Louie Giglio - Fully Furnished, Fully Finished (09/22/2025)
You know, Shelly and I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to be in Milan, Italy, and when you’re in Milan, of course, you want to see The Last Supper if you can. It’s the toughest ticket, they say, in Italy, and maybe one of the toughest tickets in Europe. But Shelly had thought ahead, and we had tickets to go see it. Only about 20 people at a time in 15-minute increments could get into the convent at Santa Maria delle Grazie.
Now, that sounded almost a little Italian at the end right there! We were waiting for the doors to open to go into what was a refectory back in the day when this painting was created. There’s one giant painting of the crucifixion on the wall to your left as you walk in, and then The Last Supper is painted on the wall down to the right. I think here’s just a shot looking down as we were leaving. It’s kind of amazing to be standing there alone with this painting, started in 1495 and finished in 1498 by Leonardo da Vinci. Here we were, just looking up at something that means a lot to us in our journey. Obviously, this is the original; lots of different replicas have been made of this painting over time.
When we moved into the above of this building in our early days at Passion City Church, moving around the city from venue to venue, God finally provided an old retail shop that had closed down, gone out of business, had a chain-link fence around it, and God said, «Hey, this place at 515 Garson Drive is going to be your home.» We were like, «Okay, awesome!» So we started laying out the plans to convert the building and ultimately knew this would be the auditorium. We began thinking through what we wanted it to be like, and we knew that in our first permanent home, our permanent gathering spot for our church, we wanted to be looking at this moment. Most of you know who come to 5:15, but you Cumberland folks and DC folks may not have been here. Trilla folks might not have been in this building before, but right there in clear view of everyone who leads from this platform at this location is The Last Supper.
For us, it’s a picture of Jesus serving humanity—a picture of Jesus serving you and me. This moment captured by Leonardo da Vinci occurs at the very instance where Jesus put his hand on the table, and Judas put his hand at the same time. This is what da Vinci was capturing and portraying in this painting. I’m even looking at it right now. Here’s Jesus at the Thursday night supper; it’s The Last Supper. We’ll see why it’s called that in just a moment. Here He is reclining at a table, sharing a meal with His closest followers, knowing that in 12 hours, He’s going to be on the cross. He’s sharing a meal; the table is prepared, and in 12 hours, He knows He’s going to be nailed to a cross for the sins of the world.
This is the above and beyond. She just dropped in today; this is our generosity Sunday. This is the moment in the year where our house gives above what we normally give so that our church can go beyond where we normally go. It’s all about a response to what God has done for us. It’s a response to someone reclining at a table, sharing a meal, and His life with His friends, knowing that within hours He’s going to do the one thing that only God can do—that is to make a way for you and for me.
The text today is in Luke chapter 22. If you have your scripture, I’d love for us just to read it together. It says, in some of the Gospel accounts and the little header between the paragraphs, it’s the Lord’s Supper. But Luke, in the little text in between the paragraphs, says, «It’s The Last Supper.» In my translation, verse 7, «Then came the day of unleavened bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, 'Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.' 'Where do you want us to prepare for it? ' they asked. He replied, 'As you enter the city, a man carrying a water jar will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters and say to the owner of the house, „The teacher asks, 'Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? '"' He, the owner, will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there.' They left and found things just as Jesus had told them, so they prepared the Passover. When the hour came, Jesus and His apostles reclined at the table. He said to them, 'I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.' After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, 'Take this and divide it among you, for I tell you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.' He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after the supper, He took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.' They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.»
So, it was Passover. Now, I know a lot of us are way into the story of faith, and we understand the significance of this moment. But just as you might go back in your story to that certain restaurant or that special place to highlight an anniversary, a significant occasion in your life—in marriage, a birthday, or some anniversary moment—you say, «You know what? We’re going to go back to that spot because that spot has all the meaning wrapped up in it.» So, it’s no coincidence that it’s this night, this Thursday night, where Passover is going to be observed. What’s being observed? What’s being observed is that this would be the night that the Passover Lamb was slain.
For 430 years, the Israelites were in Egypt, captive in a foreign land, but God had decided that it was time for their deliverance. Moses had been appointed to lead them out of Egypt and to the promised land, but Pharaoh wasn’t having it. So, God began to put pressure on Pharaoh through the plagues that came. Even though the plagues were awful, Pharaoh’s heart was really hardened, and he was like, «No way, no way, no way, no way, no way, no way,» until the last plague.
On the last plague, the angel of death came through Egypt, and God told His people, «You’ve got to be prepared. You have to be ready. You need to get a spotless lamb and sacrifice that lamb. You need to take a branch of hyssop, dip it in the blood, and put the blood on the doorpost and over the top of the door. As the angel of death comes through to take the firstborn among all the land, he will pass over when he sees the blood on the doorway, knowing to move on from this home where your lives will be spared.» They did this, and the angel of death did come. It was a terrible night of mourning throughout the land, and Pharaoh’s heart turned as he said, «Go.» From that moment on, the Israelites had remembered the Passover, remembered the Passover Lamb, and remembered the blood on the doorpost, which was a sign of the grace of God to spare their lives from death.
On this night, the night that we remember the Passover Lamb, Jesus asks His followers, «Are you ready to prepare the Passover meal?» They say, «Well, we don’t know where to prepare it,» and He gives them instructions. They go and meet this man, ask him if he has a space, and he provides a space for them. Here they are, reclining at the table, and Jesus seizes the moment to say, «This is it, guys! This is going to be the final Passover. It is The Last Supper in that instance because it’s the last time that anyone’s going to have to celebrate an actual lamb that was slain. Now, the Lamb of God is going to be given for the sins of the world, and it’s the last time,» Jesus said, «that any Passover is going to be celebrated until we fast-forward into the future kingdom of God where we’re all gathered around the Throne of God and the Lamb, singing, 'Glory to God in the highest.'»
He said, «In that moment, we will celebrate again, but from now until then, we’re in between two meals. And in between the two meals, I want you to know that my blood is put over the doorpost of your heart if you put faith in me. It’s my blood that’s put across the beam of your life. It is my blood that signifies that when the wrath of God comes and when death comes, it will pass over you—not because of your merit, not because of your name that’s on the door, not because of your accomplishments on display, but it will pass by you because of the blood of the Spotless Lamb of God given for you. This is a new covenant,» Jesus said, «in my blood. It’s a new agreement. This is a new deal. This is a new way to God. This is grace, God doing what we cannot do. What started then is finished now. This is the final Passover Lamb.»
When John saw Jesus coming to the Jordan River to be baptized, what did he say? He said, «Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!» So, Jesus is reclining at the table, knowing who He is, knowing what He’s come to do, knowing what He’s come to offer. So, when He takes the unleavened bread and breaks it, He says, «This is my body.» And when He lifts up the cup, He says, «And this is my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.»
I love the instructions and how this all played out. It really, to me, is the above and beyond—literally it’s the above because it was an upper room, and it’s the beyond where Jesus says, «I’m going to do what no one else can do.» It is the above and beyond in this moment. But I love the owner. I don’t know anything about him; we don’t know the backstory. We just know that a guy with a water jar goes into the house, and the two disciples follow him. They say to the owner, «The teacher is asking if you have a guest room where he can have the Passover meal with his disciples.» The owner says, «Oh, yeah, I’ve got an incredible room! I have a large upper room, and it’s already fully furnished. I’ve got spacious enough space, so you’ll have privacy. Really, actually, the best spot in the place, and it’s already furnished, so you don’t have to do anything. Just roll in; it’s ready for you right now.»
No questions asked. No «How long are you guys going to be there?» No «Are you thinking that maybe you can pay the cleaning fee?» Just, «Yes, I have a large upper room, and it’s already furnished.» That’s what above and beyond is really all about! I love how this person’s generosity writes them into the story of God. We talk about this all the time—this person’s «yes» writes them into the story of God. You’re like, «Well, we don’t know who they are.» Well, we’ll find out in heaven, «Oh, you’re the upper room guy?» Wow, crazy! You know, this is amazing that you’re in the story of God just because you said yes! Generosity writes us into the story of God.
And that’s what we’re doing today—we want to be in the story of God! When we give today, what we’re doing is saying we want to provide large upper rooms that are fully furnished so when people walk into them, they can experience what God has for them and have their lives changed and transformed for the glory of God. We don’t want to get to the moment and say, «Man, what do you need? Oh, I’m sorry, we thought about building a guest room, but we didn’t really get around to that,» or, «We have a little guest room, but it’s really small,» and, «I’m sorry, but we really don’t have any carpeting, and there’s nothing to eat in there.» No! We want to be able to say we were ready for you. Whatever the opportunity comes, we’re ready for you.
That’s what building a church and leading a church is really all about; it’s about placemaking. You’re like, «No, it’s about disciple-making.» It is about disciple-making, but typically, you make disciples in a place, whether that’s around a table or in a living room. There’s still a place for disciple-making to happen. We’re making places. For a while, the Howard Theater has been our place, and I’m telling you, the team in DC has done a phenomenal job of turning the Howard Theater from Saturday night whatever into a place that people can walk in and experience the life-changing power and the glory of heaven on a Sunday morning. Year after year, week after week, month after month, that team shows up at the crack of dawn to make a place for people to walk through the door in the heart of our nation’s capital and experience life change and transformation. That’s what we do! The Howard Theater is transformed into an upper room.
It’s not super large, but it’s big enough for us to fit people in. That’s what’s happening at Trilla right now—we’re making a place. Yes, we’re not building studios; we’re not building Trilla town or the town at Trilla, but we’re making a place for people who are in the vicinity of what’s happening there to come and worship God. That’s what’s happening at Cumberland, and that’s what’s been happening here since the moment we put the replica of this painting on the back wall at 5:15. It’s about making places. Just a few examples of that. We’ve talked about several of them over the last few weeks, but I want to mention Core just for a moment. Has anybody taken a Core class that’s in this gathering right now? Okay, thank you so much, front row people with their Bibles out! Of course, you’ve been to Core. I love it! Core for us was a beautiful opportunity in the midst of the pandemic. As our team was shifting in 2020, we weren’t doing gatherings on the weekends for a good chunk of time. We were able to reallocate some of our work, resources, and brainpower to create Core, which is just practical theological discipleship through classes that we offer for free through Passion City Church. We started offering those in the fall of 2020, and we’ve just come through this summer of our 17th and 18th offerings of classes.
Check this out: since the fall of 2020, we have offered 69 unique course opportunities in Atlanta and DC. So, 69 classes have been offered across our house, and 16,000 classes have been attended. That’s a lot of people in every one of those 69 classes! Just this summer, we passed 4,500 unique people who have been in a Core class at Passion City Church. Now, it’s not a building, and it’s not, «Oh my goodness, it’s a new thing!» That kind of captures our attention. But to me, it’s the heart of what we’re about because it’s building people’s faith, building their understanding of scripture, building their understanding of the story and the narrative of God, building their understanding of the gospels, understanding who Jesus is, and understanding core values of theology, world missions, biblical finance, and on and on and on.
And here’s the thing about it: it’s all free! How? Because we provided a beautiful, large upper room that was fully furnished so that people could walk in and experience life change and transformation. One of the images that came by is this image from one of the spaces at Cumberland. I’m not sure if we have a bigger shot; this is a space we call Ventanas, a multifunction room on one of the top floors of the existing building we renovated at Cumberland. We’ve done so many different kinds of things in this room over the few years since we’ve moved into this building. But I just love the fact that the room is the Beyond; it is literally an upper room on the third floor of the building at Cumberland, and it is beautifully furnished. It’s able to be a place where disciples can be made. All of that in that picture—the room, the building, the furnishings, and the Core class being taught—is all the Beyond of a Sunday just like the one we’re sitting in right now.
It didn’t just happen. People said, «I want to prepare the upper room.» I love that we were talking about Trilla just a moment ago. We’ve talked about this a lot, but there’s a new building coming out of the ground at Trilla, and it’s pretty exciting to see what God is doing there! We’ve got an image of what’s happening down there. This is real time in the building. Under the split above the white pickup truck—kind of in the distance—that’s where you guys are sitting right now. You Trilla people know that. But the building right above the pickup truck is where Passion City Church is meeting right at this moment, and the building to the right, the sound stage to the right, is also used by us. Up the hill in Rome is where the kids are meeting right now.
Just across the parking lot from where we’re meeting, this is Trilla Live coming up out of the ground, and we’ve got a little fly-through just so that you can see what’s happening there. This Trilla Live complex has TV studios, movie theaters, but as you come in and turn to the right, you come into this 1,800-seat theater performing arts center. That’s going to be the home of Passion City Church, Lord willing, Sunday by Sunday, and it’s going to be a stunning building. It’ll also be open to the community; there’ll be all kinds of different activities. When you go down the stairs in this Trilla Live building, that’s where Passion City Church is located!
Just these renderings! You can see what’s going on; the Bloom check-in is over here to the right, and as we come back around the other side, there’s space for Passion Kids, middle school space, high school space, multifunction space, and all of this just to give you a snapshot of what’s happening. But here’s the beautiful thing about Trilla: we’re not building the whole building! Praise God! That’s in God’s above and beyond! Some other people are building the whole building, and they’re building all of this out for us. Our role in it is going to be to fit out everything on the level you’re seeing right now. That’s called FFNE. If you’ve done any construction in your life, you know that already! But all the costs for actually fitting out that second layer—that’s our opportunity to be a part of what God is already miraculously doing by building an auditorium performing arts center that we are not building but that we get to be the tenants of and to use!
Someone is building this entire complex that we’re going to be in at Trilla, and I’m telling you, it’s a lower room at Trilla, but same idea: we’re providing a space that families are going to walk into in the future, not really knowing about this moment and today, and they’re going to drop off a precious child or a middle school student at Trilla Live, and their lives are going to be changed. They’re not going to really ask that day, «I wonder how all this happened?» But you’re going to know and I’m going to know—we’re going to know because we were in the above so that Passion City Church could go beyond! We were creating the upper room, fully furnished, ready to be occupied by people’s lives meeting Jesus and being changed.
Ben shared, when he was speaking a few weeks ago, about the new opportunity that’s come to us in DC. We’re so excited about it! We’ve been praying about space in DC really from day one. We’ve looked at every kind of venue in DC you can imagine—from an old warehouse to can we convert that into something—to an old church that’s up for sale—can we somehow convert that into something we can use? To an empty space—can we build something on that spot? Here’s a better theater than the Howard Theater! I’m probably not supposed to say that. Better only in the sense that it’s bigger, has more space, and maybe is a little more functional and updated.
We’ve been praying and knocking on doors like crazy, and finally, the door opened! Recently, we’ve signed two leases in DC. One of them is on the Lincoln Theater, so we’ll be thanking the Howard for our years of partnership with them. It’s been incredible for us to be in that space. But moving on to the Lincoln Theater, as you can see in the picture above, it’s right there under the arrow that says Lincoln Theater! But here’s the cool thing: this is on U Street, by the way, a really bustling street today in DC. Lots of brunch happening on U Street; a lot of buzz happening on U Street today. It’s where you want to be in DC on a Sunday! But down at the other end of the street, on the corner at 1201 U Street, this three-story building has become available. The businesses in it all went out of business, and we are signing a lease on that building and starting renovations so that’s where families will drop their kids off for Bloom, where Passion Kids will happen, and there’ll be some office space and multifunction space there for Passion City Church DC!
So this is the beyond that we’ve been praying for. The Lincoln Theater is multiple times bigger than the Howard, so in one gathering at the Lincoln Theater, we can have all the people who’ve been coming through the Howard Theater. There’s a lot of room to grow there, and there are a lot of other benefits to being in the Lincoln as well. The team there is thrilled; they’ve been praying, God has finally answered, and now this renovation process begins! How is all that going to work? Well, we didn’t know we were going to sign these leases right here and right now! We didn’t know on this day this is finally going to become available! On this day is when they’re going to say yes! On this day is when the door is going to open! So how are we going to do all of that?
Well, we’re going to do all of that because, in a previous day, people in our house have said, «I want to give above so that we can go beyond. I want to go ahead and provide the upper room so that we can go beyond.» There are going to be more opportunities like that this year. There are going to be more moments where doors open, more moments where people come to us and say, «If we build this building, would you guys like the bottom floor of it?» More moments where people say, «We’re going to take a step here, and now you have an opportunity.» We want to be ready in that moment when the teacher asks to say, «We’ve got a guest room! It’s a large upper room, and it’s fully furnished! We’re prepared ahead of time for what God wants to do.»
That is the spirit of the above and beyond, and I want to invest in it today because I know that I’m on my way to the next supper! There was a Last Supper where Jesus said, «I’m not going to partake of this again until everything is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.» What did He mean by that? He meant what we read in the very end of the story when we turn to the last pages of scripture in Revelation 19, where we see the hallelujahs! In verse 6, «Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord God Almighty reigns! Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! ' For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride—that’s us, the church—has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.»
Then the angel said to me, «Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.» He added, «These are the true words of God.» Jesus knew when He sat at that table that He was just hours away from the worst Friday of all time, but He also knew that He was coming back. He’d already told His followers, «I’m going to rise from the dead.» He also knew there was another day coming, and He knew the final day that was coming was the day where the church was gathered with Him in glory at another supper, at another table where there is no more sacrifice, just celebration of what God has done.
We are in between the Last Supper and the next supper, and in between is where we have the moment to invest in the kingdom that never ends. That is what we’re inviting you to today. Today’s not about giving to Passion City Church; it’s not about filling out a card or putting something in an envelope. Today is really about investing in the kingdom that lasts forever! I love this: you don’t have to give to Passion City Church to come to Passion City Church; you don’t have to! But you do have to give to be a follower of Jesus. That’s not how you become a follower of Jesus, but as a follower of Jesus, He says, «Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven.»
As a follower of Jesus, He says, «Don’t put all your eggs in this basket, and don’t keep building bigger barns, because there’s a day coming when your life is required of you, when your soul is required of you.» To follow Jesus, you’ve got to be generous! To follow Jesus, you have to invest in eternity! To follow Jesus, you’ve got to be a giver into the kingdom of God—not to come to this church, but to follow the Savior.
So, if you’re a Jesus follower today, and you don’t want to give to Passion City Church, okay, but you’ve got to give somewhere! You’ve got to invest somewhere! So find somewhere where you can invest into things that last forever. I am on my way to the marriage supper of the Lamb. I am going to a feast in heaven. I am going to sit at the table with the King of Kings. I want to make sure I’ve invested by providing as many upper rooms as I can for people to meet Jesus and have their lives transformed by Him.