Multiply | May 17 2026 (Part 6)

Well, good morning everybody. Happy Victoria Day weekend,

gorgeous day God has given to us today.

Let's enjoy it to the Max. Why don't you?

If you grab, grab a Bible and turn with me to Matthew's

Gospel, Matthew 25, we're in there again.

Yesterday I spoke with with with Scott Vedder and for all of us

who have been praying for that family.

Scott's dad did pass away and knew the Lord loves the Lord,

but also difficult for the family.

So Scott just wanted to make sure that the church family knew

They're so grateful for the love and the support and the prayers

that we would offer. We have been offering up for

them and just encourage you to continue to pray for this family

as they grieve the loss. They're up and heading up to

Ottawa today, but we were in Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

And if you'll notice if you were here last week, same text, we're

using the same parable, Matthew 25.

The whole chapter is really dealing.

So Jesus is talking about sort of the end times, the last days

and, and that and that is the moment from his, his appearance

on the planet to the day that he's going to return and restore

all things. And the question is how are we

meant to live until he returns? And he tells 3 parables, one he

talks about the, speaks about the, the parable of the of the

10 virgins. And really the application of

that is that we need to be watchful.

We need to stay close to God and, and, and prepared for any

moment for his return that that abiding piece.

He also speaks about the parable tells the parable of the sheep

and the goats. And the application of that is

don't ignore those who are in need around you.

And it's a parable really about how we need to love the people.

And in so doing, we are loving God.

But sandwiched between those two parables is the one that we've

been looking at, and that's the parable of the 10 or the parable

of the bags of gold, which is traditionally known as the

parable of the talents. And this is all about bearing

fruit. It's all about making an

investment and making it a difference with what God has

given to us. So the question has to come to

us at some point is, what are we doing with our life?

Like what? What are you guys doing with

your life? And there's there's three ways

to live our lives. We can waste our life and

there's an increasingly number increasing number of ways that

we can do that. We can spend our life and

advertisers and media influences are giving us many ways that we

can spend our life. Or thirdly, we can invest our

life. We can invest in making a

difference gonna go far beyond ourselves into multiplay that

multiply that difference in the world.

I, I, I got to admit and acknowledge that for a huge

chunk of my life, I had no investment mentality at all.

It's just, I'm gonna take life as it comes.

I'll do this, I'll do that kind of basically living in my own

little world. And Jesus is pulling us out of

our own little world and showing us that God has given us

something to invest for his glory and to multiply his

ministry among in the earth. There's a reason why I have what

I have. There is a reason why we have

what we have. We can think about, we can think

about, we've talked about the gospel.

We can talk about our possessions, our finances.

The people are like, there's a reason why we have what we have

and it's not just for ourselves. And this is really the message

that runs all the way through Scripture.

It's kind of a wake up call to us.

It's not just for ourselves and and it's not even just to be

giving away. And that's a huge part of the

Christian message as well. We need to be generous, but

we're meant to invest it so that we can multiply what God has

given to us for his glory. And this passage that we're

looking at again today realigns us with the values and the

priorities of God. And so Lord, we pray that as we

open up your scriptures today, that you grant to us your favor,

that you would teach us exactly what we need to hear today, that

our lives could more reflect you in Jesus name and by the power

of your Holy Spirit, come, Amen, Amen.

Matthew chapter 25. And we are starting in verse 14

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

again. So this is Jesus speaking.

And again, he's he, he's talking about, this is the kind of life

talking about living the kind of life that were meant to live

until he returns again. It will be like a man going on a

journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to

them. To 1 he gave 5 bags of gold, to

another 2 bags and to another one bag each according to his

ability. Then he went on a.

Then he went on his journey. The man who had received 5 bags

of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained 5 bags

more. So also the one with two bags of

gold gained 2 more. But the man who had received one

bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid it his master's

money. After a long time, the master of

those servants returned and settled accounts with them.

The man who had received 5 bags of gold brought the other five.

Master, he said, you entrusted me with 5 bags of gold.

CI have gained 5 more. His master replied.

Well done, good and faithful servant.

You have been faithful with a few things.

I will put you in charge of many things.

Come and share your master's happiness.

The man with two bags of gold also came.

Mastery said. You entrusted me with two bags

of gold. CI have gained 2 more.

His master replied. Well done, good and faithful

servant. You have been faithful with a

few things. I will put you in charge of many

things. Come and share your master's

happiness. We're going to pause there.

The operative word, the, the, the keyword in this parable is

the word entrusted, that we have been entrusted with something

from God. And if you think about it,

everything that we have is a gift from God, like everything

that I have belongs to God. The earth is the Lord, Lords and

everything in it, the world and all who live in it.

Everything belongs to God. In other words, nothing really

belongs to me. Nothing belongs to me.

And this parable is a little bit of a wake up call.

Parables do this. Did Jesus goes for the shock

value. There's something in there that

should stun us a little bit. And this one doesn't belong to

me. Heard the story of a woman who

had finished shopping coming out of the store and with the

shopping bags returning to her car.

And she sees four men in the car and she drops her bags and pulls

out a handgun. This obviously from the States

and said I've got a gun and I know how to use it, get out of

my car. And these guys are so, you know,

just kind of freaking out and they all took off.

And she, you know, loads her bags in the car, obviously

visibly shaken and sits in the seat.

And for the life of her, she could not get her key to fit

into the ignition. She realize, oh man, this is not

my car. My car is part several spaces

down on the road. She gets in her own car, drives

down to the police station and turns herself in.

And she's telling the story to the desk clerk and he's

chuckling away. And he points down to the end of

the counter. And there's these four guys who

are reporting. There's this woman, this old

woman of five foot tall, thick glasses, white curly hair,

carrying a handgun, hijacking our car, right.

Anyway, they didn't press charges.

So that was really good. But there was this just this

little mini revelation. This doesn't belong to me and

this is what Jesus wants us to get from this parable is like

everything I have. It doesn't belong to me.

It has been entrusted to me. I am simply a steward of that

which God has given to me and this changes everything.

The word that Jesus used, we looked at this last week for a

bag of gold is Talanton. It's where we get the word

English word talent, which is often associated with abilities

with a capabilities and that could be it.

But really it's it's talent on is a weight and that's why it

was associated with money. It was something that's weighty

and we it's something that we were meant to invest, not just

to enjoy for, for for ourselves, but to invest in order to make

more. There's an expectation that God

has for each one of us that we would put to work that which we

have been given in order to multiply.

And this is what brings him great joy.

Come and share your Master's happiness.

This is something that is supposed to ignite joy in our

hearts in doing. I want to follow and be like my

master in this way. Now the wait is this is what we

looked at last week. The whitest thing that God has

given to us to talk about talent on is the gospel.

It's the most valuable thing, the message and the ministry of

Jesus Christ. And we were meant to not just to

receive this for ourselves. So that's great, man.

I'm going to have but to but to multiply that message and share

the ministry of Jesus throughout the world to make other disciple

makers that are carrying this incredible message that I'm

loved by God like you are loved by God.

So much so that he took on flesh.

He wrapped himself in flesh and came and He bore our suffering

on that cross. He lived that life that we were

designed to live, but failed to do so because of our sin of

rebellion against Him. But it's nailed to that cross so

that the payment for our sin could be paid and that we could

get off Scott free and that our lives could be healed.

He ascended into, He's raised from the dead, ascended into

heaven, and now has sent his Holy Spirit to be with us.

Those who have been reconciled in our relationship with Him.

Nothing, any, nothing standing in our way, in a relationship

with Him now filled with the Holy Spirit, that fruit of the

Spirit, love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and

goodness and faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, is all

exuding from our life. And to spread His goodness

throughout the world to be making other disciples who are

spreading his goodness throughout the world, loving

him, loving people and passing it on.

That's the plan that God has for us.

Now last week I showed a little video.

It had some questions after the service about that video like,

well, what exactly are you referring to here?

You remember there was a it was really comparing the difference

in the effectiveness of filling stadiums full of people and, and

preaching the gospel to them versus just focusing on one

person and making them a disciple that they could pass it

on. And there's the power of

multiplication that it's far more effective.

We can reach the World far faster if we just invest in one

person every year, that they would then invest in another

person every year and that there's a multiplication effect

that happens in that way. Now, that is not to say just to

clarify that we shouldn't be filling stadiums full of people

and preaching the gospel. We should be.

This is awesome. We know continue to do that.

We want to make sure that we're discipling people as well, not

just bringing people across the line that they believe, but that

they also are following Jesus and making him known on on the

other side. The point is not that, hey,

every year you need to disciple a new person.

It could be a few years, it could be 6 months, it could be

whatever, but that we're investing in a few.

That's the point. We're investing in a few to be

able to make disciples who are continuing to pass it on.

It's all about the power of multiplication.

Now, many of us are involved in many people's lives, right?

We have a lot of relationships and sometimes that can be very

overwhelming. And we have, you know, various

levels of involvement, but we need to follow Jesus example and

saying we don't want to ignore the many, but we definitely want

to be focusing on a few. Jesus wanted to reach the whole

world, and the reason why we're sitting here is that.

But what does he do? He doesn't ignore the masses,

but he focuses on a few people, 12 disciples, and through them

the whole world has been reached.

You and I are sitting here as a result of his ministry.

That's this whole strategy, investing in a few, but that

investment needs to happen. And so we need to, we need to

grapple with that and realize, OK, it's not just about

sprinkling things here and there, which is fine, but who am

I going to focus on to develop as a disciple and send them out

to develop other people as disciples so that multiplication

effect takes place. God knows our capabilities.

He knows it, you know, different stages of our life.

That's easier than other stages. If you're a parent of young

children, your main responsibility is to raise your

kids in the ways of the Lord, making disciples of them.

That is the the job description of a parent.

But he knows our capabilities and he gives to us according to

our capabilities and our abilities.

He knows that each one of us is unique in our personality and

our opportunities. That's why it says you know in

verse 15 it is to 1. He gave 5 bags of gold to

another 2 bags and to another one bag each according to his

ability. Very, very specific and so none

of us can really so and, and what he expects of each one of

us. And this is where we need to

kind of cleanse our palate because many of us think, man,

God expects so much of us and it's overwhelming.

God expects of us what is entirely appropriate.

He made you, He knows you, He loves you, and He's given to you

that which you are meant to invest.

And we don't. We could never.

In other words, we can never use the excuse that we're

overwhelmed by what God has given to us to do.

A lot of things in life will overwhelm us, but not what God

is giving me to do. And, and, and that that's a,

that's a clarifying truth for me.

I realize I put a lot of expectations on myself that God

never puts on me. He's good.

He knows me well and he calls me to invest the little that I

have. Each one of us is gonna be given

different amounts and we compare ourselves to other people and

look how much they got or look at how effective they are.

You know, God doesn't think that way.

Think about like the the commendation that is given to

the first two servants. It's identical.

They're given different amounts. They they, they reproduce

different amounts and God says well done, good and faithful

servant, come and share your master's happiness exactly the

same. So we need to be, we need to be

responsible with what we have been given and invest that for

God's glory to spread his love throughout the world.

And then notice in verse 21 that as we obey our capabilities

increase our our capacity increases, you see.

And he says you have been faithful with a few things.

I will put you in charge of many things.

You know, when we use our muscle, our muscle gets stronger

and we're capable of lifting more than we were before with

the same amount of effort. And this is the same thing from

a spiritual standpoint. If we don't use our muscles,

what happens? That they atrophy, we get weaker

and we can't do as much anymore. So from the perspective of some

of the saying, hey man, there's so much that I have to do know.

Just just do what we are called to do right now in the present.

And as you're faithful, those muscles will develop, your

capacity will grow, and God will be magnified.

Just trust me in this. The Lord says, trust me, we're

meant to be like the master. He is all about expanding his

Kingdom throughout the world. That's that's what he's about,

and he wants his children to be doing the same, to multiply his

goodness throughout the world. Each of us have been given so

much, especially in this part of the world.

And you know, in Scripture says that we we've been given

everything for our enjoyment, like we're to enjoy what God has

given to us. But or maybe should say, and we

are meant to build his Kingdom. Enjoy and continue to invest.

Don't lose out on that investment on that investment

piece. You know, one of the Scripture

passages that continues to haunt me and yet still hold me is Luke

Luke 12:48

chapter 12, verse 48. Jesus says from everyone who has

been given much, much will be demanded.

And from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more

will be asked. There's a responsibility that we

have and we need to take that responsibility seriously.

But at the same time, it's God who's entrusted me with these

things. And so I know, I know that he

knows what he's doing. And all I need to do is be

faithful for the day and the day and the day.

So what is going to compel or deter us from making that

investment? What is it that can what, what,

what is it that will compel or deter us?

It's really our view of the master.

This is the This is the other point of the parable, starting

in verse 24, speaking about the third servant.

Then the man who had received one bag of gold came.

Master, he said, I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where

you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered

seed. So I was afraid, and I went out

and hid your gold in the ground. See, here's what belongs to you,

his master replied. You wicked lazy servant.

So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where

I've not scattered seed? Well, then, you should have put

my money on deposit with the bankers so that when I returned

I would have received it back with interest.

Our view of the Master, our view of God will either inspire us or

it will deter us. It'll it'll, it'll close it shut

us down from the desire to want to invest what he is giving,

what he's given to us for the expansion of his Kingdom.

It's our view. It's our view of God.

So just talk about what what deterred this particular

servant? He saw the Master as a hard man.

Many of us see God as a hard God, a taskmaster asking us to

do what we're incapable of doing.

If that's the case, our joy will be literally sucked out of our

Christian life is gonna be a constant tug of war with God,

and God wants to liberate us and see just how good he is.

But here he's a hard man. There's no love at all for the

master in this case. It's like, you know, he's

harvesting where he is, not where, where he has not sown

gathering where he is not scattered seed.

It's like he's getting us to do all the work.

Like, what is he doing? I'm just a servant doing his

bidding. It's kind of like what's in this

for me? You kind of you kind of sense

that. And he's afraid of the master.

Like, OK, well, you know, if I, if I blow it, then he's gonna be

on me, you know? He, he, I, I, I'm, you know, so

I'm gonna hide. I'm gonna bury this money and

then give it back to him. Now I mentioned last week, you

know, he gave the money back to the master.

Like why such the harsh response you wicked lazy Sir?

It's not even like this guy murdered anybody or was a thief

or he gave his money back and yet he's a wicked lazy servant.

That's a wake up call to me. You didn't do anything with what

God gave him. He didn't make the investment

and and and and that is why he's referred to as as wicked.

What is it then that would compel us to invest for the

expansion of God's Kingdom? It's a totally different view of

God. These are these first two

servants. They were like they, they, they

received what they got and was like hot dog.

Now I'm going for it, you know, at once they put it to work.

Why? It's like the master's good.

You look at He's entrusted his wealth with me.

Like with me, him with me. I wanna do everything I can to

expand that. I wanna put a smile on his face.

I wanna share his joy in spreading his love throughout

the world. Totally, totally different.

Embracing the adventure, Just embracing it.

Sharing the master's joy as we multiply disciples, the joy that

we have in the Lord, that is the inspiration.

Like if, if there's no joy in the goodness of God, why would I

be motivated at all to share the message of Jesus Christ with

another people? Come and receive Jesus and be as

miserable as I am. You know, it's the joy is it's

like we're passing on the joy of the Lord as much as we're

passing on the message that brings us joy.

Now what Jesus is doing is he's realigning the way that we

think, the way that we act, the way that we feel, the way that

we live completely in every aspect of our life with this

message, with being one who invests in the Kingdom of God.

So I would be remiss if we didn't at some point cause

we're, you know, this is where we're getting, getting to the

end of this message series and talking about probably the most

obvious application and that is with our finances.

He's talking about bags of gold, right?

He's talking about like a monetary amount that we are

meant to invest. We're meant to invest our

finances for the expansion of the Kingdom of God.

And that can happen in a lot of different ways.

But our money is not just for ourselves.

Jesus tells another parable. Luke Chapter 12 about this and

Luke 12 · chapter mention

again a little bit of a wake up call.

He said this the ground of a certain rich man yielding an

abundant harvest. He thought to himself, what

shall I do? I have no place to store my

crops. Then he said, this is what I'll

do. I'll tear down my barns and

build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.

And I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many

years. Take life easy, eat, drink and

be merry. That line.

Take life easy, eat, drink and be merry.

That sounds like the dream, doesn't it?

And yet it's the very thing that Jesus goes to town and he says,

But God said to him, You fool, this very night your life will

be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have

prepared for yourself? And then he concludes by saying,

this is how it will be with whoever stores up things for

themselves, but is not rich toward God investing in the

things of heaven. You know Jesus in in the Sermon

on the Mount Matthew chapter 6 says, do not store up for

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

yourselves treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy

and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths

and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in

and steal. For where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also. Jesus always getting back to the

heart where we put our money. That's really where our heart

is. It's almost as though Jesus is

encouraging us. You know what?

You start putting your money on the things that are important to

the things that heaven and your heart will get there eventually.

Invest in the expansion of his Kingdom now.

I, I, you know, the almighty dollar, it's one of the things

that brings the most discomfort and fear and concern to the

human heart. And, and I think we just need to

be continually encouraged that we serve a good God who loves us

and cares for us and is inviting us to join his adventure.

And so I've invited Clive to come.

Clive, won't you? Why don't you come on up here to

join me for a few minutes just to talk briefly about this idea

of investing financially in the Kingdom of God.

Clive, Thanks for joining us, Brother.

Clive's elder at Forest View. And when I have conversations

with Clive, I'm always, always come away encouraged and filled

a little bit more faith. Very much appreciate your

brother. We collect ties and offerings

every week at Forest View as part of our worship.

Help us to align ourselves with that that Kingdom mindset.

It's just explain from your perspective the difference

between giving and investing. Well, Jesus said I'm in the

world but not of it. And there are two different

kingdoms, Kingdom of Earth, Kingdom of Heaven, and the

Kingdom of Heaven has got its own economy completely separate

from the world system. And God makes it very clear in

his word how how it works. And so when we give, it's not

actually giving, it's investing because your conscience will

tell your subconscious if you invest in something, there's a

return. Otherwise people wouldn't

invest. So the different thing giving is

you give a, a cup of coffee or you give a gift at Christmas or

whatever. But when you invest, that takes

a lot more thought on what you're actually doing.

And Deuteronomy 8 verse 18 says, I've given you the power to gain

Deuteronomy 8:18

wealth. And so confirm my covenant today

as it was with your fathers. And this whole area of investing

into the Kingdom is part of the covenant where God allows us to

multiply. Yeah, it's good.

Yeah. And so I mean just separate that

from say the gospel like the prosperity gospel that say, hey,

we give in order to get to get a return.

What kind of return are you talking about there?

Well, the prosperity gospel, if it worked, we'd all be

millionaires now. It doesn't work.

You don't give to get. You give because you've got a

heart towards the Lord and He will direct you where to give.

You just don't invest anywhere. You do it where God says,

because where you invest, where God tells you there will be a

return. Yeah, you're not giving to get.

You're giving to invest so you can get a return, so you can

reinvest. And I've been able to do

extraordinary things through the supernatural.

I've supplied houses to people who can live there rent free,

just pay the utilities. I've been able to buy cars for

people, not because I want bigger car and more houses, but

the Lord's giving me the ability to do deals and multiply.

Now, you've spoken in a lot of churches for many years, you

know, internationally about the tithe, and you've commented me,

commented to me a number of times of how few Christians

actually do tithe. I mean, there are many

Christians that do, but I guess maybe you're surprised at how

many. I don't know how surprised you

are anymore. But to hear that that, that,

that that many Christians don't. In other words, you know, and

we're talking about the tide of a 10% of income, but that the

people that the people that can call themselves Christians are

actually giving less than what the Old Testament standard of a

tie would be 10% of the income. And what would you say two like

why do you think that is? And what would you say is a is

an encouragement to to us and. That I think the main thing for

stop people to being obedient to God financially is fear.

Fear that it won't have enough. Poverty is not the lack of it's

the fear of lacking. And if we can trust God for

eternal life, we can trust him with a few bucks.

I mean, that's the bottom line. Everything that we have, God has

given us, but He requires 10% back as a covenant token to open

up the heavens. Now that's one of the things

that I've does. It opens up the heavens

corporately. That's the more people that tie

in their church, the wider the heavens open over that church.

And also individually as your tithes, you'll start to see

blessings come into your life, not just money.

I I've been working with the church for 25 years.

I've been there three times and the last time was a couple of

months ago. The pastor says without any

shadow of doubt that 90% of their church are now tithing a

congregation of about 300, three, 150.

And after the weekend, 13 full scap pages of testimonies came

in of supernatural miracles happening, from healing to debts

being cancelled to mindsets being changed.

Now that is because the heavens are open.

God says I will open the heavens and pour out such blessings.

He will not have room enough to receive it.

Now, I don't have time to share testimonies because I've only

got another half an hour to speak to you.

But if you would like to see some of the testimonies God did

within 24 hours in this church in Bath, ask Emma or contact the

church office and they'll send you these pages of testimonies.

So they encourage you to move into the same position.

Yeah. Now, just before John asks me

another question, I want to give a challenge to you.

First of all, God says in the book of Malachi that if we do

not tithe, we're robbing Him. That's the very, very last

chapter of the prophetic word from God.

And there were no more prophetic words for 400 years.

So last word, it was important, you're robbing me now.

The difference between robbery and stealing.

According to Canadian law, stealing is done by stealth,

robbery is done by violence. So we're affecting something

very powerful in the spirit realm.

Now, some of you had theology over the years that tithing is

Old Testament. It was activated before the law

and it's part of the Abrahamic covenant.

But what I would say to you is God says try me now in this

doesn't say test me, says try me.

And I'm throwing out a challenge to everyone here today and

online to start tithing from your next paycheck on your gross

income for three months and see what happens.

Social life sentence. It's three months trusting God

in an area that you've not trusted God before.

When you get home today, say, Lord, I'm sorry that I've not

been tithing. I repent and I'm going to try

you for the next three months to see how you will open the

windows of heaven. Pour out such a blessing that

the room will not be enough to receive it, and I will rebuke

the devourer. And Satan is like a roaring

lion, seeking whom he may devour.

So God stops it. He closes Satan's mouth.

And if you don't tithe, and this is the very practical results of

that, that 10% is gonna disappear out of your income

anyway because the tide is holy. It's set, set apart, and cannot

be spent by man. It's a signed.

Clive, maybe this is closed, just ask, you know, how have you

seen God provide for you as you have, you know, taken some

financial risks in terms of your investment in the Kingdom of

God. Maybe share share a little bit

there. In 30 years ago when I was

called into ministry, I started to study the whole whole process

of Kingdom of finance alike. Can honestly say in the last 30

years I've never been short of money.

Ever. Sometimes it's come to the 23rd

and 1/2 hour before midnight, but I've never been short

because I trust God as much with money as I do with my salvation.

And that's what tithing does. It allows you to trust God.

I've seen a food materialised in the ladder when we had no money.

The which the. Law pantries your Canadian word,

I think. I love you say Boris 2 bath

bath. Bath is barath bath anyway so.

And. My British is not very good.

I've seen miracles of money just materializing.

I went to India and the congregation I was praying,

speaking to suddenly started finding money in their pockets

and they had empty pockets when they came.

Miracle after miracle after miracle.

That God will not trust you with the true anointing, which is the

miracle signs and wonders and stepping into supernatural if

you can't be trusted with 10% of what He's given you.

That's why I'm urging you to start to tize and see what God

would do. I believe that this house is on

the point of revival. We can see God moving.

The numbers are increasing as a hunger here now.

When the heavens are open, you'll start to see miracles,

signs and wonders, and things you've been praying for for

years suddenly manifests. Thank you.

Just gonna close 2 Corinthians 9 encouragement with Pauly says

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for the food

will also supply and increase your store of seed and will

enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous

on every occasion. That's God's promise to.

Us and then can I just pray for the congregation now, Father,

you've heard our words and as our family take that step of

faith and start to trust you financially with the ties for

you say we're to test you, not test but try try you and you're

giving us a challenge that if we don't do it, we're being

disobedient in that area as well.

So as we try you to see what you want to do with an open heaven,

we give you all the praise and all the glory.

And we're sorry, law, that we've not been honouring you with the

ties and that we want to change this weekend as long weekend.

In the mighty name of Jesus, Amen.

Amen. Thanks brother.

And don't forget to ask for the Testaments from Emma Aurora, the

church office. It's a way of of sort of

wrapping up the series next week.

We will be receiving some new members.

And so the, you know, multiply will be will be certainly part

of our conversation. But you will have received a

little card like this coming in. And if not, there's some extra

copies out in the foyer. But these are the practices of a

multiplier, things that we have been speaking about in this in

this particular series, Just gonna run through them quickly.

Enjoying God's practice of a multiplier is someone that's

simply enjoying the Lord as a priority.

When we're enjoying God, we want to share more about him and we

want to invest in his Kingdom. Praying daily for ministry

workers. You know, we're praying for

people. Is it a few people in our life

that are maybe far from God that we can be praying for them, not

just that they would believe, but that they would enter into

the joy of, of, of being a ministry worker in Jesus name

of, of, of experiencing the happiness of the master and

following Jesus and making other disciples.

Thirdly, spreading God's word. We talked about that just

scattering the seed with whoever, whoever would hear. 4th

discipling a few, maybe even just one, but focusing our

attention and investing in a particular person, developing

them as a disciple, as a as a disciple maker. 5th investing

financially in God's Kingdom. We just, we just spoke about

that. And the last one is what I wanna

close on today, and that is cheering on Kingdom growth,

being a cheerleader when it comes to seeing the Kingdom of

God expanding. What is it that needs to happen

in me as an individual? What does it needs to happen in

us as a church family in order for God's Kingdom to expand and

to grow, you know, right back to where we started in that parable

of the mustard seed. That's how the Kingdom works. 1

Little mustard seed grows into this large tree that that

provides shade and shelter for for the birds etcetera or even

the yeast that is is needed into the dough and expand continues

to expand. God's Kingdom is expanding and

the only thing that stops it from expanding is us in in our

mindset. God just wants to break open,

break open the doors there. So I just wanna just highlight a

few things that that are that that are upcoming things that we

should be kind of keeping in our mind in 2027.

We are launching what we call the path.

We're bringing our discipleship path into our life groups for

the purpose of just getting better at being disciple makers.

That's the purpose. We just want, we just want to

follow Jesus more closely. And so I would encourage every

single one of us when 2027 arrives, January 2027, that we

would, that we would be become part of that, that we would join

a life group that is, that is working through the path

together as well. You may be asked at some point

to serve in a ministry at Forest View, to join a ministry team.

Or if you're on a ministry team, you you may be tapped on the

shoulder and asked to become an apprentice leader, to apprentice

under that leader and become a leader yourself.

I would just encourage you to take, consider those prayerfully

those requests. Is this the way that God wants

me to multiply his ministry Cause the more leaders, the more

people get involved in ministry, the more arms we have to wrap

around people. This church is not just for this

church. This church is for all who would

come and in our community to bring the love of God to them.

We talked about two services. We've been the, we can't stay

the same and grow at the same time.

The Kingdom of God is expanding and we need to expand with it.

And there's all kinds of reasons.

I can think of a lot of reasons why I don't want to go to two

services. Can you think of some like, I

gotta work twice as hard, We gotta recruit, you know, twice

as many volunteers and you know, we're not going to be all

together in one room anymore. And you know, for the at least

the initial stages, it's gonna seem really sparse in here.

All of that stuff is about me and my comfort and, and, and the

Lord is saying I wanna meet you. There are so many people in this

community that still are have no connection to Jesus or his

church and he wants to bring more and more people into the

family of God. Two services is 1 simple way

that we can make room for more people.

So just encourage you just be a cheerleader of two services.

Not well, I don't wanna go just be a cheerleader.

This is about Kingdom expansion and the last thing is planting a

church. We've been talking about

planning a church for the longest time.

We were on the verge of playing at church just before COVID.

That topic is gonna come up again.

Church planting is about churches multiplying churches.

That is what it means to bear fruit.

That is our mandate. Don't poopoo church plant

talking the timing and everything like who has you know

the timing of how do I say this having a child.

Sometimes we plan really well to have a child when married

couple, but sometimes it's a surprise and we're going to get

ready to do that. It's the same thing when we

birth a new church. You know, few Sundays back I

just shared like there's not one church that was out of the 1st

500 churches in the 1st century that were planted that exist

today. None of the seven churches in

Revelation exist today, and yet the church is thriving

throughout the world. We're here.

Why not? Because of a few churches that

got really big or really good at growing themselves.

No churches sent people to plant churches.

That's why Forest View is not gonna be here forever. 50 years,

great mark 100. Very few churches get beyond 100

years like Forest View. But if we plant, this ministry

will continue, continue to plan, continue to plant.

You know, Jesus at the end of the day is not gonna say how

many people are coming to your church.

He's gonna say no. How many churches have come from

your people? Multiplication.

Multiplication. Let's be cheerleaders of

multiplication. All authority in heaven and on

earth has been given to me, Jesus said.

Therefore, go and make disciples.

Therefore, go and make disciples.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for this incredible mandate.

Though uncomfortable at times, it's one that you're calling us

into to mature as individuals and as a church family and to

embrace this vision that you have to multiply and spread your

ministry, your goodness throughout the world.

May we be instruments, maybe be instruments of sharing the

gospel, of investing our possessions, our finances, our

very selves in this incredible expansion project that you've

invited us, invited us into. May we not just be responsible,

Lord, but may we be adventurous. For the glory of Your name we

pray. Amen.