Nice to Meet You (Week 3)

We're in this series Nice to meet you.

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

A couple years ago, my family along with other people started the work of Multiply Church, and so I'm glad that you're here today.

This is actually the last week of the series of Nice to Meet You, and I want to ask you a question.

Who are you?

Who are you?

Who are you really?

Who are you when it's just you yourself?

You know, uh our uh smartphones that we have do do a lot of things for us.

And um, I'm gonna ask you to humor me today and do something with me, and that's to grab your cell phone, your smartphone out of your pocket.

I'm not gonna make you text anybody or anything like that.

Um, but what I would love for you to do with me is uh open up your camera, and uh on your camera, uh you know, you use this for a lot of people to take pictures of folks, but also the ladies in the room know that you can turn this around and it can be a mirror when you don't have one to see yourself.

Maybe some of you in the room or some selfie people, you know this front-facing camera very well because you're in the bath and taking all the selfies at the right angles, checking it out, take it again, take it again.

That wasn't good.

So pull up your your phone.

If if you one of those flip phone people in the house, just look at your friend next to you.

Maybe they'll help you out today.

Maybe they'll help you.

But here's what I'd like for you to do.

I'd like for you to to join me as as you look at yourself as I'm looking at myself right now.

And and at the count of three, I want you to uh speak some truth over yourself that is a truth from God.

And so at the count of three, I want you to look in your mirror and I want you to say, I am a child of God.

Okay?

And I'm gonna count to three.

One, two, three.

I am a child of God.

Look at yourself, do it again.

One, two, three.

I am a child of God.

Okay, one last time.

One, two, three.

I am a child of God.

Thank you, guys.

Was that challenging for any of you?

Was it a little different to look at yourself and to speak those words over yourself, specifically the truth that I am a child of God?

Because when we ask the question, who are you?

Many times, many of us each day we look into the mirror, but when we look into the mirror, are we looking at ourselves as the way God sees us?

Or are we looking at all the imperfections?

Are we looking at all the things that the enemy wants to steal and kill and destroy us and put lies into our mind, all the negative things about us, all the critical things about us?

Or can we look into the mirror and can we say something as true as I am a child of God if you're in Christ Jesus?

You're looking back, see, there's there's nothing mystical about saying those words, but it's an affirmation of the truth of God of who you are.

And as we think about what we've been talking about over the last couple of weeks, of nice to meet you, and and and what are what are the truths of and and do we believe in God, not just in him, but do we believe him, his words, over our lives and over our church?

Who are we?

Who are we as this new expression, this brand new church in Frankfurt?

Who are we really?

And over the last, of course, the last couple of years, we've put together several statements.

We've put a collection of statements together that are about how God has positioned us and developed us and who he's developed us to be in accordance with his will and his word.

And so over the last couple of weeks, we've been going through these.

And so, if you're new here today, I'm so glad that you're here today.

This is a perfect time for you to be here today because we are literally re-introducing ourselves, so it's nice to meet you.

And if you've been coming here for a long time, hopefully you've seen over the last couple of weeks these statements are collections of what we're saying are values here at Multiply, are a representation of who we believe that God has made us to be and also who we aspire to be.

And so I want to share some of those with you today.

There's ten of them.

I've gone through most of these over the last couple of weeks.

I encourage you to go back and to go over those, to listen to those messages from the last two weeks, but starting with the first one.

We see a need, fill a need, we look to sacrificially serve one another.

We embrace the tension, we love the truth of God's word and his limitless grace.

We do for one.

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

Number four, we know it's crazy.

Multiply, it's crazy in all the best ways.

Number five, we bring our best.

We get to bring our best because God brought his best to us.

We are trailblazers, we blaze a trail of faith together.

We fuel the fire.

We want to be a blessing to others.

We are builders, we are builders, not a building.

We find the X factor.

We want to discover your gifts and deploy them for your purpose.

And number 10, we take others with us.

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

We've gone through the majority of these over the last couple of weeks, but these last three are the ones that we're gonna hone in on and we're gonna look at today.

And so I wonder before we jump into them, are you believing the truth of who God says you are?

When you look at yourself in the mirror, are you seeing yourself of how God sees you through his eyes, or are you seeing yourself only through your own sinful flesh?

We start today by talking about the fact that we are builders, not just a building.

We're builders, not a building.

We go outside the four walls to serve and build relationships to see God's kingdom come.

We build people up instead of tearing them down.

We'll be known for what we want to see built on solid rock, not for what we're against.

First Corinthians 3 tells us this truth.

The one who plants and the one who waters work together for the same purpose, and both are rewarded for their hard work.

For we are both God's workers, you are God's field, you are God's building.

Because of God's grace to me, I've laid a foundation like an expert builder.

Now others are building on it.

But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful.

Paul gives this truth and he uses this analogy of planting and watering and ultimately harvesting.

And he's not specifically talking about actually a farmer who's out there with the seed and planting it in the soil.

What he's talking about is the planting of truth.

That you and I, as believers in Jesus, that we are called to plant the truth of God, not just in ourselves and who we are, but also into other people.

And that there's a different function that you would plant the truth of the gospel into somebody's heart, and then somebody else can come along and water that truth to help to bring it to fruition, and ultimately the harvest will come as well in the name of the Lord Jesus.

That we're, and then the scripture goes on, and Paul tells us, instructs us that we're God's field, we're his workers, we're his building.

God has given his self to us, and his plan is the church.

That we would bring the hope of the gospel, that we would bring the light of the world, Jesus, to the world through his bride, the church.

That we be people who are builders, who are planting truth, that we're building others up.

One of the passages that I love is Ephesians chapter 4, 29, and the the the passage says that let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but instead that for which is for building up.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Ultimately, what that passage is telling us is that we as believers in Jesus, we as followers of Jesus, we are called to, we're asked to, we're commanded to build up or shut up.

To use our words that we would plant truth into other people's lives, that we would build others up and not let unwholesome talk come out of our mouth, not tearing other people down, but instead building them up in love.

Now I'll tell you this building up in love sometimes means that you're sharing truth that people don't want to hear.

You all know from the word and from who Jesus is and who he has shown us to be that Jesus loved everyone.

Me and you.

But Jesus didn't accept everyone's lifestyles or actions either.

Jesus, for the woman who was caught in adultery, he told her, You're not condemned.

You've been forgiven.

But go and sin no more.

He told multiple people, even those that were just coming to him for healing, he would say to them, now go and sin no more.

Save something worse happened to you.

We know from the scripture that for us as believers, Romans 12, 9 tells us that our love that it must be sincere.

That we should hate what is evil and cling to what is good.

Here at Multiply Church, we're going to, in accordance with God's word, we're going to hate the things that are evil and wicked, but we're not going to hate people.

That's not what we're called to do.

We're called to bring ourselves in alignment with the good, abundant life that Jesus has for us.

And in doing so, we follow the words of Jesus where he tells us in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 7, that wide, that broad is the path that leads to destruction, but narrow is the path, and narrow is the gate that leads to everlasting life.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

There's a broad road out there in the world that's telling everybody their version of what is true, that is leading down a path that Jesus tells us that sin will ultimately lead to our destruction.

But Jesus told us that He has come, that we would have life and have it to the fullest, that we would have abundant life, that when we give ourselves to Him and we come into accordance with His will, that we're gonna find the narrow path.

And there's not only gonna be a narrow path, but there's gonna be a narrow gate.

But you know what?

Multiply church.

I want the doors of our church to be opened so wide that anybody who comes into this place is not gonna be received with condemnation or judgment, but will receive with the love of God and will be received with the truth of his word.

There's so many things.

There's so many people who are telling our kids and teenagers what the way is and what the path is and what they should do.

But we know the path that leads to life is the one that Jesus has marked for us.

And that path, that narrow path, it leads to our eternal purpose here on this side of heaven and into eternity.

And on this side of heaven, we as followers of Jesus, we need to be walking in his will, in his word, in his way, and also walking in our purpose that he's placed in our life.

And part of the way that we do that here at Multiply is by way of us figuring out what God's purpose, what is calling, what he's asking for us to do, how he's gifted us, and what it looks like for us to serve him and be walking in our purpose.

Every single person asks the questions at some point in their life what is what is the purpose of my life?

What's the purpose here?

And God has uniquely positioned you and gifted you as a follower of him to walk in his purpose and his ways that he's lined out for you.

That giftedness that you have inside of you here at Multiply, we call it the X factor.

You've seen the X that we have, you know, our symbol.

And for us here at Multiply, we want to find that X factor.

Every follower of Jesus is gifted in some way.

We want to discover that gift and deploy it for God's purpose.

Helping people find their purpose starts with discovering their X factor.

We want to be multipliers for those near and far from God to live their destiny in Christ.

1 Peter 4 10 tells us so plainly.

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.

Use them well to what?

Serve one another.

The scripture lines out in the New Testament what these spiritual gifts are, and there's actually lists of them.

These spiritual gifts, and I'm not talking about talents that you can play a piano or that you're graded Excel or whatever your talents are out there.

But these are spiritual gifts that are imparted to us that are given to us by the power of God.

When we are saved and in Christ, and the Holy Spirit takes up residence and dwelling inside of us in the moment of salvation that we're sealed, God gifts us his spirit, and along with it comes the gifts of God.

The scripture tells us that some of us have a myriad of spiritual, of these spiritual gifts, but at least you have one.

And I run into people who say, I just I don't have any, I don't have any gifts, I don't have any talents.

No, that's not what is true.

What is true is that it's God has gifted you in some unique way, and you need to discover what it is.

I'll very quickly go through this.

This won't be on the board, but Romans 12, 6 through 13 tells us the spiritual gifts of prophecy, ministry of service and helps, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership and administration, mercy, love, and hospitality.

1 Corinthians 12 and 13 tells us of the gifts of wisdom, of knowledge, of faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, interpretation of tongues, apostleship, teaching, helps, governing administration, giving.

Ephesians 4 11 tells us gifts of apostleship, prophecy, evangelism, shepherding, and teaching.

And 1 Peter 4, 8 through 11 tells us of the spiritual gifts of love, hospitality, uh, prophecy, and ministry.

And of those, you have at least one.

Of those you have at least one that has been given to you, that has been gifted to you by the power of the Holy Spirit, it's up to you to use it.

It's up to you to use it.

Who's God made you to be?

How has he gifted you uniquely?

Out of these spiritual gifts, what are you even supposed to do with it?

What did the passage say?

Use them well to serve one another.

It's not to be used selfishly, not to be just hoarded for yourself or just for your family, but to be deployed in the context of the local church, God's pride.

That you would serve and love others by you walking in the purpose that God's placed on your life.

So what we need to do around here at Multiply is solve for X.

Now I'm not much of a mathematician, actually.

That was my worst subject.

So I'm really outputting my coverage even talking about this right now.

Especially because we've got some math majors in the house today.

I know you, and you're already judging me for even talking about this.

Well, I do know this about math.

It's supposed to be numbers, and if there's a letter there, you need to figure out what that is.

If there's letters mixed up in there, you better figure it out.

And so, in the in the formula of your life, of what God has called you to, how he's gifted you, you need to solve for X.

What is that X factor that you need to discover, that you need to deploy for the kingdom of God, for his bride, the church, and in relationship with other people.

Because we know that God has called us to walk out our relationship with him while we're in relationship with other people as well.

That's how he's designed it.

He designed it for us to have a horizontal, have a vertical relationship with him, but it doesn't just say vertical, but it goes horizontal to the other people that are around us in our local church and outside of those walls, the kingdom of God.

And in doing so, we do what we like to say around here.

We take others with us.

So we do life together.

We know church was meant to be a team sport, not a solo assignment.

We make disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus.

We are in we uh uh intentionally, we are intentionally others focused and give of our time, talent, and our treasure.

Matthew 28.

Matthew 28 tells us so cl so plainly for us as believers what God's laid on our heart for us to do.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you.

And surely I'm with you always till the very end of the age.

We take others with us.

God's called us to be in relationship.

God grabbed a hold of my life when I was 18 years old.

I had been saved as a child, but I've been running from Him, and God intervened into my story and called me out and said, No, I'm putting on you on this path, and I've called you not only just to follow me, but I'm calling you to local church ministry and to go into the ministry, which was just crazy as an 18-year-old, to receive that call from the Lord, and it led me to go to college, and I had already been partying all those kind of things in high school, and I was ready to leave that behind.

And so I was going to college with a purpose, not to go and have the college experience.

I was like, what am I gonna do?

So I ended up going to a Christian college because I was like, you know what?

I've already kind of done those things, I need to go on a different path.

And they had all these rules at this Christian college, you couldn't do this, you couldn't do that, you couldn't drink, and everybody hated those rules, but I loved them because I was like, God, I'm trying to stay on the path with you, and this stuff helps me out.

And I got involved in campus ministries while I was there in college, and it was there that I began to learn what it really looked like to be a disciple of Jesus.

Because Jesus tells us plainly to go and make disciples, pupils, disciplined followers of Jesus, that we're just not out here just to just to meet God one time, to have an experience we were kids, but for us to follow Jesus as his disciple.

And then that me, I'm supposed to then teach other people to be a disciple as well.

Jesus, you you got this messed up.

I'm not the one.

And I remember being in campus ministries, and the leader of our campus ministries had a mantra, and it and it was this that we're making disciples, we are growing as disciples while making more disciples through authentic relationship.

I remember that now from years ago.

And so we would get together and we would had Bible studies with a small group of folks, and I started to see guys, athletes, they were on the football team with me, others starting to give their life to Jesus, and we were seeing this happen in the context of a relationship with one another.

We were sharing.

And this the last two years that I was there at Cumberland through campus ministries, we saw 83 people come to Christ, 83 students come to Christ in those two years, which was amazing.

Which is amazing.

And it was it was built on relationship.

And at the same time, I was also serving in the church.

And I love the local church.

Y'all know that.

But the focus in the local church, especially the traditional local church, it was a lot about performance.

What things looked like on Sunday?

It was a lot about having programs and then being running well and and and having perfect programs.

But when it came to, hey, do you actually know who your neighbors are?

That question I don't think was ever asked to me.

Have you know who they are?

Do you know anything about their life?

Do you have you talked to them before?

And I started to think, like, okay, God, I know that you've called us to be in relationship and that we're supposed to walk this out, that we're supposed to be disciples who make other disciples.

But I'm serving, and it doesn't kind of feel like there's this disconnect.

I don't, I just don't know.

And and and you all know Emily and I's story that we went and served in a church, a church plant in Charleston, South Carolina, and while I was there, I saw that in the context of the church that they were all about relationships there.

That you'd be a part of a small group, that you could be on a team with other people, and that you're supposed to be growing as a disciple.

And all of a sudden, I got to kind of see a broader picture of like, yeah, you know what?

The church, church of Jesus, it can be about making disciples.

It can be about loving other people in the context of a relationship, not just something that you do, that you come and that you attend on a Sunday and you check the box.

Okay, I went to church this Sunday, I went to Sunday school, I went to this, I gave my thing, okay.

I got this, all the checklist, God, look at this checklist, God, it's good with you, it's good with me.

But that God was calling us to something more, and it was love.

Love of those who are around us.

And so here at Multiply, we take others with us.

Here's the thing: there's so many people who believe that all they need is just a personal relationship with God.

While it needs to start there, it doesn't stop there.

God said it it's not good for a man to be alone.

But instead, he's not called us into this solo assignment of being a Christian, but that we're supposed to do this as a family, as a team with other believers.

That we're supposed to take others with us.

Something we talk about a lot around here when you're getting into being in a small group and that kind of thing is this word apprenticeship.

That word apprenticeship is truly just about apprenticing to Jesus and for us to be walking in a way that we're others focused.

Aren't you glad that Jesus was others focused?

Aren't you glad that Jesus wasn't just all about himself, but that he loved you and he loved me so much that he would die for us?

And so one thing we talk about is that there's three parts here to play in your relationship with God.

There's my part that I have to play, there's God's part, and then there's your part.

For me, if I'm gonna be a disciple that makes other disciples, there's three things going here.

I'm gonna do my part, Lord.

I'm gonna love those who are around me.

I'm gonna actually pursue being a relationship with others in the church.

I'm not just gonna do a checkbox, but I'm actually gonna try to walk this life of Christian walk out with other people, other men, other couples, other women.

I'm gonna walk with them, and so I'm gonna have this team that's around me to help me so that I can love other people, and that's gonna be my part, but I can't do your part for you.

I can't do your part.

But we know God is always faithful to his part.

God is always faithful to do his part in this, but it's my part that I would seek God first.

Matthew 6 33, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

So you need to seek first the kingdom of God.

There are so many things that you can be seeking in life right now.

Seek accomplishment, seek success, seek business, seek seek relationships.

Seek a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife.

Material things, the next car, the bigger house.

Gonna get the boat.

I know those things are inherently bad, but if they take first position, if they take first position, then your life is out of order.

But Jesus has told us plainly seek first his kingdom.

And when we seek first his kingdom, that means that we're walking in relationship with Jesus and with other people that are gonna help us do it, and all these people he promises us that he's gonna provide for our needs, that if we walk in this way, that we're gonna be people who prosper.

What that looks like, what that looks like is as you're walking and seeking the kingdom first, that means when you lose your job, you seek first the kingdom of God, and Jesus is there walking with you.

When you get the bad report from the doctor, you're seeking first the kingdom of God, and he's there with you, and that you don't have to do it alone, you don't have to do it alone.

God has brought his church that we would be people who take others with us.

So we've gone through all these things over the last couple of weeks.

We see if he need, feel the need, embrace the tension.

We do for one.

We know that it's crazy in all the best ways.

We bring our best.

We're trailblazers, we fuel the fire, we're builders, we find the X factor, we take others with us.

So, what do we do with these now?

Where do we go from here?

Where we go from here is that we be faithful to who God has made us to be.

And that includes you.

The bride of Christ, this expression of the local church here at Multiply.

It's not just me, it's not the pastor, it's not just the staff, it's not just it's it's all of us collectively walking this out so that we can see people come to know the person, the savior of Jesus.

You know, Christianity has morals, has principles that we live our life by, that are God by, but Christianity is ultimately about a person, and that person is King Jesus.

That 2,000 years ago, that in our place, while we were still sinners, far from God, separated, that Jesus loved us so much that he went to the cross in my place and in your place, and he took the punishment of death, which is the ultimate wage of sin.

He took it on himself, he died in your place, and he defeated death, and he walked out of the ground later, victorious, and in doing so, breaking the curse and allowing us to be in new relationship, new life, new covenant with God.

He paved the way, he made the way, so then we could be people of the way, that we could follow him, that the love that we receive from God, that it wouldn't just stay with us, and it wouldn't just be hoarding ourselves and just for our own house and just for our own people, but that that love of God that it would overflow our life, that it would come out of our heart and out of our mouth and out of our actions to people that are all around us because we know the King and the King loves us.

He died for us, he's helping us and walking with us each day, and other people need to be able to know the abundant life that God has for them.

So many people don't know.

They don't know, they just don't know.

We get to take others with us.

You may be here today, and you're one of those ones that you came into the room today and you've never received the free gift of salvation, the forgiveness of Jesus that he purchased for you on the cross.

Today is your day for you to say yes to Jesus and no to everything else and to follow him and receive forgiveness so that you can be with him in eternity, for you to find the narrow path and the narrow gate that is Jesus for salvation, that you can be with him forever in eternity, in paradise.

Today is that day.

Who are you?

Who are you?

Are you someone who's lost?

Are you someone who's just trying to do it your own way?

Are you someone who is ready to give their life to Jesus and give their life to the Lord for Him to transform you?

Maybe today you're in the house and you've been following Jesus for a long time, but you know that there's your part, God's part, there's other people's part, that you've got to step up the plate to your part.

There's things that need to change in your life and the way that you're gonna be others focused and die to self and selfishness.

Begin to love Christ and show his love to other people, and you can do that here through the context of our church.

We're gonna encourage it.

We're gonna deploy it, we're gonna help you to do it.

So you do it together.

Would you bow your heads and pray for me now?

Pray with me now.

God, I pray over the room today.

God, every single person that's here, Lord, that if there is anybody here today, God, that has not received your forgiveness, who's not accepted you as Savior, that today will be the day of their salvation, that they would not be separated from you, but that God, that they would be sealed and saved under the strong name of Jesus.

And in doing so, that you would take them, Lord, from today into eternity in heaven and not to a place of separation called hell, but instead, God, that they would walk with you from this day and every day forward.

If you're in the room today and that is your step for you to accept Jesus as Savior, you can pray to Jesus, pray right now.

You can say, Jesus, save me, forgive me.

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

Wash me as white as snow, that I can be in heaven one day with you.

Thank you for saving me.

With every head bowed and eyes closed, no one looking around today.

If today you prayed that prayer for the first time for you to receive Jesus, his forgiveness, would you be so bold?

Nobody's looking around, but I want to pray for you.

Would you just raise your hand up to the sky real quick so I can pray for you and see you?

Yes, yes.

I see it.

Yep, see it.

Father, I pray right now, God, over each person who's raised their hand today, God, to receive your forgiveness and salvation.

That today, God, that today would be the beginning of the rest of their life of an eternity.

God, we pray and thank you, God, for salvation to come today.

God, we pray, Lord, that you would seal that prayer.

That God, that it wouldn't just be words that said, but it would be genuine from their heart, that they can walk in relationship with you now, God.

Father, we thank you, Lord.

God, I pray, Lord, for each person, God, who who's received you today, that God, that today would be the day, Lord, that they step into the new life that you have for them.

From this day and every single day forward.

We praise your name.

We thank you.

In the strong and powerful name of Jesus.

Amen.

Church, we celebrate together today a new life in this place and stand to your feet as we continue to worship.