pretty quickly, I don't know what it means for you personally, that's gonna be my prayers that God would speak to you personally over the next few minutes as we go back into worship.

I would encourage you to ask the Lord, ask the Holy Spirit, God, what are you saying to me through this message?

What are you saying to me personally?

But the the scripture that God reminded me of is in Psalm chapter 68.

Psalms 68 · chapter mention

The Bible says that God places the lonely in families.

You maybe came in here feeling alone.

You maybe came in here feeling like you've been doing life alone.

You maybe came in here be feeling like isolated, and man, you gotta know not only is multiply a great church family, but God wants you a part of his family, he wants you a part of the family of God, and so Father in Jesus' name, Lord, I I pray for every single person under the sound of my voice.

Lord, I pray, God, that you would speak to each of us personally.

God, over the next few moments as we worship you, as we ask, Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me through this message?

God, I pray that you would speak to each person personally.

God, that they would know, that they would know, that they know, that they know that they are not alone.

God, you're with them, you're for them.

This church is with them, this church is for them.

We're in their corner, we're locking arms with them, doing life together.

Father, would you speak to us over these next few moments?

In Jesus' name.

Amen.