Multiplication Over Addition
4 Priorities for Gospel Saturation

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Good morning church. It is good to see all of you this weekend. We’re so thankful for the rain, aren’t we? Usually we want sunny weather, but we’ve had so much sunny weather that we are very thankful for the rain. If you’re here, visiting for the first time, you’re probably wondering what’s up with all the decorations. Well, we love kids! Our VBS starts tomorrow evening and we had to decorate. It takes us several days to get the whole church looking like it does in time for our children’s ministry. “Back in Time” is the theme this year; we’re excited about that!

Today, we’re concluding our four-part series, talking about four priorities for gospel saturation. We have spent the last few weeks talking about this. When we talk about gospel saturation, here’s how we define it: “Gospel Saturation is the church owning the lostness of anunidentified an identified people in a defined place, ensuring that every man, woman, and child has repeated opportunities to see, hear, and respond to the Good News of Jesus Christ where they live, learn, work, and play.” For us, the people in a defined place, is Wilson, North Carolina. It’s also Rocky Mount, where we have our second campus. That’s what we mean by gospel saturation. It’s a restatement of Christ’s command, that we find in Mark 16:15 (ESV) “And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” We’re working out what that looks like for us.

Over the past three weeks, we’ve talked about four important priorities. One is mobilization, the idea that every member is mobilized and equipped to go and talk to others about Jesus. We talked about transformation, that every member is experiencing life change and becoming more like Jesus. We talked about collaboration last week, that that we’re not in competition with other churches or other nonprofits but we’re actually collaborating for the sake of the Gospel.

Today, we’re going to talk about this fourth priority – multiplication and the importance of multiplication. What we’re really talking about is the strategy that Jesus gave us for discipleship; it’s the power that we have in multiplication.

Now, in order to save time and really help you get a definition of this, we’ve got a short video we’d like for you to watch on the power of multiplication. (Video) “Would you rather be given one million or one penny doubled every day for 30 days? Do you remember this question from math class, when we all learned the power of compound interest and exponential growth? At the end of 30 days, that doubled penny becomes just over $5 million. It turns out, the same concept applies to missions. Imagine you filled a football stadium with 100,000 people for a gospel outreach event and 20% of them came to know Christ that day. 20,000 people would come into the Kingdom if you did that every day for a year . Over seven million people would come to faith. That sounds pretty great, right? Here’s the question though: If you kept that pace of seven million people each year, how long would it take to reach the world’s population of eight billion people? Over 1000 years; 1095 to be exact. A 100,000 person outreach event every day for 1000 years. From a pure number standpoint, mass evangelism will not reach the world for Christ in our lifetime. What about a different strategy, inspired by that original math problem? Instead of preaching to 100,000 people every day, suppose you made one disciple each year focused on their development and equipped them to make their own new disciple every year? At the end of the first year, you would have two followers of Jesus: you and your disciple. At the end of the second year, you would have 48, the third year, 16, the fourth and so on. 32 64 1, 28 How many years would it take to disciple the world using this strategy? 34 years. Do the math. Something profound happens when we take a multiplication mindset. In the Great Commission, Jesus tells us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He continues, by instructing us to teach those disciples to obey everything He commanded us. What was His final command? Go and make disciples. So, our role is to make disciples that obey the command to make disciples that obey the command to make disciples. We are to go to all nations and make disciple making disciples; that’s multiplication. Reach the few in order to reach the many. What if you didn’t feel the burden to preach to an entire village or city or country, but instead were faithful to the simple multiplication principles of the Great Commission? The entire world could be disciples in our generation if we started with just one! What about you? How might God want you to be involved in making disciples that make disciples and seeing movements of Jesus among every tribe, tongue, people and nation? Would you rather fill a stadium every day for the next 1000 years or commit to making one disciple this year? Let’s do this together until all have heard, starting with disciple one.”

So, who’s your “one?” Are you ready to get on board? How do you get started? Who’s your “one?” The first question I would ask you in order to be part of a multiplying church, is: “Are you a disciple of Jesus?” See, that’s the first question that you can answer, that you must answer for yourself. Have you surrendered your life to Jesus as your Lord and Savior, repenting of your sins and saying, “I want to be a Christ follower.” That’s the first step of being a disciple maker is, first, you have to be a disciple yourself. Are you a disciple of Jesus?

Here’s the second question, if you are a disciple of Jesus? Have you entrusted yourself to another Christian who’s ahead of you? They don’t have to be a lot ahead of you , just a few steps ahead of you in their Christian walk, that you’d be willing to allow them to mentor you, to disciple you, in growing more like Jesus. Have you said, “yes,” to that process? If you’re saying “yes” to the first question and then “yes” to the second one, then you’re ready to ask the next question.

“Am I now making disciples of others?” If you’re a mom, a dad or a grandparent, I would say the best place to start is right there in your own house. “Am I making disciples in my house?” “ Am I making disciples in the relationships I’m already in?” Disciple making is the command of the church.

Jesus, in the book of Acts, restates this in a way that gives it a strategy indeed. We’re going to be looking at one verse in the book of Acts today. The book of Acts is really the story of the apostles and how they obeyed the command to go out and share the gospel. It’s found in the first chapter of Acts. The whole book of Acts is telling the story of how they obeyed. Acts 1:8 (ESV) “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” You can see how Jesus gave them this strategy to begin in their Jerusalem; that’s where they were to start, at home. Then, Judea, which is the larger area that Jerusalem was the capital of. Then, Samaria, which is people near you, but not like you; they are near you, but they’re not like you.Then, finally, to the ends of the earth.

You can see, in the book of Acts, that it’s really a story that talks about how the first century church became a multiplying church. If the first century church started doing that, then why can’t the 21st century church also be a multiplying church?

We’re going to be looking at at chapter nine, verse 31. I’ve already heard some of you saying, ‘What? There’s only one verse today?’ Well, this verse is packed. This one verse is going to have all that we need in it, plus, we will probably look at some other verses, too, along the way.

The apostle Luke wrote the book of Acts; he is reminding us of how that first century church was obedient to Christ’s command to be a multiplying church. I believe, as we look at this church, we will notice that there are four marks of this first century church that could be the same marks of our church today. Here is our scripture:

Acts 9:31 (ESV) “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.” This is God’s word Amen. You’re not used to me just reading one verse. But as you can probably see, those of you that fill in the blanks in your notes, you’re probably already trying to fill in the blanks. It’s easier when it’s one verse. Let’s look at the first mark of a multiplying church:

1. The peace of Christ.

You can see the word, “peace,” in verse 31. Notice, first of all, that it begins with basically how the church is growing in the very areas that Jesus told him to in Acts 1:8. The church is multiplying. Notice the last words of the verse, “it multiplies.” This was a multiplying church. This is a church that’s growing very fast.

The word, “multiply,” here has the idea of “to grow quickly, ” not by addition but by multiplication. This is a multiplying church. The first mark is they had peace. They had peace. The Greek word there for peace is eirēnē. If your name is Irene, you have the Greek name that means “peace.” That’s where it comes from. The authors here have a Jewish background; they probably had in view the Hebrew word, “shalom.”

When we say “peace,” we might just mean “the absence of hostility, there’s no war.” But this “peace,” this “shalom” is richer than that. It’s more than just the absence of hostility. It’s a state of tranquility on the inside and the outside. It’s a state of harmony, oneness and unity, so that the body, the soul and the spirit are at peace. It’s a state that can only really truly be found if you have peace in Christ because it starts inside of you. It’s hard to have peace in your house if there’s no peace in your heart. This church was marked by peace .

This is an important thing to take note of, because there had been a lack of peace prior to this. If we read the quick “Cliff’s notes” of the first nine chapters of the book of Acts, you’ll know that Jesus ascended in chapter one. Then, at Pentecost ten days later, the Holy Spirit falls upon the first century church. Peter goes out and preaches; 3000 people are saved. The church explodes; it is growing like crazy. Then, immediately, it has a problem. You don’t have to read far; you get to chapter six and we run into a problem. The problem was what we would probably call today a racial problem. It doesn’t say racism here, but it appears to be a racial problem. The problem was in the distribution of food. The church was taking care of the widows of the church and the poor. It was growing so fast that it started attracting Greek background people that spoke Greek in addition to the Hebrew background people that it started with. So, there was a complaint. You can read about it in Acts 6:1-5 (ESV) 1 “Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering…” This is the origin of the deacon ministry. They appointed seven men to be deacons and it pleased the whole gathering and immediately the deacons began to wait tables. If we had time, we would look at the names of the seven deacons. They were all Greek names.

The disciples, the apostles, “bent over backwards” to make sure that the Greek background believers knew that they loved them; they had to guard the lack of peace. This was creating this unity from within. If you look at the names of the seven first deacons, they all have Greek names. One deacon was named “Stefanos” or “Stephen.” Stephen was the first among those. All of a sudden, now, they have unity and peace within because they leaned into that complaint and said ‘No, we need to solve that.’ That’s one of the places that you can have a lack of peace; it can start on the inside. It didn’t take long for this to happen whenever they appointed those seven deacons.

Acts 6:7 (ESV) “ And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.” As soon as they got unity again, “boom,” the church started growing.

Here’s what happens; we stop ourselves. The reason our church doesn’t multiply and reach more people for Jesus is because we don’t have peace in our own hearts. We don’t have peace in our own house. We don’t have peace in our own church. There’s disunity. If you’re a person here that hangs on to an offense, you just get mad and you don’t know how to get forgiveness or to give forgiveness, then you’re one of the people that can stop a church from being a multiplying church. If you are here this morning and the mark of your life is anger or resentment, you are upset at someone and you haven’t worked it out with them, then there’s no peace in your life. If there’s no peace in your life, then there’s no peace in our life.

The evil one really can’t stop the church. Jesus told Peter that upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. In other words, satan can’t stop us, but we can stop ourselves through disunity, through lack of peace. So, get good at being a peacemaker. Get good at reconciliation. Make sure that you’re not the one that’s disrupting the growth of a church. They survived this internal disunity, but it’s not over.

Remember, the name of the first deacon was Stephen. He was not only the first deacon, but he was the first Christian martyr. Stephen is preaching and he’s on fire for Jesus. He offends some Jewish people and they stone him to death. There’s this man named Saul who was a graduate of what you might call “Harvard U” right there in Jerusalem, a prestigious school under the teacher, Gamaliel. He’s a “number one” pharisee; he stands guard over the cloaks as they stoned Stephen to death. We see the beginning of this man named “Saul the Persecutor;” he’s so fired up about imprisoning and killing Christians that he starts traveling outside of Jerusalem to get them. When he does this, now they’ve got a problem without. They had a peace problem within and the Holy Spirit helped them solve it, but now, they’re being attacked from without. Saul starts going all the way to Damascus, up in Syria. He goes to the Street called Straight. I’ve never visited there; but that street is still there. He’s on the road to Damascus and sees the persecutors carrying letters of imprisonment for Christians that he’s going after, but he encounters the risen Lord Jesus in a vision. Jesus appears to Saul. I probably should let you be reminded that his name gets changed to Paul when he becomes a Christian. He’s still going by Saul at this point. Jesus says, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. Saul comes to Jesus; he comes to faith in Christ.

We’ve survived this internal strife by addressing it and finding peace. Now, guess what the Holy Spirit does? The ringleader of the persecution movement gets saved! That put a big “ding” in Satan’s affairs right there. Now, we’re at chapter nine verse 31; they had peace. Peace within and peace without. But now, during that time of persecution, a good thing happened. It came out of nowhere. It wasn’t fun being persecuted, but a good thing happened. They all had left town; they were hanging out in Jerusalem, having a big time, when persecution broke out. They spread throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria. God often uses persecution and suffering to move us into places of mission that he actually had commanded us to go into. If you’ll follow Him and trust Him, He often does that.

Here they are. They have peace within and without. Now, the mark of that church is peace (shalom) and multiplication. We will never be a multiplying church unless we have peace in our own souls, unless we have peace in our relationships and unless we learn to “bend over backwards” to be right with each other rather than always being fault finders.

Are you ready to receive the peace of Christ today and to practice it in your life? That’s the first mark of a multiplying church. Here’s the second mark:

2. The equipping of the saints.

Do you see it in our verse? It says, “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. It was being built up; it was being equipped. The Greek word here has the idea of, “to build a house and to actually put a roof on it,” “to build it all the way up to maturity” is in view here inside that Greek verb.

I used to work construction in high school in my teenage years. I worked for my uncle. I remember that, if we were framing a house, we were always at the “beck and call” of the weather. Whether it was going to rain or not, as long as you didn’t have a roof on it, you couldn’t work. It rained you out. But, once you got the building under the roof, you could work rain or shine, so you’re trying to get it under the roof as quickly as you could.

Here, he’s saying that the church, at this time, had peace within and without. The disciples were growing up, they weren’t just staying baby Christians for the next 30 or 40 years. They were growing.

What does it mean to build up the body of Christ? The foundation of being a Christ follower is Christ and the roof is Christ. What does it mean to grow up, to be equipped to be like Jesus, to grow up into being more and more like Jesus?

They were being trained up and equipped. They were growing up. We see, in the book of Ephesians, that talks about this equipping and growing up. Ephesians 4:11-16 (NLT) 11 “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be maturein in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”

Are you growing? Are you being equipped? Are you growing more like Jesus? Are you growing in your understanding of the word? Are you learning to read the word for yourself? Are you growing in your prayer life? Are you growing in your intimacy with the Lord as you talk to Him in prayer? Are you growing in fellowship with other believers? Are you growing in your faith so that you no longer doubt, but you’re firm in your faith? When someone comes along with lies that go against God’s word, do you have the discernment to know that’s not true? Are you growing? This is what should be happening in a multiplying church, that people are being equipped, they are being raised up to maturity. They’re growing.

I’ve been told that the greatest missionary field for the mormon church is to knock on the doors of people who already go to church because they’re already open to the word of God because they go to church. For the most part, so many believers are so unaware of the book that they call the bible. They are so unaware of what’s in it that they are more apt to buy false teaching because they’re so immature in their faith. I’ve been told that cults and other groups love knocking on our doors because we’re friendly and we believe in God already, we just don’t know Him very well.

Friends, don’t you want to grow up? Don’t you want to grow up so that you’re no longer tossed to and fro by false teaching and the teaching of our culture, so that you know the truth and that you’ve been set free by it? This is what we’re being asked to allow to happen; to be equipped.

Here’s a key verse. It’s really the theme verse of our discipleship process here at our church. 2 Timothy 2:2 (NIV) “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” The apostle Paul was writing to his spiritual son in the Lord, Timothy. Paul discipled Timothy and he’s saying that the stuff that I invested in you, Timothy, I want you to go find some reliable people that are also qualified to teach others. I want you to pour your life, one at a time, into them and reproduce the “Christ that’s in you” into them and then challenge them to go do likewise. This is called “life on life discipleship;” “life on life.”

We have a process in our church called, “life on life discipleship.” It’s one person investing their life in another person. It’s certainly based around the bible and prayer, but it’s not just that. It’s also about relationship. It’s about pouring your life into someone else. May I say to you, until you get involved as a believer in discipleship, you’ll never truly know the adventure of following Jesus because He cares deeply about this. This is His final command of the church, “Go and make disciples.” Be a disciple and then be a disciple who makes disciples. I’m telling you, if you ever start, you’ll catch the “bug” and you’ll be ruined for life, just like me. You will want to tell people about this. I love to see life change. I’m addicted to life change, seeing a person that was in this horrible situation, now shining like a star in heaven. I get to share Jesus with him and watch Jesus do His work in that person’s life. That’s what it looks like. There’s nothing better. It’s the best thing of all to just share your life.

You’ll see in your bulletin, there’s a tear off connection card there. There’s a checkbox there for life on life discipleship. If you’re not actively being discipled, then it’s your fault for not checking that box and saying “yes.” If you’re not being discipled, it’s because you think there’s other things in your life more important. Heaven help you, because the final command of Jesus is to be a disciple who makes disciples. Whatever you’ve put in a higher priority place, I can’t make you do it and the Lord won’t make you do it, but it’s going to cost you in your life. You’re not gonna grow up.

I would say this to you; teachers always learn the most. If you get disciples, someone is your disciple, you will learn a lot, but guess who you’ll learn the most from? The person you disciple. They’re going to ask you questions that you feel obligated to know the answer to and when you don’t, you’re going to call the person who disciples you and say, ‘Have you ever run across this question?’ You’ll grow the most decipling others than you will being a disciple. It’s the whole process.

We’ve talked about this before; Paul’s disciple was Timothy. Paul was discipled by someone named Barnabas. I say this to everyone: Everyone needs a “Paul.” You need someone that’s pouring into you; everyone needs a “Barnabas,” whose name means, “son of encouragement.” You, also, need a “Peter” to be your running mate. For the ladies, everyone needs a “Paulina, Barbara and Tammy.” We all need someone that’s pouring into us , somebody we are running with and someone that we are pouring into. That’s the second mark: Be equipped. Here’s the third:

3. The fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord. This is the third mark of a multiplying church. Now, we don’t usually think of the word, “fear,” as a positive thing. In fact, to have the first mark as “peace” and the third mark as “fear” doesn’t seem to fit together. This word gives us trouble in the modern age – the fear of the Lord. ‘I’m supposed to be afraid of God like that’s the mark.’ Here’s what it says, “And walking in the fear of the Lord.” I don’t think that would have been a very effective church. I don’t think that’s what it means. I think that the “walking” actually has to do with how you live, how you move through your life. To move and live in your life with the fear of the Lord doesn’t mean that your knees are trembling in fear of others. No, quite the opposite because the person who fears God fears nothing else. When we say “fear,” what we’re really talking about here is reverential respect and awe in this regard.

When you start reading “fear of the Lord” verses in the bible, you have this “pro/con” thing that you have to really meditate on. One is in proverbs, you have this verse that says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Every time an angel shows up or Jesus Himself shows up to talk to someone, what is the first thing that He says? “Fear not.”

Remember the story where Jesus is lying asleep in the boat and they’re crossing the Sea of Galilee. When they first set out, Jesus was so exhausted, He just laid His head there on the nets. He’s asleep and a vicious storm comes up on them. These professional sailors, Peter James and John, have been fishing on the Sea of Galilee their whole life. They’re scared to death that they’re going to die. They shake the Lord and ask, ‘don’t you care that we’re going to die?’ Jesus wakes up and says, “Peace be still.” The scripture says that they were first afraid of what was going on outside of the boat, but then, they looked at Him and they were afraid of Who was inside the boat. They said, “Who is this man that even the winds and the waves obey Him?” All of a sudden, they had a fear of Jesus because of the authority He had. It wasn’t like they were fearful that He would kill them. They were in awe of Him.

My father died when I was eight years old. You’ve heard me tell the story so many times. I’m the first born of four children. I was a “ daddy’s boy.” I love my dad. I loved my mom, too, but she was the disciplinarian in the family. If I got “sideways” with my mom, I felt it. She was the disciplinarian. I don’t , I don’t remember him ever laying a hand on me. Now, he wrestled with me and things like that.

I was a strong willed child. There’s a whole book about this, written by Dr. Dobson. I was that boy. I think I could have been on the cover of that book. My mom would spank me and I would not cry. I would “stove up,” as my mom said. My dad, if I’d done wrong, he would have me sit, facing him. He’d say, “Look at me son. Look me in the eye like a man.” I didn’t want to look at him, but I would. He would say, “Son, that’s not the way we raised you to behave like that, to talk like that, to treat your mama or your brother like that. We didn’t raise you to act that way . I’m disappointed in you today, son.” I would “boo hoo” like a baby. Do you know what that was? It was the fear of my father’s displeasure. I did not want to put that relationship at risk. I wasn’t afraid that he was going to kill me or something. I was afraid of displeasing him.

This first century church, this multiplying church, walked, lived and moved in the fear of the Lord, which meant that they feared no one else because they put that priority first. They wanted to please Him. They walked in holiness and in piety.

Colossians 3:22-23 (ESV) 22 “Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. “Fearing the Lord” has this idea of being motivated by the Lord, not others.

Oswald Chambers says this about the fear of the Lord; He says, “The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.” To respect and to have reverential awe of the Lord is what’s in view here. Most Christian historians will tell you one of the major features of every great revival was an awe and fear of the Lord that came over people to the point where they repented of their sins and fell upon their faces crying and saying, “Lord, forgive us.” It’s a mark of every great revival.

The first great revival took place in England and also took place in the colonies. In the 1730- 1740’s, many people would say that the reason our country exists today is because of the spiritual awakening that took place. There were certain pivotal figures that preached during that time. One was Jonathan Edwards who preached a sermon, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” The people in that church, which was one of those churches that sat really straight and nobody would move or say, ‘Amen.’ By the time that Edwards finished preaching that sermon, people were lying on the floor crying, asking God to forgive them of their sin. I’m talking about in the church. I’m not talking about out in the streets.

During the same time, there was another preacher who came over from England that was preaching these great revivals. There was such a stirring of the spirit in the colonies on that day, that policemen started not having anything to do. There was nobody to lock up. It was a strange period, but it undergirded the founders of our country. There was a great awakening. What was the chief mark? The chief mark was repentance of sin, holiness and prayer. It started in the church. They got serious about respecting the Lord, fearing the Lord.

Do you have a life that’s marked by the humble awareness of how great our God is and how great a salvation that we have, so that you humbly walk in the power of the gospel, not trembling before the Lord because of his anger or His judgment, because the bible says for the believer in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” You’re free from judgment, but you should hold Him in awe because of the sacrifice that He gave on the cross, that you would never want to displease Him. That’s what I think it means to walk in the fear of the Lord. Do you have this fear of the Lord, that you want to please Him above all others? Here’s the fourth mark. We’ve talked about peace. We’ve talked about being equipped and built up. We’ve talked about the fear of the Lord. Finally, this walking word is also the participle that goes with the final mark.

4. The comfort of the Spirit.

Walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Do you live in the comfort of the Holy Spirit? That word, “comfort,” is a Greek word; it’s paraklēsis. “Paraklēsis” means the idea of “to come alongside.” We use that word as a prefix in a lot of our English words: paragraph, parallel. It means “beside of;” “para” means beside of. The latter part of that Greek word is the idea “to call.” Comfort has the idea of “to call alongside.”

Just imagine the God of the universe sends the Holy Spirit to come and live in us. The mark of a multiplying church is that the Spirit is beside us and within us; this idea of being comforted, called alongside. This intimate way is the Holy Spirit that encourages us and speaks to us. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is called “the comforter.” I mean, why wouldn’t “the comforter” comfort?

Notice what Jesus calls him in John 14:15-17 (KJV) 15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall giveyou another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” Underneath the word, “comforter,” there is that word that we were talking about, that same word, “paraclete.” If you have ever read that in some of the old hymns, you’ll be singing along. Probably you were wondering why you were singing about a paraclete when you’re talking about the comforter, the Holy Spirit, that he may abide with you. “Even the spirit of truth,” in verse 17, “whom the world cannot receive because it sees him not neither knoweth him, but you know him and he dwells with you and shall be in you.” I chose the King James Version here because it translates that word, “comforter.” Some other translations might translate it, “advocate” or “helper.” It’s all the same Greek word underneath.

Here’s God in His Spirit , living with us and He advocates for us. He comforts us. He helps us. It’s the mark of this church. This multiplying church that they move with this kind of mark.

Let’s check your “spiritual pulse” right now; let’s check and see how you’re doing today, because if you’re walking in the comfort of the Spirit, you’ll bear certain particular character traits that are called the fruit of the Spirit. It’s not the “fruits” of the Spirit, it’s the fruit of the Spirit. Let’s read about that in Galatians 5:16, 22-25 (ESV) 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit So to walk in the Spirit means to live by the Spirit and then keep in step with Him as He directs us as we’re going through life.

What will it look like if you bear “spiritual fruit?” Let’s take an inward appraisal right now. What’s the first mark? What’s the chief mark? This is one fruit with nine seeds in it. This is not nine fruits, there’s one fruit with nine seeds in it and the biggest seed is love. Is that the mark of your life? If somebody’s talking about you, would they say, ‘That’s one of the most loving persons I’ve ever met.’

Another way of looking at these nine traits of the fruit of the spirit is to look at each one as inside the previous one. It’s kind of like the Russian nesting dolls; there is a doll this tall and it’s love, that’s its name. But if you take the head off and you look at the next doll and pull it out, it’s joy. Then you take the head off and you look at the next doll, it’s peace. All of the dolls are inside the previous one.

It’s a beautiful, beautiful fruit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and that little bitty one at the end, that’s really big in your life: self control. How are you doing? You might think, okay I need to work on that. No you don’t. You don’t need to work on it because you can’t produce fruit by work.

In order to yield yourself to the Spirit, you must let it flow. You never go through an apple orchard and hear them groaning with labor. You don’t ever hear trees in the apple orchard trying to make apples, right? All the branch has to do to make an apple is to stay connected to the tree and let the life of the tree flow through the branch and then the fruit Is produced.

Jesus says in John chapter 15, “I am the vine and you are the branches and apart from me you cannot bear fruit. But if you remain in me, if you stay connected to me, you’ll bear much fruit. “ If you stay connected to Jesus and let the comfort of the Holy Spirit flow through you, you’ll produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. That’s what the church looked like. It was a multiplying church.

Over these past four Sundays, including today, we’ve talked about these four priorities. The first one we talked about was mobilization; are we a church that’s equipping you, mobilizing you to go out and share the gospel? We talked about transformation; are we a church that is seeing people come as they are and be forever changed by the love of Jesus? Are we a church that’s seeing life change? We talked last week about collaboration; are we a church that doesn’t compete with other believers, but instead we collaborate with them for reaching our city? Today, we’ve talked about multiplication.

As we’ve talked over these past weeks, we’ve talked about the importance of these. Now, we’re on this one; releasing assets. If we’re gonna be a sending church, a church that multiplies, we have to be really willing to release you to go and serve in our city, to go and serve in your neighborhoods and to equip you to do that. We, also, have to be willing to release our assets, our building. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to visit here during the week, but there’s somebody in our building every day of the week and it’s not always us, It’s often a school or another church. There’s two other churches that meet in our building; one of them is right down the hall meeting right now. Another one meets here on Tuesday night. So, we’re leveraging and releasing; we’re not hoarding.

Now, speaking of this, I want to give you notice of two opportunities that are happening, collaborative opportunities that are happening, because I know you want to know about the church. First, is that we’re collaborating with seven other churches in order to pay off the mortgage of Choices Women’s Center in Wilson. Choices Women’s Center is a center in downtown Wilson that is there for women and families that have a crisis pregnancy so that they recognize the choices they have before them and give them opportunities to hear the Gospel and to hear the options that are available. That’s one thing, post Roe vs. Wade, for us to give “lip service” to things. But, it’s a whole other thing for us to put our “money where our mouth is.” We want to pay off their mortgage. So, we met about three or four months ago. I had a local pastor call me and say, “Hey, Pastor Gary, you’ve been doing these prayer gatherings and I know you know the guys around town. Which ones do you think we should get together and see how can we pay off an $80,000 mortgage, so that the center can release that mortgage money into ministry. They don’t have to have that hanging over their heads.” Now, to be fair and to be honest with you, we have a huge mortgage here on our building that we haven’t paid for yet. But, I think God likes it when you’re generous and do something for others. But that’s not my motivation. My motivation is that we’re to be a multiplying church. We’re to be a generous church. So, we got together and I told him of about seven other pastors that could say “yes” to this. A couple weeks ago, this pastor called me and he said that everybody’s responded now and we’ve got it. Everybody’s committed now. I committed you. So now I’m letting you know about it. We’ve committed to a number. I’m not going to tell you the number today because I think you’re going to blow it away. We’re going to pay this off. I’ll tell you more during the time when we talk about the offering. That’s the first opportunity; to collaborate with seven other local churches to pay off the mortgage. We’re going to give them the check in November; that is our plan. Don’t tell the staff because we’re gonna surprise them. There is another center in Rocky Mount. My son, Jonathan, Pastor Jonathan in Rocky Mount, and I went and visited the Your Choice Resource Center, which is the sister organization in Rocky Mount. We toured the building, spent a couple of hours with the director and said, ‘Hey, what can we do? We support you financially, but can we do more?’ He says, ‘Well, we have an upstairs conference room that needs to be remodeled and it needs some electrical work and some new lights, paint and some sheetrock work needs to be done. We’ve got the stuff; we just need the labor.’ We’re going to be asking members to consider doing a couple of work days there to help them, so they don’t have to spend money into that.

We’re talking about collaborating and the importance of it. I’m putting it before you, church. We’re not just talking with “lip service.” We’re saying, ‘let’s be a multiplying church that has the marks of peace, the marks of being equipped and built up, the mark of fear of the Lord and this final mark of being comforted by the Holy Spirit. Are you willing to be that kind of church? That’s the kind of church that I want us to be.

Let’s pray, Lord, I first of all, pray for the person that came in today. Today, they’ve decided they want to follow You. That’s our invitation to come as you are. But, don’t leave that way. Let the love of Jesus change your life. Is that you my friend? You came in today, you’ve heard this message and you want to give your life to Jesus? You want to start the journey of being a disciple? You can pray, right in your seat, right where you are. Pray like this. What really matters is that you believe. ‘Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner and I believe You died on the cross for me, that You died for my sin to pay for my sin. I believe You were raised on the third day and that You live today. Come and live in me, forgive me of my sins and make me the person You want me to be. I want to be a child of God. I want to be a follower. I want You as my Lord and my Savior. , I surrender my life to You.’ If you’re praying that prayer, believing, He’ll save you. He’ll make you a child of God. Others are here and you have Him in your life. You’re a Christ follower. But there are other parts of the sermon that pricked your heart today. Maybe you’re not seeing those nine attributes of the fruit of the spirit in your life as you would like. Maybe you’re not being discipled right now. Would you make a fresh commitment? Say, ‘Lord, I want to grow up. I want my life to look more like Jesus. Lord, I want to look more loving, more joyful and more peaceful. Lord, I want those attributes to be the marks of my life. I surrender my life afresh to You now. In Jesus name. Amen.’