Louie Giglio - The Greatest Day on Earth
Welcome to church! I know that has been said already, but what an amazing day to be in God’s house. I love this journey that we’re on through the book of Acts and just want to say a big shout-out to Grant and Aaron for kicking us off last week and helping us see that we have a purpose. See, this whole thing has a purpose, and the purpose is that we, as Jesus says in Acts 1:8, would receive power. With that power, we would be able to be witnesses for Jesus on planet Earth—here, there, and everywhere, as Jesus said. So, He told them to wait until they receive the promise of the Holy Spirit, and in that moment, they would be activated to be His witnesses here—in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and ultimately, here’s our title: to the ends of the earth. We are waiting for power to do that thing that God has put us on earth to do.
Then we turn to chapter two, and the power arrives. I love this chapter. It’s about the day that the Holy Spirit came upon the followers of Jesus, a day called Pentecost. We actually celebrated Pentecost last Sunday when we kicked off the series, but we come to Pentecost in the text on this Sunday. I think there is an argument to be made that this day, the day of Pentecost, is the most important day on earth—the greatest day on earth. You know, we’ve heard a lot of hyperbole: have a good meal with friends, or go to the park and hang out—it’s the best day ever—until a few weeks later when you have another better meal with someone else or get that right table you wanted at the little coffee place for the hangout, and that was the best day ever. We have a lot of «best days ever,» but I could make a strong argument that the day we are going to talk about today is, in fact, the best day ever—the greatest day on earth.
You might say that’s a lot of competition for that title, right? Because you would think the day the earth was created would be a contender for the best day on earth, as there wouldn’t be an earth to have a best day if you didn’t have an earth, so creation is in there as a contender. But then there was the day Jesus was born—God in human flesh. We divide history into B.C. and A.D., so that’s a pretty great day. The angels sang, the sky opened up, heavens echoed, and Jesus was born—the savior of the world. That’s got to be Christmas, right? The best day ever, because it’s one thing to have a planet created, but then that planet needs to be redeemed and put back together again, so Christmas is pretty great.
You might say, «Yeah, but don’t forget Good Friday—Jesus went to Calvary. That’s got to be the greatest day ever.» He gave His life for the sins of the world, and if He hadn’t died, we would still be dead, so I’m going to go with the day Jesus gave His life for me as the greatest day on earth. He was born, but He didn’t have to die. Choosing to die was the thing that made me alive, so I’m going to go with Good Friday. Except then there’s Easter, the resurrection! I was forgiven because He died, but then there was the day He beat hell, death, sin, and the grave. The stone was moved! I’m going to go with Easter as probably the greatest day ever. Except then there’s that day when Jesus is coming back, and He is coming back. He’s coming back to put this world right again. He’s coming back for His people, for His bride, the church. So, maybe that’s the greatest day ever: the day that Jesus appears, and we’re caught up into glory with Him.
You might think there are a lot of contenders, but I’m going to make a strong case today that Pentecost is the greatest day on earth. You’re like, «Well, that’s a strong case to make because you’ve got to beat out creation, the day Jesus was born, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the return of Christ to make that case.» Well, here’s the thing: when Jesus came to earth, He was heaven’s crown in humanity—heaven’s king in humanity. In other words, the mind of God, the Word of God, the Logos, the Creator, the Alpha, the Omega, the One who made this universe—the crown of heaven is now living on planet earth. The head of heaven is on Earth, the head of the universe is on earth, that head having wisdom, reason, planning, purpose, and knowledge. But the head was only the head until this day when the church was born, and in this moment, the head got a body, and the body became the hands and feet of Jesus everywhere on planet earth.
So, Jesus didn’t even need to stay anymore. He said, «No, I’m ascending back, so the crown is going to be back on the throne, the head is going to be back on the throne. But don’t worry because now I’ve got a body because of the Spirit of God awakening the church of God, and I’ve got hands and feet everywhere on planet earth, and they’re going to have sufficient power to fulfill the plan of taking the gospel to everybody on planet earth.» All that happened on Pentecost.
Two stories were going on: the story of Jesus and the story of the Jews. The Jewish story was a centuries-old narrative of coming to pilgrimage in the city of Jerusalem, making sacrifice, and going to the temple. That would happen several times a year. It had just taken place during Passover when Jesus gave His life on the cross. God-fearing Jews from all over Judea and all around the known world would have gathered in Jerusalem for Passover. Some of them would have known that a man named Jesus was crucified; many wouldn’t have even known that. This was a quick moment, and yes, there were crowds in the street, yes, there was rumbling and tumbling, but that was always going on in this day and age. Some of them may have seen Jesus crucified as they left Jerusalem, heading back to wherever they had come from.
But there was another festival, 50 days later, called the Feast of Weeks. Again, Jewish people would observe the law and set aside a day of fasting. Jews would gather in Jerusalem again from the known world. This going and coming was a way of life for the Jewish people. The Jesus story is: He was crucified, raised from the dead, seen by His followers, witnessed by hundreds of people, and now there’s a whole new thing happening. Jesus is saying to the followers right before He goes to heaven, «Wait for the Spirit, and then you’re going to be my witnesses.» That’s all happening. We’ve seen Him, we’ve touched the scars, we’ve seen Him with our own eyes—we know resurrection is a reality. That story is happening, and we’re waiting now for this promised Spirit so that we can begin to do what we’re called to do. The Jesus story and the Jewish story are about to smash into each other on Pentecost.
It opens like this: «When the day of Pentecost came, they» (that’s the followers of Jesus, this little band of 100 or 200 people—we don’t know exactly how many were in this group, but somewhere in that number), «they were all together in one place. Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.»
So, immediately, the Spirit comes in, and something supernatural happens. That’s the first thing I want to make sure we’re all on board with today: the story that Jesus is inviting you and me into is a supernatural story. It’s not a story of me just doing normal life and then adding God to my normal life. The story that I am in is a supernatural story; it has resurrection at its center and a mission that I can’t do in my own strength. So, there has to be a supernatural dimension to the story. God knows that about His people, His mission, and He knows it about you.
I want you to know today, if you don’t get anything else out of this talk, that God is not asking you to live in a supernatural story in your own strength. He is offering you supernatural Holy Spirit power to enable you to do things that you cannot do on your own. So, there has to be a supernatural component to our lives, and we see it the instant the Holy Spirit came to this early gathering of the followers of Jesus. In this case, they all started speaking in other languages.
It sounds crazy because it’s this cacophony of the languages of the world at that time, and it’s a roar because it attracts a crowd, but it’s God doing something that signifies right away: the Holy Spirit doesn’t do things the normal way. The Holy Spirit comes to empower us on a supernatural level. While they were speaking these different languages, now to the Jewish story, now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
Now, this is going to be the key today: utterly amazed, they asked, «Aren’t all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?» In verses 9, 10, and 11, he names all these various nations represented in a crowd of Jews in the city for the Feast of Weeks. Now, a crowd is gathering, and people are hearing people talking, with an accent that says, «You’re from here, but you’re talking in the language that we speak over here.» The Spirit has come; something supernatural has happened, and all of a sudden, a global event is taking place. So, you start seeing what’s on God’s heart today. You start understanding what God’s thinking about today. He’s thinking about empowering people supernaturally and reaching everyone globally. That’s what God was thinking about on day one, on our first day as a church.
He didn’t say, «Hey, we’re going to make a church, and it’s going to be amazing. We’re going to do a 'welcome to church' thing, and maybe somewhere along the way down the line over here, we will have a missions opportunity.» No, He said, «Boom! The church is born! Guess what? It’s global! It’s going out. It’s moving out! Remember the here, there, and everywhere? You’re going to be my witnesses.» Well, that’s going to happen on day one, and now all these people are hearing the gospel in their own languages. They’re representing Iran, Iraq, all of Turkey and Asia Minor, all the way up to Rome, Italy, the island of Crete, down through Judea, what we would know as the Holy Land, and now into Africa—Egypt and over to what we would now know as Libya. So, it’s like a circle drawn of the known world, and everybody is hearing the gospel, and it’s blowing them away.
I love how it comes down to the end of verse 11: «We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues,» and we see right away that to the ends of the earth is what God is all about. The church exists so that every single person on the planet can hear the wonders of God in their own language. What’s God doing for Memorial Day weekend? What’s the plan of heaven? You say, «Well, I’ve heard the gospel in my own language a lot of times; I’ve heard a bunch of messages, watched a bunch of stuff online, and listened to a lot of worship music. I have an NIV Bible and an ESV Bible, a New Living Translation Bible, a Jesus Bible, and I have a lot of Bibles. I’ve been to a lot of deals and I’ve heard the gospel in my own native language.» He’s saying, «Yes, that’s amazing; now the plan is that everybody gets the same opportunity that you have! So let’s go.»
This is what church is! Somehow we’ve inverted the process and turned it into an inside event, and God is saying on day one, «No! It’s a global endeavor. It’s a global mission!» The wind that sounded like the blowing of a mighty wind that came on Pentecost—that wind is the wind of the Holy Spirit of God, and that wind is still blowing today. It’s blowing your way. Depending on where you were born, what kind of church you went to, what denomination you came from, what town you came from, I don’t know what your view on the Holy Spirit is. I mean, it depends if you were Baptist, raised Pentecostal, or maybe there was a crazy Holy Spirit church on the edge of town where you came from, and you didn’t know much about those people. But here’s the thing: the Holy Spirit is not denominationally defined! He doesn’t belong to a certain denomination; He belongs to the people of God, to the church of God, to the followers of Jesus. The Spirit was poured out! This Spirit had been promised all the way back to Joel, and Peter stands up in a moment and preaches a sermon. In the middle of the sermon, he describes what’s going on, and he says, «Hey, this is what Joel was talking about when he said your sons and daughters will prophesy because God’s going to pour out His Spirit on all flesh.»
Then he says, «And the reason for that, by the way, why is the Spirit going to be poured out on all flesh and why are your sons and your daughters going to prophesy?» So that he says in the middle of his talk, «So that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.» So, the mission here is so clear, so simple, and so compelling! It’s God saying there’s Father, Son, and Spirit—Spirit is for you. But where I came from, it was more liturgical, and it was just Father, Son, and Spirit, or where we came from, it was all Holy Spirit and the whole story was Holy Spirit. Maybe someone was a little crazy, and where we came from, we weren’t really sure about the Holy Spirit.
God is saying today, «I want you to know that the Holy Spirit is God! It is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, and the Spirit is available for you to empower you to take your place in God’s story.» That wind of God that blew into the followers of Jesus on Pentecost is blowing your way. I believe we receive the Spirit of God when we are born of the Spirit. Jesus said, «Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to Spirit.» When I come through the Spirit to put my faith in Jesus Christ, I’m born again—I’m born again spiritually into the family of God, and I have the Holy Spirit.
But in the same way, as you can know about Jesus and even believe in Jesus, it’s different from surrendering your life to Jesus as Lord of your life. Making a decision, filling out a card, shaking the hand of a deacon, or joining a church—that’s all great, but that’s different than the day you knelt down and said, «God, I’m not doing it my way. I’m doing it Your way! I don’t want You just to get me to heaven; I want You to run my life. You are Lord and King of my life. I surrender my life to following You.»
In the same way, you can have the Holy Spirit, but that’s different than saying to the Holy Spirit, «I don’t want a normal life. I don’t want to run the show. I don’t want to try to do supernatural things in my own power. I want You to fill, invade, and take over my life to lead me and empower me to be everything God wants me to be, to take up my part in the story of taking Jesus here, there, and everywhere. I want You, Holy Spirit, to completely fill and control my life.»
The wind of the Spirit is blowing your way today because God isn’t asking you to join a supernatural story and then live it out in your own strength. The wind of the Spirit of God is blowing to all the nations today. The wind of the Holy Spirit is not primarily blowing to make your life better and to make my life better; the wind of the Holy Spirit is blowing so that every person on planet earth can hear the gospel in their own language.
I’ve told this story a bunch of times before, but I was telling it recently at a gathering of people who are focused on helping get the Scriptures translated into the thousands of languages that do not have one verse of Scripture available in their native tongue. The story is our 10-year anniversary. Shelley and I splurged and chartered a sailboat in the Virgin Islands. We couldn’t afford it by ourselves, so we got two other couples to pitch in with us, and we were going to do a week-long cruise through the Virgin Islands—just go where we wanted. The first day was amazing; the second day was glorious; the third day was pretty fantastic. But on the third day, at breakfast, the captain of the sailboat we had rented said, «Hey, there’s a tropical disturbance; it’s a couple hundred miles from here. It’s not a big deal, but I just saw it come across the news this morning, and I want to keep an eye on it.» We’re like, «Great, that’s why you’re the captain. We’re going snorkeling; you keep an eye on the tropical depression.»
When we came back to the boat for lunch, he said, «Hey, that thing has gotten so much stronger since this morning, and they’re thinking it’s probably going to turn into a hurricane.» We thought, «Oh man, sunny skies here, so we’re all good.» We get to dinner on the boat, and the captain says, «The storm is already officially a hurricane, and it’s getting more intense by the minute. It’s headed directly toward our boat.» We’re like, «That’s not good!» He said, «We have a couple of days before it’s right here, and we’ve got three options of things we can do.»
So he shares the options, and we discuss it. By breakfast tomorrow, we’ll need to make a decision. We’re like, «Great, what are the options?» Option number one: «I can take you back to the hotel where you came from.» So we thought, «Okay, that’s an option.» Glad we didn’t choose that option, because that hotel didn’t reopen for two years after the hurricane that came.
«What’s the second option?» we asked. «We can go to St. John. There’s a little place there called Hurricane Hole. Boats have been going there for centuries; we’ll get there early, we’ll back into the mangrove trees, we’ll strip down the boat, we’ll tie in, and we’ll ride out the storm.»
«Okay, what’s the third option?» He said, «Well, the third option is probably the best option because if we get out now, we can get ahead of the headwinds of the storm, and we’ll get on the outer band of the headwinds. If we get our sails up, the outer bands of the headwinds will just take us all the way to Venezuela, and we’ll stay in Venezuela for a few weeks until the storm passes. Then we can sail wherever you want after that.» I thought, «That sounds like an amazing idea, except that we have to be at work on Monday.»
Isn’t that a crazy thought? I’ve never forgotten it: you can get out in the right position when a giant storm is coming. You can get out and position yourself, sails up, and catch the headwinds, and that storm can blow you somewhere you never even imagined you could go—it wasn’t even on your radar! That’s what God is saying today. If you want to know where heaven’s storm winds are blowing, they are blowing toward all people on planet earth!
That’s where the wind of heaven is blowing. It is not blowing just into my cul-de-sac so I can have a better spirit-filled life; the wind of God is blowing to the last and the least of these. Who is the furthest away? Who has never heard the name of Jesus—not once, nor did their father, their grandfather, or their great-great-great-great-grandfather? No one in their family has ever heard the name of Jesus! Heaven’s wind is saying, «We’re going! Do you want to put your sail up? Because if you do, you will feel the rush of heaven.»
You can choose to row your way into the wind: «I am doing it my way. I am getting what I want. I am spending my money the way I want to spend it. I’m going to focus on what I want to do. It’s going to be me and my story.» But if you do, you will spend your life rowing into the wind of heaven.
Today, God is saying, «You can turn your boat around, drop your oars, and put up a sail. Say, 'Dear God, put me in the storm! I want to feel the wind! ' Yes, God wants to empower you to be a better husband. Yes, God wants to empower you to finish your grad program. Yes, God wants to empower you to build the business that you’re dreaming about building. Of course, He wants to do all of that! He wants to make you distinct and unique, giving you supernatural abilities in every sphere you’re in. But He wants to do all of that so that you can take all of that and use it as ammunition in the mission of taking the name of Jesus to everybody on planet earth.»
You say, «What are you talking about? Surely everybody knows this story of Jesus.» Well, a couple of things, really quick. Number one: there are a billion people on the planet right now who are living in what’s called Bible poverty, meaning they don’t have any Scripture in their native language. A billion people don’t have even one copy of the Bible; there isn’t a Bible in their native language. Seven thousand-plus languages exist, and three thousand seven hundred seventy-eight of them are Bibleless! You’re like, «How can that be possible? You can Google anything! I’m getting my email on my watch while you’re preaching! How is it possible that a billion people can’t read the 23rd Psalm or John 3:16 or any of the story of Scripture in their language?»
See, what happens in a lot of places on Earth is that there’s a generalized language for a large people group, which there are, by the way, thousands of people groups on planet earth—not just one, two, three, four, five, six, or eight ethnicities—there are thousands of ethnicities on planet earth—unique cultures, unique people, unique languages. Among them, there’s little access for billions of them to any gospel story. There’s no Christian radio, there is no internet, there is no knowledge of God, and there is no church on the corner or in the city—they’re just living in spiritual darkness.
The country is closed; the government is anti-Christianity. If you go there to plant a church or be a witness, you may very well lose your life. This is the reality for much of the earth today. So, we’ve got a billion people without a Bible to read, we’ve got thousands of language groups with little access to the gospel, and there’s a reason for it. The reason is not that someone just happened to be born in Pakistan and you happened to be born in Charlotte. The reason is that there is a spiritual battle to blind people to Christ. That’s what we see Paul talking about in 2 Corinthians 4. He says it this way in verse 4: «The god of this age» (we know who that is) «has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.»
In other words, these images that are filling culture all over the planet—these are not the image of God—Christ is the image of God. But Christ is not seen. Why? Well, because I grew up in this part of the world, and someone else grew up in that part of the world. No! Christ is not seen because the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so they cannot see the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God.
Then Paul says, a few verses down, «For God,» verse 6, «who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness, ' made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.» Where is the knowledge of the glory of God? «In the face of Christ.»
Then you see Pentecost in verse 7: «We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.» In other words, we are on mission; we are preaching Jesus; we are going to the nations because the world’s mind has been blinded by the god of this age. But we have light! We have seen God’s glory, and we have seen the face of Jesus, and we’re going to take the face of Jesus, the story of the gospel, the grace of God to everybody on the planet. That’s where the wind is blowing today!
The wind is also blowing toward a resurrection message. In other words, that’s why the light bulb wall says, «Jesus is life.» You’re like, «If Pentecost is your vote for the best day, the greatest day on earth, then why doesn’t the wall say, 'The Holy Spirit is life'? Why do we have a cross wall at the end and why is there a 'Jesus is life' wall at Cumberland? Why will there eventually be a 'Jesus' life' wall in any location of Passion City Church? Why isn’t there a 'Holy Spirit is life' wall?»
Because the Holy Spirit, immediately when He shows up, animates and activates people with supernatural power to talk about the resurrection story of Jesus! The Holy Spirit doesn’t want a «Holy Spirit is life» wall; the Holy Spirit wants a «Jesus is life» wall! The wind of the Spirit that’s empowering you to do supernatural things and blowing toward all people is also blowing with the resurrection story of Jesus.
And I love it; Peter stands up and preaches this amazing message, and in the middle of it, he says in verse 22, «Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know. This man Jesus was handed over to you by God’s set purpose» (now that’s a mouthful of theology right there) «and by God’s foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Jesus.»
Where are you? Where are you? Who are you? Yes, I’m with you! I’m with you! It was impossible for death to keep its hold on Jesus! So, the Spirit comes, people are animated with supernatural ability, the nations are already hearing the gospel, and now Peter is clarifying what is the clarifying heartbeat of the gospel—Jesus! This man, Jesus, accredited to you by God through signs, miracles, and wonders that you yourselves saw.
This man was handed over to you by God because of His purpose and foreknowledge, and then you, with the help of wicked men, nailed Him to the cross! «But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on the crown of heaven.»
So, the wind is blowing the resurrection story, and if you want to feel the wind, ask God and surrender your life to the Spirit. If you want to feel the wind, start asking God, «How can I find a people? How can I find a plan? How can I be a part of the story? Do you want me to go? Do you want me to give? Do you want me to pray? Do you want me to encourage? How can I awaken to the thousands of languages that still need a Bible?»
Some of you have already gotten your answer. I was talking to someone in our church a few weeks ago, and their business—before the world shutdown and even some during—was taking them to some cities where you can’t go and carry a Bible. For example, if I went along with them on their business trip, I can’t because I can’t get permission to get into the country. If I did, and we went through security coming into the country and they found my Bible in my backpack, I would go immediately to jail. But this person travels in and out of these cities like it’s nothing, because their company gives them such authority in that city with the leaders of the city. They do not go in the name of Christ; they go in the name of their company, and the name of their company is money.
That wasn’t a play on words; it’s just a powerful name. I thought to myself, «God has put you in the wind! You’re smart, you’ve accomplished, you’ve got this incredible position, you’ve moved up in the ranks. You’re willing to go and travel, and you end up in these meetings with people who most likely have never heard the name of Jesus.»
Are you taking mental snapshots of the person who checked you in at the hotel? Are you taking a mental snapshot of the server who helped you in the restaurant? Are you taking a mental snapshot of every person around that meeting table? Because you will most likely be the only person on the planet who’s prayed for them ever. Their mom isn’t praying for them, their aunt isn’t praying for them, their believing neighbor isn’t praying for them, their youth pastor isn’t praying for them. You will most likely be the only person on earth calling out to heaven on their behalf and saying, «God, I can’t share the gospel after this meeting unless you want me to! If you want me to, I will, but that will be the end of our business relationship, and it will be the end of me traveling back and forth because I’ll never be able to come back to this country. I probably can get out because of my position with my company, but I might not. I might never leave the country if I share the gospel with this person after the meeting, but if You want me to, I will. You’re going to have to give me supernatural power, but I will! Just tell me, and I will. But the least I’m going to do is pray for them every day in Jesus' name!»
The least I’m going to do is give them a little wink or a twinkle and say, «Hey, if you ever want to talk to me about anything, you know I’m an open book—important things like how we got here. If you ever want to talk, I’d love to talk.»
It’s realizing where the wind of heaven is blowing. It’s blowing toward you. It’s blowing toward the people of Earth. It’s blowing a resurrection story, and it’s blowing into the church. I’m so glad you’re in church on Memorial Day weekend! If you were looking for extra credit, you got it! You’re done! You’re good! You don’t have to come back for another month, at least—you tell God when you get to heaven, «You remember Memorial Day? I was there!»
But I’m telling you, church is the greatest thing there is, and that’s why I believe this day was the greatest day on earth. Because this is the day that the church was born! Peter preached resurrection, people got convicted, they repented, and they got baptized right there—3,000 people got baptized and repented and put their faith in Jesus on Pentecost! Holy Spirit salvation, Holy Spirit gospel, salvation! The church was a mega-church on the first day!
I don’t like big churches! Oh man! Thank God! Tell them when you get to heaven, «I’m so glad I wasn’t at Pentecost! I still like big churches!» 3,000 people getting saved and then baptized. How long is that going to take? How did you know all their names? It’s called a movement—it’s called a hurricane! It’s called a storm! It’s called the wind of God; it’s called the supernatural! It would be amazing to see so many people get convicted, repent, get saved, and get baptized!
Then it would take you a while to figure out all of their names. «I want to get saved!» «Okay, great! We have a—» «Right, could you just come over here?» «We have access! You can only get like 15 people in there!» What were we thinking? What kind of vision was that? We needed two gymnasiums on the end and say, «If you’re in Atlanta and your life is broken down, if you need hope, if you need life, if you need purpose, come to church, hear the gospel, repent of your sins, get saved, and get baptized! We got two gymnasiums over here!»
You can go and talk to somebody. I love the way we baptize people here. We tell their story, celebrate their family, their friends, and the people who helped them come to know Jesus. «Dar, he’s in every story!» I met a lady; she was from Iran, and we were in the grocery store. She was trying to decide which mayonnaise to get, and now she comes from a Bible study, and now she’s gotten saved, and her two brothers back in Iran have gotten saved. And Dar, I’m preaching a message, and Dar is just sitting there going, «Wouldn’t everybody already know this?»
But I love the way we do our baptisms! It’s amazing! But I would also love it if the system broke down because too many people were wanting to get baptized! At some point, we just had to say, «Hey, we’ve got 600 people wanting to be baptized, so here it goes!» A storm!
If you’ve got God in your iCal, you don’t have a storm! If you’re on the every-three-Sundays-I’ll-pop-in plan, you don’t have a storm! If you got disappointed because somebody let you down or hurt you—and I’m not belittling that—or if someone misused their authority or their trust in the name of the church and you said, «I’m done, and I’m out, and I’m not coming back—or if I do come back, I’m going to sit about 50 rows out on the sideline,» you’re not in a storm.
And again, I’m not belittling that! People may have disappointed you or let you down or hurt you, but the church didn’t do that. People did that! The church is the body of Christ, and it has been breathed on from day one, and it is still being breathed on today! Jesus said, «I’m gonna build this church, and hell will not prevail against it!»
So stay with Jesus, stay with the promise, and stay with the church that He’s building! If you’re in a church that’s all jacked up, hey, find a church where the Spirit is moving! Find a church where the gospel is being proclaimed! Find a church where Jesus is at the center, and find a church where they’re on mission to do something besides just better themselves!
And when you find it, love it and serve it because it is His body! He has a head! He has power! He has wisdom! He has knowledge! He has plans! He has purposes! But He needs hands, and He needs feet everywhere on planet earth to be the witnesses to the resurrection power of Jesus so that every single person can hear the gospel in their own native language—not that the big language that everybody in our nation speaks and then the four sub-languages—but under the sub-language is another language, and there are only 5,000 of us who speak that language! But that’s the language my mama spoke when I was in the womb!
I’m going to come alive when I hear the story—not in the big language that’s over the millions or billion and not the eight sub-languages that almost everybody in our country can kind of negotiate in, but I want to hear the story of Jesus in the language that my mom spoke to me when I was a baby. God says, «It’s going to happen because it happened on the first day, and there’s going to be a day that it happens for you! My people got it! They got the mission! They know what the purpose is; they know why the Spirit has come! They are in the wind!»
Oh man! Help us Jesus! Nothing worse than rowing into the wind with your dreams and plans when you could be blowing with the wind into a life that you never even imagined and one that you will be so happy about in heaven!