Louie Giglio - In Your Time of Need, Call on Jesus
Worship doesn't start with singing, worship starts with seeing and this is how we respond. And you know, it's interesting I think some people are like, "Well, if you can see who He is, and you can see what He's done then you're gonna live a vibrant life of worship all of your days. How could you not worship God if you see who He is and what He's done"? And I will say, "Well, it's possible". I would say, on average about nine out of ten people see God and see who He is and see what He's done and still don't respond with a full-hearted life of worship.
Example number one is this story Jesus told us in Luke 17. This is a story that most everybody here today knows and has heard but I think it's one of the most powerful pictures of what we're talking about in humanity. It says in verse 11, "Now on His way to Jerusalem," now the "His" is Jesus obviously, "Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. And as He was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met Him. They stood at a distance, and they called out in a loud voice, 'Jesus, Master, have pity on us.'"
Now, let's just stop at paragraph number one. There's three things here that are pretty important about who He is and what He's done. Number one, He was on His way to Jerusalem. Now, He wasn't just on His for a visit, He was on His way to die on the cross. So, on the way to giving His life for the sins of the world this happened. Secondly, He was traveling along the border between Samaria and Galilee. And if you know anything about the tension between the Jews and the Samaritans you know that this a very tense border area and this is where Jesus was in this moment. He is the one who is the blessed one of God. But He knows that both Samaritans and Jews need a Savior, so He's on His way to Jerusalem. And ten men who had leprosy, they met Him.
Now, leprosy, as you know, is the worse disease you could possibly have. It's a situation that ultimately ends up in you losing sensation in your extremities. And a lot of times you don't even realize what injury comes to them and through the decay of losing the sensation and the nerve function in things like your fingers, and your toes, and your ears, and your nose. Eventually, you end up losing flesh and losing parts of your body. And so, you are literally rotting, ostracized from your family, from your friends, from your community, from any function and especially from any worship, or any ability to be a part of the people of God in the worship of God.
And these guys are in mystery. They're walking round with bells on their necks because they have to alert people to their condition. They have to yell out at a distance, "We're lepers over here. Don't come this way". But yet, they've heard about this man that He can do stuff. And so, they start yelling out, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us". "When He saw them, He said, 'Go show yourselves to the priests.'" Now, that seems like one of those curve balls from Jesus, right? It's like, "Hello, they need to get healed. They don't need a priest. The priest ain't gonna talk to them because priest don't deal with people who have leprosy, so that's not gonna be a good solution for them. Why say, 'Go show yourself to the priest"?
Because He knew they were about to get healed. And when you did get healed of leprosy, which did happen in the day and time of Jesus, you had to get signed off on by a priest that you are officially healed. And in that moment, you were then brought back into a state of being ceremonially clean and you can come now and worship God. And so, if you got healed from leprosy your first stop is to go to the priest, he checks you out, he gives you a seal of approval, and then you're okay to go and continue to worship. And so, that He knows they're gonna need that, so He says, "Go show yourself to the priest". He's just speaking by faith knowing what's about to happen. And then they went by faith, which is pretty amazing.
"And as they went, they were cleansed". It's interesting the word that Luke uses here, he says, "As they went, they became spiritually clean". In other words, they started on the road towards right standing with God as they went. "One of them, when he saw he was healed," different words. So far, they got cleansed, now they got healed. That's a physical healing word. "One of them, when he saw," do you see this? Are you tracking with me here? First you see, then you sing. "He saw that he was healed. He came back praising God," here comes the worship, "in a loud voice". He's not come whispering back when you see that you're healed.
"And he threw himself at Jesus' feet," the Greek literally says, "He fell down on his face at Jesus' feet," "and he thanked him, and he was a Samaritan". So, this guy was a two strikes you're out. You got leprosy, you're done. You're a Samaritan, you're done. And here he is now at the feet of Jesus. This guy is far off and now he is at the feet of the Savior of the world. And what does Jesus do? "Jesus asked him a question, 'Were not all ten cleansed? Well, where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?' And then He said to him, 'Raise and go, your faith has made you well.'"
This is an interesting Snapchat of the definition that we're working with of worship. And I love the idea that this word praising God is the word "Doksa" or the word for glory in the New Testament. In other words, literally he was glorying God. And I went and just looked at some of the word helps for this Greek word and this is what you find. Doksa, "Doksazo" is the word coming from doksa or glory. Glory to ascribe weight. That's really the Old Testament word for glory is "Kabad" which means heavy, which I think is a super cool way of saying God's heavy. When I'm giving glory to God, I'm saying, "You're heavy".
If you're anybody around in '70s, anybody make it out of the '70s here? Not really, look around this gathering not too many people. In the '70s people would say, "Wow, dude, that's heavy". That's heavy. And that's the way we come to God. We don't just skip our way in and go, "Hey, what's up"? Of course, we're intimate with Him. Sons, daughters can call Him "Abba" Father. But when we're with God we're like, "Wow, that's heavy. That's weighty". In fact, that's the heaviest and the weightiest of all, glory to God. And that word comes into the New Testament and doksa, and it means, "Weight by recognizing real substance or value".
But look how it's used here, glorying means, "Valuing, this has lit me up. Stuff like this just", I'll run on this for a while. It means, "Valuing Him," kind of didn't do that one very good, let's try that one again, "for who He is". It's our response to God both personally, cooperate for who He, you can modify it, really is. For example, "Giving or ascribing glory to God personally acknowledges God in His true character or essence". So, when this guy fell down at the feet of Jesus, he was acknowledging Jesus in His true essence and value as being weighty and heavy. The weightiest and the heaviest of all. He was affirming what they had yelled, "Jesus, Master".
Now, he is in posture, bow down, face down, on the ground, acknowledging, "Yes, something happened but more importantly you did it". See, this is the beauty to me of true worship. A lot of people are thrilled with what God has done for them and enamored with what God has done for them, love when God does things for them and that's great. I'm grateful for His hand but I'm move enthralled with His face. And it's easy for me to seek His hand but I was made to seek His face.
And it's wonderful to say, "Thank you, God, for all the amazing blessings that you've given me". But then you go, "Oh my word, you're the one who does miracles. Thank you for the miracle. You're a miracle worker. Thank you for the grace. You're the giver of grace. Thank you that I'm healed. Wow, you have the power to heal. You didn't even say, 'We were healed.' You didn't even say, 'Be healed.' You just said, 'Go get your sign off from priest, it's done.'"
And that's what He's saying to you right, "Walk on, it's done. Oh, just walk on, it's done. Walk on in confidence, it's done". And this one guy, one guy, that means nine out of ten people both saw Jesus, heard Him speak were healed of their disease and did not respond in wholehearted worship. Oh, they may have told somebody at the house, "Oh, this Jesus guy, He did it". "Where did you get your ears back"? "That Jesus guy. Crazy, you heard? He's real. It's real stuff". They might have talked about it at the water cooler, or put in an Instagram post, but only one went back and feel down at His feet and said, "You, you are the one".
When he did that, just one last thing, "Jesus said to him, 'Rise and go, your faith,'" what kind of faith did he have? Hmm, interesting. Faith in Jesus as God. Faith in Jesus. "You're the one we've heard about, and that Jews have been waiting for, it's you. You are God". "Your faith has made you well". So, so far, they got cleansed, then he got healed, and now he is well. Interesting. This word is "Sozo", and it means "Saved". You got cleansed, healed, saved by Jesus. See, this is what is spurring on our worship. "I got saved. I got cleansed. I got made right with God. I was out but now I'm in. I didn't have a shot to get in but now I am in. Hello, I got healed". In other words, "I had all kind of stuff wrong with me and God is fixing and healing the things that are wrong with me, and He's making me holy in Him. And moreover, I got saved".
Our gospel here isn't that if you try really hard, and we'll help you try, we're gonna get you in shape, we're gonna get you firmed up, we're gonna get you at your best you, we're gonna coach you up, we're gonna set you up, we're gonna cheer real loud. And if you try really hard, you can make it to a Holy God. Just keep on coming and keep on trying. We reject that here. Because Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem to do the one thing that you and I could never do. You see, sin is problematic because we're not getting graded on the curve. And we've said it a million times, I'll say it as long as I have breath, "Sin doesn't make you a bad person".
And some of you are stuck there. Oh, it is bad, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't make you a bad person, that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says, "Sin makes you a dead person. A spiritually dead person. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God". That heavy weight of God. We missed the mark when we did it our own way, and the result wasn't, "Oh, I'm bad now, I gotta figure out how to get good". The result was, "I am spiritually dead and cut off from heavy, weighty glory, and I can't do a thing to change that".
But Jesus can, and He did. When He took on my sin, it got Him dead, came out of the grave, showed that He had power over death, and then He offered that resurrection life to me and to anybody who put their faith in Him. And I'm telling you this house today is a collection of formerly dead people who now are spiritually alive. No, can I get a "Amen"? Or maybe a little, "Hallelujah"? Or can somebody say, "Praise the Lord"? Can somebody say, "I hadn't gotten over that yet"? Yeah, I prayed that prayer when I was nine, that was a while back, but I love Him. Or coming through the door today going, "Man, in light of what He has done, I wanna give Him everything".
When you see the cross and you see how far God has brought you, it's gonna impact the way you worship. A few things, it's gonna impact why and how I come to church if I see the cross. And I applaud you, you're here today so, this isn't about you. This is about whoever didn't make it today, or this month, or this year. They're on their way to Christmas though and they're looking forward to it and it's gonna be amazing. But when I see the cross, it impacts why I come to church and how I come to church. Hey, I decide I'm going to church. I don't wait 'til 9:30 on Saturday night and see if all the cards are falling in the right place. I decided like Tuesday, "I'm going to church".
I thought about it Wednesday, I thought about it on Thursday, I talked to a friend about it on Friday, we coordinated a little bit on Saturday, I got up on Sunday having already made up my mind, "I am going to the great assembly with all the people who were dead but are alive now. I am coming to the house of God". And it impacts how I come when I come. I don't come to church to worship, I come worshipping to church. It doesn't start at 9:30, it started when I woke up this morning. I started having church when I woke up.
You're like, "Louie, you don't live at our house, man. We got kids that, you know, fighting each other, we had somebody try to poke somebody's eye out, we had a dog poop on the floor, we had, you know, car trouble, it was crazy. We're here by the grace of God and they can solve it in bloom. Never happier to drop them off than today. In fact, I've been praying for that tent leader through this entire gathering, 'Dear God, give them something I don't have.'" It's just different when I didn't fall out of love with the God who died on a cross for me. And I couldn't wait to get to the great assembly.
The Psalmist said, "I wanna arrive at the great assembly to add my voice to the testimony of the faithfulness of God". It impacts the way we give. Seeing the cross impacts why and how I give. These guys are gonna help me show you this. I did this about ten years, eleven years ago and I'd forgotten about it honestly and a friend of mine reminded me last week in the midst of the talk. He said, "You remember when you were preaching on this back in 2012 and you did that illustration"? I was like, "I don't know but I'll back and look at it". I went back and I was like, "Oh my word".
See, giving and by the way, we're not having giving today, there's not gonna be a little generosity moment, and the slides are never gonna come on the screen today, so please this is not about that. But oh my goodness, it's just this picture of somebody getting to the point where they were making a hundred grand a year.
Now, for some of you, you're like, "I already passed that a long time ago and that really wouldn't do much for me". But others of you are like, "That's a good thing to aim at". And starting at 35 to 65, when you retired, you made a hundred grand a year, well that's what you would make. I was shocked, I thought it would be a whole lot more than that. This guy right here, that's a million bucks. I mean, like, you could carry that around. I mean, there are people who are aspiring to work their whole life to make this. I mean, I can that with one hand, and I could just say, "Here, have a million dollars".
Isn't that crazy? So, 30 years, a hundred grand a year. And if you were, like, gonna just go crazy on the giving side and become a tither, which would put you in a small percentage people who go to church. That Old Testament principle which I think is beautiful and amazing, and a great starting place for our giving, and you're gonna give a tenth or the first fruit of everything that God blesses you with in resources back to the Kingdom of God to build the church, to see people saved, to see people raised up in their faith, to see the scriptures translated into other languages around the world, to see unreached people groups hear the gospel for the very first time, to see Kingdom realities come to pass, and you're like, "You know what? I made a hundred grand and I'm going all in to that 10% thing. Whereas the average person coming to church is giving about 1-3% I'm gonna go with 10 grand, it's on the table. God bless it, touch it".
Knowing that He can and will do that. And you continually do that year after year and you're just faithful. So, six years have gone by, and you've been giving. You're giving, you're giving and you give. God keeps you employed, He keeps giving you the ability to work, He keeps giving you those skills that you have, He keeps giving you the opportunity. And you're like, "Louie, that's a lot". I mean, you know, ten grand. I mean, it is. It's not in a way, 'cause I mean, that's, kinda, weird. Just walk around with that. "How you doing"? "Good". "How much is it"? "Okay, hang on, I got it". You're topping out. You're at the top of the list of the givers. That's a lot of money. Three hundred thousand dollars.
Now, granted we have to eat, we have to pay our rent, we gotta get some transportation, insurance, we have our kid's school, medical cost, we had entertainment, our family took a vacation, all these things. And a lot of these things are Kingdom connected, raising your kids, and raising a family to launch them into the world is a Kingdom expense. But at the end of the day here's what I see, I see that giving isn't proportional to my income, giving should be proportional to my understanding of the grace of God.
To me realizing that I had no mercy but now I have mercy. I was not a people, but now I am one of the people. I was dead and I needed somebody to carry me to my final resting place, but Jesus intersected my story when my faith was put in Him and brought me back to life again, and the only reason I have breath in my lungs is because of the resurrection power and the gift in the grace that is in Jesus Christ.
And I wanna be able to say at the end of the day, "The cross moved me, and it impacted why I give and how I give". I'm not sure I wanna get to the end of my story and say, "I put this where no moth or rust could touch it. I put this where God could multiply it 30-folds, 60-fold, a 100-fold. I put this, hello, in a vault and when I got there, it was still there, and I got it back. But I left $2.7 million on earth". And for the average person, obviously... Average person who got cleansed, and healed, and saved.
You say, "How could anybody see who He is and what He's done, and not give a wholehearted response"? I don't wanna be somebody who just sings Amazing Grace, 'cause I know when you follow the trail of my time, my affections, my money, my thoughts, my passion, my energy, and my pursuit, when you follow that trail, at the end of it it's a throne, and as much as I wanna say, "I worship God and I worship the Jesus who works miracles," whatever's on that throne is what I worship. And I don't want to get to the end of it all and say, "Jesus, I'm telling you, it is so great to finally be here in glory by your grace. I'm tell you, the cross just blew me away".