Louie Giglio - A Supernatural Mindset in a Natural World
We’re at that time of the year when we have to go through this exercise called thinking about the New Year. Is anybody still in that zone, or has everyone just said, «Hey, that was a thing that happened; it’s over, and we’re back to the regular scheduled programming?» Has anyone decided, «I’m not eating XYZ in 2023,» but, unfortunately, you had that last night? I’m just trying to check in, see how we’re all doing. I don’t know about you, but coming out of 2020, that was a year. Imagine if your word for 2020 had been «Travel» or «Adventure.» You heard from God, and you were committed. You had already written it at the top of your journal: «2020, this is my year; I’m gonna see the world. I’ve got a list of nine places I’m gonna go. I am going to be an adventurer in 2020,» and then you did — you adventured right down to the den, and that was it.
So 2020 made us all think, «Okay, 2021 is going to shift, change, and be different — easier.» Then 2021 happened, and we were like, «Man, that felt rougher than 2020.» In 2020, we stayed home, doing puzzles, getting to know our families; it wasn’t all that terrible, in hindsight. In 2021, we were navigating going back to work or not, figuring out if we felt okay going out or better staying in. Then we thought, «Well, 2022 is going to be our year!» I bet everyone had a word for 2022, and we all thought, «Yes!» But then 2022 came, and it was like, «Okay, that wasn’t great.»
So for 2023, I decided I’m not going to make any big proclamations. Is there anyone else in that zone where you’re like, «I’m just going to give it a few months, see what happens, and then adjust accordingly?» I think that’s really what is on my heart today as we enter these few weeks together talking about priorities: I don’t want this to be prescriptive. I don’t want this to be the person on stage saying, «Hey, everybody, this is what we’re all going to do,» because everyone in this room is in a different place in your journey, in your life, in your faith, in your confidence. Each of us probably needs to hear from God specifically and personally about what we should be thinking about.
As we do that, it takes us into a couple of different life areas. The first of those is the things that we have to do. By the way, this isn’t going to be prescriptive; this isn’t a TED Talk, so don’t expect anything super impressive at the end. I just want to begin the process for you of giving you a framework for contemplating the fact that you’re breathing air today—that is a very miraculous thing. Lord willing, and I’m telling you, with the way things have been going in life, that is not guaranteed, but Lord willing, you’ll be back here again in 365 days. In that time, a lot of opportunities will come your way, and I want us to start thinking individually, as a family, as a business, as a church: How do we want to frame up this time?
In this first area, you can make some notes. It’s great to see all of you taking notes! You can just write out what are some of the things that are required of you. Maybe we could have a few here at Cumberland and 5:15, so feel free to shout out. What are a few things that are required of you? Anyone?
You’ve got to provide; it’s required that you pay some bills, because if you don’t, people will call you. Some of you have to take your kid to school tomorrow; that’s a requirement! You can’t just tell them, «I’m sorry; I’m not feeling it today. You’re on your own! You can drive, ride your bike, or walk; that’s up to you.» No, that’s a requirement—some of you are required to get your kids to school tomorrow. That’s not something you wake up tomorrow and think, «Hmm, what do I want to do today?» No, you’re going to take your kids to school; that’s what you’re going to do! Some of you have a dentist appointment coming up tomorrow—that’s a requirement. Some of you will text them and say, «I have COVID, and I’m sorry, but I’m not feeling good; I have a fever.» That excuse has worked well for many of us this year on several of our requirements. I think I have a fever; I haven’t checked yet, I haven’t taken a test, but I probably shouldn’t show up.
There’s another group of things, and I’ll put these all together in a minute. These are the things that you desire—they’re not really required, but you want to do them. Some of you want to go to Switzerland; you’re planning it! You’ve been looking online, checking out airfare, looking at different places you can go. You’ve got a couple of cities or towns that you’d like to visit. Does anyone want to go to Switzerland this year? I mean, for real—it’s in your plan, not just something you’d like to do? That’s a word from the Lord; if so, that’s confirmation from God.
These are the things we’re really passionate about. If you could write down five things you want to do this year, without having to do them, not getting paid or under contract obligation to do them, but you’d really like to do them. There’s another circle of things in life, and this is probably the most important one. You could say it’s what your purpose in life is; it’s what you’re created to do—what you are called to do. This differs from what you signed a contract at your company to do, but these are things that God has called you to do—things that you are uniquely gifted by God to do.
This is your purpose. These desires would be more of your passion, and we often mix those up. If we could delineate for a moment: all of us have the same purpose in life; you and the person sitting next to you were created for the same purpose. You might say, «No, no, he’s an attorney and I’m a counselor; we have totally different purposes.» No, you have different gifts, different aptitudes, different opportunities, and abilities, but you have the same purpose. You’re created by God and for God—that’s your purpose, and you are gifted by God. Your gifting may take you into different lanes of desire and purpose, but ultimately, you are created by and for God.
You see this with Adam and Eve; I’m breaking it down for a second. It feels like we’re doing a seminar, but think about Adam and Eve: What was their purpose? They were created to know God, to be in relationship with God—number one. They were created to be in relationship with each other—number two. And they were created to work. They had three purposes: to know God, to be in relationship with each other, and to steward God’s creation. So work is not a product of the fall; it’s a God-given purpose in life.
How could you say that about you? You were created to be in relationship with God; you’re created to be in relationship with the people that God has put in your life, and you’re created to steward the things God has created that He’s entrusted to you. For Adam and Eve, it was the animals and the gardens. For you, I don’t know what it will be, but fourthly, you are here to discover your Holy Spirit-given gift that God wants you to uniquely use to build up the family of God, known as the church of Jesus Christ. That’s your purpose in life.
You can roll all that up into a different set of words: to glorify God, to bring honor to him, and to align with the desires of your heart. But how do you do that? How do you glorify God? By being in the right relationship with him. People will then ask, «Who is this God that you love?» By being in relationship with the people around you, by stewarding well the things he’s given you for His glory, and by using that gift.
So we have purposes, we have requirements, and then ultimately we have our passions. The thing you might want to think about right now is: Where are your priorities in all of this? I’ve told this story a bunch of times; it never hurts to say it again because it could inspire someone who needs it. I failed out of Georgia State University — go Panthers! When I say «failed out,» I mean royally failed out. There may be no one who’s ever failed out of Georgia State at the level I did, and I won’t get into all the details. You know me now and know that I’m not unintelligent; I just didn’t have my priorities right.
Going to Georgia State was one of my priorities; actually going to class was not. I enrolled in Kennesaw—it was a junior college at the time, and my mom worked there. It all kind of added up. I thought I’d go to Kennesaw for a couple of quarters because Georgia State was on the quarter system at the time and they asked me to take a couple of quarters off. I was in the process of failing out of Kennesaw Junior College.
One day, I’m driving up 75, not two miles from here at the Windy Hill exit. I’m having this conversation with the Lord because He had made it clear to me what His purposes were for my life: know me, be in a relationship with other people, and steward what I’ve been given. At that time, for me, it was being the assistant youth director at my church in Downtown Atlanta; that was my little flock. I knew the Holy Spirit had put a gift in me to build up the church and that gift was to preach. I knew all those things as I was failing out of one school and very much on my way to failing out of another.
I drive up 75, and I’m telling God how much I love Him, how grateful I am that He’s including me in His work. I’m excited that I’ve figured out that I like being in front of people and can put sentences together because He wired me to build up His church and preach to my generation. We were having an incredible time driving up the road, and it felt like the Lord spoke to me, saying, «You’re excited about going to grad school, right? Getting some theological training?» I said, «Yes, I am!» Then, very calmly, He said, «You know, to go to seminary, you have to have a bachelor’s degree.»
I swerved across all the lanes on 75 to the Windy Hill exit, cutting people off. I didn’t even look in the rearview mirror; I had a word from God. I got off the freeway at Windy Hill, crossed the freeway, got back on 75, drove downtown, went up to the seventh floor of one of the parking garages down there, got out of my car, and walked to the building where my school and my dean were housed. I asked his assistant if I could see him, knowing classes had already been in session for six days; she said, «No chance.» I said, «I’ll sit right there on that sofa and be here until you close this place up.»
Poor lady stared at me for about five hours until, finally, she let me in. I sat down with the dean, and he had my transcript pulled up on his computer. He looked at it, amazed, and looked back at me. I said, «I know, I know, but here’s the thing: my purpose has been off, and my priorities have been out of whack. I need to go to grad school, get this degree, and I’m ready to do whatever it takes to make it happen. Please have mercy on me!»
He took a deep breath and said, «I don’t know what or why, but I’ll get you in class today.» You need to take «X» class, and he didn’t make me go stand in line to put my request into the computer. He wrote me a handwritten note saying I could give this to the professor, basically saying, «Let this guy in. I know you’ve already had a week of class, but I think he’ll be able to figure it out.» From that moment, it isn’t a big bragging point; it just shows how God works.
In the next year, since we were on quarters, I did two and a half years of college in one year. In the last quarter, the summer quarter, I took seven classes—35 hours—in the summer because they had to hire a professor from Emory to teach me my last class in Greek; no one was teaching that summer. God was getting involved in every way, saying, «I’m going to help you do this.»
The point I’m trying to make is that my priorities changed. Everything I cared about aligned in one place, and when that happened, my priorities shifted. There were a lot of things I missed out on that summer, but going to class seven times a day five days a week wasn’t one of them. I still played softball with Andy Stanley and a few buddies; we called our team «Bachelors till the Rapture,» praise God it wasn’t a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A lot of other things fell by the wayside, but it didn’t mean I missed out on all of them. Most of those Thursday night softball games were played just up the street at Morningside Baptist Church, but a lot of other things got readjusted. Why? Because my priorities shifted.
I believe today, in the few minutes we have together, God wants to talk to us about our priorities. Understanding that many things are required, perhaps some of them can be modified. We all have desires and purposes, some of which are good, and some are okay. There are also things God doesn’t care if they fall by the wayside, but the main point is that you and I need to understand our purpose and whether it is reflected in our priorities. I encourage you to think about this not just on a 2023 scale, but on a «23» scale.
What do you mean by that? Don’t get too hung up. Unless you need to, don’t stress about that; some of you might be planners thinking about 2025, and God bless you. If you need a 2023 plan, a word for the year, and an overarching arc to follow all year long, then dive into that. But I believe for most of us, where God wants to bring power today is not in His plan for you in 2023, but in His plan for you on «23,» which is tomorrow, January 23rd.
What will be the priority of your day tomorrow? Not what the big goals you’ve written for 2023 are; honestly, we have no idea what this year will bring. We don’t know if another world conflict is coming, if a greater economic collapse is on the horizon, or if a significant political shift is about to happen. You don’t know if your company is about to lay off 1,500 people in six days from now either. Yes, the big arcs are fantastic, and God has big plans and goals for us, most of which reside in that purpose zone of life, and they aren’t about whether I’m actually going to make it to Switzerland this year—or not.
I would love to encourage us to think like Jesus did. The text today is simple. Anyone, whether you’ve been in church or not, knows it, but God is underscoring the point so you can walk away today realizing it’s not just someone trying to recap a New Year’s resolution for our church; it’s actually the way of Jesus. He says in Matthew 6:25, «Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.»
We think these are modern, Western concerns, but people have worried about these things for a while. «Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?»
Now, we all feel like we can by worrying. That’s the issue—we’re world-class warriors trying to do this very thing. He helps us understand, «Why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow; they do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon, in all his splendor, was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and gone tomorrow, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?»
How many times does He need to say this in one paragraph? He asks, «What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear?» The pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. «But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.» That word, «His righteousness,» probably means «His Divine approval.» Seek first His kingdom—what is God doing—and seek to move into things that you know have divine approval on them.
He states, «In all these things, they will be given to you as well.» There is nothing wrong with food, clothing, or traveling to Switzerland. It’s fine for you to seek those things; just don’t prioritize them in such a way that they overshadow the purposes of God and consequently overwhelm you with worry about how you will manage everything. He says we should seek His things first, and in doing so, everything else will be added to you. Therefore, He tells us one more time, «Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.»
In other words, could it be that God wants us not to overwhelm ourselves with a whole year’s worth of plans but instead prioritize rightly today? The goal of this talk, again, isn’t to be prescriptive but to encourage you to consider making a priority in 2023—or for January 23—that you desire to navigate this natural world with a supernatural mindset.
That could be your priority: to navigate the natural world with a supernatural mindset. People might ask what your word for the year is, and you could say, «I don’t have one yet.» What are your big goals for the year? «Not really sure.» What about your New Year’s resolutions? «I don’t have any.» But you know that when you wake up tomorrow, you want to make it a priority to navigate the natural world with a supernatural mindset.
In other words, you want to elevate your attention towards the kingdom of God more than the kingdom of man, the kingdom of the here-and-now, or the kingdom of you. You want to elevate your attention to the kingdom of God and navigate your job, school, friends, to-do list, requirements, desires, and creative purposes with that mindset.
Why should you do that? Because you exist in the supernatural! Let’s look at a couple of quick things. In Ephesians 2, we find a well-known text about how we’re saved by grace through faith. Verse 4 states, «But God, 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.»
But here’s the kicker: «And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace expressed in His kindness to us.» In other words, when you got saved, you didn’t just get a name transfer from not going to heaven to going to heaven. You also didn’t just navigate the natural world however you could, waiting for the time when you’d go to a supernatural world. No, you were joined with Christ, raised spiritually with Him, seated with Him at the right hand of God in heaven! This is your current spiritual position; you’re already placed in the supernatural realm.
Then, he would say in another letter, a few pages over in Colossians 3:1, «Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.» Here’s the mind-boggling part: «When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory.»
In other words, when He returns, I’ll be right there with Him! I won’t be going, «Where is He? Oh, I hope He makes it!» Instead, I’ll simply be saying, «I’m with Him!» Why? Because I’ve already been spiritually joined to Him, elevated to a supernatural reality. So I have some time left to experience the natural world.
But I’m not a part of it; I’m part of a supernatural world. So, tomorrow on January 23, you could say, «I want to navigate the natural world with a supernatural mindset. I’ll find my Father, feed my soul, follow the Spirit, and fulfill Kingdom assignments.» Does that mean you are just a worker—a cog in the wheel of God’s plan? No, it does not.
He found Moses with a plan, found Samuel while he was sleeping in the temple with a plan, found Paul on a horse riding up to Damascus. God finds us with assignments, which might involve someone’s cat. But you’ll never know if you’re not already thinking that part of your priority today is to fulfill Kingdom assignments. I’m not just trying to run errands.
When you’re at the grocery store, you may notice someone looking at pasta. Maybe you need to ask, «Is there anything I can pray for you about?» I know that sounds random and weird, but if it is, just tell me, and I’ll go back to the canned goods. If they say, «You’re kind of weird,» you can say, «Have a great day,» but they might say, «My daughter,» and you might then say, «Okay, what’s her name? I’ll be praying for her.»
Now, not only will I pray for her, but my family will pray for her too; my small group will be praying. I prayed for a guy at the checkout counter a few weeks ago; He said, «Will you pray for me right now?» I said, «Absolutely!» I prayed for my new friend with my eyes open, trying not to look too weird. But he didn’t care; he bowed his head. We prayed right there about his cat having surgery.
If it comes back, he couldn’t afford the second surgery and would have to put it to sleep. I want to care, and I want you to know that God cares about your situation. Imagine if that’s how people find their way back to God. You might say, «What if the cat dies?» I know that’s a risk, but I’m willing to take it.
Let’s frame tomorrow—not 2023, just January 23—by navigating the natural world with a supernatural mindset. Tomorrow, I want to find my Father, feed my soul, follow the Spirit, and fulfill Kingdom assignments. Does that mean you’ll be just a worker in God’s plan? No! You’re a child of the King!
There’s no need for extra lists or pressure; you don’t need more. Just wake up tomorrow and prioritize finding your Father, nurturing your soul, and following the Spirit’s leading. That is how we successfully navigate the natural world with a supernatural mindset!