I find that I've crossed a line in my life to where I know I am not young anymore. And there's multiple things, like some of my friends are snickering, like, oh, you're still young. And I tell you what, sometimes my knees in the morning don't tell me that. There's things that we just realized, like I caught myself, not joking, like six months ago told somebody, I almost used a phrase when I grow up.
And I'm closer to 75 than I am to being one. There's always little things that we try to hold on to it some ways. I'm pretty technological, so that's all right. I kind of always prided myself on that.
I didn't realize, I thought I was 25 until a few years ago and then learned quickly that I'm not. But I've realized though lately, I catch myself, I said kids these days once. And I was like, man, I'm getting old. But now the tough thing now, I can keep up with some stuff.
But what I get really kind of confused now is like phrases and what things mean. I find myself asking somebody what something means. And something that I was really mistaken for several months until I asked when someone said, oh, that's the goat. Or something like that.
So go to a G-O-A-T on Facebook or whatever. And I'm like, what does it mean to call something goat? They put heads, they eat everything, they're kind of ornery. It might be those cool fainting goats that you scare and they kind of fall down and get back up.
Like I was really, I was like, man, people weren't really interested in goats all of a sudden. I can get behind this. I mean, I ate a goat before that was pretty good. And then I asked them, my father, oh, no, it stands for greatest of all time.
I'm like, oh, that makes no sense at all. I mean, I guess goats are great. I mean, okay, go whatever. Whatever floats your boat.
Fainting goats are pretty cool. So, but what is, what, think of the greatest things? Think of the greatest things that you have had in your life, the greatest things that you've experienced. I think these years old at like a church, like dinner on the grounds, I want a chip shop contest.
I was like the second person to do it. And my first ball went like 10 feet that way, it was supposed to go that way. The second one went behind me. And then the third one was like four inches from the marker and like all day long, like all these grown men who spend a lot of time playing golf, like they're getting mad at some kid, like, freak of nature.
Like, I thought the trophy at my parents' house from winning this thing, I never, and the only kind of golf I'm really good at has the word putt putt in front of it. Like, that was pretty great. That was amazing. I think back of, when I was younger, and I used to spend a lot of time in outdoors, I watching bald eagles in New Mexico, like do their things, I think it's kind of experienced it.
I think when I was touring on the road, I remember waking up one morning outside of the garden of the gods at 6.30 in the morning watching, like literally getting up and crawling out of the van and watching the sunrise. Like that was great. I think of the times I've spent in ministry and the places I've gone and the things I've seen through that, and those are great stuff that I will, remember forever, I'll never forget things that help my faith to remain steadfast stories. I'll gladly tell people and also stories, that's kind of keep in because this is my special thing.
I think of the day that I convinced Meredith to marry me. Like that was one of the greatest things of all time. So we all, we build these lists of these great things that have happened to us. But what's so interesting, I've thought about this, is far too often our definition of what makes something great is actually typically only great for us.
Like there's this fine line of when something is great, and we will call an experience or an event or something that happens in our life great. There's typically a very thin line between where that is, it's something that's beneficial to us, but also beneficial towards everyone else. And I think about, I made a list of my great things, and I realized that there's an interesting spot between observing something great happening and participating in something great happening. And that kind of realigns our definition sometimes.
And what I realized is that for me, it's when we get this idea in our head of, I can't believe that I get to do this. Think about those times in our life where we've been part of something and that we, I can't believe I get to do this. And I told y'all for the last bit that I believed at this these last three weeks in life, our church, extremely beneficial and fruitful for us, and have nothing to do outside of the financial project that we're in, but it's from the spiritual formation side of this. And what I found myself doing really for the last week and a half is waking up in the morning and thinking about just the amazing things that this church is part of and saying, I can't believe I get to do this.
And that's happening on a much deeper level than it ever has before across many things, that when we get to be part of something truly great, we realize that we're one part of a puzzle. And so alongside of that means asking ourselves a question, what does it mean to see great things? But also what does it mean to do great things? Are we a people who watch or are we a people who do?
Or are we observing greater things? Or are we causing greater things? The more we kind of peel this onion apart, we see that the deeper it goes, the more layers it comes off, the more it goes towards the side of participation, not being passive in our faith and our life as a church, but being active in our life of faith and our life as a church. And so today we're gonna read the passage that our whole three weeks have been based off of, and just to think about what does it mean for Jesus to commission us to do greater things.
And John 14 verse 12 through 14, this is what it says. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so the Son may bring glory to the Father.
May I ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. The kicker in this whole verse really is at the very end of 12 when he says because I am going to the Father. We think about what's going on in our life, what's going on in our life with Jesus. And this is the context that Jesus tells us of these greater things.
This is the reason that we are filled with the Holy Spirit, that we are asked to go out and mission. The whole reason is because I am going to the Father. We're not doing this because we're trying to convince him to love us more. We're not doing this, we're trying to earn our way into something.
We're not doing this for any other reason, simply the fact that Jesus is saying, I'm going to the Father. And now you will be doing the things that I am doing. So immediately that places us in the center of Jesus' mission here on this earth. What he did for three years is carried on by his church for thousands of years afterward.
That our mission on this earth is not a concession prize. And this passage is in the context of disciples being freaked out that Jesus is going somewhere. So they finally realized what's about to happen and they're really, really nervous about it. But this isn't a concession prize.
This life with him is not something that we get because he's going away. It's not like my dad was going away on a trip when I was a kid and he'd be like, make sure you take care of the house, so you're the man of the house. Or there's been sometimes, okay, dog owners, you've done this before. When Meredith and I have left home for awhile, like we'll leave one of our shirts with Emma at the house.
Like this isn't some concession prize that we give someone to make sure they behave while we're gone. But this is a commission to simply just do the things that Jesus was doing. This is the basic message of the gospel. Where Jesus comes in and says, let me bring you into God's plan and vision for this world.
Not as observers, but as participators in this, as participators in something much bigger than you. And when we come into this realization, we come into saying, all right, this is the basic message, then we realize there's all these other things that are part of this. Inside of this we find salvation. We find the very thing that most of us identify instantly with Jesus.
We find our salvation because he's brought us into this big relationship. We find our worth, we find value because of this, of this, we find our purpose. We find relationships, we find relationships with people. We also find relationships with God because he's brought us into the full, brought us into all of this.
We find fulfillment because he's allowing us and calling and asking us to do things that we just simply can't do on our own, even greater things. No, when I read this passage at very first, I heard this two years ago and it latched on to my head. And ever since then I've been trying to figure out what this means and contemplate and think about this. And my first reaction was probably the first reaction that people have instead, okay, you can go to things.
That means we'll get to do cool stuff, right? Like Jesus does cool stuff, so we should be able to do cool stuff. Does anybody else think that instantly? I did.
It's like, well, okay, I've seen cool stuff happening. Guess this isn't the truth. This isn't about cool stuff. All throughout the Gospel of John, if you were here with us last summer, we spent seven weeks on the signs of John, and the miracles of John.
We got this every single thing Jesus did that was amazing, that was greater, was simply to just cause belief in the life of people. Jesus did these miracles, he kind of broke this veil between heaven and earth to simply show people a bigger world. And so this is what my kingdom is like. This is who my father is.
This is what happens when love invades your space. This is what happens when the divine is willing to press deeply into the reality of the human condition. It's not about cool things. That's our idea of big stuff.
It's about greater things. It's about us being part of Jesus's mission to cause belief. And causing belief are the things that lead to people accepting Jesus, the things that lead to people not dealing with hurt or paying all these things that we attach to Jesus. It happens because he's asked us to be part of this.
Simply I need you to be the continuation of who I am. I need you to be the example of what happens when God invades this world and invades this space. So we think about the things that Jesus does that cause belief. And if Jesus really is who he says he is, and if we really are who Jesus says we are, then we will be doing the things to cause belief.
Because we will be participating with him, listening, and telling the story of the Holy Spirit, asking us where to go. For ages, people ask me, why foundry, a church that tends to be closer to Munro than in Stirlington, why we feel so passionate about Stirlington, why we feel God's calling us to the north part of this parish. And it's the longest time I said, I don't know, but God will tell us when the time comes. I firmly believe that what I shared with you earlier about the ministry of feeding in the north part of this parish.
I believe one of the reasons that Jesus has placed us here in this community is for that reason. Like that's just one of the reasons that I know why God has asked us to even deeper in the Stirlington. He's asked us to fulfill this with him in a way that only we can and we have the ability to do. We are participating in Jesus.
We're also doing the things that he does. That we're learning to ask questions about what is it like if Jesus is here? What needs will be fixed? What issues will be addressed?
What specific hurts and pains that people deal with will be comforted in a specific way that makes sense to them? This is the thing that he asks us to do with him. In essence, what this just is just divine delegation. This is Jesus saying, hey listen, if you'll trust me, I'm gonna reveal a bunch of things to you that will provide a much bigger life than you would be available or aware of on your own.
It's just divine delegation. And really, if you think about that way, it's just discipleship. It's us being willing to listen to Jesus. And it's us assuming that he's going to put people in our lives that it's our responsibility to pour into.
And then those people will begin to realize that their responsibility is to pour into. And those people will realize that their responsibility is to find people through DC how the cycle goes. This is just us doing what Jesus did and Jesus just doing simply what his father was doing. That's the greater thing.
It's not magic. It's just simply living life fully aware and fully in the presence of Christ while we are fully aware and fully present in the communities that he has placed us in. So what happens if we let Jesus delegate into our life? It's really been kind of the bigger picture conversations these last three weeks.
We'll surrender to him eventually. Hopefully we'll realize that there's something bigger out there he's asking us to. It will be willing to say, I'm gonna live into that. Instead of live in my own world.
When we understand surrender, the next thing we realize is we sometimes have to sacrifice to get to that place. And in conversations I've had with people these last couple weeks about what sacrifice looks like. We realize it's more and more. It's like what do I have that I'm willing to leverage to see something great happen?
It's not this idea of I'm gonna give something up and not have something and be frustrated. And then Jesus will be giving something up. And so what resources do I have? I'm willing to leverage for the sake of something that's much bigger than me.
What do I have? I'm willing to leverage for the sake of the kingdom and the sake of those around me. It's a lifestyle that leads us to a life of choosing to live in God's vision for this world rather than our vision for this world. And the last stage of this delegation is just being willing to commit to it.
Be willing to say, I've surrendered a process that I understand sacrifice now. And now I'm willing to put all these things into action. I'm willing to commit to something. I'm not gonna try to make you fit into my idea of what I need, but I'm willing to live deeper into what you have given, what you have told, what you have shared and what you have offered to me.
Because here's the thing, when we try to constrict Jesus into our world, when we try to constrict Jesus and our conception of what this looks like, what faith, what religion, what worship, when we try to push Jesus into this, we don't get even greater things. We get even jankier things. We all have those stories of what happens when we try to do that. But this project that we're doing at the church is us stepping out in faith.
It's us, we've gone through these practices surrender of years ago saying, hey, we know you're gonna reveal this to us, so we're just gonna follow you until we understand it and sacrifice. What does it look like for us to really weigh the cost? To follow this mission. And we've been in meetings before where people told us if you all move two miles further away from Monroe, it's gonna be catastrophic.
We start making phone calls everybody who lives far away from here and found out the exact opposite. Or what does it mean for y'all to, all these very different styles of before, they'll never found or do things the way that people who are smarter than us tell us to do things, the way that the experts say, well, this is how a new church should act. Whenever we do all the right things, we typically fall flat on our face. If you've been around for a while, you can start making a list of the examples of the times we've done that.
What we've learned over the years is whenever we do things that people tell us we're absolutely nuts and crazy and we're pursuing, now that will never work. That's when this church has been able to do even greater things. So we've weighed the cost, we've weighed the sacrifices. And today we're committing into this vision of being this particular people for God and this place, this project is about us becoming more faithful and all of us preparing for Jesus to do even greater things in our lives personally, but also in the lives of us as a church.
I don't know if you know this or not, but we're still waiting on that, I'm just about enough to build a parking lot. So we've got to say Andrew, he's got a broken record. I've made jokes about it. I'm praying I can Indian like a weather shaman right now for no rain.
Let me tell you this, unless things have drastically changed when we move two miles into the corporate limits of Stirlington, we will be the largest church in Stirlington. Now with that comes responsibilities, with that comes expectations, with that comes the fact that we need to listen even more and follow even more. And we need to mission even more because responsibility comes with that. This is about us coming to Jesus and saying, hey, we're ready for more.
And we know you have it for us. So we feel called to stretch ourselves in this manner for a few reasons. And then one, we're asking, we believe it's time and we're asking for Jesus to expand our ministry, our influence. There's the mission side of that.
There's the relational side of that right now. There's also the fact that our kids cannot, we can't hold any more kids back and found their kids in the halls. We simply cannot have any more kids back there. That's a third of our congregation.
For all the big people that are here in this room, how would you feel if there was no room for you? And we didn't do anything about it. Would you feel like you mattered that much to us? That was the case.
We just can't hold anymore back there. And they keep coming. We've Jesus asking us to expand our ministry. Second thing is we believe Jesus has placed us in a particular place, has given us specific ministry.
That story of Jesus is big enough, is much bigger than the zip code or a neighborhood. But we believe that there's a particular place He's asked us to live that out in primarily. For us to learn, for us to engage, and for us to bring that home and take that another place. But the third thing is we believe that this is the next step to continue this vision and mission.
Our space of dreams years ago has now become our normal. And we believe this is the time now for us to start dreaming, bigger dreams about even greater ministry. And for us to work towards that becoming our normal. Our new sanctuary is simply a tool.
It's a tool to reach more people and to send ourselves out in the mission. We're a Sunday morning church. We've learned it over the last three and a half years. So one of the places they say, new churches do not make good Sunday morning churches.
Every time we try to not be a Sunday morning church, it hasn't worked very well. But when we live in our reality, it's being a Sunday morning church. It's where the first place we meet new people, that's the best place we engage people to send them out in ministry, that's the best place that we have the ability to form, that's the best place for us to leverage our influence. This building is a tool for us, to increase the vision and mission we believe Jesus has given us.
So as people as a church, Jesus has given us a tangible example of how we live in our value of God's vision for this world is bigger than our vision for this world. He says, right, because I'm going to my father. I have shown you what this new world looks like. And now I'm asking you to simply step into the place that I've been showing you.
Jesus has given us a tangible example of how we live in this value of God's vision for the world is bigger than our vision for this world. We're acting that out with our above and beyond sacrificial giving towards this campaign, towards this new building. That's one of the tangible expressions we have of saying, hey, we're willing to step out, take a step further, take a step deeper, we're willing to do that. Jesus doesn't ask us to change who we are, when we begin to follow him.
When we as individuals go to that pattern of surrender and of sacrifice and commitment, Jesus does not ask us to change who we are. He simply asks us to be the person that he made us to be. And the beautiful, most amazing thing about it, he's just asking us to expand our definition of who we are. And if we will be willing to do that for him, he's willing to do it for us.
If we want to see more of who Jesus is, it means that we just offer more of ourselves to what he is doing. That's how Jesus is big enough. And that's how we always have a bigger vision of who he is for us. Let's pray together.
Or we thank you for not being us. We thank you for the ways that you have shown us that to just many, many scenarios and situations. And the words we come together and just at a critical time in the life of our church. We don't come to it with anxiety.
We don't come to it by simply going through the pattern of following you, the pattern of surrender, the pattern of sacrifice, the pattern of commitment. Or we want to do even greater things because we've had even greater things done to us by you. Our hearts have grown, our hearts have expanded, our hearts have been healed. Or that the action of accepting you and bringing you into our lives is the greatest thing we've ever experienced.
We realized that's not a one and done. It's just the beginning of everything. Thank you so much. So a couple of things.
Number one, we kind of joked about this last week. But if this is your first time at Foundry, you walked in and you're like, great, I showed up at the church the first time on the money conversation. And you show up on the big money conversation, Sande. I just hope you know one thing.
I'm not asking you to do anything today. But I hope you see a church just willing to listen. It's willing to risk and it's willing to go. The second thing is this.
Some of you have already made this commitment. Earlier this week, the leaders of our church, we came together and we had a commitment time with each other to where we parade, where we brought forth our pledge. And so I'm saying this because you might look around and see people that you would really expect to be walking up here to drop a pledge in one of these boxes and they're not going there. It's because we've already come together and done that.
Leaders go first. Scripture shows us that leaders always go first. No matter what I have just prayerfully thought about this and have moved and shaped and have changed so much towards what we believe these even greater things are. We've committed $10,000 this project.
Our leaders committed even more this last week. So if you're part of that leader celebration, Wednesday night, just stand up because I want people to know who you are, but also why you're not coming forward. So you're willing to go first. It's like these are the people that were willing to go first for you.
These are the people who were willing to risk, who were willing to surrender, to sacrifice and commit before you. And so we're going to be singing. We're going to have to sit down now. When do we sit, stand up.
So this is what we're asking you to do. If you pray for this with your family, that when we sing this last song, these are the boxes are right there in front. We're just asking you that when you and your family feel ready to come do this to come and to drop your up pledge in the box. If you're not really ready to do this, you're still trying to figure these things out.
We're trying to figure out what's going on exactly. Our online pledge card will go live this afternoon on the campaign website, which is evengreaterthings.cc. So that's there. It's available at that point in time for you as well.
But this is not about us. It's not about the people in this room. It's about the people who are not in this room. It's about the people who might not ever step into a room with us.
It's about the people who really need to experience Jesus big enough. And it's about the people that Jesus just simply calls and asks us to be with for a time. Thank you so much for how much you have already just believed in this vision over the last three years. So Jesus, we commit ourselves to you.
We commit ourselves in many ways. We commit ourselves to even greater things, even bigger things. The things that are larger than our minds can conceive. We thank you for how you continue to love and show us the truth of who you are while we walk alongside of you like this.
We pray. Amen. Amen.