Louie Giglio - The Glorious View from the Above + Beyond
The main thing I want to do today in setting up our journey to above and beyond is to not ask for anything except that God would give each one of us a revelation sight to see what God has already done above and beyond for us. Our giving has got to be a response; if it isn’t, it’s obligation, and it doesn’t matter to God. Ultimately, it won’t benefit you either. In other words, if we’re just giving because we have to, that is not going to bless God, and ultimately it’s not going to bless you, either. The kind of giving that God loves—and really the only kind of giving that God requires—is giving in response to what He has already given to us. We are not the first movers in the above and beyond season; we are coming to a God who has already gone above and beyond for each one of us.
I’m reading today from the book of Hebrews in the last chapter, and there’s one of the most powerful passages on worship in this chapter—maybe my two favorite verses on worship in all of Scripture. He says in verse 15 of Hebrews 13, «Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.» That’s why we’re here to worship today; we want to do that. We want to continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise. He describes what that is: there are three components to it. He says it is the fruit of lips that confess His name, and we’ve done that already today corporately. «And do not forget to do good.» That’s one of the ways we praise Him. «And to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.» The fruit of our lips, doing good, and sharing with others—this is the worship that God is looking for.
I’m telling you, we have people praying for this gathering right now. In fact, there are people in this gathering praying for you right now. You’re like, «What?» Yes, there are people who are committed to this moment at Cumberland, and they are in the room right now. Throughout the whole gathering, they’re just praying for you. One of the things we’re praying for all of our locations today is that there will be a spirit of worship in our house—not just songs sung, but a spirit of worship. What Jeff was talking about here at 5:15 earlier is that there would be a response in gratitude to God, and that this place would resound with worship. Not just from some people, but that everybody would lean in to respond to who God is, and we would give Him praise. The praise that He wants from us is the fruit of our lips, telling Him how great He is and praising His name. He wants us to do good, and He wants us to share with others. So above and beyond is really simply this, expressed through our lives.
All of this is set up by some of the most powerful thoughts. Notice verse 11. The writer of Hebrews is comparing the old temple in Jerusalem and the old way of sacrifice to what Jesus has done. Notice what he says in verse 11: «The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp.» There has been a tradition you can read all the way back into the Old Testament that all of the impurity happens outside the camp, and that mindset has remained all the way up until temple times in Jerusalem. If an animal was brought as a sacrifice to atone for the sins of the people, its blood would be taken by the high priest into the most holy place, sprinkled on the Ark of the Covenant, but the body of that animal would be taken outside the city and burned outside the city. Why? Because that body represented the disgrace of the sins of the people, and so now that body is outside in the trash heap on fire, probably in the valley right outside the city walls of Jerusalem.
This is the mindset, and every person reading Hebrews would understand. Now he makes a comparison to Jesus in verse 12: «And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through His own blood. Let us then go to Him, go to Jesus, outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore; for here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.» What did the writer say here to you and me? He’s saying Jesus went beyond the city walls to give His life for you and me. We saw earlier that He had gone above; if you just backtrack a little to the Gospel of John in chapter 12, we see the above in the above and beyond.
In verse 20, talking about Jesus' death, it says, «Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the feast.» What feast? The Passover feast. What was happening in Jerusalem when Jesus came to give His life? They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. «Sir,» they said, «we would like to see Jesus.» So Philip went to tell Andrew, and Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. Now this all seems pretty simple, right? Guys are in town for the Passover feast; they’ve heard a lot about Jesus. The Lazarus thing has just happened, the triumphal entry has just happened, they know he’s in town, they want to meet with Jesus, they want to see Jesus, so they get word to the right person, the right person gets word to Jesus, «There are some guys here that want to see you.»
And this is Jesus' response: not, «Hey, okay, maybe this afternoon, maybe after lunch, meet me at such-and-such spot.» No, here’s Jesus, unfolding something far larger than what they had in mind. He said, «The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No! It was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.»
That’s quite an answer to the guys who would like to see you! Jesus says, «Oh, you’re going to see me, all right, because this is my moment.» So the guys that came from Greece and are in town for the Passover Festival, they would like to see me; they came at the right feast because they are about to see me—because this is my moment. Then a voice came from heaven: «I have glorified it and will glorify it again.» This is to Jesus' request, «Father, glorify your name.» He says, «I have glorified it and will glorify it again.» The crowd that was there heard it and said it had thundered. Others said an angel had spoken to Him. But this is Jesus' reply: «This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.» But I, Jesus said, «when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.»
What does that mean? John tells us he said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. So we’ve got two texts and two viewpoints. In one text, Jesus went beyond—beyond what? Beyond the city walls. We’ll see that in just a moment. In another text, Jesus went above—above where? Lifted up, above all men. In this moment, being lifted up wasn’t some kind of recognition; He was hoisted up, most likely when Jesus was nailed to that cross beam that He carried to Calvary. That cross beam was put in a pulley system, hoisted up, and affixed to a greater beam.
It wasn’t just that here is a cross and we’re standing it up in the ground; it was Jesus on this beam, being hoisted up into the sky high, where He could be visible to everybody passing by on this roadway outside the city of Jerusalem. He wasn’t raised in celebration; He was raised in disgrace. He wasn’t lifted up so He could have a better view; He was lifted up so that people could have a better view of Him. He wasn’t lifted up because He was in the upper class; He was lifted up because He was in the criminal class, the convicted class. He had a crown on His head, but that was a cruel joke, and the sign above His head that said «King of the Jews» was just a jab.
There He was, hoisted up, and this was His promise: «If I be lifted up, if I say yes to this moment, if I do not say, 'Father, save me from this hour, ' but I recognize it was for this very moment that I came, I lay my life down, I stretch my arms out wide, I surrender to the plan of God to save the world. And I’m hoisted up. If I am lifted up, I will draw all men to me. I’m not just going to be lifted up for the people passing by on the road today outside Jerusalem; I’m going to be lifted up for the whole world to see the grace of God on display in the extravagant gift of His one and only Son, and I’m going to draw all men to me. I’m going above where the whole world can see the grace of God, and I’m going beyond. I’m going to take the disgrace, and I’m going to take the impurity, and I’m going to take the shame and the guilt of the sin of the world, and I’m going to take it outside the wall of the city, and I’m going to give my life on a garbage dump.
I’m doing it so that you can understand just as the bodies of the animals were burned outside the city, this final sacrifice of Almighty God is taking all your reproach out of the city of God and paying for it in full beyond the gates. You know there are some things you guys take outside. I don’t know the parents in here, but you would probably get that. Maybe this summer you’ve said to your kids, „You’re going to need to take that outside.“ Usually, it has to do with painting in the house. We’re like, „No, we’re not doing any painting in the house; you’re going to need to take that outside.“ Or maybe it’s some kind of sporting event happening in the house—badminton in the den or some kind of bowling game happening down the hallway, and you’re like, „Hey, time out, you’re going to need to take that outside.“
I remember playing football when I was growing up in our apartment complex. I got tackled, and my elbow comes down right on a rock that’s just under the surface of the grass, and I smash down right here. A guy lands on top of me; I get up, and I’m like, „Man, I do not feel great.“ I look down, and that little round bone right there on my elbow is just in plain sight, very visible; the skin is open all the way around. I’m like, „Oh, okay, I’ll be heading home now.“ I get to our apartment, come to the back sliding glass door, and my mom’s in the kitchen right around the corner. I knock on the door with this hand and cover back over my elbow, and my mom comes around. I’m like, „Uhh.“ She’s just like, „Stay on the porch; don’t come in the house.“ I was like, „Okay, any other instructions or possible steps that we should take?“ No, just „stay on the porch; stay outside.“
I think we get that mentality, and what God is saying is that when Jesus died for you and me, that’s something you’ve got to take outside this holy city of God. Zion represents the place of God, and when our sin became His sin, He had to go outside the holy city of God and die outside the gate for you and me. What He wants to invite us into today, way before we get to above and beyond Sunday, is to come outside the city wall with Him. To end the writer of Hebrews' words, we are to share in His disgrace. Have you ever heard that phrase before? God wants you to come outside the gate and share in the disgrace that couldn’t be tolerated in the city of God. Come outside and share in the disgrace. This is the way he wrote it: „Let us then go to Him, to Jesus, outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore.“ What does that mean? It means we would take the journey to the place where He was lifted up to bleed and die for the sins of the world, and we would relish the disgrace of the innocent Son of God suffering in our place.
If we do that today, it’s going to give us power to break some things, empower us to embrace some things, and this is what God wants for us in this gathering today. A few things that He wants us to break and embrace: number one, when you go outside the city and understand that He took your sin and shame outside the city, it allows you to break with the system of religion and to embrace the garbage heap of glorious grace. In the city was a system, and every year there was an offering. With every offering, there was a sacrifice, and with every sacrifice, blood was sprinkled. That happened this year, it happened again next year, and it happened the next year and the next year. It was one man making a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of all the people, but it was a system, not a solution. That system doesn’t exist in that form exactly anymore, but systems still exist. They go like this: „If I do my part, God will do His part. If I do my best, that will be good enough for God. As long as I’m not as bad as everybody else, then I’ve got a shot with God. If I can do a little bit more, maybe God will love me a little bit more. If I go to church or if I show up, or if I give in the above and beyond giving, then whatever it is, God will do X, Y, or Z for me.“
It is a system; it’s called religion. It is what man tries to do to please God. What He’s saying is, „I need you to come with me outside the gate because when you come with me outside the gate, you’re going to realize you can break ties with the system, and you can embrace that on this garbage dump is glorious grace. You can celebrate that God did, one time and never again, what only God could do: God gave the final and the perfect sacrifice for you.“ He’s not just telling a story about how God loved planet Earth; He’s inviting you. He’s saying to you today, „Let’s go outside the gate and bear together the disgrace,“ because when we do that, you can break the idea that you’re doing your best to try hard enough to be good enough for God. You can just say that’s done, and you can stand under the waterfall of forgiveness and mercy and grace that has already been purchased for you because He went above and He went beyond.
You can also break ties with the lie of guilt and shame. It’s amazing to think how many people are in this gathering right now. You made it to church today, but I’m telling you, you brought the shame with you—it’s in the bag. The guilt is here with you; it just lingers. It’s something you can’t shake, and yes, what happened is real; I’m not saying it wasn’t. Where you were and what was going on that was all real, but here’s the thing: when you go outside the gate with Him and you bear the disgrace that He bore, you realize He was the one who took all the guilt, and He was the one who bore all the shame. When they lifted Him up, it was a shameful, guilty verdict because God had made Him, as 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, „who knew no sin,“ to become sin so that those of us who were sinful could become the righteousness of God in Him.
Jesus wasn’t innocent on the cross; He was guilty on the cross—guilty not of His sin but of your sin and my sin. He died a guilty man; He went to the cross innocent but died on it guilty—not of anything He had done but of everything we had done. All the guilt, all the shame, the disgrace—we’re bearing disgrace; we’re at the cross, we’re outside the gate on a garbage dump, and we’re realizing that all of this grace was nailed to the cross, and it gives us power. We say yes to the cross: break ties with guilt and shame. Some of you, God has already done His part; you’re like, „I just need the Lord to help me with my guilt.“ No, He’s already helped you with your guilt by placing it on Jesus. It’s up to you now to see outside the gate the disgrace of Jesus and go, „I believe it. No more guilt here; I will not carry the guilt that He bore. I will not carry the shame that He bore. I will praise Him, I will worship Him, I will exalt Him, and I will come and give my life to Him. I will honor Him by embracing my new identity as a holy one in Christ.“
You’re like, „Louie, I don’t know. There are a lot of words I might use to describe me, but holy is not one of them. I have done some unholy things. I’m currently doing some unholy things, and if I’m honest, I’m planning on doing some unholy things. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I’m holy.“ You’ve got to understand that God isn’t talking about your behavior; He’s talking about your identity. When you join your faith to what Christ did on the cross, you get a brand new identity when you are born again. The identity you receive is His identity. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
We have a new identity. That’s why Scripture doesn’t call you to act holy so that you can become holy; it tells you that you are holy, so act holy. It doesn’t tell you that you should act like Jesus so that you can become a Christian; it tells you, „You’ve become a Christian; have a brand new identity. You should act like your brand new identity.“ You should line up how you walk with who God has made you to be, and God has called us in Christ the righteousness of God. Some of you need to break guilt and shame today and embrace the fact that God has forgiven you.
But even more than that, He’s given you a new identity and He’s calling you a holy one in Christ. That is who you are. Thirdly, we need to break ties with the low view of ourselves and embrace the fact that we are seated above with Christ. I love this in Ephesians, talking about how we were saved. It comes down in verse 4, chapter 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. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.“ Hello! So we’ve got a new identity, but we also, in Christ, have a new position. I’m a new person in Christ, and I’m in a new place in Christ. Where am I in Christ? I am with Him, seated in the heavenlies right now. You’re like, „No, you’re in Atlanta, Georgia. You’re at Passion City Church, and you’re preaching a sermon on planet Earth.“ No, I am physically on planet Earth in Atlanta, Georgia, but I am spiritually seated with Christ in the heavenly realms right now. In other words, I am in the highest place I’m ever going to be right now.
So somebody needs a revelation today. I don’t know who you are, but I’ve been praying for you because you don’t like yourself and are not convinced that God likes you. You’re not even sure why you are on Earth and what your worth is, and I’m telling you, God is trying to break through to you today. You need to come with me outside the gate and bear the disgrace and see how much you are worth to the kingdom of God and how valuable you are to heaven—to see what God did for you so that He could be reconnected with you, and not only that, give you a new identity. You’re not the same person you were, and He’s given you a new position.
You need to stop lowballing life! „Oh, I’m just down here on the bottom.“ I’m just down here; I don’t have anything. I’m just down here and can’t get anywhere. You are not on the low rung of the ladder; you’re on the highest rung of the ladder. You’re like, „Uh, I’m not sure what you’re trying to say.“ I’m trying to say that you need to change the view of you. Somebody today needs to break the „woe is me“ and „low is me“ and embrace that you are seated with Christ.
A few years ago, the Falcons were playing in the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers at the old Georgia Dome, and we had done some events there just before, had some connections, and Shelly and I got these pretty great tickets we were told. We hustled after church to get to the game, so we’re running late; the national anthem is going, and we’re asking, „How do we get to these seats?“ They kind of look weird; the tickets actually looked like they were fake. The first person said, „I don’t know; ask that person.“ „I don’t know; ask that person.“ I’m like, „Oh man, this isn’t going to sound good.“ Finally, we find somebody, and they’re like, „Oh, I know where these are!“ They take us up to the suite level, and we’re going around, and the door opens. I mean, whoa, this is like the suite! We’re like, „Yes, this isn’t going to work out.“
I’m not kidding; the national anthem is just winding down. I immediately survey the situation—there’s an amazing buffet, and we’re the last people here; there are only a few seats, and people are still milling around. If we can grab the food, we can get the seats before everybody else goes to the two rows of seats. So I literally grab a plate and start putting some food on it, recognize someone I know, and say hi. Then the person kind of comes over awkwardly and says, „Hey, nice to see you; can I see your tickets?“ I was like, „Sure; can you hold my plate?“ You know, I’m fishing to take us back out here: „Here are the tickets.“ They’re like, „Uh, yeah, you’re in the wrong place.“ I was like, „Oh, I’ll put this meatball back.“
I mean, we’re like two seconds in; it’s not like, „Hey, no!“ It’s like, „Got it!“ „All right, we’re out!“ Find out we were in the suite. So, that’s not where we’re going. We go down the hall long story. We get in a really nice box, and we have a great seat! It’s awesome! And they—whoever the pastor was that did the chapel for the Falcons before that game—did a really, really bang-up job! Amazing. Some of you are living your life like that, like what? Like you don’t belong in the suite! Not like me rolling in like, „I’ll have a plate of the meatballs.“ A lot of you are living with the mentality that you just don’t belong; there’s no way you could belong with God. There’s no way you could be in a suite with God; there’s no way that you could be at a level with God—not God, but with God.
And somehow, you have just leaned into this low view of you, and God is saying, „Look, I don’t want you to become proud because it’s not about you. It’s about bearing the disgrace of Christ that got you elevated out of death into resurrection life and got you seated with Christ at the right hand of God, but you need to change the view of you. You are seated in a luxury box!“ No, it’s not about things of this Earth and getting stuff; that’s not the point. It’s about a mentality of spiritual position as somebody in the kingdom of God.
There is nothing that dishonors the disgrace that Jesus bore more than somebody walking through life claiming to be a Christian and living with a low view of who they are and where they are. „Oh, I’m just trying to be humble.“ No, that is not humble; that is not bearing the disgrace that He bore. That’s somebody who’s still in the city, probably stuck in the system, not somebody who’s been to the glorious, graceful, awful garbage dump, saying, „I am valued this much.“ Oh yeah, God gets all the glory; Jesus said that in John 12. He gets all the glory, but who got our lives rearranged? A new identity and a new position! Somebody—who are you today? You need to break the low view, and you need to start looking at life from the high view. You are not looking up at the world; you are looking down on the world as a daughter or son of the king.
Lastly, somebody needs to break with the city of here and now and embrace the city that is to come. That’s what he says: „For we do not have an enduring city.“ In other words, this place where the temple and the thing and the system are—it’s not lasting. We don’t have an enduring city right now, but we are looking for the city that is to come. I’m telling you, that’s the spirit of above and beyond! Above and beyond is not about adding things up in the here and now; above and beyond is about investing in the city that is to come. It’s about investing in a kingdom that is coming, and what somebody’s got to do today—what, in some way, all of us have got to do today, honestly—is break our ties with the here and now, the city that we’re in, so that we can set our hearts truly on the city that is to come.
Some of us are just stuck. „If I see it, it’s real; if I don’t, it’s not. I kind of believe there’s a heaven, and I kind of believe there’s a forever.“ But I’m telling you, all my eggs are in this basket. God is saying, „Hey, it’s okay to put some eggs in this basket. It’s okay to go to dinner with friends; it’s okay to go to a Braves game and go snow ski and see the mountains and breathe fresh air. It is okay to live on planet Earth, but you’ve got to understand this world is fading fast, but there is a city coming that lasts forever and ever, and ever, and ever, and that’s our city.“
Man, I hope Atlanta has better days ahead; we all want to believe for the future of our city. I love this city; I was born in this city, and I love it, and I’m committed to it—and I believe in it, and I pray that it has great days ahead. But I’m telling you, ultimately, this city is going to fade away. But that city is never going to fade away. And so we’re praying for more of what’s in that city in this city; we’re believing for more of what’s in that city in this city. We’re investing more for what’s in that city in this city because we want this city to reflect that city as much as it can until this city goes away and it is just that city. That’s my city, that’s my town, that’s where I’m from, and that’s where I’m going. I’m going to a city that will never fade away, and I’m telling you, it’s not about Passion City Church, really, not about above and beyond. It’s not about a Sunday coming in a few weeks; this is about your eternity.
You need to break ties with your infatuation with getting more stuff in this city, and you need to see and bear the disgrace that’s outside the city wall so that you can share in that in your brief time on planet Earth. Do you see it? Do you see it? Do you see it? We were in London last weekend, and one of my favorite buildings in the world is in London—it’s called The Shard because it looks like a jagged piece of glass sticking up out of the Earth. When The Shard was designed, it was contested by every authority in London. „This building will never be built; look at it—it’s too modern.“ It’s not very „London-y.“ We’ve got an aesthetic and a vibe; if we put that big giant monstrosity up, it’s going to ruin all your views. You’ll be over here on the tower bridge trying to get a photo of that thing, or you’ll be over at St. Paul’s trying to get a picture, and that thing will be in your picture; it’ll be everywhere in the picture.
I was reading about the building of The Shard, and they were quoting: „The same thing happened when they built the Eiffel Tower.“ Everybody said the Eiffel Tower is going to ruin the view in Paris; everywhere you go, this big steel contraption will be in the sights. The quote was so powerful; it said in the book that „the Eiffel Tower did ruin the view until it became the view.“ And The Shard, they finally built it against all odds, and it totally ruined the view until The Shard became the view. If you go back on Instagram and look at my photo from Wimbledon—just dropping that in there—you can see The Shard over Shelly’s shoulder. You might not have pinched in or zoomed or cared or not on social media, but if you pinched in, you see The Shard because we’re all around London taking photos.
We’re like, „Hey, if you’ll step over this way just a little bit, we can get The Shard in the shot.“ „Oh, if you just move over this way a little bit, we can get The Shard in the shot.“ It totally ruined the view until it became the view. Now everybody wants to get The Shard in their shot. I’m telling you, there was a system in place; they knew exactly how they were going to do it—this Jesus guy. They knew exactly what kind of Messiah He was going to be; they knew exactly what kind of deliverance He was going to bring, what kind of freedom He was going to afford them. They knew how He was going to operate, and all the way they were already jockeying to see who was going to get the good seats when He got in power. But instead, He humbles Himself, rides into town on a donkey, goes outside the city wall carrying His own cross, surrenders to cruel hands of faith in the sovereign will of God, beats up, humiliated, spit on, beard plucked out, agonizing pain, is hoisted up for everybody to see. „This guy claims to be the Son of God,“ and then He dies.
I’m telling you, in their minds, the people reading this book, reading Hebrews, that cross completely ruined the view until it became the view. Now we want it in every picture. I just am believing today, thank God who gives revelation sight, that someone today has seen the cross and seen a God who is willing to go above and beyond.