Bricklayers (Week 6)

Good morning.

I'm Forrest Coleman, lead pastor here.

If you're new with us, welcome.

Glad that you are here this morning.

Myself and about a hundred others began the work of Multiply Church just two years ago.

So welcome.

Glad that you are here.

And we're jumping in today to uh bricklayers.

And the title of my message today is It Can Be Done.

Everybody say it can be done.

Picture this.

It's April the 15th, 1947.

The air is thick with anticipation at Ebbett's Field in Brooklyn, New York.

Fans are excited.

There's a buzz.

There's tension in the air.

There's some 26,000 spectators that are there to witness history in the making.

It's not just another day in baseball.

It's the day that Jackie Robinson takes the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers and breaks the color barrier of Major League Baseball for the very first time.

Imagine the nerves.

Imagine the weight of expectation that's on Jackie's shoulders.

That he's not just playing for himself or for his team, but in some ways he's playing for an entire nation that's waiting and wanting equality and justice, some two decades before the Civil Rights Act would come into pass.

Robinson steps onto the field with that white jersey with 42 gleaming on the back.

The people, the teammates, they realized that this moment's bigger than baseball.

America is watching.

We all knew this was a new era.

Jackie stepped up in the fifth inning, he stole second base, and he scored, showing his speed and his ability that would become his trademark as the defining statement to what he had experienced with bigotry.

The New York Times wrote at the time that Jackie that he bore the greatest burden ever placed on an athlete.

And he did it with dignity.

As the opposing players hurled racial slurs at him, as the crowd shouted vile insults, Jackie remained unflinched, poised in a beacon of hope, showing that courage isn't the absence of fear but the triumph over it.

Jackie broke a barrier that no one thought could be broken.

At a time before these barriers were even being broken.

It's Nelson Mandela who said it's it always seems impossible until it's done.

You know, I'm a kind of person that I hate the word can't.

I can't stand the word can't.

You know, when I'm talking to somebody, I'm on the phone asking for that discount, and they're like, we can't do that.

I'm like, can you really not?

You really can't do it?

Is it really that you can't, or is it just that you won't do it?

Because I feel like when I get a no, it's just a gateway to a yes of what I'm really trying to get after.

Anybody like that?

I don't like can't.

I'm somebody who wants to think, no, what can we do?

And I wonder too, today, for some of us that are in the room, are there areas of our life where we look at God and say, God, I won't do that?

We think that the we can't do something, but most of the time, the can't, it's a lie.

It just means that you won't.

And maybe there's an area of your life today that you're thinking, God, I can't do that.

You know, I God, I can't foster a child.

I couldn't do that.

I couldn't do all that, hold open my home.

I couldn't do that.

I couldn't host a small group.

No, God, I can't do that.

God, I can't wait for a godly boyfriend or girlfriend like they don't exist.

Even though there's been two engagements in the life of Multiply Church in the last two weeks, can we give God glory and praise?

By the way.

A disclaimer is that over the last few weeks we've been in this family feud series, and we started that the week before, eight weeks ago, talking about bricklayers and returning back to our series from the end of this last year.

And and then we're we're we're stepping in and returning to bricklayers today and and going back and talking through this.

And so here's the disclaimer.

I'm trying to this morning pull a lot of puzzle pieces together and fit them together over the last few weeks of God is showing me.

And so if you get lost this morning, it's not your fault.

It's my fault.

Um, if you haven't been with us for the last few weeks, I'm gonna do my best to explain and to help you to keep up as we go through and and talk about what it looks like for us to build God's kingdom together and be ones who lay the bricks on the foundation to reach our city for Jesus.

Now, the story that we went through with our bricklayer series and that we've returned to is the story in the Old Testament of a guy named Nehemiah.

And just to paint a picture for you, the people of God at the time, this is way before Jesus came, and in the Old Testament, the people of God, they're in this cycle, this terrible cycle of coming to God, then sinning against God, rebelling against him, being disobedient from God, then God judging them and bringing judgment against their nation, and then starting the cycle all over again.

And at the time that this happens in the story of Nehemiah, that's a whole book in the Old Testament.

It's called Nehemiah, named after him.

We enter into the story of the people of God in one of these seasons where they've been walking with God, they had begun to sin and to walk away from God, and so in judgment, the Lord brought an evil empire with an evil king to come and overtake the people of God and bring judgment on them.

And this evil king, not only did they go into Jerusalem, into their homeland, and tear the city apart, rip down the temple, tear down the walls, but they also took plenty of people, the people of God, the Israelites, as captive slaves, and took them to the foreign land of Babylon.

And this is where Nehemiah finds himself in a foreign land, as a worker in the government, kind of in a high position.

He finds himself as a cupbearer, which means he has to drink the wine before the king does, and if there's poison, he dies, he's in that role.

Not so good.

But also he has proximity to the king, and so there's times where the cupbearer is also asked to give advisement and can actually speak to the king, which is, you know, rare and quite uh a high honor.

But there's a problem.

The problem is that Nehemiah hears from his relatives that things are still not going well back in his homeland.

See, some of God's people, the Jews, were able to leave and go back to Jerusalem and begin to rebuild, to rebuild the temple, but he finds out from some of his family members that come and give them news that things are still not well because the walls of Jerusalem, the fortification, the protection around his homeland, around his city, that they are still in rubble and shambles.

And this grieves him.

It grieves him.

He begins to pray and he begins to reap because there's lots of problems.

The first one is that he's not an engineer.

He's a cupbearer.

What in the world is he supposed to do?

He's not an expert at large construction projects.

He doesn't know what to do.

He's not a foreman, he's a cupbearer.

And we just a few weeks ago zeroed in on the life of Nehemiah and the truth that sometimes it only takes someone to step up into the gap and let God use them for their glory outside of what they feel like is possible or what he could do, and then God show up in amazing ways.

Sometimes it just takes somebody to say, Okay, God, I'm here, I'm ready.

What should I do?

And that's what Nehemiah does.

He prays, he asks God for God to use him to provide for them being able to restore Jerusalem, the walls of Jerusalem, back to their former glory.

Now, at the same time, in the same season as this is going on.

The book of Malachi, the prophet in the Old Testament.

This is the last book in the Old Testament, Malachi.

What I've come to learn is that the prophet Malachi, that that, that Malachi was in and around the same season as Nehemiah.

Scholars believe that Malachi and in his book, the last book of the Old Testament, that what he's saying and what the prophecies that he's bringing to the people of God is happening about the same time of Nehemiah or right after Nehemiah.

And there is four chapters in the book of Malachi where he is calling the people of God yet again in this cycle back to repentance and back to God.

Because in this short time that that Malachi is calling them to repentance of them returning to Jerusalem, in that time the priesthood had become corrupt.

Worship had become routine.

Divorce was widespread.

Justice was being ignored.

Tithing was being neglected.

And God, yet again, is wanting to speak to and remind his people of who he is and what they won't do.

And also baked into what Malachi is saying is also a reminder and a link to Jacob and the promise that God made to Jacob that we've just been walking through over the last few weeks with our family feud series and following the promise of God to Jacob and his descendants.

And so God reminds them who he is and why they're here in Malachi chapter 3, starting in verse 6, he says, I am the Lord, I do not change.

Malachi 3 · chapter mention

That is why you, descendants of Jacob, are not already destroyed.

Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them.

Now return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of heaven's armies.

But you ask, How can we return when we've never gone away?

Should people cheat God?

Yet you have cheated me.

But you ask, What do you mean?

When do we ever cheat you?

You have cheated me in tithes and offerings due to me.

You're under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me.

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, so there will be enough food in my temple.

If you do, says the Lord of heaven's armies, I will open up the windows of heaven for you, and I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in.

Try it.

Put me to the test.

When I was a teenager, and there was times where I would, I told y'all last week about my dad.

I got a great dad, he's not a pastor, he knows the word really well, though.

He's a great guy.

And when I was a teenager, there would be times where I was leaving the house and I was going to go out with some friends, and there were times I was going out to do some things that were good.

There were times I was going out the door doing some things that were not so good.

And I was walking, as I walked out of the house, my dad would say the same thing over and over to me, this little statement that he said so often that it got into my mind, to my psyche.

And as I would walk out the door before I would, my dad would say, Forrest, remember who you are.

Remember who you are.

And I'm gonna walk out the door, either choosing to remember who I was or not choosing to remember who I was.

But it was a reminder that my dad was trying to tell me, remember who you are, remember whose you are, remember the person that you are, the family that you come from, and how you represent yourself when you step outside of the door.

And in the same way, God in this moment is looking at his people and he's saying, Return, let me tell you who you are.

You are the descendants of Jacob.

Then I made a promise to you that I was going to bless you and increase your descendants, and that you were going to be a blessing to the nations, and that's who you are.

And because I've promised this to you, you're not presently getting what you deserve.

You're giving you, you're getting what I'm giving you, my mercy, that you've not yet been destroyed.

And right now you feel like that you're cheating me, but really you're just cheating yourselves.

Really, you're just cheating yourselves by not walking with me, by not returning to me, by not following me.

It's during this time or after this time that Nehemiah, as he's rebuilding the walls, there's opposition at every turn.

There are enemies that are trying to come and attack.

There are people that are trying to tear them down.

One of those enemies that's wanting to tear down, to cheat, to steal is this guy named Sambalat.

And he's angry.

And in Nehemiah 4, verse 1, we see Sambalat was very angry when he learned that they were rebuilding the wall.

Nehemiah 4:1

He flew into a rage and mocked the Jews, saying in front of his friends, the Samarian army officers, What does this bunch of poor, feeble Jews think they're doing?

Do they think they can build the wall in a single day by just offering a few sacrifices?

Do they actually think they can make something of stones from a rubbish heap, a charred one at that?

He says, What do they think they're doing?

You think they can really do something?

They can really rebuild these walls of this heap of rubble, one that's been burned to a crisp.

And what I know is true for Nehemiah and for you today, if any one of you want to do something significant significant for God, you're gonna have to handle the haters.

You're gonna have to handle the haters.

Because it is so oftentimes that people in our lives, they want to give us their two cents.

They want to give us their two cents and it's worth just that.

It's not worth much more than that.

I was talking to somebody the other day that said that they'd they've been coming back to church and they invited a friend to come to church with them.

And you know what the person said?

They said, You don't go to church.

What why are you inviting me to church?

You don't go to church.

There's always gonna be somebody who says it can't be done.

There are too many people out there who say it can't be done, and there's too many people that are looking at you and trying to be a naysayer, and we've got to say no to the naysayers that are trying to hold us back and keep us and short and shortchange us from what God is calling us to do.

And there are plenty of people who don't believe in us and don't believe in you, and sometimes the most powerful thing that you can hear is I believe in you.

And I'm telling you today, church, I believe in you.

I believe in you, I believe in us.

Guess who else believes in you?

God believes in you.

He's made a promise to you through his son Christ, and there's gonna be enemies, and there's gonna be people who come alongside and say, Oh, you know, you can't do that.

Why would you waste your time?

Why are you even doing that?

And the same thing happened to Nehemiah.

Sam Balak came to him, others came to him trying to tear him down, trying to get him off the project, trying to get him to come down and go to a meeting where they really wanted to attack him.

And you know what his response was?

He said, I am doing a great work and I cannot come down to you.

I am walking with God, I am accomplishing his purposes, and I cannot stop because you want to take me off course.

I can't stop because you just want to hate on what God is doing.

And we know, we know what ended up happening.

Despite the naysayers, Nehemiah 6.15, on October the 2nd, the wall was finished in just 52 days after we had begun.

And when our enemies and the surrounding nations heard about it, they were frightened and humiliated.

They realized this work had been done with the help of our God.

It can be done.

It can be done.

The enemies that were frightened and humiliated, one of them being Sam Ballad himself, who was humiliated by the fact that they realized that they didn't do it by their own power, but they had the power of God at their back and at their front, and you do too today.

It can be done.

And how do we do that?

Well, we do it here at this church by us loving, serving, worshiping, giving with time, with talent, with treasure.

So many of the folks are in the room today, and you have been serving, giving your time, loving others inside and outside of the walls.

And this is just so awesome because I got to tell you all, in the middle of summer, in the middle of June, just in the month of June, we have added seven new team members to our volunteer team members in the last few weeks.

Of people saying, Yeah, I'm gonna step in.

I'm gonna step in, I'm gonna begin to give my time, I'm gonna be able to be able to give my talents.

You all are so talented.

You've been given gifts from God in part by the Holy Spirit.

You also have skills that you've picked up along the way that you can use for God's glory and for his kingdom, and also it includes you taking the step and trusting God and investing in his kingdom through our treasure.

And this is listen to me, listen to me, listen to me, listen to me.

God, in all of these three things, is not looking for a transaction, he's looking for transformation.

He's not just waiting around looking for the ching-ching.

He's wanting to see what is going on in your heart and your mind.

When we bring to God our time, our talent, our treasure, specifically our treasure, as we give our ties, it should feel different than us paying our car insurance.

Like I've never had somebody ever say, Hey, what's going on?

Good in your life, and that person says, Man, I've had a great time paying my car insurance today.

Wow.

It's just really exhilarating to get online or to write that check and send that in.

Because I don't know, half the time you pay for insurance and then they give you some runaround and it's like it feels like a scam half the time anyway.

It shouldn't feel like that.

But but here's what's true.

As we are giving to God with our lives, with our minds, with our hearts, with our skills, with our finances, this is an act of worship to God and generosity.

Do you know and realize that bringing the tithe, which means one tenth, that bringing the tithe has been a part of worship for thousands of years before preaching was?

Thousands of years before worship music was, going all the way back to the very beginning in Genesis with Cain and Abel, and then bringing their first fruits as an offering and a sacrifice to God, to Abraham, giving a tenth or a tithe to the priest Melchizedek, all the way back for now, millennia.

The people of God have been practicing bringing to God the tithe, the tenth.

And with Jesus, it always starts with the heart.

It always starts with the heart.

See, here's the case.

At the time of Nehemiah, in the time of the Old Testament, a tenth, the people were bringing a tenth of their income to the Lord.

It wasn't just for them, a tenth, actually, for the Jewish people, they were giving a tenth to the temple.

Oftentimes they were giving a tenth to the festivals that would happen in their local area, and also giving a tenth to the poor in their town.

So many of the people in Nehemiah and in Jewish times that they were giving some between 23 and 30 percent of their income every year.

And this act of worship that we continue to walk in of bringing to God a tithe, this is an act of worship that grows God's kingdom.

And it's an act of worship, it's an act of worship to make a disciple.

It's an act of worship to be a witness for the Lord.

You heard just before in our service, uh, over the course of the next of the summer before school comeback, I think that we have some like seven different Frankfurt Ford initiative opportunities to serve in in the next few weeks.

And there are a lot of different ways.

We're getting to partner with some local schools, we're getting to build wheelchair ramps and do house repairs to the Fuller Center here coming up.

You can get on the app, you can check it out.

There's a lot of ways for you to plug in and to step in.

And it's not just if you're interested, it's for you to step in as an act of worship to God.

So that we can love, share, encourage, and show the witness of who Jesus is to a city that so desperately needs it.

Somebody say amen.

That we get to be a representation of God's glory, hands and feet.

And not just outside the walls, but also inside the walls and the work of a church.

Uh, this is something you need to know.

In the last week, a few of the guys have started to build and expand uh out a Brand new room and space for our kids area in the back of our building because we need the room for our kids to expand.

Praise the Lord.

We're starting to put up some walls, build some new space because we're expanding for God's kingdom, and we're to continue to, so we can continue to see people connect and love and get into relationship with Jesus because with Jesus it always starts with the heart.

If you fast forward 500 years, that very same temple that Malachi speaks about, Jesus is there.

The same one.

In the the very first part of Luke 21, Jesus was in the temple.

Verse 1.

Jesus was in the temple.

And he watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box.

Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins.

I tell you the truth, Jesus said.

This poor widow has given more than all the rest of them.

For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything that she has.

See, sometimes two cents is worth a lot.

Sometimes two cents is worth a lot because it's sincere.

Because it's a bringing.

See, just like the people of God that would bring the tithe, they're returning it to, is what Malachi says is that return to God, to bring to him the tithe.

Because he's entrusted us and given us an income.

And I know personally, for me, this has been so transformational.

Emily and I, we have given and tithe for as long as I can remember.

But not too long ago, a few years ago, we made a shift, and I made a shift that I would begin to give first fruit.

So as soon as any income came in, the first thing I would do is get onto the app and give to the Lord to make sure that I had enough by the end of the month to be able to give the tithe.

Because there were too many times that I was coming to the end of the month, and I'm like trying to, you know, move from the savings to checking and checking to this and like trying to figure out if I can actually give after everything's left and then and give and just cross my fingers and hit the enter button to give.

But transformation came because Jesus was dealing with my heart to bring to him first, to serve him first, to love him first, to bring to him what is his, and then over and above to give generously from there.

Here's what I'm trying to say.

Some of you all over the last few months have met a young couple in our church, the doctors.

A beautiful family.

Aaron, he serves on the worship team sometimes.

Brooks, she's been serving in kids at the check-in station.

Let me just, I want to, I want to talk about them for a minute because they're on vacation.

I can say anything that I want.

But I want to tell you a little bit about what the last six months has looked like and even before.

See, the the Dockery family, my family has known them for a long time, years and years.

I performed their wedding years ago.

They have lived in Somerset pretty much their whole lives.

They went to college but moved back to Somerset as a beautiful family.

Their family, it's down there in the Somerset area.

And when they found out that Emily and I were making the move to come to Frankfurt three years ago, along with our team, to take the step to begin the work of multiply church, the doctories heard about it, and I'm they gave one of the very first financial gifts ever to multiply.

And it wasn't even, I'm telling you, what they were given to at the time, I mean, it was like they were they they were just literally given to words.

They were literally just given to a dream.

They were literally just given to a vision and saying, hey, we're this is this is what we're gonna do.

And they have continued to love and to give this entire time, even though they were far away and in Somerset, which is an hour and a half away.

And about a year ago, the Lord told them, hey, it's time for us to move.

We've been in Somerset this whole time, but it's time for us to pick up and to move our family and to go be a part of Multiply Church.

And so Aaron got a new job up here with a firm.

He's an engineer with a firm up here.

And a year ago, they announced that they were gonna move to Frankfurt just to be a part of the church and to see God grow the kingdom and to be a part of this work.

And they had this beautiful home in Somerset on Main Street.

Oh my goodness, so beautiful.

Aaron had done such a good job renovating so much of this home in their anticipation a year ago to put this house on the market, and they're like, we're gonna put this house on the market.

Market's really great, we're gonna put it on, it's gonna sell in a couple days, we're gonna make a bunch of money, and we're gonna be able to move to Frankfurt, everything's gonna be great, and they're making all these plans, and they put their house on the market, and it's set on the market for a year.

For a year.

No explanation.

Crazy.

But they knew that God had called them, and so that six months ago, they made the commitment.

They said, you know what?

Our house isn't selling.

We've been waiting basically to come and to move for six months.

Like, we got to do something.

And so in January, they made the commitment that they were gonna start driving every Sunday from Somerset to Frankfurt to come and to serve three hours every Sunday with their three young kids that they for the last six months have been driving every Sunday to come and serve and worship.

And I Emily and I, we took that drive back and forth to Summer Red a few weeks ago with our two kids.

It gave me a whole new perspective and appreciation for the sacrifice that that has been for the last three years with their three small kids for them to drive three hours on the road every Sunday, crazy.

And after six months, some in the time of that six months, they said, you know what?

The house is still not selling.

There's we don't understand why away's not being made.

We're just we're gonna make the decision, we're gonna move.

Even if the house doesn't sell, we're gonna figure this out.

And so they made the commitment, January or the and the they made the commitment that on June the 1st, they're gonna move to Frankfurt.

And so they got a connection through his boss and found a place that they could rent a condo, and they started packing up the house in one week.

This is just two, three weeks ago, one week before they were supposed to move, somebody calls on the phone and says, I want to buy your house.

Full price offer, and then I'm gonna pay for all the furniture you don't want to move, and then I want to close in like four days' time, they close that house in like four days' time, nothing doesn't happen.

And God made a weapon at the very last moment because when you leap, God leaps.

And we've seen God do that over and over and over again in the lives of people and the work of this church, they're falling in the footsteps of a lot of faith.

And so they're on vacation this week, but they moved here and they're here, and they're serving and they're loving.

And I this is what I tell you, this is what I want to tell you, church.

It can be done.

It can be done.

It can be done.

It can be done.

Everybody say it can be done.

You say, Forest, I can't.

I can't.

I can't take that step.

I can't begin to trust God in this area or in that area with my finances, with my career, with my future.

So oftentimes, when it comes to the area of faith and our finances, what we worship, it shows up in our wallets.

Just does.

And it goes so far beyond, it goes so far beyond trusting God with our finances.

That's like the baseline, that's like the baseline obedience, trusting God and trusting Him because here's what He's told us.

Test me.

Try it and test me.

This is the only place where God says, put it to the test.

See if I don't bless you, see if I don't take you on a wild and grand adventure as you give your life to me.

Not just one part of it, not just one sliver, not just Sundays, but give fully because it was Jesus who was the one who said to follow me, you must take up your cross and follow me daily.

It's giving over our whole life over to God.

And and my hope, my hope today, that somebody in this room, that somebody in this room is going to give over their life and heart fully to God for the first time and ask for his salvation to forgive them of their sins, to wipe and cleanse them clean so that you can be in heaven with him one day.

And I also pray at the same time that all across the room, whether you are walking in faith and giving your tithe, I pray that God's gonna take you to a new level, a new level of faithfulness to him, of obedience to him, and the plan that he has for his life.

A few months ago, for those that you were here, we went through a series talking about Esther.

And through the story of Esther, we talked about how God had a secret plan.

And talking with the doctories back and forth over the last year, many times, we looked at each other and said, God has a secret plan.

We don't know what it is, and they tell it to their kids.

They said, God has a secret plan and he's working, working, working.

And the kids would say it back.

They're well, he's working, working, working.

We get to discover what it is, what God's plan is for our lives and walking with him.

Would you bow your heads and pray with me, Father?

I just ask right now, all across this room, Father.

As so many of the people in this room, God, are pursuing after you, God, and giving to you, God, and and and and walking with you, God, and and building a foundation for their lives, their families, their children, for our community, for this church, God, that is rooted in you, that is for you, that it's from you, and then it's an act of worship.

And God, I thank you, Lord.

And I pray, God, that you take them to a new level of faith and height.

That, Lord, you graduate their faith.

Lord, as they trust you completely.

And Father, also I pray across the room today, there's anybody in this place that has not received the free gift of salvation on the cross that Jesus bought and purchased for them and died in their place so that they would not get what they deserve, but instead that they would get freedom, forgiveness, and new life in you from now into eternity, not separated in a place called hell, but in communion with God in heaven forever.

And God, I pray today that there's someone in our room that God, today is their day to take that step to receive it.

And if that's you today, that you would pray, Jesus, save me.

Pray to your heart, your mind, Jesus, save me.

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

You are Lord.

Cleanse me, forgive me.

I'm giving my whole life to you.

So that I can be in heaven with you one day.

Thank you for your cross.

Thank you for salvation in the strong name of Jesus.

No one looking around across the room today was the day that you prayed for Jesus to forgive you, to seal you, for you to be with Jesus now into eternity in heaven.

I'm gonna ask you to take an action so I can pray for you, so I can acknowledge you in just a second.

Nobody's looking around, but what I'm gonna ask you to do is at the count of three for you to raise your hand up and put it back down.

Raise your hand up so I can see you and lock eyes with you if that's your decision today.

At the count of three, ready.

One, two, three.

Anyone in here?

Yeah, right here.

I see you.

Lock eyes with me.

I see you, Father.

I pray right now, Lord, that God is an act of worship to you today, God.

God is hand raised high, Father, that Lord, there would be a ceiling of salvation today.

That God, the decision that is made, Father, that will move from death to life, from death to eternity.

That God, today would be the day, God, of salvation.

God, I pray, Lord, that there's a sincerity.

That God, you would meet with each of us today, God.

And specifically, God, salvation today has come into this place.

And Father, we claim it, we praise you for it, God.

We give you all the glory, none to ourselves.

We thank you for eternity that you purchased for us.

We celebrate it in the strong name of Jesus.

Amen.