Grand Opening

Good morning.

And welcome to our new house.

Woo! If I've not gotten to meet you yet, I'm Forrest Coleman Lee Pastor here at Multipla.

My family, about a hundred other people, have been in the work of and uh one month shot of two years ago launched the work of Multiply Church.

And we're thankful that in that short amount of time that we are uh now having a day like today for our grand opening of this new location.

It's such a short amount of time.

And uh before I get into my message, I want to take some time.

One, obviously, to share gratitude to the Lord and also to do uh a little bit of recognition.

But uh first off, if you would join me right now as we praise and worship God and give a thanksgiving to the Lord and gratitude to him for all that he has done.

And so many hands have gone into this day and preparing this space.

And so if you are here and uh you are one of the ones who uh have done any construction or moving or giving or praying or anything like that to the beginnings of this new location, would you kindly stand so that we can recognize you?

Just give it up right now for anybody who's in the room who has done any of that.

Now, um I I want to uh hit up just a couple of people here, and I I saw them just stand so um some two guys that you have no idea who they are, but the general contractors of this project are friends of ours from Southland, uh Wayne and Tyler Morris that are back here.

Would you guys stand up right back here?

Give it up for these two, these guys behind the scenes for this whole process, uh, and a lot of patience with me, let me tell you.

Uh and I I'm uh Wayne, I'm gonna tell this story.

You may get upset, but you probably won't.

Um, that uh Wayne, halfway through this this process and stuff getting into this place and him doing all the coordination.

This is uh this was the last project before his retirement.

And halfway through, uh, and this has been an extension of his ministry and their work as genocontractors and his love of the Lord, halfway through this project, he started feeling some dizziness, went to the doctor.

The doctor told him that one of the arteries in his heart was completely blocked.

But they said they had never seen this before.

That the other arteries in his heart over time have overcompensated, overcompensated to the fact that he did not have to have any surgery at all in the midst of this process.

They said they'd never seen it before.

And so I always say he's a miracle man walking.

And he laughed and said, and he said, Obviously, God wanted me to get this project done.

Uh, I think about those that uh have come uh from far and wide who have invested in uh the work of God's people here.

I think about my friend Josh Mounts, Mounts Concrete, who came in in his own dime, tens of thousands of dollars of concrete work in the beginning of this process.

And I'm grateful for him, and I'm thankful for what God has done in and through us.

And there's a couple of guys that nobody, probably a few of you may know in this room, but they've uh have never been in the same room together on a Sunday.

Uh those are uh two guys, uh, they are the Webb brothers, they're actually not brothers, they're not relation at all, but Lee Webb and Stephen Webb, who are in the house today, um I don't know where you all are, wave to everybody.

These two guys, um, three years ago, in the beginning of this process, these two pastors and men who are very wise, uh, I submitted myself to their leadership, mentorship, and friendship as they have walked every step of the way in this process.

And uh Little and Sweb, thank you so much for what God has done through you and how you've helped.

And if you would join me in thanking those two guys that I love so dearly.

Now, Sweb, he always says that uh that we're champions around here.

That this last season that we just went through with uh starting from nothing, setup and teardown in the sticky movie theater, we won that season and now we're champions.

And guess what?

A new season is starting.

And so uh in in true form, those two guys like uh our Andy Reid, Bill Belichick type coaches that have come with us and been with us every step of the way, and I just want to tell you, I am so excited right now that we're here of what God has done, what he's done in this space.

And early it was stated, and it's the truth, that right now we're walking in a 3D miracle as you walk through the halls and the places uh here to be able to move into this space so quickly and for God's hand to move.

And it's been because of God's favor, his people, of amazing churches like Southland and Awaken and others that have come alongside and invested in us over the last two years and have partnered with us.

And I'm I could not be more grateful for what God has done.

And we're walking in the faithfulness of the Lord.

And the craziest thing about it all, the most miraculous part, is that this has all happened completely debt free.

Completely debt free.

If it's God's will, it's God's bill, and He has paid, allowing us from here forward to be that much more generous in our community.

I'm so thankful for what God's done.

It's so exciting, and there's so much work to be done, and even in preparation of this day, because today is a day of victory.

Today is a day of victory.

Everybody say victory.

Today is a day of victory, and I'm gonna share with us today a story of victory from the Word of God.

The last couple of Sundays, we've been going through the story of Esther, and I'm gonna catch you up on it because we're ending this story of Esther in a victory story.

And and the story of Esther is really a story of someone who steps up in spite of fear to do what God has told him to do, and in doing so, and we're gonna see from this passage today that there's an Esther effect.

That's the title of the message today.

There's an Esther effect.

I think about people who have who have stood up in face of fear, of of death, denial, dismissal.

I think about people like Rosa Parks on a bus.

I think about Malala in the Taliban, I think about Dr.

Martin Luther King, I think about Nessumelandela in South Africa and standing up to the apartheid government.

I think about people along life's journey that have had this Esther effect that one person would say, uh, I'm not gonna be in fear, but I'm gonna step forward into my assignment, and when I do so, encourage there's victory.

Now, the story of Esther that we've been going through, it it it it it has it has all the makeup of the story.

It could be a Netflix miniseries, okay?

It it has uh it has morally questionable people, it has uh the threat of genocide, it's got murder, it has deception at every level, it has all the ingredients of a story that we all love.

It's got this strong, heroine, wonder woman, Esther, who is this young, bold, beautiful, courageous orphan girl who wins a beauty contest by disguising her Jewish ethnicity in the Persian kingdom, and ultimately she rises to the place of queen and is in the position to be able to then save her people, the Jews.

We have this crazy king, King Xerxes, who is a megalomaniac, who is reigning over most of the known world at the time, all the way from India all the way to Africa and Ethiopia, is all under his rule.

And just like the kings of his day, he ruled with an iron fist, thousands of wives, women, human trafficking.

And then we have Mordecai.

Mordecai's Esther's good older cousin who adopted her, helped her, protects her, walks with her and counsels her through the entire time as she hides her identity to become the queen.

And then ultimately Mordecai is rewarded by the king because he is in the right place at the right time to uncover a plot, an assassination attempt on the king's life.

And then we have the villain Haman, this noble of nobles who's a Nazi-level threat, who wants to kill and exterminate the Jews.

Can't stand them, angry at them, wants to uh eliminate them.

And he ultimately gets the king to agree to his plan to do so.

But God had another plan.

God had another another plan.

And so we enter into episode three of three right now.

So if you want to hear the other episode, you can go to our website and you can check out episode one and two.

But we're entering into episode three.

And just to give you a bit of a recap, just like on Netflix, don't skip it.

Don't skip me.

The the the king and Haman have had this drunken meeting where he is uh deceived and has devised a plan and and and had the king to make a decree to kill all of the Jews.

And Esther, she hears of this plot.

She's speaking with Mordecai.

Mordecai's trying to encourage her and tell her to go to the king to advocate for her people, but she knows that just to go into the king's presence without being invited is a death sentence.

It's against the law.

And so Mordecai in Esther 4 14, he asks her this very strong question.

And he says, Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?

And so, what does Esther do?

And we spoke of this last week.

She fasted, she prayed, she asked her friends to fast and pray, and she comes to a conclusion that she's going to go and have an audience with the king, and she makes this statement if I must die, I must die.

This young girl.

And so she goes to the king, and he receives her, and she asks for a request, which he happily grants, and she asks him to come to a banquet that she has set up.

And during this same time, Mordecai, her cousin, he refuses to bow down to the evil noble Haman, and he hates him for it so much so that Haman begins to devise a plot to kill and to execute Mordecai.

And that same night, the king, in some crazy irony, in a sleepless night, what he requests to be done, he can't fall asleep in the night.

He asked someone to come and to read him the history books of his kingdom.

And he's reminded of the fact that four years previously, Mordecai had exposed this plot to assassinate him.

And he asked his servants the question, What did we ever do for Mordecai?

And they replied and said, Nothing has been done for him.

So as the morning came, Haman comes to the palace, and both the king and Haman both have a plan for Mordecai.

The king to honor him, Haman to execute him.

And then in a completely ego-filled rant, the king asks Haman, What would you do for someone that you wanted to honor?

And Haman couldn't imagine that the king would want to honor anybody else but himself.

And so he waxed poetic and goes on and on and on about all these things.

Well, he should ride on a royal steed and go through all the streets, and people will proclaim the honor of this person that you want to honor.

And the king then looks at Haman and says, Great, do that for Mordecai.

And I'm sure his jaw hit the floor.

And so he follows the king's orders.

He honors Mordecai, who he hates and has set up a gallows for his execution.

And then he Haman goes home dejected, humiliated.

His friends and his wife say, Stop opposing Mordecai.

This will not turn out well for you.

But in his ego, he leaves the gallows up.

And in chapter 7, we see this next banquet that Esther has called for the king.

And so, verse 1.

So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther's banquet.

On this second occasion, while they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, Tell me what you want, Queen Esther.

What is your request?

I will give it to you, even if it's half the kingdom.

And Queen Esther replied, If I found favor with the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my request, I ask that my life and the lives of my people will be spared.

The king, bewildered, not fully understanding, what she's saying is asking, What plot are you talking about?

Who are you speaking of?

And in verse 5, he says, Who would do such a thing, King Xerxes demanded?

Who would be so presumptuous as to touch you?

And Esther replied, With Haman sitting there at the table.

The wicked Haman is our adversary and our enemy.

And Haman grew pale with fright before the king and queen because he knew what was coming.

And the king in anger sent Haman for him to be killed and executed.

This whole time, this evil villain had a plot against not just Mordecai, not just Esther, but all of the Jewish people in the known world, including Jerusalem and Israel, and this area that one day, that one day King Jesus would come from those people.

Haman's plot was not just to kill off the Jews then, but to stop the salvation of the world from coming today.

But God had a different plan.

He's working behind the scenes.

And in the same way today, you've coming into the room, you've come into the room today, and some of you right now are recognizing the fact that you have an enemy, Satan, that wants to kill, steal, and destroy you and your family.

And there may be people here on earth, there may be earthly enemies right now that are at work or in your place, that are extended family, that right now they have plots against you.

Somebody's planning to get you fired, somebody's planning to harm you, somebody's planning to get back at you.

And there's a plot that's happening.

But I know from God's word that everything can be redeemed.

That what man meant for evil, God can make good.

And as we move, you and I, and resist the plots of the enemy, the Lord, in the same way as He did for Esther and Mordecai, will move us from plots to platforms.

Is it possible that the setbacks that you currently are experiencing are actually setups for the next thing God has called for you?

The next thing that the Lord wants to do through you.

And in the wise words of the theologian Kanye West, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

There's plots of the enemy that are happening in our community.

And today, out in the lobby, there's a representative from the Juana Joyce Robinson Foundation that is this amazing organization that's here in our community.

We partner with time and time again.

And what they do is they come along and they serve young people, they serve teens and children who currently have a parent or guardian incarcerated.

Do you know that the state of Kentucky has the highest percentage of children that have a parent or guardian incarcerated right now in the state of the whole United States?

They estimate that some 800 families are in this situation.

And so they're in local schools, and outside there's a table where they're beginning to do a mentorship program through Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation.

And today you have the opportunity to go and talk to them and get some more information about how you could help to stop some of the plots of the enemy from ravaging and raging against young people and children in our town.

You know what's true?

That child that has a parent or that has a parent incarcerated or a guardian incarcerated, they didn't do anything to be in that situation.

They're completely innocent in that situation.

But they need somebody to step up and step into the gap on their behalf to come alongside them.

Here's the thing: the enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy the people in our community.

He wants to keep us addicted, abused, our kids abandoned, their innocence robbed.

He wants racial disunity here in our city.

He wants to rail against the vulnerable and the unborn, and we are going to stand up.

We are going to stand up, not just from the words of our mouth, but from the action and the work of our hands and our feet.

And this is not something that I'm claiming today.

This is something we've been walking in.

And I want you to hear me right now.

Listen to me close.

If you have been praying for multiplied church during our journey, please start praying for our enemies because they're going to need it.

They're going to need it.

Esther chapter 8.

Esther 8 · chapter mention

On that same day, King Xerxes gave the property of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther.

And then Mordecai was brought before the king.

For Esther had told the king how they were related.

And the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken back from Haman, and he gave it to Mordecai.

And Esther appointed Mordec Mordecai to be in charge of Haman's property.

And then to verse 8, the king is telling them about this decree of to kill the Jews.

He said, Go ahead and send a message to the Jews in the king's name, telling them whatever you want and seal it with the king's signet ring.

But remember that whatever has already been written in the king's name and sealed with his signet ring can never be revoked.

Everybody say revoked.

They've got a problem.

This decree has already gone out from the king to kill all of the Jews.

And it cannot be reversed.

So Esther and Mordecai, they get together and they start to devise a plan.

And what the plan that they devise is, is have the king put out another decree that allows on the day that this extermination is supposed to happen, it gives the rights and the empowerment to all the Jews all across the land, that on that day they can fight for themselves and for the salvation of their people.

And that's exactly what happened.

Chapter 9, verse 1.

So on March the 7th, the two decrees of the kings were put into effect.

On that day, the enemy of the Jews that hoped to overpower them, but quite the opposite happened.

It was the Jews who overpowered their enemies.

And the Jews gathered in cities throughout all of king's provinces to attack anyone who tried to harm them, but no one could make a stand against them, for everyone was afraid of them.

And all the nobles of the provinces, the high officers and the governors, and the royal officials helped the Jews for fear of Mordecai.

For Mordecai had been promoted in the king's palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces as he became more and more powerful.

God, in his providence, has them to come up with another plan that they would be able to fight for their lives and the salvation of their people.

And I think that it's interesting for us today in 2024 that God's fixed to this.

Is that the fix was in the fight?

God just didn't say, okay, well, you know, I'm going to fix all this and you don't have to do anything.

But instead, he gave them the opportunity to fight for their lives with him at their back, and they were victorious.

In every single city across that known world, the Jews prevailed because they had God in the fight with them.

We gotta fight the good fight.

We gotta fight the good fight.

We get to alongside of our King Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Join with him to fight back against the enemy schemes for our families, for our kids, for our future kids, people all across our community.

And then they celebrated.

Verse 17.

This was done throughout the provinces on March 7th and on March 8th.

They rested.

Celebrating their victory with a day of feasting and gladness in verse 19.

So to this day, rural Jews leaving in remote villages celebrate an annual festival and holiday on the appointed day in late winter when they rejoice and send gifts of food to each other.

But this same festival happens today among the Jewish people called Puram where they celebrate what happened in the salvation of God's people against an evil king and an evil edict.

But you know there's a problem with people today, in light of this, and the Jews that were able to battle with God's power.

There's too many of us today.

But it's the battle before the blessing.

We know that as we battle alongside our God and the power of the Holy Spirit, that it's going to bring an overflow of blessing on the other side.

We don't just get it all easy.

It takes building, it takes growing, it takes pushing forward, it takes the move of God, not unlike what we have been experiencing over the last two years, to put to plant our feet and to go to battle and to work and work and work.

And guess what, church?

God is not finished yet.

We've not reached the destination, we're just getting going.

It's just starting.

And you all know that the future, we don't know what it's gonna hold.

But I wonder about this building that we're in right now.

And most of you, some of you who are new today, you're in this side of the building.

But I hope, and it's my prayer, and I and we'll see what happens.

But you know, it's I would really love to see that we outgrow this space.

And many of you may not know this, but there's a space that's right next door in this whole complex that this tenant is moving out, and what if, what if, what if that could become an entire area for kids and youth and teens here in our community in that space that's right next door?

What if?

Out there between the kids' area and the bathrooms, there's a hallway to nowhere, but it's gonna go somewhere.

If the Lord wants to do it, I got I've got the lease to it right here.

It's not signed yet.

Because the battle's not done yet.

Because we haven't received the blessing yet, because we have to step forward, we have to battle.

And it's not just inside these walls, it's outside these walls.

In the work that we're doing in our initiative Frankfurt Forward, which is all of our outreach aspects of our church, that we want to see Frankfurt flourish economically, relationally, and spiritually here in our community for God to do that work through us.

Economically, through business leadership, workforce development, help people to take a step up and to lift up someone who is poor and oppressed relationally, to see racial union in our community, what we're doing with Kentucky State, and to see that continue to grow and get bigger and bigger.

And spiritually, through our partnership with nonprofits all across our city, who we get to fuel the fire of the good that they're doing and come alongside of them, some of them right now who think there's nobody here in this town who wants to come alongside of me.

There's nobody here right now who wants to help children who are impacted by incarceration.

There's nobody who wants to step up, but we are going to stand up and say, hello, we're here.

We like you, we love you, we're gonna come alongside you and see our community flourish spiritually.

A few weeks ago, my wife Emily and I, we were praying together.

Ahead of the Sunday, which we do most Sundays.

We've already prayed a couple times this morning.

And a lot of the times it's standing in the kitchen with my little girls running crazy everywhere, and there's clothes, and things are happening, and hair half done, and we grab hands and lock eyes, and we pray together.

It's good to pray with your spouse.

Husbands, you don't always have to be the one to pray.

And this this morning it was Emily who prayed.

And she said something as she prayed that struck me.

She said, Thank you, Lord.

We don't just do this for you, we do this with you.

And it hit me like a ton of bricks.

And after the prayer, I said, Where'd you hear that?

That phrase?

Where'd you where'd you get that from?

She said, I don't know, I just made it up.

I said, Well, I'm stealing that because that'll preach.

That we have the recognition that all this that we're walking in right now, this isn't just for some distant, unknown, cosmic entity that science and others want to tell us it doesn't exist, but that we're walking with the power in our King Jesus, not just for him, but with him every step of the way.

We're not doing this on our own.

You're not doing this on your own.

For you that right now are in this place and you're going through that medical trouble, you're not doing it on your own.

For the single mom who's in the room right now, who's trying to raise their kids, you're not doing it on your own.

For the young person, for the teenager that's in the room right now, that all the forces of the world is trying to tell you that that there is no God, that church is dumb and it's irrelevant, and you shouldn't do that, and you should do all these other things.

You're not doing it on your own, you're doing it with King Jesus.

He's walking with you, his power is in you.

For the person who's retired in the room, who feels like you're all spin up, that there's nothing left for you to do, that you know it's all just time for golf and watching TV.

God's not done with you yet.

He's not finished with you.

If you have breath in your lungs, he has purpose for your day.

You're walking with him.

And so as I look all across this room right now and I think about what we're doing in this celebration day, the grand opening of this space.

And the doors are open.

My prayer is that those doors will stay open as we use this space as a forward operating base to come here, to be encouraged, to go out there and do God's will, to love people, to see them come to know King Jesus that loves them, died for them, and wants nothing more to be in right relationship with them.

That this place it would be a deployment center for the work of God.

I believe it.

I believe we're walking in it.

I believe we're walking in it with King Jesus.

Now, you may have come in today, you may have been invited by a friend, maybe you saw social media you got an invite hanging on your doorknob.

I don't know what in the world, all that got you to be in this room right now, but I know this it's not by accident, it's not a mistake, and God is with us right now.

And there may be somebody in the room today that has not yet received the gift that Jesus has for you.

See, because we can't look too far in the future and we don't have all the answers, but we get to focus on what's truly important and the main thing in this place, the finished work of Jesus on the cross and an empty grave.

That 2,000 years ago Jesus went to the cross for the salvation of people, that He would stand in the gap and create a bridge, that you would be able to have your sins forgiven, and that your address can be in eternity with God one day, the last breath on earth, your first breath with the Lord in heaven, and that can happen for you today.

It can happen right now, it can happen if you would just say, Okay, Jesus, I'm gonna take the moment, I'm gonna accept the effect, I'm going to take from you right now the gift that you so desperately want me to have.

Because here I am, Lord, I've sinned here for some reason, and today is the day that I need to receive the finished work of the cross to save me.

Would you bow your heads with me all across the room right now?

I pray, God, for each man, woman, child who's in this place, and Lord, that you are working in and powerfully through their lives right now, in this moment, Father, I pray, God, for anybody in this place who's not received you as their savior and been forgiven of their sins and sealed and given their heart and life to you, God, that they would be eternity one day in heaven.

And God, you want nothing more for them right now.

And the enemy has plots and schemes against them right now to make them think, no, this is not that day.

I don't need to do that.

I don't have all the answers, I got too many questions.

But right now is a moment for them to receive you, Christ, a free gift that they've not yet received, and that today would be the day of their salvation, that today would be the day that you receive them.

And so I pray right now, Lord, all across this room, if there's anybody that are in that place right now that they would pray to you, God, pray, Jesus, save me in their heart and mind in a genuine way, Jesus, save me.

I believe that you are the Son of God.

I believe you died on the cross for me, and that you are alive.

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

I give you my life as you gave yours for mine.

Thank you for saving me.

No one looking around.

You're in the room today, you prayed that prayer.

I want you to acknowledge it before God, and uh so that I can see you and pray for you.

Today, you prayed that prayer today.

For your faith to be in Christ and his finished work on the cross today.

That's you, would you?

On the count of three, just shoot your hand up in the air so I can see you.

On the count of three.

Ready?

One, two, three.

Anybody?

anybody in the room?

Yep, right here?

Anybody else?

Right up here up front.

Who anybody else?

Father, thank you, Lord.

God, today is a a day of salvation.

That today, God, is a day that we receive your finished work.

And that God, that this place is a place of celebration today.

God, not of ourselves, but of your victory.

Your victory, the work of our lives, the victory that you gave to us on the cross.

We love you, we praise you, we thank you.

In the strong name of Jesus, everybody said amen.

Church, will you celebrate together as we stand up and sing?