Louie Giglio - Sleep In Heavenly Peace
The question today is: how did you sleep last night? Terrible? Terrible. Okay. I’m so sorry. Hopefully, this will be a game-changing, life-changing message for you and for all of us who are struggling to sleep a little bit better. When we’re singing this well-known Christmas hymn, we get to the end of the first verse, which says:
Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright,
Round yon virgin mother and child,
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Now, the crazy thing about this is that there was no peace. We have a teenage girl who has been brought into the story by God’s choosing. She and her husband now must convince everyone in their world that the Holy Spirit has conceived in her a child. These conversations are not easy to have with your friends, family, and neighbors. Not only that, but she has ridden on a donkey to this town, where they’ve got to register with the government, which is in control of the area where they live, and the baby’s coming now in a cave, in a manger. There is no peace in this story.
As soon as the government authorities hear that a king has been born, an edict is declared, and Jesus’s life is under threat from day one. There is no peace. Yet somehow, in this manger is a promise of peace, and I think that’s beautiful today because in most of our stories, there isn’t peace. Oh, there’s some peace, but there are also things that are not peaceful in almost every story. There’s tension at work, there’s tension in our family, there are wars happening on planet Earth, there’s tension in the financial world, and conflict everywhere. But yet, in it all, we’re going to be singing together, «Sleep in heavenly peace.» That is either a great Christmas sentiment, or there’s something in here for us to dig around in today and discover—a miracle, the power of the Spirit of Almighty God.
I want to kick off our Christmas season with a story that probably everyone in this room could almost say from memory:
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, «Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger.» Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared—now we’ve got an angel, and we’ve got a great company of the heavenly host—and they appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, «Glory to God in the highest!» Let’s say that together: «Glory to God in the highest—the highest heaven, and on Earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.» They showed us the main meaning of Christmas, which is the glory of God. No other God is going to send his Son into human flesh; no other God is going to begin a rescue mission for lost rebels; no other God is going to give his very best for our very worst. So Christmas, this manger, this baby, this «sleep in heavenly peace,» is about putting God on display.
Right in the beginning, the first thing we know about Christmas is that there’s going to be the possibility of peace—not peace in the circumstances, but peace in the spirit. God wants to invite you into this during the Advent season—not necessarily a change of all the circumstances, but a change in you. And how do we get peace in the midst of the craziness in the circumstances of our lives? We find that peace by going back 700 years. When you turn back seven centuries, you see the prophet saying, «Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.» The angel came and said, «This will be a sign to you.» The prophet, seven centuries before, said, «This will be a sign to you.» If I were to say that today, that might be encouraging: «Hey, today God’s going to give you a sign!» Watch out! I don’t know if it’s going to be in a friend talking to you, or someone texting you, or a billboard you pass on the side of the road, or a song that you hear. I don’t know where it’s going to come from, but God’s got a sign for you today. And somehow today, something would happen, and you would say, «I think that might be the sign.» But what if I specified the sign? What if I got into the particulars of the sign? The odds would become greater, and the prophecy, if fulfilled, would be pretty amazing. That’s what Isaiah is doing; he’s not just saying God’s going to give you a sign—he says, «Let me tell you about the sign.»
This sign is going to involve a virgin. Let me tell you about this sign: this virgin is going to conceive a child. Let me tell you about this child; this child is going to be born. And let me tell you something else about the child: it’s going to be a boy. And let me tell you something else about this child: they’re going to name him Emmanuel—God with us. Seven hundred years before Jesus is in that manger, a prophecy came from God. There are 300 prophecies in the Old Testament about Jesus—not only that he’s going to be a boy, going to be born to a virgin, and that his name will be Emmanuel, but that he’s going to be born in Bethlehem, how he’s going to live, how he’s going to die, and that someone’s going to sell him out for 30 pieces of silver. All these prophecies have been given over time by God, and now they’re coming to fruition in this manger.
So what is that saying to you, and what is it saying to me? It’s saying, well, the obvious message of Christmas, which we’re going to celebrate, is that a Savior has been born. That is the obvious message of Christmas. And something else about that Savior: he’s not just somebody who gets you to heaven; he is Lord of all. So, we’re not just wanting to trust Jesus to be our Savior because that’s not an option; he’s Savior and Lord. That means we trust him for our salvation to make us right with God, and then we yield to him our lives, our plans, our way, our initiative; we yield to him our desire to be in charge of ourselves. We yield all of that to him.
So, as a footnote in the middle of our message kicking off Advent today, I want to invite you to trust Jesus because he’s Savior and Lord. It’s time for the world to come alive to trust Jesus as Savior and Lord. You hear all these rumblings: is this the end? Is Jesus coming? Is the craziness in our world the final birth pangs, with the whole thing coming to a close? Well, if it is, we need to get out in the streets and proclaim, «If Jesus is coming, do you know him? If Jesus is coming, have you trusted him? If Jesus is coming, are you saved?» We can’t just be stockpiling food; we’ve got to be shining a Savior to the world. The darker the world gets, the brighter the Savior shines. This is the message of Christmas: it is about a Savior and a Lord.
But there’s an overlooked message in Christmas, and it is this: that God has plans that cannot be stopped, and he has plans for you. It’s not just that his plans to save the world were on a 700-year timeline from Isaiah’s prophecy to the moment Jesus was born in that cave; God has plans for you. God created you on purpose, and he created you for a purpose. There is not one accidental person in this room, at Cumberland today, or joining Church online today. Not one accidental person is in this gathering; you were created on purpose, and you were created for a purpose. God has got plans for your life, and what he’s saying in this moment is: find peace in this, that my plans for your life cannot be stopped. This is the beauty of what Christmas is all about.
A few years ago, in 2019, around this time of year, we were on our way to Israel, and it just reminded me of this passage in Isaiah, which talks about God’s faithfulness. He says, «Remember this and keep it in mind; take it to heart. Remember the former things, those of long ago: I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come, and I say: my purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.» This is our God—his plans are going to come to fruition.
So, we’re on a plane, headed to Israel, and while we’re doing that, another plane is on its way to Israel. This plane has taken off from Lawrenceville, Georgia. It’s a small jet, which is a gift to us from some people who helped start Passion City Church. They’re now involved in this crazy idea that our production team had of opening Passion 2020 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium with a flame—a lit lantern, the flame being lit in Jerusalem where Jesus was raised from the dead. We would go to Jerusalem, light a flame near where Jesus was raised from the dead, and bring that flame to Atlanta, Georgia, to Mercedes-Benz Stadium. As we gathered to open Passion 2020, this lantern would come into the stadium, signifying that Jesus is alive, and his light is the light of the world.
Now, that seemed like a pretty good idea, right? But how do you get fire on a plane? We don’t have time to come on a boat. I thought to myself, well, I’m an old guy, and I remember back in the old days of flying when people smoked on planes. Anyone old enough to remember that? The armrests had ashtrays! Imagine that! Now you’ve got to turn your phone on airplane mode; back then, you just lit one up while chatting with a friend. So I thought to myself, you can take fire on a plane, and we figured it out. But to do that, these amazing people had to fly from Lawrenceville, Georgia, to Goose Neck, Canada, to refuel. Then they flew from Goose Neck, Canada, to Rovic, Iceland, to refuel again. They flew from Rovic, Iceland, to Essex, right outside London, England, then from there to Sicily, Katania. Then they flew into Tel Aviv.
Once they got to Tel Aviv, we went to dinner. The pilots were saying, «This is the greatest miracle we’ve ever seen in our lives!» In Lawrenceville, there had been a piece of equipment necessary for radio transmission on international flights, which this plane had not needed before. This somehow had to get there and get switched in, and a lot of complicated things were going on. It wasn’t going to happen, and the whole thing was about to get scrapped until the very last second, when a weather situation came or some kind of clearance that the plane had to take off at this exact time. Minutes before that happened, the issue got worked out, they took off, and there were moments like that throughout the journey.
They leave from Sicily on their way to Tel Aviv, and something about the flight manifest had gotten switched or changed. They were told in the air, «You’re not going to land in Tel Aviv; sorry!» But that all got worked out over the next few hours in the plane. They just kept saying, «This is the biggest miracle we’ve ever been a part of in life. It’s crazy that we are here!» I thought to myself, well, it’s about to get crazier because Camilo and I are going into a cave near where Jesus was raised from the dead, and we’re going to light a lantern. We had a couple of backup lanterns, so we had a whole thing of six lanterns lit, and they had to get back on their plane. But we worked it out; we had a contact, and finally at the last minute, we got permission to do it from people way up in the system.
But when the people got to the airplane with the flames, the person who was the one person that knew we could take these things on this plane wasn’t at work that day for some personal reason. So they said, «No go. Not happening. Those aren’t going on that plane; I’m sorry. It’s not going to work.» Then God just stepped in again, and a connection happened, and a miracle occurred, and the flames went on the plane. The plane took off and flew to Athens, Greece. It went back to London, then to Rovic. This time it flew into Teterboro, New York City. The flame went to Times Square, then the flame came to Atlanta to Lawrenceville, and then the flame came to this building.
From that flame lit in a cave near where Jesus was raised from the dead, all of the flames for Christmas Eve were kindled. Then the young adults of Passion City Church took that flame out the door and marched it down the streets of Atlanta to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and through the tunnel, out into the middle of the stadium. The flame was taken up onto a pedestal amidst 60,000 people to say, «Jesus is the light of the world!»
A few days ago, I was thinking about how right about now in 2019, I was getting on a plane to go to Israel to be part of this miraculous journey. It just hit me: what kind of journey did you have to take if you’re the Son of God, coming into a manger? How many miracles have to happen? How many connections have to take place? How many «there’s no way that can happen» moments have to occur for the Son of God, the creator of the cosmos, to get into a human body and then into a teenager’s womb—to journey on Earth for nine months in her womb and then to be laid down in a trough in Bethlehem?
How long does it take to make that journey? When the scripture says Jesus didn’t count equality with God as something to be grasped, but he emptied himself—how long does it take to empty oneself of God? God has plans that cannot be stopped, and he has plans for you. He wants you to come to Christmas this year and think about the miracle it is. He wants you to find peace in your spirit. If you can do that, then I’m going to trust you, and I’m going to trust your plans for my life.
I don’t know if you’ve seen this graph or not; it popped up in my social media feed a few weeks ago, and it seems to come every day. It’s a little boy who got a very special role in the Christmas Story play. Did you see that kid? Some of you are not on social media; you’re like, «I don’t know, don’t care.» But hello, if you’re a door holder at Passion City Church, you were probably fired up! And if you were a door holder leader, it’s probably in your DMs right now from about 50 people. It’s all up in our world. I get texts about it every hour! Somebody is sending me this little kid! If you don’t know, the little kid is fired up and got a very important role in the Christmas play.
His mom is asking the kid, «Are you Jesus?» «No.» «Are you Joseph?» «No.» «Are you one of the wise men?» «No.» «Well, what are you then?» «I’m door holder number three!» It’s far about being a door holder! I was like, «Thank you, Lord, for underscoring our value of serving people through this little boy!»
But the other thing that’s been in my feed a lot, which is kind of crazy, is this graph, and if you’ve seen it, you probably read the caption—you can kind of understand what it is. If not, this was the attempt of a pastor and a computer science genius who spent years visualizing the cross-references in the Bible. What’s a cross-reference? Well, those little letters in the footnotes of Scripture show you that there’s another verse somewhere in the Bible connected to this thought—like one of those would be Isaiah 7 going over to the Christmas story where they called his name Emmanuel. There would be a little footnote here saying the Emmanuel thing appears over here in Scripture.
In the Bible, there are 6,779 cross-references, and these guys visualized that. Beginning on one end is Genesis, and the little bars are all the chapters of the Bible—not the books, but the chapters. They’re shaded by book, and the short bars are short chapters while the longer ones are longer chapters. You can tell the longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119. Then all of the arcs are the connecting points, colored by how far away they are in the timeline of Scripture.
I’ve just been mesmerized by the overwhelming picture of the plans and handiwork of a God who is weaving together not only a story, but weaving together lives and weaving together his plans. I thought if God can do that, then surely God has got me. It would be one thing if there was only one human author of the Bible—you would say, «Okay, I see how the cross-references work because the author was thinking the whole time, 'I’m going to bring this back in at chapter nine, and I’m going to bring this back in after this happens, and I’m going to bring this character back in at this point.'»
But the Bible’s written by 40 people over 1,500 years, writing on three continents, and you get 6,779 cross-references! You can trust this book, especially when you realize it has one author—his name is the Holy Spirit of God. Through human instruments, he wrote this story, and that’s why it’s woven together. God knows the beginning and the end, from the oldest times to what is still to come, and he says, «My plans will come true, and I will do everything that I please.»
What he wants you to know this Advent season is that he’s got cross-references all over the place in your story happening right now. There are people, places, circumstances, and situations that God is working out right now. You can sleep in heavenly peace; God’s got you! You might say, «Well, that sounds great, Louie, but I just have diversions in my story right now. Thank you very much for your beautiful graph and all the sweet encouragement. We’ve got, excuse me, death in our story.»
Somebody’s dealing with distractions. You’ve got a big decision looming. Somebody’s gotten dinged by life a little bit. Someone’s feeling deflated; somebody’s in a desert, desperate. God is cross-referencing the story right now. I’m thinking about Passion 2020 and dialing all the way back to Passion '97, where this whole thing got started. Shelley and I and some of our team were in Austin, Texas, this week, praying for Passion 2024. The reason we were in Austin is that people were coming from all across the country. It was good to centrally meet there, but it was beautiful because Passion started in the Austin Convention Center in January 1997 with 2,000 college students. We were trusting that people were going to show up because God had given us this vision and said, «Go. This is what I want you to do.»
We were standing outside the Austin Convention Center, remembering the faithfulness of God, telling stories about those first days of Passion, not having any idea when we walked into the Austin Convention Center that we were going to be here right now, talking about Passion 2024 in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. We had no clue that that was the plan. I was reminiscing that when we walked in the doors to Passion 1997, I was 39 years old. You’re like, «What difference does that make?» Because this has been our life’s work; this has been our high calling. This has been what God put us on Earth to steward, and we didn’t know that at 22, 28, 30, or 35. I was 39 years old, almost 40—bumping into 40 a few months later—and now the life’s work is unfolding, but we didn’t know it at the time.
We just thought we were supposed to do this gathering. We had no idea this gathering was going to springboard into a bunch of other gatherings, and then at some point, from the DNA of that movement, Passion City Church was born. At our first gathering at the Tabernacle, a few of you were probably there—the doors were open to whoever wanted to come and be part of this local church, this expression of passion, and a community and family. When we walked into the Tabernacle that night, I was 51 years old. I had never pastored a local church before until I was 51.
Like, «I’m sorry, Lou, what’s the point?» The point I was trying to make this Friday at Liberty University to about 10,000 college students is that it’s hard for them to feel a sense of peace and rest, hearing an old guy talk about his stories. But I was just saying to them, «How old are you? What, you’re 20, and you’re stressed out because you haven’t figured it out? What, you’re 22, you’re graduating, and you’re freaking out? You’ve got sleepless nights because you haven’t figured it out? What if God were to tell you today, 'Your life’s work’s not coming for 19 more years! Chill out! '»
What if God broke in today and told you, «You’re going to start a significant chapter of your life at 51 years of age and do something for the first time that you’ve never done»? You’ve got 30 years to go. Chill out! Yeah, I know, but I don’t know if I want to take this internship or go to grad school; I’m not sure. I have to make a decision here, and I need the plan. Listen, I hate to break it to you, but I think you figured it out already: God’s not giving you the plan. A: you wouldn’t like it. True story. B: there’s stuff in it that you don’t want to be a part of, so you’d start trying to negotiate that on day one.
It’s confusing; some of it’s surprising. God isn’t going to give you the plan; he never promised you that. He has a plan, but he’s not giving it to you. You might say, «Well, that sounds terrible and mean.» No, that is a loving God because there would be no sleeping in heavenly peace if he gave you the whole plan.
Sleeping in heavenly peace comes from taking hold of his hand; «For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand.» We have a tendency to want to edit God’s word, so we’d probably edit this: «For I am the Lord your God who gives you the plan.» He says, «No, I’m not going to do that, but I will do this: I am willing and would love to take hold of your hand and say to you, just like the angel is going to say to the shepherds, 'Do not fear, ' and I would like to assure you I will help you.» God knows if he gives us the plan, we’re gone.
What he primarily created us for is a relationship with him, so he says, «Take my hand.» Can we just get an amen for that today? It’s kind of quiet in the room, but Yahweh, the immortal one, is reaching out his hand, and we’re saying, «That’s great, but the plan—could you help me with the plan?» He’s like, «I’m holding out my hand; just take hold of my hand.» You’re like, «But I’m afraid I’m going to make the wrong decision!»
You know, this talk is great, but it’s so impractical. I have to let him know by next Friday! I need the plan by next Friday! No, you don’t. You need the hand by next Friday! You’re thinking that’s impractical—this isn’t helping me! What if God said, «Internship, grad school—choose whichever one you’re really feeling!» It’s got to be more complicated than that! «What if the guy I’m supposed to marry is in the internship, and I go to grad school and miss him? Then I have to marry some second-rate dude; that wasn’t the guy for me! What if this guy is a veterinarian and I love animals, and we’re supposed to live on a farm, as his family has property in West Virginia, but I married this guy who has a snow cone stand?»
You think a God who’s got 6,779 cross-references in Scripture is going to let you mess up your entire purposed story because you chose the internship and not grad school?
Here’s where the peace comes: it comes not only by asking smart people, not only by making a wise decision, not only by praying about it and getting into God’s word and getting good counsel and all of that. At the end of the day, I made a decision, and when I made a decision, guess what? I was holding on to the hand of Yahweh.
So, my story now is: I don’t know yet if I’m going to go to the internship or to grad school; I don’t know. But I’ll tell you one thing: wherever I go, I’m going to be holding the hand of Yahweh when I get there. There are a lot of people I’ve watched over my lifetime agonize over decisions, choose the deal, and they got there without the hand of Yahweh. They’re thinking, «I think I made the right decision,» and I say, «It doesn’t matter if you made the right decision because you’re not in relationship with Yahweh.»
So go to the internship; it doesn’t matter! God’s purpose for your life wasn’t to make the right decision about the internship or grad school; it was to hold the hand of Almighty God and say, «I’m going to take the next step with you. I’m going to walk with you. I want to do the internship with you. I’m going through the grad school program with you!»
I don’t need the plan, but I do need the hand of Almighty God. And when I take hold of that hand, I find the heavenly peace, knowing that if I simply trust God, the rest will come. The rest will come; the heavenly peace will come. God’s got a plan, and he’s working on it right now, and he’s got a hand that he’s extending to you, saying, «Come, walk with me.»