Greater Things: Greater Sacrifice

Podcast Intro [00:00:00]:
Thank you for listening to the Soul City Church podcast. Be sure to follow us on our Facebook and Instagram at soulcitychurch. For more information, visit us on our website, soulcitychurch.com.

Jon Jorgenson [00:00:16]:
If you haven't met yet, my name is John. I am one of the pastors here. But not only that, but I also have 2 children. I have an 8 month old son and a 2 and a half year old daughter, and my daughter right now is in this really interesting and sweet season that I have come to call the I do wit you phase. Now, for those who don't speak toddler, I do wit you in the original Greek, it it translates directly as, I do it with you. So, essentially this means at any time right now in my life that I am doing just about anything, when my daughter sees me doing it, she immediately wants to be doing that thing, too. And she signals it by saying, I dewit you. Right? So, if I'm cooking dinner, she wants to cook dinner too.

Jon Jorgenson [00:01:06]:
I dew witch you. If I'm working on my laptop, she grabs her little play laptop, I dew witch you. If I'm exercising, she wants to get in a couple reps on the kettlebells too. You know? I do with you. I I love this. I love that she's in this phase. I think it's really sweet. I love that she's in this season, except for when she does it when I'm eating.

Jon Jorgenson [00:01:31]:
Because, listen, y'all, God is transforming me into a more generous person day by day. But do not touch my food. And I love my daughter, I really do. I would do anything for her. I want to give her the world. But I do not wanna give her a bite of my sandwich. Because it's my sandwich, not hers. Just to give you an idea of how often this happens, this week, I decided to take a picture every time my daughter asked me for a bite of my food.

Jon Jorgenson [00:02:06]:
Here it is. That's just this week. As you can see from the outfits, it happens multiple times a day. Sometimes I'm telling you the things that we do for these kids. But, but here's the thing about this. I I know that in these moments, I know that I'm giving up some of my meal. And I know that that will cause me to have less food on my plate. I understand that.

Jon Jorgenson [00:02:33]:
But, I also want to point out, there's something else happening in these moments When my daughter asks me for a bite of my food, something else that's happening is, I'm also in that moment investing in my relationship with her. We're we're making memories together. We're doing something together, which is a really, really special thing. But if I'm totally honest with you, sometimes, I can miss the joy of us growing our relationship, because in the moment, I get annoyed at having to share some of my food. As Pastor Jaret mentioned, we're in this teaching series, in this season, called Greater Things. And today specifically, as he said, we're talking about greater sacrifice. And I think it's just okay to say right off the bat, nobody really likes the idea of sacrifice. In fact, if you do, it's maybe a little weird, actually.

Jon Jorgenson [00:03:32]:
I think just the word itself gives us this feeling that we're going to have to give something up. Usually, something we really, really like. Like our sandwich, for example. Just an example. But I I think when I think about sacrifice, I just wonder if maybe anyone in this room, when you're asked to maybe make a sacrifice in your life, I just wonder if anyone finds themselves thinking or acting like I do when my daughter asks me for a bite of food. That when you're asked to make a sacrifice in your life, do you sometimes kinda get caught up in the fact that it's gonna cause you to have less food on your plate? You kinda focus on what you're giving up, and totally missing the opportunity you have to do something good in the bigger picture. Maybe here's a simpler way of saying it. When it comes to sacrifice, are you so focused on what you're giving up that you forget what you're investing in? When you, in your life, are asked and given an opportunity to make a sacrifice, do you kinda get caught up in, this is gonna cause me to lose some of the food that I have here? Or, maybe, do you see it as an opportunity, actually, to invest in something greater? Like, for example, those of you who are single in this room, you don't have to raise your hand unless maybe you're looking for a date.

Jon Jorgenson [00:04:57]:
I don't know. But those who are single in the room, maybe maybe you tell yourself, and maybe you even tell others, that you would like to be in a relationship. Maybe you really want that. You want to be in a more serious relationship. But if you're totally honest, there's also a part of you that's a little hesitant about that. Because you know that dating takes a lot of time out of your schedule. You know you're gonna have to step outside of your comfort zone. Right? You're giving up time.

Jon Jorgenson [00:05:25]:
You are giving up your comfort, but also at the same time, you are investing in the possibility of a future life partner for yourself. Anyone in this room who has ever done, or maybe is currently doing, any form of continuing education. Right? Grad school, med school, maybe a certain certification for your job. Listen. That stuff, you give up time, you give up energy, you give up money, oftentimes give up sleep. And when you gotta go to a 3 hour night class after you've already worked a full shift, it can be really easy to just focus on what you're giving up, and totally forget that in that moment, you're actually investing in your future career. I still remember, when I served in kids' ministry at the church that I went to in college. And listen, y'all, if you ever went to Northway Community Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and checked your kids in, I might have been the only one there.

Jon Jorgenson [00:06:25]:
Because I did like everything you could possibly do. I led worship on Sundays, I made the graphics, I wrote the small group curriculum, Not because I was very good at it, but because some Sundays I was literally the only one who showed up. And I remember about a year and a half in, I got really burnt out. And I started to get really jaded and bitter, because all I was thinking about were the early mornings and the late nights and the hours and the sleep that I was giving up. And for a while, I lost sight of these kids whose faith I was supposed to be investing in. I think sometimes, despite our best efforts, this is what can happen to us. When we're asked to make a sacrifice in our lives, we can start to see that sacrifice only through the lens of what we are giving up. But there's actually another side to sacrifice.

Jon Jorgenson [00:07:18]:
Sacrifice is not even primarily about what we are giving up, but it's more about what we're investing in. And today, what I want us to do is I want to look at an example from the life of Jesus that will hopefully help us to discover just how central of a role sacrifice is meant to play in our lives. And so, if you're in this room, would you do me a favor? Would you reach under the seat in front of you or on the armrest, grab a Bible, and open it up to John chapter 15, the Gospel of John, my favorite gospel for obvious reasons. Chapter 15 in the Soul City Bible, that's on page 8 76, if you have your own Bible, or maybe you're worshiping with us online, open up a tab, open up your phone. John chapter 15. Now, for those who are maybe unfamiliar, the book of John is one of 4 gospels that you will find in the Bible. The gospels are essentially biographies. They're biographies that tell the tale of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Jon Jorgenson [00:08:20]:
And in John chapter 15, the passage that we're about to look at, Jesus is coming to the end of what will essentially be his final meal and meeting with some of his disciples, his closest friends and followers. So, at this point, Jesus knows that essentially right after this dinner is over, he is going to be arrested, he is going to be tried, and he is going to be killed. So because of that, I think we can assume what we're about to read is not just another lesson from Jesus, But but this actually, what we're about to read, it acts essentially as his parting words. This is kind of like Jesus' last lecture. This is his final charge to his followers before his crucifixion and resurrection. We're gonna read part of it together, starting John 15 verse 12. Read it with me. It says, my command, this is Jesus speaking, my command is this.

Jon Jorgenson [00:09:19]:
In other words, pay attention to this. Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. Now, I wanna make a caveat here. There is always importance and weight to everything that Jesus says all throughout the Bible. Yes? And I think the context of his impending death makes these words from Jesus perhaps even weightier. Because this is his last chance to talk to the people who are going to carry his movement forward. You would think he would be really, really intentional and thoughtful about what he would share.

Jon Jorgenson [00:10:11]:
This is his last chance to speak to them. And how does he choose to use that time? What does he choose to focus his last opportunity to speak to his followers on? What does he talk about? Love. I think, for anyone who has ever doubted the centrality of love to the Christian life, I would challenge them to read Jesus's words, here, in John 15, because that is what he chose to talk about when he knew he only had a few moments left. And if you remember from week 1 of this series, Pastors Jarrett and Jeannie, they actually focused on this text to kick off this series. And today, I want us to to dive deeply into it because we're gonna focus on it from a bit of a different angle. Because what I want us to do is discover, not just love each other in a general sense, but I want us to dig deeply into this command to discover the the type of love and the quality of love that Jesus is talking about when he says, love each other. And Jesus, because he's a nice guy, he actually does us the favor of telling us and describing what that looks like in the verse itself. Read it again.

Jon Jorgenson [00:11:26]:
Jesus says, love each other What are the next two words? Love each other As I have loved you. Yeah? So what Jesus is saying here is, hey, look at the way that I, Jesus, show love, and let that be your example. Let that be the blueprint for how you show love to each other. But it doesn't stop there. If we want to know how Jesus showed love, then again, Jesus does us the favor of describing it right away if we just keep reading the verse. It says this, greater love has no one than this, than to what? Than to? Lay down one's life for one's friends. Now, if you were to take a couple hours, and you were to actually read through all 4 of the gospel accounts, you would find that there are a 1000000 different ways that Jesus shows love to people. You would find that Jesus was in deep, daily relationship with his disciples.

Jon Jorgenson [00:12:29]:
You would find stories of Jesus serving people, performing miracles, healing people, miraculously providing for people's needs. Jesus forgives people's sins. Jesus taught people a whole new way of living. All of these things are incredible acts of love from Jesus. But, according to Jesus himself, the greatest act of love that he or that anyone could ever do is actually to sacrifice. The greatest act of love that he or that anyone could do would be to lay down one's life. Now, I think it's obvious that Jesus here partly is referring to himself. He's talking about him giving up his actual life on the cross.

Jon Jorgenson [00:13:21]:
That sacrifice that made a way for you and I to be forgiven for our sins, for us to be with God both now and forever. But I don't think that Jesus was only talking about himself, because this is a command not for him, it's for his followers. It's for us. And so, when this verse says, lay down one's life, I don't think it's just talking about our physical lives. But when you and I read this verse today, we could read it as, lay down one's time. We could read it as lay down one's comfort. Lay down one's desires, if necessary. Lay down one's resources.

Jon Jorgenson [00:14:01]:
Ultimately, I believe what Jesus is saying here, both about himself 2000 years ago, and about you and I today, is this. It's that the road to greater love is paved by greater sacrifice. More often than not, the road to experiencing and encountering a greater love is paved by sacrifices that are made along the way. Parents in the room, I have to imagine that when your child was born, you discovered a greater love than you knew you had the capacity to hold. I know that was true of me. But think about all the sacrifices that have come with that. Like, just think about the physical sacrifice that a mother has to make just to bring that love into the world. The greater love that you feel for your child, the road to that greater love has actually been paved by the sacrifices that you make for them.

Jon Jorgenson [00:15:03]:
Or for anyone in the room who's ever started a business. Right? Or maybe you've renovated or built a home. Anyone who has ever built anything from the ground up. What other people see about that thing is the joy, and the goodness, and the happiness, and the flourishing, and the money that it brings you today. What they don't see is that the road to you getting to where you are today was paved by sacrifice, after sacrifice, after sacrifice that you made along the way. Is this making sense? Yes. I'll try and explain it in a bit of a different way. Right? Okay.

Jon Jorgenson [00:15:43]:
Here we go. Hi, Crystal. How are you? I'm good. It's good to see you. When we reserved this seat, we said, this is normally where Crystal sits. She'll have to move one seat over. So, thank you for serving our church in that way today. Crystal, how long have you been around Seoul City?

Podcast Intro Voice [00:16:00]:
Sorry. I lost my voice.

Jon Jorgenson [00:16:01]:
That's alright. This won't be a very long interview. I promise.

Podcast Intro Voice [00:16:03]:
Okay. Since October of last year.

Jon Jorgenson [00:16:05]:
October of last year. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. So some of you, you well, all of you right now are actually just like Crystal. You're sitting here. Right? In one of these chairs. Yes? And maybe like Crystal, you've been sitting in one of these chairs for a couple months, maybe you've been here a little bit longer, you know, maybe a few years.

Jon Jorgenson [00:16:25]:
Some of you have been around here many, many years at this point. But I'm willing to guess if you sat in one of these chairs or maybe hung out in this room for a significant amount of time. I'm willing to guess that at some point, while you were here, you had a spiritually significant moment with God? Like in this room, sitting in one of these chairs, you had a transformational encounter with God. Maybe, for you, you showed up here 1 Sunday and you were just going through it and you just needed a sign from God and all of a sudden out of nowhere the worship team, they played the exact song that you needed. And you took that as a sign, you're like, oh, God God sees me in this. Maybe one Sunday you heard a message, maybe given by me, I don't know. Probably not. But you heard a message, and it felt like it was speaking directly about and to you.

Jon Jorgenson [00:17:26]:
Maybe you sat in one of these chairs and said yes to Jesus for the first time.

Podcast Intro Voice [00:17:31]:
Yeah.

Jon Jorgenson [00:17:32]:
Or maybe like Crystal, you got baptized in this room. Maybe for you, this was a room where you heard about a little thing called Alpha, and you signed up, and those 10 weeks absolutely changed your life. I know for me, when I started coming to Soul City about 7 or 8 years ago, I was in a really, like, I wasn't on staff here yet. I was sitting in these chairs like you do every week, and I was in a really cynical place about church, Crystal. I I wasn't sure if church was gonna play a role in my life at all anymore, because I've been hurt and just feeling really jaded about it. And it was in these seats, in this room, that God healed not only my relationship to the church, but God healed my relationship to him. Now, I hope and pray that all around this room, you are thinking about the spiritually significant moments that you have experienced with God sitting in these seats. Now, Crystal, do you want to know what enabled those encounters with God's greater love? Like, do you want to know how we even have seats in the first place? Yeah? Like, do you want to know who paved the way toward your encounter with a greater love?

Podcast Intro Voice [00:18:53]:
Yes.

Jon Jorgenson [00:18:53]:
It was these people right here. They're gonna come up here just a second. Not us. There they are. Now, for those who don't recognize this photo, this is Soul City Church in a different room. These folks who attended Soul City many years ago, and back in 2015, these folks did a campaign called for the love. And part of this campaign, they made financial commitments. They made financial sacrifices that helped to make this room and the seat that you are sitting in possible.

Jon Jorgenson [00:19:39]:
Now, some of these people are still around Soul City Church. I see some of you in these photos right now. Some of them, because of life circumstances, never even got to see this room exist. But what I want you to know today is that if you are a person like me, who has had an encounter with a greater love that only God can give you in this room, I want you to know that the road to your encounter with a greater love in this room was paved by the sacrifices of people in that room, many of whom you will never meet. But when they were given an opportunity to make a sacrifice, aren't you glad that they didn't focus on what they were giving up? But aren't you glad that instead, they saw it as an opportunity to make an investment, to make a sacrifice so that they could invest in you, in your transformation? And if that's the case for you, if you, like me, in this room have had a transformational encounter with a greater love that only God can give, because of the sacrificial generosity of people in the past, I guess my question is, don't you want to be a part of creating that for people in the future? Like, don't you want to be able to say that your sacrifice, that my investment actually paved the way to someone saying yes to Jesus in their seat in a few years? To someone finding freedom in their seat, to someone finding healing in their seat. Because I, when I was asked to make a sacrifice, I didn't worry about what I was giving up, but I said, I want to make an investment in what God is doing in the future. Y'all, this ultimately, this is the whole reason we are in this Greater Things campaign. This is it.

Jon Jorgenson [00:21:36]:
This is why we're talking about envisioning the next 5 years of our Church, because we want as many people as possible to have an encounter with the greater love that only God has for them. And we believe that the road towards others encountering that greater love someday, we believe the road is actually gonna be paved by the sacrifices that you and I make today. That is why we're here. And that's why, as Jarrett just spent some time doing, that's why all month we've been talking about these commitment cards. Right? Jarrett described it. This is a tool to help you and I figure out what our financial sacrifice will be, what we will commit to give over the next 2 years, so that we can see this 5 year vision become a reality. By the way, you are the 5 year vision of For the Love. You're sitting in it right now.

Jon Jorgenson [00:22:34]:
And so you have an opportunity to help this church and be a part of this church taking the next step. And we watched a bunch of folks, and with a bunch of folks, we filled out these commitment cards at our Advance Commitment Night, made those commitments. Several of you were there. We all are gonna have an opportunity to fill these out and make commitments next week. But before we do, I just wonder if we could have a moment of honesty. I wonder if as you have been sitting and hearing about these cards, or maybe you even have one at your house, and you've spent some time praying over this, I wonder if as you've thought about your own financial commitment, your own sacrifice, I wonder if you've looked at, like, putting a number in that box, and if you're like me, it can be really easy to view that primarily through a lens of, this is what I'm giving up. And let's be clear. You are, but you are making a sacrifice.

Jon Jorgenson [00:23:31]:
Some folks are gonna be giving larger amounts than they ever have before by faith. But I just wonder if this week, when it comes to how we view this card, I wonder if we might make a shift, if you'd be willing to make a shift with me. And when you think about putting a number in that box, instead of looking at it primarily as something you're giving up, I wonder if you could start to look at it as an opportunity to make an investment. To make an investment in future transformation, both for yourself, for others in this church, for the new church that we're gonna start out to the West, for our city and beyond. I just wonder how that perspective might change the way you prayed about this. I wonder how it might change the way you show up next week. Not as a thing you, like, kind of feel like you gotta do, but showing up next week. Can you imagine showing up next week and confidently saying, I'm making this commitment, I'm making this sacrifice because I believe that God is going to use it as a tool for transformation in someone else's life, because I've seen God do it in my own life.

Jon Jorgenson [00:24:34]:
And so, I am happy, I am blessed to pass that blessing along to others. And so, this week, if you don't have one of these yet, would you grab one as you leave? You'd find it down in the GT Lounge, as I like to call it. Would you grab one this week, and would you just not commit to filling it out, necessarily. Would you commit to really praying over this? And simply just praying the prayer, this bold prayer. God, what is the greater sacrifice that you are calling me to make, so that others can experience a greater love? I believe with my whole heart, God wants to use the sacrifices of the people in this room to pave the way towards other people, many of whom you may never even meet, But, they're going to have an encounter with a greater love that God has for them because of the sacrifices that you and I are willing to make next week. And again, ultimately, this is the type of love that Jesus described as the greatest type of love we could ever live into. A sacrificial kind of love. And we know that we can step into sacrificial love with confidence because Jesus did it first.

Jon Jorgenson [00:25:56]:
Jesus never asked us to do anything that he himself already did not do. And so, I can't think of a better time, oh, and a better way for us to wrap up this time together than by practicing communion with one another. And so, right now, our host team, they're gonna come down, and they are gonna begin to pass the elements. And just so you know, the bread that you're gonna find on that tray, it is gluten free and spirit full. So, all are free to participate without worry or anxiety. Thank you, Uni. And I'll ask a favor of you, as those elements are being passed out, would you do me a favor? As you receive them, would you just hold onto them? Hold them in your hands, so that in just a minute, we would all have an opportunity to take these elements together as one church family. You know, all this morning, we've been talking about this idea of sacrifice, and how it's not primarily about giving something up, although it always will include that.

Jon Jorgenson [00:27:02]:
But, actually, the thing that makes it greater is the fact that by giving something up, we are simultaneously investing in the work that God is doing. And there's no better or clearer picture of greater sacrifice paving the way towards greater love than Jesus himself. Jesus on the cross gave his life, an ultimate sacrifice. And that sacrifice, Jesus laying down his life, is what paved the way for you and I to have a way to encounter and experience and be transformed by God's greater love. And what Jesus did, because he's just so genius, is he gave us a simple way to remember that sacrifice. And the way to remember it was this practice of communion. If you're unfamiliar, a couple 1000 years ago, actually, at the same meal that happens in John 13 through 17 that we just looked at. At that same meal, Jesus was around a table with some of his closest friends, his final meal with them.

Jon Jorgenson [00:28:17]:
And around that table, towards the end of the meal, he took bread and he broke it, He said something a little strange. He said, this bread is my body, broken for you. Then he took a cup, and he said, this cup, this is my blood, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins. And that probably confused a lot of the people who were sitting around that table, but what Jesus was doing is he was giving us a metaphor. He was saying, Hey, my body's about to be broken. My blood is going to be poured out. I'm going to make a sacrifice so that you have a way to experience God's greater love, so that you can be forgiven for your sin. And I want you, every single time you eat of this bread, I want you to remember the sacrifice that I made for you.

Jon Jorgenson [00:29:10]:
Every single time you drink of this cup, I want you to remember the sacrifice I made for you. And not just every time you take communion, but every time you put food in your mouth or in your daughter's mouth when she asks for a bite, every time you put a cup to your lips, let that be a reminder that there is a greater love that God has for you, a love so great that he was willing to make so great a sacrifice for you to be able to enter into it and to live into it both now and forever. And so I'll ask as you hold the bread in your hand, Jesus, as we remember your greater sacrifice, which paved the way towards us knowing a greater love, we take the bread together. And Jesus, in remembrance of the command that you gave us to love one another as you have loved us, and to lay down our lives, to lay down what we have for one another. In remembrance of that command, we take the cup. And God, I thank you that you are a God who goes first, that you are a God who never invites us to walk a path that you yourself have not already walked and prepared for us. And so, Jesus, this week, as we pray over the greater sacrifice that you are calling us to make, God, sacrifices, would we make those commitments, would we lay down our lives with confidence, knowing that when you laid down your life, it did not end in death, but it actually ended in resurrection and new life. And we believe, God, that when we make sacrifices in our lives, it's not an ending.

Jon Jorgenson [00:31:19]:
It's actually a beginning. It's a new beginning for us and for someone else. And so, God, this week, would you give us courage? Would you give us faith? Would you open our ears and open our hearts to really hear from you in how you are calling us to take part in this season, where we are making sacrifices so that others can experience your greater love. We love you, and we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.