Multiply | April 26 2026 (Part 3) (Mark Potma)

Thank you so much Pastor John for your prayers.

Thank you for your invitation to come here and to continue in

this amazing series called Multiply.

The last two Sundays Pastor John brought a message on the topic

of Multiply and two more Sundays after this.

Just an amazing topic. And here we are right in the

middle. So thank you for that.

And it's, we wanna get rid of that word multiply in terms of

multiplication. Maybe you've got a bad memories

from high school or something or whatever it is.

We're we're not just talking about mathematical, but it's

spiritual reproduction that we're talking about here.

That as followers of Jesus, we can make more followers of

Jesus, who in turn will make more followers of Jesus and so

on. If we're leaders in the church,

we want to train up a new generation of leaders, who in

turn, they'll also train up new leaders.

And as churches are planted, they would have the DNA to plant

new churches. So let's multiply.

In this spring season, some of you have heard about the

elephant, how it reproduces, that the elephant has trouble

reproducing. Actually, all of you mothers

know how difficult a nine month pregnancy is.

How would you like to have a 22 month pregnancy?

That's how long the elephant mom elephant has to wait until that

baby is born. And then after all of that,

there's only one baby elephant after almost two years of

pregnancy. Oh my goodness.

And then the baby doesn't want to come out.

It tries and tries and labour is very difficult for elephants.

In fact, it has to go search in the jungle for this very special

kind of leaf that it eats in order to induce the pregnancy.

And it is so hard for that mother elephant to give birth to

that one baby elephant that sometimes it takes four to five

years to recover just so that that mom can give birth to one

more elephant. Now I wanna compare the elephant

this morning to the mouse. OK, The mouse gives birth 21

days after conception. Isn't that crazy?

And not just one mouse, but 6 to 12 mice all at once.

It's crazy. And then a few days later, no

kidding, a few days later, the mouse is ready to conceive

again. Amazing.

So the mice, these baby mice that are born, these baby mice

that are born are ready to give birth again 5 weeks, 5 weeks

later to another 6 to 12. Let's do the math for just a

minute. When you have one male mouse and

one female mouse, they are capable of producing at least

six generations of mice in one year, with each generation of

them producing after just a few short weeks.

So picture this, the mother mouse, maybe the dad mouse puts

on a birthday party for his wife.

OK, the wife is 1 year old. OK, and all the relatives,

assuming none of them have died because yes, there are natural

predators in the world, including humans, but let's

assume there aren't. Then mom and dad mouse after one

year they can invite thousands and thousands of their own

offspring to the one year birthday party.

That is the power of exponential multiplication and it's actually

the mouse fulfilling God's command in Scripture in chapter

1 of Genesis first, first of all, verses 21 and 22.

This is a command to the animals.

God created a great creatures of the sea, every living thing

which the water teams and that moves about in in it according

to their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind.

And God said that it was good. God blessed them and said to the

elephant, to the mouse, be fruitful and increase in number

and fill the water in the seas. Let the fill the land and let

the birds increase on the earth. Friends, God wants to bless the

world, bless the nations through multiplication.

But before there were nations, before there were families of

nations, there were just two people, Adam and Eve.

And God gave these directions. And we've heard these verses a

couple weeks ago as well from Pastor John, from Genesis

Genesis 1:26–28

chapter 1, verses 26 to 28, first few pages of the Bible.

Then God said, let us make mankind in our image, in our

likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the

birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild

animals and over the creatures that move along the ground.

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God.

He created them, male and female.

He created them. God blessed them and said be

fruitful and increase in number. In other words, multiply, fill

the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea

and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that

moves on the ground. Thank you Heavenly Father for

this directive, for this command, for this blessing from

your word. And we pray, Lord, that we would

also in turn be able to multiply as you have taught us from the

Scriptures in Jesus name, Amen. Now when we think of

commandments in the Bible, we think of the 10 commandments,

right? We think of that's the the first

command from God, but it's not actually, this is the first

command that God gives to people.

It's actually the first words that come out of God's mouth.

And God says, be fruitful. God says multiply.

God says fill the earth. And today, as we have in the

last couple Sundays, we're reminding you that this is not

just a physical command or directive, but it is a spiritual

one. It's very important for each one

of us today, whether we're single or married or younger or

older, each, each of us has this command.

But don't forget, it's also a blessing.

And it's the first thing that God did after he created men and

women. The first thing that he did was

to bless them. And the first words that came

out of his mouth was a blessing and a Commission.

Now we hear the word Commission, we think of Jesus Great

Commission, go into all the world and preach the gospel,

make disciples of every nation. That's the command, but also a

Commission. And so I want you to see these

verses as a blessing and a Commission to each one of us.

We see this meaning throughout the Bible.

We see, for example, marriage as a picture of the love that

Christ has for his church. We see parenting as following

the example of our loving heavenly Father.

And in the same way, I want all of you to see this command to be

fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth, as also a spiritual

Commission to each one of us today.

This is God's word. This is God's desire for each

one of us. And you know what?

It's not about us, it's about God.

It's about his glory. It's about spreading his fame

throughout all the nations of the earth, Habakkuk says.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory

of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

And we want to increase the knowledge of God everywhere.

We wanna shout how amazing God really is and invite other

people to follow him, to worship him.

And yes, we want to reach others who don't know about Jesus.

We want to share with them the good news as they become

followers of Jesus who want to train them to be good disciples

of him. And as we see emerging leaders,

we want to help them to lead others.

And yes, we want to also see new churches planted go and make

disciples. Jesus says of all the nations,

be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and it's wonderful be into

addition 1 + 1 + 1. It just takes a lot longer,

doesn't it? But God is into multiplication,

be fruitful and multiply. You know, this was not just a

one-off statement in the 1st chapter of Genesis.

Three more times in the book of Genesis we see the same thing.

God destroyed the earth because of man's sin and disobedience.

And once again in the time of Noah, God blessed to know, it

says in Chapter 9 and his sons and said to them, guess what, be

fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

He repeated that command again. I don't know about you, but I

think God is trying to make a point here.

God wants his people to multiply.

How? By being fruitful.

We hear the fruit of the Spirit. And that's what we want to see

in our lives. And that our lives would

naturally attract others to have what we what they don't have,

but what we have, and to ask us questions.

And then we can explain to them the love of God through Jesus

Christ, that we can display this fruit of the Holy Spirit, and

that we can multiply what we have by blessing others just as

God has blessed us. Pastor John asked me to not only

bring the message, but also a few personal reflections.

And at this point, I want to share just a personal reflection

as we've been there for 30 years, hard to believe, but

maybe around 2012, you know, what's that?

Maybe 14 years ago, it kind of struck us and we had been into

addition very much. We planted one church and then

we moved and planted another church and another and praised

the Lord. Those churches are continuing to

grow and add new people. And then we, we witnessed and

saw one person and baptized another.

And this was the addition model of ministry that we were

involved in. And praise the Lord for that.

That's better than no ministry at all, right?

But we kind of recognized this principle of multiplication from

the Bible, and it was a shift in our ministry around maybe 10-12,

fourteen years ago from addition to multiplication and what we

saw that we can come alongside and help other church planters

in what they're doing, other disciples to train those

disciples and also leaders to not only train them, but train

them to train leaders. And it was like something

happened that it wasn't up to us.

It's always up to God. But he is showing us the power

of exponential multiplication. And it's still very, very hard.

It's a difficult mission field. In fact, many missionaries quit

after four years or eight years or 10 years.

And so we're thankful that we can still be there after 30

years. But maybe it's because some of

them and no fault to them, but in a, in an addition mindset, it

just isn't working. But shifting to a multiplication

mindset opens up so many doors. And so we're thankful that not

only ministry to check, but God is opening up ministry to ethnic

minorities, not only to helping new missionaries adjust to the

Czech Republic, but sending out checks to the nations, not only

planting churches directly, but indirectly as well.

And so we see this shift from addition to multiplication.

And when we see this happen, what are the characteristics of

this happening? We see disciples who make

disciples, churches that plant churches, leaders who train new

leaders, and it's God who is the catalyst behind this exponential

multiplying of movements. We cannot make it happen by the

force of human will. We need to join in what God is

doing and recognize that God is the one who is into

multiplication and we need to join Him in His work, trusting

in God, trusting in His promises, relying on the Word,

and expecting great things through the power of the Holy

Spirit. Friends, we have no other

authority than the authority of God's Word.

That is what sends us out and that is what reminds us over and

over again that God is with us. He is fulfilling His promises.

And thirdly, it's the result of fervent, fervent prayer, and

that's where you come in as well as God is calling you to be in a

ministry of prayer for this church, for the people who are

here, for this neighborhood, for the community, for the region,

for our country of Canada, and yes, for the nations of the

world. When the church prays, the earth

shakes. Just read through the book of

Acts and you can see what happens when the church begins

to begins to pray. Even before Jesus told his

disciples to go, what did he tell them to do?

He told them to pray. Pray earnestly to the Lord of

the harvest, to send out laborers into his harvest.

So often we try to go ahead of God and try to do that work, but

yet it starts with prayer. And Jesus said to his disciples,

first of all, pray. And since that day 2000 years

ago, the Church of Jesus Christ has grown exponentially.

Jesus said I will build my church.

Even the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

There were 12 disciples. We read later that there were

70. Then there were about 500.

Soon we get to the book of Acts and we don't see hundreds

anymore. We read about thousands.

There were 10s of thousands of people.

Soon after 300 years, Christianity became the

predominant faith in that part of the world.

But to understand the global significance of this exponential

multiplication of believers in Jesus, we need to go back again

to Genesis, this time to chapter 12, where God gave Abraham a

sevenfold blessing and a promise.

Genesis 12, one to three, the Lord had said to Abraham, Go

from your country, your people, and your father's household to

land. I will show you first promise I

will make you into a great nation.

Secondly, I will bless you. Third, I will make your name

great, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you.

Whoever curses you, I will curse.

And here the greatest of all the 77 promises God says to Abraham

in verse 3. And all peoples or people groups

on the earth will be blessed through you.

Yes, physically, but most importantly spiritually, The

greatest of all promises to Abraham.

All peoples, all nations, all people groups will be blessed

through you. Just to stress how important

this is, God repeated that same promises promise over in chapter

22. He said to Abraham, I will

surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the

stars in the sky and as the sand in the seashore.

I don't know if any of you tried to count the stars, to count the

grains of sand. It's impossible.

But God said, your descendants will take possession of the

cities of your enemies, and through your offspring all

nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed

me. The promise of spiritual

multiplication was repeated again through his Son Isaac,

then through Jacob, through the 12 sons.

Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth.

And from this line, God would supernaturally unfold His plan,

His purpose for all of mankind, by sending His Son, the Lord

Jesus Christ, the sinless, the perfect Son of God, who would be

born of a virgin, who would live and walk among us, who would

suffer and who would die to take upon Himself the curse of sin

and guilt and shame. Past, present, future, once and

for all. It is finished and to make us

right again with a just and holy God to restore that relationship

that was broken in the Garden of Eden.

And all who would receive Him by faith, just like Abraham, all

who would believe in the promises and the plan of God,

the power of God's provision of God.

God gives them the right to become the children of God, just

as John says. Not, not children, not born out

of natural descent or of human decision or husband's will, but

born of God. This is the promise that's

available to you and to me today.

If you haven't already, I encourage you to take this

promise to heart and to receive Jesus as the greatest gift of

all into your heart, into your life, and He will transform you

by the power of the Holy Spirit. And now this promise has taken

on a worldwide scope, a global scope, not just to the nation of

Canada or to the ethnic groups of our country, but to the

nations of the world, to all peoples of all, to all nations,

language groups and tribes. Through this one act of

obedience of a man named Abraham from the land of earth, God said

go and Abraham went. Later on, Moses got a call to

go, and he went. And others.

Daniel, he went. Jonah.

Well, not right away, but eventually he went.

And Jesus has told us in the Great Commission to go into all

the world and to preach the gospel to all creation, to go

and to make disciples of all nations.

Wow, the early church, as we read in Acts, they really took

this Commission to heart. And as we read in the book of

Acts, the first few chapters record addition growth.

Isn't that interesting. The Word of God even says that

the Lord added 3000 to church in one day.

Amazing. And then a few chapters later we

heard that 5000 were added to the church.

But then in chapter 6 of the book of Acts, something happens.

We don't hear as much about addition, and guess what?

We start hearing about multiplication.

Multiplication and the language of Acts begins to change as the

number of disciples was multiplied and God's

multiplication of disciples resulted in exponential growth

for the church. And as it happens, that also

resulted in persecution. So we need to be aware that

multiplication and persecution in the Bible are often hand in

hand. The church was scattered.

They hadn't thought about going to other places.

They wanted to stay together, but God had greater plans and

through persecution that none of us would ever wish upon anyone.

And yet they received persecution.

They fled, they scattered and everywhere they went, they told

the wonderful and amazing news of Jesus Christ.

And if we go to Acts chapter 16, we read an amazing verse here.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

The churches were strengthened their faith and they it's not

specific they increased numbers daily, but yet when you look at

the verse, what does that they mean?

Not necessarily the believers who increased in numbers daily,

but the number of churches increased in numbers daily.

Exponential growth of the Church.

Explosive growth. How is that possible?

How can that be? The Apostle Paul planted

churches, trained leaders, and then moved on rather quickly so

that they would stay behind and reach their region for Christ.

In fact, in Romans Paul says so. From Jerusalem all the way

around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the Gospel of

Christ. Did Paul actually preach to

every single person? Did every person receive Christ?

No, but he felt they fully done the job that God called him to

do and it was time to move on. This movement is continuing to

this day. We look around in Canada, we

don't see it happening necessarily in the United

States, especially in Europe, it just seems like things are

stagnating that we're glad when we have at least addition, but

we don't see this multiplication happening.

But yet in other parts of the world, Asia, Africa, Latin

America, the church is growing literally exponentially.

It is just amazing to see and we can, we can understand that this

biblical concept of multiplication is happening

among the nations of the world. So many times we're happy and

we're satisfied when we can be in an addition model of ministry

and praise the Lord for that. But yet the question is, is God

calling us to the next level? Is God calling us to, for this

holy dissatisfaction of we don't want just addition ministry, we

want multiplication ministry. And how can we do it?

We don't want to just add more people, add more programs, add

more stuff, but we want to start sending.

It's not just a seating capacity, but it's a sending

capacity. And what are we going to rejoice

about how many people we have sent out of our seats, out of

our chairs into the community, into the regions of province,

the country, and yes, to the farthest corners of the world.

And we could praise the Lord for that.

And that's why we're thankful that we are your ambassadors.

We are your ministers in the Czech Republic.

We are an extension of what you are doing here and we are so

pleased to be able to do that. As I said, we got to know some

Mongolians in the Czech Republic and we understood that there

were no Christians in 1989. In 1990 there were 4.

Then in 1991, there were 10 Christians in the whole country

of 3 million people. And today 2% of Mongolians are

Christians, 100,150 thousand believers.

It's amazing. And when they go to another

country as immigrants, 98% of them don't know Christ, but 2 of

2% do. And they want to reach their

countrymen with the gospel and say, hey, we have a service in

your language, we have music, we have a meal together, why don't

you come? And so many people who are new

to the Czech Republic but from Mongolia, they hear about this

when they come and they receive the gospel.

One of our evangelist friends, a check guy, he says he he

witnesses to about 100 people and only one of them react

positively to the gospel. 99% react negatively in the Czech

Republic. But yet our pastor, Munku, she

said he if he shared the gospel to 100 Mongolians, about 50 of

them, half would express interest in hearing more.

Isn't that amazing? So God is at work among the

Mongolian population of the Czech Republic and we get to

provide space for them at Skolka Church.

We get to partner with them in different outreach events and I

get to come alongside of this wonderful man, Pastor Mukesh,

who is full time ministering to the Mongolian population of

Prague, the Czech Republic, and yes, to the many nations of

Europe. Multiplication.

I want to just reflect how sometimes it's also painful.

Multiplication can be painful. And that leads to our Third

Point. Multiplication involves leaving,

cleaving and receiving. I like that point because it all

rhymes. I, I kind of proud of that

little point there leaving, cleaving and receiving.

You can actually walk out today and you can remember that

because they all rhyme. But especially remember, be

fruitful, multiply, fill the earth in a spiritual sense.

And you're saying, well, hold on Mark, you don't understand.

This is still talking physically, you know, having

babies and raising kids and all that kind of thing.

And yes, you are right, physical multiplication is very important

and God wants us to disciple in our families.

That's the first context of what we read in creation.

And yet we see God's plan for marriage as well.

Therefore a man shall leave his father, the Bible says, and his

mother, and shall cleave unto his wife.

In other word. For cleave is to join or be

united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.

I love that word cleave because it's the only word in the

English language that has two opposite meanings.

Cleave means to join together 2 parts that were one and yet to

cleave. If you have a cleaver at home,

you can also take an apple and you can cleave it in half.

Isn't that interesting? One word, 2 completely opposite

definitions, but this one, it means to cleave, to join

together, to make one from 2 separate parts.

And that's an important concept that we find in Genesis.

Jesus repeated that in the gospels in Mark, and then Paul

teaches it again in Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Very important as it relates to multiplication, leaving,

cleaving and receiving. So in order for them to be, for

there to be multiplication, there must be a leaving.

There's a going. And we hear this call of God,

go, go, go. Old Testament, New Testament,

go. Sometimes that means physically

moving from the place where the gospel is known to the place

where the gospel is known. There are many barriers to the

gospel. It could be geography a a

mountain range. It could be a language that we

can't speak. It could be political, maybe a

dictatorship that doesn't allow Christians.

It could be even a war situation.

It might be cultures that are so different that we just can't

manage to cross a cultural, linguistic or geographical

barrier. But God is still calling us to

go. And that first Commission, 1st

century Commission of Go, is still as applicable as it is

today. And that is the process of

multiplication. First step is going or leaving,

leaving our nation, leaving our country.

But also it means crossing the street or crossing the hallway

at work or crossing somewhere in our hearts, a barrier that we

have against someone who's not a believer.

But Paul didn't do it alone. And multiplication is not a Lone

Ranger sport. In fact, it always takes at

least two people. And the 1st century believers

knew that they went out two by two.

And Jesus sent out the 12 and the 72.

But also often in in Acts we read that they go out in teams

or two by two or they join teams that already exist.

And so this is the part of cleaving.

So we leave, but we don't do a Lone Ranger sport.

We cleave are we join with other like minded believers who are

doing that. And also we joined the local

Christians who are in that place.

If there are believers, we join them in what they are doing.

And this is that part of cleaving or joining what God is

doing. Why?

So that we can better reach others for Christ, so we can be

more effective. The cord of three strands is not

easily broken. Broken.

And we also follow the example of Jesus, who left his Father's

home in heaven, and he joined what was going on here.

He became one of us. He shared our sorrows and also

shared with us our joys, and we are called to leave and to

cleave, to go and identify with the people.

And this third step in multiplication is receiving.

Take a look at Mark chapter 10, verses 27 to 31.

Mark 10:27–31

Jesus looked at them and said with man this is impossible, but

not with God. All things are possible with

God. That's an important verse to

remember when we think about multiplication.

Oh, that's that's not gonna work.

Hmm. Sure, humanly it's impossible,

but Jesus himself said with God all things are possible.

Then Peter spoke up. Oht Peter, Oht Peter, I love

Peter. He just pipes up and says

something off the top of his head, Peter said.

We have left everything to follow you.

Little did Peter know what it was really gonna take to enter

into this multiplication ministry.

And I'm sure Jesus just sighed. He said, Ohhh Peter, truly I

tell you, not just Peter, but to all the 12 no one who has left

home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or

lands for me and for the gospel will fail to receive 100 times

as much in the present age. Holmes brothers, sisters,

mothers, children and lands along with persecutions and in

the age to come, eternal life. And then just to summarize,

Jesus says, but many who are first will be last, and the last

will be first. And here we're at the amazing

result of multiplication, yes, leaving, yes, cleaving, but

receiving a hundredfold in this life and in the life to come.

And as Pastor John asked me to for a moment, just be personal

and share from our own heart. Yes, it was wonderful to grow up

as a family in the Czech Republic with our four children.

And we always used to tell our kids home is wherever we are

together as a family, whether it's Chech Republic, Minnesota,

Ontario, at least we're all together and we can just take

our turtle shell and we can move.

And then our first kid went back to Canada, our second or third

or fourth. And now we're empty nesters in

the Czech Republic and we can't say that anymore.

We can't date to our kids. Home is wherever we are together

as a family, cause we're not together anymore.

And so we had read this verse, as many of you have, 100 times,

and we checked off the boxes. Yeah, we left our land.

We left our home. We left our mother, our father.

We left our brothers, our sisters, and then we looked back

this first. And after we had left our

children and they had left us, we said, oh, there's a word in

here, children. And we realized that sometimes

it's painful. I'm not saying leave infants or

or a preschool or elementary school children behind.

I'm not saying that. But sometimes there comes a

point. And many of you know as well,

they're off to college or off to their different places.

They move and we're a little bit sad.

And our children did that too. But for the gospel, it's worth

it. And so when our children left,

yes, it was painful. And that's the point when many

mysteries say, OK, we're gonna keep our family together.

We're gonna call it quits and move back to North America

because we wanna stay together. And they do that.

And sometimes their kids still move different places.

So you can't change that. But God gave us a real peace

that it was not time for us to finish the ministry just because

our children were leaving. But this is one of the verses

that really spoke to us as well, that yes, part of multiplication

is also leaving, but yet in the very same breath, Jesus says,

receiving a hundredfold. And we look at the land of the

Czech Republic, the land of Ukraine, the land of Mongolia,

lands that we never really knew much about.

And yet God has given us these lands spiritually, children who

are being baptized. And you saw just last year three

of them wonderful conversion stories that we don't have time

to share with you and others who will be waiting for baptism when

we return in May and in June. And receiving families, families

of believers that didn't even exist 10 years ago, 20 years

ago, 30 years ago. And they are now churches that

are on their own, receiving even more believers and reaching out

even more to their communities and yes, to the world.

And so we've seen this Bible verse come true in our own

lives. How about you?

Are you ready to take these streets three steps to leave, to

cleave, and to receive for God's glory and for the purposes that

God has ordained for us through multiplication?

And you might say, oh, I'd rather just stay put.

I can give some money and I can pray, but I'm called to stay

put. And that's fine.

Not all of us are called to go to another country, but yet

we're called to go across the street to reach out to our

Muslim neighbor. We're called to go across the

hallway to our Buddhist coworker.

We're called to reach out to our classmates at school who live a

secular atheist lifestyle. God is calling us to join

ministries that exist here at Forest View that are looking for

people who will be able to do the work of the ministry.

Why? So that ministry can expand and

grow and multiply. And yes, maybe God has put a

burden on you to start a new ministry right here in Grimsby

or in this region, A ministry that doesn't even exist yet.

But yet you have that holy dissatisfaction in your heart

that you know there's something more.

And that is this calling of God. But beware, just like we read in

this verse, along with persecutions.

And Tertullian once said that one of the early Church fathers,

he said the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.

And friends, I know that as we see the day of the Lord coming

closer and closer, I believe that we will experience more

persecution, that people who are now just indifferent to the

gospel will be openly hostile to the gospel.

People who maybe now tolerate Christians will become more and

more intolerant of Christians. But what is the hope of the

world? The hope of the world is the

Church of Jesus Christ that will grow and multiply and his cross

cultural missionaries reaching out to different people groups

who have not yet the gospel, heard the gospel.

We can't do it without the prayers of the Saints, without

that partnership that exists because we know that missions is

only temporary. Evangelism one day will end, but

worship will continue for all of eternity.

Jesus himself said the gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in

the whole world as a testimony to all nations.

And then Matthew 2414. And then the end will come,

missions will end, evangelism will end, but worship will

continue. And we are here to to call

people from every tribe and tongue and people of nation to

join that great and glorious day.

That brings us to our fourth point, that worship is God's

great plan and purpose for the nation.

And the apostle John in Revelation gives us this vision

of white hot worship for all eternity in heaven before the

throne of God, before Jesus, the Lamb of God.

Let's look at Revelation Chapter 7 starting at verse 9.

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

And John says in his vision as after this I looked and there

before me was a great multitude that no one could count.

You see that word multitude and multiply, a multitude that no

one could count from every nation and tribe and people and

language. Rep redeemed representatives

from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

Not every single person in the whole world, but every nation,

tribe, and tongue would be represented before the throne of

God, the fulfillment of missions, and then the end will

come. What were they doing standing

before the throne and before the Lamb?

They were wearing white robes and they were holding palm

branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud

voice. Salvation belongs to our God who

sits on the throne and to the land.

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the

elders and the four living creatures, and they fell down on

their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying Amen,

Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks, power and strength be to

our God forever and ever. Amen.

Friends, this is the future reality that awaits us in

heaven. Together with redeemed

representatives from every tribe and tongue and nation, we will

be gathered before the throne. But until that day comes, we are

on a mission to win worshippers from every people group on the

face of this earth. Jesus had a mission.

Jesus had a vision and he gives that to us as his disciples.

God had a God sized vision. It was through His Son our Lord

Jesus Christ 30 * 60 * 100 * 1,000,000 of times more fruit

and for us the call is to be fruitful and multiply and fill

the earth. Did we know 30 years ago that

God would lead us to not only plant Czech churches, but come

alongside of brothers and sisters whose languages we don't

even understand and help them to plant churches for their people?

No. Did we know that we would meet

Mongolians in the Czech Republic?

No. Did we know that a horrible war

would break out just four years ago, causing unspeakable

suffering and death and destruction in Ukraine, causing

a humanitarian crisis? No, we didn't know, but that God

would come alongside of them and that new churches would be

planted. We realized that at the current

rate of growth of 0.5% evangelical in the Czech

Republic, it would take 125 years just to get to 1%.

And then within three weeks, 3 weeks, friends, the evangelical

population bumped from 1/2 to 3/4 of 1%.

Because Ukraine is such a relatively evangelical country,

5% of of Ukrainians are following Jesus Christ as their

savior, and they've come to the Czech Republic.

Who could have anticipated that anything is possible with God?

Could we have anticipated that? No, of course not.

Did we know that I would meet a wonderful Korean pastor in

Prague named Pastor Lee who desires to reach out to the

Koreans in Prague but also has a heart for the nations and wants

to partner with the Czech churches?

No, we didn't know that. Did we know that we would meet

this wonderful group of people, this people group called Roma,

who have gone through suffering and discrimination for 1000

years? They call them the Wanderers.

They're a nation without a country and yet to see this

revival happening, even in the time that we've been there,

could we have anticipated that? No.

And did we know that we would not only be part of a missions

receiving process of helping new missionaries to get acquainted

and acculturated, but they would help checks to be sent back out

to the nations just as that great Moravian mission movement

of 300 years ago would be reawakened?

Could we have anticipated that? No, we were praying for that,

but now it's a reality. These are all things that we

could not have anticipated, and yet God has orchestrated great

things in our lives, in our ministry.

And we look forward to hearing some of the ways that God is

orchestrating in your lives, in your ministry, in your church,

in your community, and your region as you also experience

the power of exponential multiplication in your lives.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you

for this great and yet difficult calling for us to not only add

new believers to, but to multiply, to multiply ourselves

and to reach others with the gospel, to multiply ourselves

and help believers to grow in their faith and to be the

disciples that will train even new disciples.

We thank you that we can encourage leaders who will in

turn also train new leaders and yes, be part of a church

planting movement that will see new churches planted across our

country and yes, around the world.

Or I ask a blessing on Forest View Community Church on Pastor

John on Gale, all the the staff here, the leaders and volunteers

of this church, Lord, that we would experience the power of

the Holy Spirit as we recognize this exponential multiplication

power that you offer to us. We pray a blessing on the next

two Sundays as we continue to experience what multiplication

means from a biblical perspective.

And we pray that you would encourage us by your word and by

your Holy Spirit in the power of Jesus Christ, in whose name we

pray. Amen.