Louie Giglio - Revelation in my Pocket
What manner of people should we be? If I’ve got revelation in my pocket, what kind of person should I be? What kind of people should we be? This is the question that Peter is asking in 2 Peter 3. He’s talking about the end time, and he says, «Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be»? And then he answers, «You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming».
Now, this is a very interesting idea that I can’t fully explain. But somehow, our looking forward to the day of God is bringing the day of God closer to us. «That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with His promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven,» hello, «And a new earth». So, we’re not going to some ethereal ending. We’re going to a new earth, a highly and massively upgraded version of this earth. And like we said last week, there’s not a thing on this broken earth that you’re gonna look back at and go, «Wow, I wish we had that in the new earth». It is gonna be absolutely amazing and righteousness is going to dwell there.
What kind of people ought you to be? Sixteen weeks and an apocalyptic revelation of the risen, reigning Jesus. What kind of person should I be? The phone is being held up in the very throne room of God. What kind of person should I be? I got that call. What kind of people should we be? I think, obviously number one, we should be confident. We should be the most confident people. And I say that in complete and total awareness of the fact that we are living in, maybe, the most anxious moments in the history of people. And we’ve got anxiety on a screen in front of us all day long and all night long every single day. And I understand that there are lot of perplexing things happening all around us, but given the revelation of Jesus Christ, our confidence should be on the rise.
Our confidence in the fact that God is sovereignly in control of all things. And even in the mess, He’s in control of the mess, He reigns over the mess, He uses the mess. He is sovereign and bigger than the mess. He is ruling everything and reigning everything. And you’re like, «Louie, you must not be paying attention and you obviously are not reading any of the headlines because it’s very clear that God is not ruling and reigning». Well, that’s why I think John was taken up into Heaven and shown what is and what is to come, so that when you look around at what seems perplexing, you can come back and anchor in what is very, very clear. And that is that there is a God on a throne right this minute. Right this second.
I’m confident and we are confident because our guide to the end of the age is the reigning Jesus. I loved this in the very beginning of this collection because it was a mind shift for us, right? That yes, Jesus is God and man, and yes, he was in Galilee walking around in human flesh. But He’s not in Galilee walking around in human flesh anymore. He’s still got that body, but it is an upgraded resurrection body. He’s ahead of us in that way. He’s already got a glorified body. And I’m telling you, He is not the same anymore. He is, in His nature, the same and unchanging, but the circumstances are very different. He is now, we said, calling the shots. He’s not taking the blows. He’s fully revealed. He’s not obscured in parables. He’s unquestioned now.
Where, in Galilee, He was challengeable and challenged almost every day, nobody’s challenging Jesus now. Nobody thinks they got Him backed in a corner. Nobody’s posing any questions that they think might trip Him up. He is high, He is not low. He rode in on a donkey to the cross, but He’s riding in on a white horse to His ultimate reign and rule. Yes, He walked in Galilee, but when you pray to Jesus, you are not praying to the God-man in skin in Nazareth, you are praying to the God-man in a glorified body, who is seated on the highest throne. He had, on earth, a very common name, Jesus. He has now written on Him a name that nobody knows but He Himself. He is glorious, He is majestic, He is more splendid and more awe inspiring than you can ever imagine. He is not the shepherd in the picture in the Sunday school classroom. He is a shepherd, but is brilliantly glorious. And He’s leading you.
We should be the most confident people on earth. And we know how it ends. Thank you, Christian, for this anthem that has been arching our house all year long. We sing the words so confidently, I was singing them in my head on the way to church today. And I was just so confident. We all know how it ends Then why are we wringing our hands? Why do we think somebody else has got the steering wheel. We know how it ends and we should be, with revelation in our pocket, the most confident people on earth. People, our confidence should be rising, and it should be informing our words and the way we speak about the things that we see and perceive. I know, I know, I know. But let me tell you this, Jesus, hallelujah? Jesus reigns. Hallelujah. Jesus reign. Hallelujah. I know how the story ends, hallelujah. I know how it all ends. That’s my chart.
You wanna see my chart? I haven’t showed my chart, hadn’t showed my hand at all. You wanna see my chart? You wanna see how I think it all maps out? You want me to give you all the little pieces? Here’s my chart, are you ready? There’s my chart. You’re like, «No, you can’t do that. No, you can’t do that. You have to show us a real chart with all the real stuff on it 'cause you can’t do revelation without a chart». The chart is Jesus. I’m not belittling the charts. I’m not belittling the fact that there are varying views and opinions on timing of this and timing of that. I’m just saying that Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life, and He’s the end. And if you got your eyes locked on Him, you are gonna be good and your confidence today should be rising.
The second thing that should be true about us, if we have got revelation burning in our hearts and we see what God has wanted us to see is we should be Heavenly. We should be Heavenly. Can you say that with me? We should be Heavenly. Can you say it with us Trilith, Cumberland? We should be Heavenly. I picked Heavenly, but what I was meaning with Heavenly is that we should be different. We should be distinct. We should be not worldly. To use the King James Version word, if you go back that far, we should be peculiar. Not peculiar in the weird sense. We don’t need any more weird Christians. I got one amen. I was hoping to get a lot more amens on that. Well, we don’t need any more weird Christians. You don’t need to be the weird person at work. You don’t need to be the weird person where you work out. You don’t need to be the weird person in your knitting club. But you do need to be the wired person, just switch two letters, in your work.
Wired to what? Wired to another kingdom, wired to another set of values, wired to another world. Heavenly, not earthly, not worldly, but Heavenly. See, I think sometimes we get it backwards. We think that the way that it works is that we’re here now and then we’re there. We’re very much here, and at some point, Louie, out here, I don’t know when exactly or where, but then I go from here to there. I go from earth to Heaven or to eternity. I’m here now, but eventually, I will be there. And that’s not really the way the gospel is informing our lives. What the gospel is teaching us is a little bit different. Actually, up here, I wanted here then there, is what I was trying to say, but it’s actually different than that. It’s here and there.
In other words, Heaven is already here, people. Hello? And I am already there. It’s not here and one day I’ll be there. It’s that I’m here and there. The world’s overlapping. It’s me growing up in the household of a graphic designer, and we had all kind of art stuff around our house, and there was always a pad of tracing paper in our house. Anybody know what tracing paper is? Anybody that’s still around have seen tracing paper? It’s paper that you can see through and you could put it over in that day 'cause my dad created things like a 12 pack coca cola carton, but he did it without a computer. He literally made it and mapped it up, and then showed it to them and they said, «Yeah, we like that. That’s what we wanna do».
And then that’s how they made the carton. And in those days, you could put the tracing paper over something that had a logo on it or a graphic on it or some typeface on it, and then you could trace over what was underneath and get a really close version of that on that page on your page. And what God is offering to you today is here’s the revelation page, here’s the forever page, here’s what God’s doing page, and you can take your page and put it over the forever page. And while your page has, «I’m dropping the kids off at XYZ time, and I have a meeting this afternoon,» you can see through your page to the forever page, and you can begin to trace unto your page, the things that last forever because your life is about here and there. In other words, Heaven is now.
And you’re like, «We’re not there yet fully». No, we’re not, but yes, we are. This is what Paul is writing. He’s trying to let us know today that we’re already in the victory story. Philippians 3 says it this way, «Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. For I have often told you before and now tell you again with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ». That’s Revelation language right there. «Their destiny is destruction. Their god,» little «G» god, «Is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship,» can you say that with me? «Our citizenship is in heaven».
In other words, I’ve already got a passport to Heaven. I have a passport for here, but I also have a passport for there. I am a citizen of this country, but I’m also a citizen of that country. «And we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,» the one, remember, who went to His Father’s house and made a room for us and then He came back and got us the bride of Christ, and together, we went back to the Father’s house to the room that He had prepared for us and dwelled with Him there. «We await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body».
Our citizenship is in Heaven. He wrote it a different way in Ephesians 2. «But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved». Hallelujah. «And God raised us up with Christ». He raised you up with Christ. Somehow, mysteriously in the spirit, you now are joined together with Christ. «And seated us,» this sounds like revelation talk, «With Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus». He seated us, remember all these, these thrones, all kinds of thrones, but there’s the throne, and on the throne is the lamb. And now, Paul is trying to help us see that in Christ, on that throne, where Christ is seated, that we are seated with Him in the Heavenly realms.
Come on, church. Can anybody wrap your heart around us today? You may be sitting in a chair in one of our gatherings, but God has raised you up and seated you on a throne in Heaven in Christ with God. Right now, that’s where spiritually we are. So, we’re not waiting for heaven, we’re already seated in Heaven. We’re not waiting to get to the border of heaven and hope that when they open up the deal, that our name, somehow, is going to appear. We already know, I’ve got a passport to get me into the holy city. I am covered under the blood of Jesus Christ, and I bear His name by faith in His finished work. I know I am a citizen of the holy city. It is my home. And that’s why, with Heaven in my pocket, I wanna make decisions all day long that are Heavenly.
The third thing that should be true about us is that we should be discerning. I think it, maybe, could be the most powerful thing you could pray every day for your life: Dear God, make me more discerning. That’s what Revelation taught me. Man, I just saw the darkness straining with all their might to counterfeit the light. Here’s a picture of Jesus, and then the next thing we would see is this beast. And if Jesus had ten of these, the beast would have ten of these. Different, but trying to be similar. These armies coming against Jesus at the end from Gog and Magog. And I just thought, Gog, did you say God? No, Gog. God? Are you talking about God? No, Gog. Oh, it’s just one little letter switched upside down. So close.
The bright morning star, we ended with last week and going back and talking about Lucifer. And if you don’t know, Lucifer was an angel, and he was a bright angel. He was a magnificent angel before he defaulted on his ability to worship and adore God, and was cast down out of Heaven into the darkness. But he was a powerful, bright angel. His name, Lucifer, means «Light of Heaven». Heavenly light. That’s why in lowercase, he’s called in the Old Testament, «morning star». Jesus, in Revelation 22, «The bright, Morning Star,» all caps. It’s a title name for all time and eternity. It’s not a reference name to an angel, which was true of Lucifer, but here’s Lucifer. His very name means light, but yet he’s running to darkness.
So, don’t expect all the darkness to show up and say, «Hi, we’re darkness and we wanna rip your world apart». Expect the darkness will often show up looking very much like light. And you gotta be discerning. I’m telling you, we’re living in a world where things are getting so crazy. And people don’t wanna talk about the future, but in the future, I just saw an actor in Hollywood saying that when he dies, he’s gonna already have sued all the major movie producers in the world on behalf of his estate in the event that they try to make an AI rendering of him and put him in a movie, in the future, after he’s gone. It’s like what kind of world are we living in?
One that requires a boat load of discernment. You gotta do your own fact checking. You gotta get saturated in this word of God and so close to Jesus that you can spot the counterfeit even if their name is light. Paul taught us that and he was praying for the Philippian church, and he said, «And this is my prayer,» this would be a great prayer to memorize. «That your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. Does anybody agree with me that we need more insight»? We just cannot keep taking stuff on board. «Oh, I read such and such. Well, I saw so and so. Well, I heard such and such».
Listen, you cannot believe so much of what you hear and so much of what you take on board. «You gotta be full of insight so that you may be able,» what a prayer, «To discern what is best,» not what is brightest, what’s the loudest, but what is best. «And may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ». That’s revelation coming. «Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God». I’m telling you, this is the way Paul said it to the Corinthians. They were these people who had terrible motives. They look great, but their hearts weren’t.
«These people are false apostles,» he said, «They’re deceitful workers and they’re masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as angel of light». So, we’ve gotta pray and we have to wake up. And we have to be alert, and we have to be doing what John was showing us all through the Revelation when he said, «Look, look, I saw. Look, look, look». He’s telling you, «Look, look, look, look». Another way of saying that, he’s saying, «Be discerning. Be paying attention. Be so rooted in truth. Don’t just take it on board and say, 'Well, you know, I think it’s this.'» No, test the spirits and see if they are true. Be innocent as doves, but be wise as a snake.
And then the last thing, we’ve got discernment in our pocket that’s gonna help us so much in these counterfeit end times where everything’s gonna look like the real thing, but it’s not gonna be. The last thing is we gotta be generous. If I’m reading this apocalypse of the revelation of Jesus Christ, «I wanna be the most generous person in life». You’re like, «Oh man, what do you mean generous»? I mean generous, especially, hear me, with the good news of Jesus Christ. I wanna be generous with the mercy and the grace and, adding on the full story, the coming judgment of God.
I wanna be generous in sharing His mercy, and sharing His grace, and I wanna be generous in sharing the reality that there is a coming judgment of God. Holiness will meet all wickedness in the end. We are traveling people, I’m telling you, with gold in our pockets. We are not beggars. We have addresses on streets of gold, and we’re traveling with revelation in our pocket, and we’re traveling with gold in our pocket. «Like, what do you mean gold in our pocket»? I mean the word of God is in our pocket. And at any moment, we can dispense it knowing that it goes with missional precision and never fails to do what it’s sent to do. We’ve got words of encouragement in our pocket. We have destiny changing story of God’s grace and love in our pocket. We have prayer that moves mountains in our pocket.
There shouldn’t be a person we pass in life that we’re not looking for an opportunity to say, «I don’t know what you need, but I got gold in my pocket». I was thinking about the giving keys. Is any ladies in the room know about the giving keys anybody? It was a thing, I don’t know if it’s still a thing or not but shout out to the giving keys. And the idea behind this company when it started was, you would give a friend a key, a literally key on a chain, but on the key would be engraved a word like, «Hope», or «belief» or «vision» or «faith».
And you would know your friend’s story, and you would know that they need hope, so you would give them the giving key of hope, and they would wear the key, and they would know that you’re believing hope, praying hope, speaking hope into their story. They’re agreeing with hope in their story, and you could join into somebody with a little bit of gold with the key. And I thought about the giving keys this week and I was like, «I got keys in my pocket». Jesus, in Revelation 1 said, «I am the living one. I was dead, but now I’m alive forevermore». And He said, «I hold,» what? «I hold the keys of death and Hades».
In other words, He said, «I can unlock what’s got you bounds. I can set the captive free. I can give hope and a future to prisoners». And I have, because of Jesus, that same message of Jesus. And I got keys in my pocket. That can reach into people’s hearts. They all have one name on them and that is the name of Jesus. But listen to this. Because of the way the Holy Spirit works, they all fit into different, unique locks in Jesus' name, and they bring freedom to people. I got giving keys in my pocket.
Who knows tomorrow, what person in my story I got a key to their life’s story in my pocket. Satan’s main strategy, I think, besides getting us clueless, and not discerning, and not understanding the difference between the best and less than the best, is to keep up moving towards that day, quiet about all we know now because of the revelation of Jesus. And if he can keep the church from sharing the story of Jesus boldly, he wins. Not ultimately, but he wins all of this 'cause we’re just walking by people all day long who need to be set free by the power of Jesus, and for whatever reason, we’re like, «Nah. Not up to me to share any of the gold out of my pocket».