Charge - Take The Hill

Good morning.

I'm Forrest Lee Pastor here at Multiply Apply.

If I've not met you, welcome.

Glad that you're here.

Myself and about a hundred others launched the work and began at Multiply Church a couple years ago.

So glad that you're here.

If you're new with us, man, we've had a great week, a great weekend yesterday.

Fresh Start Frankfurt getting to be a part of the community.

And I'm so grateful for the volunteers who were out there serving kids, doing face paint, and having a great time.

Can we give it up for all those that served yesterday with Fresh Start?

Let's give it up one more time for them from yesterday.

Man, I love what God is doing in through the work and the life of our church that we get to come alongside and partner with those who are in our community and fuel the fire of the good that is happening right now.

Woo, man, I am just excited.

I'm excited what's coming up for July.

We uh got construction projects coming that are here at the building, but also with the Fuller Center.

I'm excited about being able to serve the community that way.

And then some stuff coming up with K State in August.

It's just we're I'm I'm just very looking forward to us continuing to go outside the walls and would love for you to get to be a part of those opportunities.

And uh I I don't uh know about um you, but last Sunday we had a good Sunday, and after last Sunday, I have what was called the Sunday Scaries.

Anybody heard the Sunday Scaries?

A lot of times it's Sunday Scaries ahead of Monday, but but for me it was after Sunday because last Sunday uh we had bricklayers, we talked about bricklayers and talked about giving, and after the service on Sunday, I was just, I was just just thinking, like, man, I was like so just insecure, like, man, that I feel like that could have gone better and that message could have gone better.

I was just in my head.

Ever anybody ever get in your head like that?

And I was just thinking about, man, you know, I could have done this, could have done that, that, and and so during the day, it was kind of off during the day, and the next morning, and you're gonna celebrate this, this is crazy.

The next morning, uh, woke up, went and checked the mail, opened up a letter with a check written to multiply church for$25,000 on Monday.

Come on, can we praise the Lord?

Can we praise God somebody?

This check had been given by an old friend of mine who I discipled in college, and he's loved our church and been a supporter of our church for some time, and he gave that and sent that in because of what God is doing through you.

Now it had nothing to do with my sermon on Sunday, because he'd already have it in the mail.

But what God reminded me in that moment is that our church is not based on our perfect performance, but his faithfulness to us in his glory and his power made perfect in our weakness.

And, you know, I was, like I said, I was uh getting in my head last Sunday, but the Lord reminded me of that and reminded me of the fact that it's not time to back down.

It's not time to give up.

Instead, we're gonna keep moving forward and we're gonna take the hill.

That's the title of my message today.

Take the hill.

Everybody say take the hill.

Now, we've had a great weekend, and I'm excited about the week to come because it's July 4th, and I love July 4th.

I already have my American flag polo shirt already picked out that I'm gonna wear.

This is what's gonna happen on July 4th.

I'm gonna wake up, I'm gonna roll out of bed, and then I'm gonna turn on God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood.

As soon as I wake up and I'm gonna listen to it 50 more times during the day and celebrate uh and have the fireworks, I just absolutely love it.

But you know what else this week is?

You know what today is?

Today is six months from New Year's Eve.

Woo! Man, I don't know how you're feeling about this year, but I don't know about you, but I feel like uh there's a lot more to get done in there.

Uh I told y'all at the beginning of the year that I made this goal to go to the gym a hundred times this year.

I'm just letting y'all know right now I'm behind.

Okay?

I'm behind.

I got a job on my desk, I'm a dresser, and I got marbles, and every time I go, I put the marble, and there's not enough marbles in there right now.

And I don't know about you as you reflect and think about how this year has gone and thinking about all that's happened, but you think about, man, we still got six more months, and what in the world is gonna happen?

I've got these goals, I've got these plans, I've got these things that I want to happen, or maybe it's the fact that this year has not gone the way that you thought it was going to go.

I know that there are people in this room who who this year they're starting over from scratch, from square one.

Life blew up in some way or another.

Lost a job, grieving a loss in a family, hardship in a relationship, and starting back and thinking of this year and what's to come.

Maybe you're in the room and you think, you know what, things have been going really good.

But what in the world the next six months gonna look like?

What's it gonna look like in my life?

What's it gonna look like in our country in the next six months?

And it's it's easy for us to begin to think about, and even right now, how I'm feeling about not going to the gym, feeling like, man, just inadequate, insecure.

Feel like, like, is this is this really gonna happen?

What's the next six months gonna hold?

And it's very easy to get into this negative mindset.

Do you want to know why?

Because the enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy your future, and wants you to get into this mindset of feeling weak, insecure, afraid, maybe even panic about what's to come.

But I know this there's someone some in the room that your whole life this year is starting over, and you're starting at step one, and today is your step one to step four with your future with God.

There's some others of you in the room that things are going pretty good.

But it's it's time for you to step up and step out in faith.

And that's where we find a person in the scripture today that we're looking at.

In this series charge, we're starting off looking at the I love this story in the Old Testament.

It's a guy named Gideon.

It's to give you a picture of what's happening in and around the life of Gideon.

The people of God have entered into the promised land, they're living in the promised land.

And God, at this point in the book of Judges, before they begin to have kings, God is appointing these temporary judges over the Israelites, over the people of God, for to be a judge over them.

We talked a few weeks ago about one of those judges, Deborah.

And Gideon is also listed in Judges chapter 6 as one of these judges.

Judges 6 · chapter mention

And what's happening with the people of God is that they have been taken over, taken captive by the neighboring Midianites now for seven years.

That have stolen their food, stolen their future, stolen their fortune.

And it's all happened because of this toxic cycle that the people of God are in in the Old Testament.

This is what Judges 6, 7 says.

When they cried out to the Lord because of many, and the Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites, and he said, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says I brought you out of slavery in Egypt, I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you, I drove out your enemies and gave you their land.

I told you, I am the Lord your God.

You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live, but you have not listened to me.

See, the people of God, the Israelites, are in this toxic cycle of receiving fortune from God, and then being tempted and following other gods, false gods, then falling to those cultures and to those other countries, and then crying out to God to be rescued.

And this is happening over and over and over again as a cycle all throughout the Old Testament, but we're not living in that time now.

We're living in a time of grace and Jesus and his cross.

And now it's not a battle with swords, it's a spiritual battle that we're waging.

It's a spiritual battle that we're waging each day for us to not be in this cycle of walking away from God.

Now, when we find Gideon, we find him hiding in a cave.

Gideon is threshing wheat in a cave, which is not where you're supposed to be threshing wheat.

You're supposed to do it out in the open where there's wind, but he's hiding, he's cowering, he's hiding from the Midianites.

And then God comes to him.

Check this out in verse 12.

The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, Mighty hero, the Lord is with you.

Sir, Gideon replied, If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?

And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about?

Didn't they say, Lord, the Lord brought us up out of Egypt?

But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.

Gideon.

Who's hiding?

He's in a cave.

He's cowering.

The angel of the Lord shows up to him and says, mighty hero, God is with you.

There probably is not a more ironic statement in the scripture than for him to be called a mighty hero in this moment that he's hiding in the cave.

But aren't you glad?

Aren't you glad that God sees you for who you can be, not who you can't be?

Aren't you glad that God looks at you and doesn't see your sin and shame, but sees his mighty work on the cross and the righteousness of Christ.

If you're in Christ and following Jesus, that he sees Jesus standing in your place to look at you and say, mighty hero.

See, Gideon's response may not be too far off from some of this room.

He says, Mighty hero.

God is with me.

Oh really?

Oh, really?

Because God hasn't really been showing up, it doesn't seem like.

And I don't know if there's somebody in the room here today, and maybe you're thinking to yourself, and somebody says, hey, God's with you, you say, really?

Do you know the year that I've had?

Do you know what I've been going through?

You think that God's with me?

I I've not seen him.

And you may be in the room today.

You may be sitting in the back row, and you've come in here thinking, you know what?

I don't know about this.

Is this all fake?

Let me tell you, Jesus loves you.

And he sees you.

And he wants to be with you.

You may be in the space that Gideon is right now where God's pulling you.

He's speaking to you.

And you're gonna instead just give excuses.

Gideon's like, what?

Oh, really?

Don't you know?

Don't you know what's been going on?

Don't you know who I am?

Don't you know I'm not prepared for that?

And maybe some of them in the room right now, you're you're feeling like, man, I God, I'm not prepared.

I'm not prepared to take that step out.

I'm not prepared.

What happens if I try to step out in faith and then I let people down?

What if it doesn't work out?

See, Gideon continues the excuses in verse 14.

Then the Lord turned and said to him, Go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites.

I am sending you.

In verse 15.

But Lord, Gideon replied, How can I rescue Israel?

My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I'm the least in my entire family.

And the Lord said to him, I will be with you.

You'll destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.

He says, I'll be with you.

Now everybody say this with me.

The Lord is with me.

The Lord is with me.

Are you with him?

See, Gideon was a nobody.

And that's what he thought that he was a nobody.

But there are no nobodies to God.

If you stepped into the room today and you feel like you're a nobody, God sees you, he loves you, he cares for you, and has a plan and a purpose for your life.

You are somebody to Jesus.

Not because of anything that you've done, but because of how powerful and how good and how glorious He is.

See, Gideon, he was filled with all this negativity, all this negative thoughts.

Oh, I'm the weakest.

I'm from the weakest family.

I'm the weakest in my family.

I couldn't do this.

And I love the fact that God does not address any of his excuses.

He doesn't say, Oh, really?

You're the weakest?

Tell me about that.

Let's have a counseling session about it.

Go ahead and pour your heart out, getting in about all these things.

No, what he says is, I'll be with you.

You want to give me excuses?

I'll be with you.

See, this negativity, this negative self-talking really bring us down.

It brings me down.

I know.

Just thinking about last Sunday.

Emily and I, we love this TV show.

It is like, I love this TV show.

It's it's on the History Channel.

It's this survival show called Alone.

Anybody ever heard of this show?

Okay, I love this show.

It's like 11 seasons worth of it.

Let me just give you the premise real quick.

This, this, the they take uh several people and they go out to just the most remote, crazy places, uh, the the Arctic Circle, Patagonia, and they drop all these people off.

And it's not like your normal reality show because they actually send the contestants with the camera equipment and they have to go out into the wilderness, and that is whoever stays for the longest time out in the wilderness building a shelter, finding food, whoever stays the longest time wins a half a million dollars.

And now it's on like season 11, and by now they have like real hardcore survivalist people on this show, and so they're out there staying in the wilderness for like 100, 120 days.

If it was me, the first moment I heard a wolf howl, I'd be hitting the button, get me out of here.

No way, nope, not doing it because there's wolves, there's bears.

I mean, it's just it's just crazy.

But it's become a joke between Emily and I because as you're watching the contestants, even if they've been there for 70, 80 days, you can all of a sudden at some point you can start hearing what they're saying, their negative thoughts and self-talk, because they'll start saying stuff like, Man, I just really miss my family.

Is it is this this money isn't really, it's not really worth it.

And Emily looking at you and saying, They're about to hit the button.

They're about to go.

You can you can hear the negativity that they've lost hope, they lost belief.

In the book, Barking Up the Wrong Tree, it talks about a study that was done of maybe SEALs that go into budge training.

And the common denominator of those that made it through the budge training wasn't experience, wasn't training, it wasn't physical strength, it was positive self-talk.

Did they believe that they can make it through?

Did they believe in themselves, or were they consumed by negative thinking?

And God comes to Gideon and is so patient with Gideon in the midst of his negativity and speaks truth to him.

And then Gideon starts to take these small steps of obedience, like God tells him to tear down the false God, the Asherah pole that's there with his family.

And so he steps up in bravery.

Now he does it in the middle of the night, so nobody knows who it was him, but he still did it.

He tore down the idols.

And then he wanted to find out if God really was calling to do this, so he tried to put God to these tests with this fleece of having the fleece be wet and the ground be dry, back and forth and back and forth, which is not the best way to uh do your relationship with God.

If you're the people that you're one of those persons like, if these next three stoplights are green, I'm gonna ask her out.

Don't do that.

That's not the way, that's not the way to be trying to figure out what God's plan is for your life.

But God has mercy on him, and uh God humors him in this test, and then he asks for Gideon to gather the warriors of Israel.

32,000.

But God wants Gideon to lean on him, not on man.

And so look what God says in Judges 7, verse 2.

Judges 7:2

The Lord said to Gideon, You have too many warriors with you.

If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength.

Therefore, tell the people whoever is timid or afraid may leave this mountain and go home.

So 22,000 of them went home, leaving only 10,000 who were willing to fight.

Not the best battle plan and strategy.

And that wasn't enough.

God said he still had too many.

10,000 to to to the innumerable, numerous Midianite army.

And so he brought the Israelite warriors and told them that they needed to go to this brook, and God instructed Gideon to uh to watch all of the warriors and the men how they drank the water.

And if they drank the water in this specific way that those would be the warriors that he should go and fight the Midianites with.

And guess how many of them were still left?

Three hundred.

Three hundred.

Only three hundred.

Again, doesn't seem like the best battle plan.

In verse 7, the Lord said to Gideon, With these 300 men, I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites.

Send all the others home.

So Gideon collected the provisions, the ram's horns, and other warriors, and sent them home and kept the 300 with him.

The Midi night camp was in the valley just below Gideon.

That night the Lord said, Get up, go down into the Midianite camp, for I have given you victory over them.

Everybody say victory.

God gives this plan.

This battle plan that seems very odd.

And I don't know about you, but there are times where God calls us to do things that may not make sense to the world, and when things that may seem odd to you, continue to follow God.

When you think about the victory that God is telling Gideon that he's going to receive and which he is going to receive, it's not based on all the variables that are going on at the time.

Your victory is not based on the variables and circumstances of your life.

It's based on Christ.

It's based on his work on the cross, it's based on what he's done for you.

And so at times you're going to feel like that maybe you're the odd one out by following God.

Maybe you're the only one who's in your office, who's in your workplace, who's in your family, who's following God and trying to live your life as God instructs you and asks you to follow him, and you're going to feel at times that you may be the odd one out, but continue to follow God because it's not based on what you, it's based on Jesus Himself and the victory that he wants to bring with you as he walks with you.

I was reflecting on a year and a half ago when the Lord had put the Frankfurt Ford Initiative into my heart and what that could look like for us serving our city and serving our community.

And I went and and I've told you all this story before, I went and met with a pastor friend in town, and we sat and we had lunch, and I was talking about I was talking about this with him, and his his response was that's a waste of time.

Which I wasn't expecting because he was saying, well, you know, these different organizations, nonprofits, they they don't want to partner with you.

They have different values in a church, and that, you know, it's just better just to just get do stuff within the church, and if people serve, great.

But you know, I I don't think this is a good strategy.

And I and I left that meeting thinking, man, like have I gotten this wrong?

Like, is this off base?

Feeling kind of like, man, insecure?

And I I'm so thankful that now we've seen it's not a waste of time.

It's not a waste of the time, talent, and treasure that God has placed inside of you to love and serve and be the hands and feet of Jesus, and we're just getting started.

It's not time for us to give up.

And I'm so thankful that a year and a half ago I didn't say, yeah, that probably, maybe we just need to do something different.

God gives this odd battle plan to these 300 men.

And then he tells Gideon to have them bring trumpets, jars of clay, and torches, and to surround the hillside, surround the Midianite camp.

And God told him to have the soldiers blow the horns, break the jars, shout and yell.

And this is what happened.

Verse 20.

Then all three groups blew their horns and broke their jars.

They had the blazing torches in their left hands and the horns in their right hands, and they all shouted, A sword for the Lord and for Gideon.

Each man stood at his position around the camp and watched as the Midianites rushed around in a panic, shouting as they ran to escape.

And the Midianites got confused and began to fight one another and kill one another.

And the people of God won a victory and did not even have to raise a sword.

Sometimes the plan that God gives you is not always your preference.

But you know that it's going to lead to a victory in Him.

See, God told these warriors to break these jars, to hold up these torches, to shout at the top of their lungs.

And just like Gideon in his weakness, in his fear, and his insecurity, letting God be his guide, and following God despite, despite his weakness.

God took the pieces and made it into something beautiful.

And just like the jars that broke, and we today, we we can give God these broken pieces and know that he's going to fight our battles.

We know that if we raise up a shout, if we trumpet with praise, that God can and will bring triumph in our life.

We know that if we shine our light for God, that he's going to finish the fight for his good, for our glory, in him, to walk in Jesus' plan.

That one day we would not just be in this weak state, but we would enter into a glorified body on the other side in heaven.

Back in the summer of 2022, I wrote out this thing called a vivid vision, and I'll share it with you at some point down the road.

And it described what our church would look like in the summer of 2025.

And already many of the things that are in that vision have already come to pass and already come to fruition.

The way this space and the way that it looks and the Frankfurt Ford Initiative is in there, and among other things.

And I know that it's God who will give us the victory.

It's God who will give us the victory over sin.

It's God who's going to give us the victory over death.

It's God who's going to give us a spiritual victory and provision so that we can walk and be the hands and feet in the light of Christ.

Even when it may not make sense.

Even when you might be here today and you think, man, I can't do all this God stuff.

That's for other people.

That's for people that haven't lived the life that I have, that haven't messed up in the ways that I have.

That's for somebody else.

No, it's for you, mighty warrior, mighty hero.

Everybody look at me.

You are a hero.

God is with you.

You're a hero, you're God is with you.

Not because of anything that you've done, because of Jesus on the strength on the cross to die in your place and to give you the power that you cannot access yourself, but only through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that can start today.

That can start right now.

And I love that Jesus told us the truth when he didn't promise us there wouldn't be pain.

Instead, he promised us the opposite.

He said, It's good, there's gonna be pain, there's gonna be hardship, there's gonna be trials, but I'm never gonna leave you.

And I'm never gonna forsake you.

You may have walked in today feeling like that God has forsaken you.

He is not.

He loves you, and he's ready for you to step out, step up in faith, and take the heal that God has promised and planned for your life.

It can start right now.

Maybe you're already saved, you're in Christ, you've been following for some time, but but there are there are things in your life right now that you're believing negative thoughts, weaknesses that you feel like are counting you out, and it's time for you to say, God is with me.

And when those things are bearing down on you and you feel like that you're not good enough, you raise your hands towards heaven, you say, God, you're with me.

God, you're with me.

I'm not perfect, I can't do this on my own, I can't get all this figured out, but God, I know with you that I can step and walk into victory with you.

And I I I just I wonder today, what if, what if, what if of the negative things that you're thinking and the the things that you feel like are holding you back?

The past, the mistakes that you made years ago.

If you would let go of the excuses like Gideon, step into God's purpose and plan for you.

What would happen?

What would your future become?

What would your family look like?

What would what would our city look like?

What could it be?

And maybe you're here today, and today you're thinking, you know what, Forrest, I I don't even know.

I don't even know if I should what I should do and what the next step is.

The step for you today is to trust in God's mighty hand in your life and Jesus' sacrifice for you on the cross for your forgiveness so that you can be walking with him each and every day.

So we're gonna now agree in prayer.

So if you would bow your heads with me right now, Father, I pray all across this room for the people who stepped into this room, God, the mighty heroes who stepped into this room, God, that don't, even right now as I say it, God, that they they don't they don't feel it, they don't believe it, they they their heart and mind push back on it, but God, Lord, you've you've come to them and said, mighty hero, I'm with you.

So God, I pray all across this room right now, Father, that no one would think that, God, that they're better than they are on their own strength, but because of what you did on the cross 2,000 years ago, Jesus.

So we thank you, Jesus, that you died on the cross, that you walked out of the grave alive, so that we could walk in life here on earth and into eternity.

So, God, I pray today, all across this room, if there's anybody in the room that has not followed you, has not accepted you as Savior, has not received the free gift of salvation by believing in your son, his death, and resurrection, to be forgiven, to be washed clean of their sins, that today would be that day.

That they would pray, Jesus, save me.

You pray in your heart and your mind, Jesus, save me, if that's you.

Jesus, save me.

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

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

I give my life to you so that you'll be with me from this day forward.

That my last breath on earth will be my first breath in heaven with you.

Thank you for saving me.

Nobody looking around, all across the room, today was your day to pray, to receive Christ, to walk in new life, to be forgiven and free.

And today was that day for you.

At the count of three, I want you to take an action.

Raise your hand into the air so I can see you, so I can acknowledge you, so I can pray for you.

If that's you today, you prayed that at the count of three.

I want you to raise your hand.

Ready?

One, two, three.

Right here, I see you, brother.

Right here, Father.

Uh see right over here, Father.

I thank you, Lord, for new life in this place today, God.

Not because of anything we've done, but all because of you, Jesus, and what you've done for us.

Thank you, God, that you're with us, you're walking with us, you're helping us, Father, to step in victory in you.

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

Everybody said, Amen.