Louie Giglio - The Most Powerful + Painful Truth of All
I’m preaching today on the heart of our movement. I’m going to end today with a story that I’m pretty sure I have preached at Passion City Church a time or two. But I want every single one of us who walks out of the gathering today to know this is what passion is about. Ultimately, it really doesn’t matter what passion is about. While it’s great that passion has values and things we care about, has a foundation and a history, that foundation and history must align with God’s foundation and God’s history.
Because if there’s anything true about Passion City Church, it’s this: we want to be on God’s page. We want to be aligned with God. We want to be moving where God is moving, thinking what God is thinking, and valuing what God is valuing. Fortunately, God isn’t hiding what He cares about; He has unfolded it in the story of salvation and in the pages of His Word. Today, this is the heart of our movement. We say at Passion that we are for God, for people, for the city, and for the world. That’s our motto, if you will. You’ll see it on the wall in some of our buildings, and you’ll hear it in the language that we use. Passion City Church, if you know it, you can say it with me: we are for God, for people, for the city, and for the world.
We talked a few months ago about the globe, and we’ve been thinking about the unreached peoples of the world. We’ve talked a lot about the city and, in love, Atlanta. We are consistently moving to serve the underserved and to build up the city and the people of Atlanta. Obviously, we’re for people because, look around—the house is full of people today. But we say first we’re for God; we’re for God before we’re for people, for the city, or for the whole wide world. We are for God, and that could be redundant. You might think, «Well, hello, Louie, it’s a church; obviously, it’s for God.» However, you can visit a lot of churches and hardly hear anything about God. I’m not knocking any particular church; I’m just telling you that you can go to church today and never hear the name of Jesus mentioned. You can walk in a church and walk out of a church without meeting anyone who’s on fire for God. Church can quickly become about our agendas, what we need, what we think, and what we want. We can miss the fact that we gather today primarily to worship, exalt, adore, and praise the great God of heaven. Jesus is alive, and we gather today to honor Him and adore Him.
At Passion City Church, we don’t want to miss that; we don’t want to blow right by it. The church primarily exists for God’s glory. We are His people on planet earth, His hands and feet in the neighborhood. We are a city set on a hill and a light shining in darkness, but we are all those things so that the world can see, hear, and know there is a great God in heaven. Long before there was Passion City Church, there was a passion movement—a collegiate movement calling 18 to 25-year-olds to something more in their life. Even from the beginning, we knew this movement was primarily about the glory of God.
When we started, we weren’t a missions movement, although we hoped that people would be shot like arrows to the ends of the earth. We weren’t a revival movement, although we were praying desperately for a spiritual awakening on the campuses of this nation. We weren’t a conference movement, even though we were called Passion Conferences with tens of thousands of people showing up. We weren’t a campus movement, although we were on hundreds of campuses meeting with students all across America, encouraging them that God still had a purpose and a plan for their school. But at the end of the day, more than the messages, more than the music, more than the events, we knew we were a Jesus movement, and at the center of this movement is a great and sovereign God who has always been, who is, and who always will be. It was Jesus at the center; it was Jesus in the middle of it all. It was by Jesus, and it was for Jesus. Everything existed for the glory of God. The glory of God is central to the heart of God.
Now this whole message is contrary to the human mind, but it’s the best news you’ve ever heard. At the center of the heart of God is not you; at the center of the heart of God is God. Thankfully, the God who is at the center of the heart of God is in love with you, so you’re in good shape. But God’s heartbeat is for His glory. We always say in kind of a crazy way, if you’re God, you have to know you’re God. If you know you’re God, you know you’re the best, and if you know you’re the best, you have to promote yourself. Who else would you promote if you were the best? If you loved a broken world and knew they needed the best, how else could you get them to the best except by prohibiting them from anything less and promoting yourself in their lives as the best? Therefore, God steps into your story and says, «Hey, I got news for you. You need to tear down every idol and make me the center of your life.» Why? Because God has an ego problem and needs to be a big deal in your story? No, because He loves you so much He will not let you settle for anything less than the very best, and He knows He is the very best.
There’s no one to promote God. If God didn’t promote God, who would? I mean, we’re promoting everything but God. We’re celebrating everything but God. We’re pointing our friends to everything but God. Without God, we would be spiritually blind and wouldn’t even know there was a God. So, God steps into the story and says, «Oh, by the way, just letting you know I am the Lord.» Isaiah 45:5 says, «And there is no other; apart from me, there is no God.» These words were penned not by Isaiah the prophet but breathed by God. When He meets Moses at the burning bush, He says, «Take your shoes off; it’s holy ground.» Moses asks, «Who are you?» and He responds, «Hayah,» one Hebrew word translated into several English words, «I am that I am.» «My name is I exist; I am God; I will be God.» I have been God in the past; I am God right now; I will be God in the future. Moses, you are face to face right now with «I exist.» Go to Pharaoh and tell him that «I exist» sent you. Terrible grammar, incredible theology—it doesn’t really fit into English, but it definitely fits into kingdom theology. We came today because there is a God who knows who He is; He is the Lord, and there is no other. There is no one like Him. He’s the God who exists.
So our story begins in Genesis: «In the beginning, God.» It all started with God. Therefore, when Passion started, we knew there was a glorious God in the middle of the story. If that sounds like, «Hey, obviously, ABC, we all know that,» that’s the most obvious thing in theology. I’m telling you it’s not obvious to the normal Christian mind. The normal Christian mind says God exists to help me do what I am trying to do in my life. God is there to support me, to help me, to strengthen me, to back me up, to give me what I need so that I can go forward and do what I want to do in my life. But God is saying, «No, you are there to give me glory. You are there to reflect my praise. You exist to give me honor. I created you for me; you did not create me for you. It all starts with me, and your highest value is going to be found when you find your highest value in me.»
Therefore, Passion from the beginning has been trying to do something very complicated—it’s called a 180. We have been working to turn people’s thinking around from «I am at the center of everything.» Isn’t that our culture? «Hey, it’s your life. You just be you. You do you.» Isn’t that our culture? «Hey, you call the shots. You decide where you’re going. You decide what you want to be and do in life. If you can add God to that, absolutely, that would improve things.» Then God says, «No, I am at the center. It all starts with me, and everything orbits around me. It always has, does, and always will.»
This is an important distinction in the Passion movement. I remember when this was all coming together for Shelley and me, and Passion Conferences hadn’t really taken our first step yet in 1997. This whole idea of the glory of God was wrecking us, in the very best way. I was preaching at a student conference in Arkansas, doing my very best to articulate this. I was going through Scriptures, preaching all these passages about the glory of God, how God is central, and how God is to be magnified. I grew up in a great church, one of the best churches, but I still thought kind of that the Bible was about me. In fact, in my upbringing during my high school years into college, we actually had a little book called God’s Promises. Does anybody remember that? There were several volumes of it, just someone saying, «Hey, I’m going to take out all the extraneous material and just get the promises for your life.» I loved that; I carried it around more than my Bible, most of the time. In my devotion, why would I want anything other than, «Here’s a promise from God for today, here’s what God’s going to do for me on this day»?
I kind of got the idea that the Bible was God’s promises for my life. Heaven was definitely all about me: Jesus went to build me a house; He was going to take me there at the end of the day, and I knew it would be amazing. It just changed in time with my taste. Right now, it would be a contemporary, very angular, modern house with a tennis court and a pool and a ski slope in the back, because it’s heaven, and you can do all that on the same afternoon. The cross was 100 percent about me: Jesus died for me—duh! Jesus came for me; Jesus gave His life for me; Jesus shed His blood for me. Church was definitely for me, and I was going to evaluate it based on my preferences, tastes, and experience. Every given Sunday I walked out thinking, «I thought it was pretty good,» or «It was good,» or «I thought it was really good today,» or «Oh, the church was off the hook today!»
Then a revelation happened; I was like, «Oh, hello! This is not just a book of promises to help me improve my life. This is not the owner’s manual for me. This is the story of a sovereign God who has been moving through history to accomplish His purposes and plans.» If you read it, it’s going to blow your mind about a sovereign glorious God who is unstoppable in time and space. The cross did impact my life and change my life; Jesus did give His life for me. But why did He give His life for me? So that I could be alive from the dead and have a song in my mouth to sing praises to the God of heaven. And so that people from every language, every nation, every tribe, and every tongue could be awakened into one glorious reunion in eternity of God’s people giving Him praise.
Jesus died for me so that God could get glory. What God would die for His own people? What God would give His life to save rebels like me? What God would go to those lengths to do what no other god in history has ever claimed to do? No religious leader would give his life for his people, but God did so that He could be seen as the one unique, merciful God who would do what no other god can do. When Jesus died, that cross was for the glory of God. I got in the story; I got saved; I got redeemed; I got a brand new life, but it was all about the glory of God. Heaven is about God and God’s glory; church today is about God and God’s glory. Everything that exists is about God and His glory. I’m in on it; I’m benefiting from it. My life has been transformed and changed and continues to be, but it is not about me; it is all about Him.
Now, I know we’re not going to get a thunderous applause all the time for that because it rubs us against our flesh, and we’re like, «Ah, that’s all true,» but hopefully there’s a good application in this sermon for me at some point today. Because so far, nothing. Come on! When am I going to get the takeaway? So, I’m preaching this right at this collegiate conference in Arkansas, and I’m learning, Shelley and I are moving our way through with our team, and we are feeling a lot of transition in our hearts around a new revelation of the glory of God. I’m doing my best to preach, and after I finish my talk, I go and sit down on about the third row over here. I’m in this church in Arkansas; I come to this pew right about where you guys are, and the guy running the entire collegiate ministry for the state of Arkansas for this particular denomination is sitting there.
I had been sitting next to him before I preached, and we sit down. Someone comes out to lead the responsive worship song, and he is so excited. I will never forget the moment. He has a very large Bible, four or five times the size of the one I’m holding right now, and he has it opened. He just puts the Bible in my lap. I’m frustrated because I really want to be in this moment of worship. I put the Bible back in his lap and say, «Thank you, but we’re responding to God right now, and I want to be a part of that.» I close my eyes, and next thing I know, the Bible’s back in my lap. I can feel the weight of his finger pointing on the page. I’m getting ready to pick the Bible up and put it back in his lap. By this time, he’s got my hand, and he’s like, «No.» So finally, I’m like, «What?» He goes, «Read that.»
I look down in his Bible, and he’s highlighted a verse of Scripture, which will come up on the screen: Isaiah 26:8. It’s a passage that has become the anchor of everything we do. I look down at his Bible after trying to find my way through this message about the glory of God, and I read these words: «Yes, Lord, walking in the way of Your truth, we wait eagerly for You.» Now there are four or five messages in that, but this last phrase pierced my heart: «For Your name and renown are the desire of our souls.» In other words, these people had come to a revelation that if God truly was ultimate in every way, then the name of God and His renown—that’s the generational echo of God—would indeed be the desire of their souls.
Right there, sitting in that pew, everything about passion crystallized. Our website became 268generation.com. A lot of people on our team still have that email. We were at a point in time in culture where the Internet was new, and you couldn’t search «passion» anything without getting somewhere you didn’t want to go, so we needed another direction. Anyway, but at our conference number one—268 Generation—the next year had the same theme, and the next year 268 Generation. About 65 days from now we’ll gather in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. You know what our theme is this year? 268 Generation, Isaiah 26:8. It’s such a big theme you can’t exhaust it; you don’t need a new theme next year or something else to think about at the next gathering or the next event. It is Your name and Your renown that are the desire of our souls.
If that can get down inside of me—think about a student at Western Kentucky University who’s in a free-for-all of thought and value: everything’s up for grabs. What is truth? What is ultimate? What is value? What are the anchors of life? Every opinion has a voice. Every Thursday night, Friday night, or Saturday night something gets praised, something gets elevated, something gets glory on that campus. What if there were a band of students who said, «We’re going to pray, we’re going to believe, we’re going to walk it out. We’ll be up early praying over the campus; we’ll be up late asking God for revival. We’ll share the gospel with our friends; we’ll be light in our dorms, and we want to see this campus awakened such that His name is echoed in every quad, every dorm. Jesus’s name is spoken in every cafeteria, in every classroom, that Jesus gets the glory on our campus and in our town!»
Your name and Your renown are the desire of our souls. In that moment, we knew what passion was about, and we knew that passion was about what God is about. Do people get saved at passion by the thousands? Do people’s lives get redirected? Absolutely! Do people meet their husband or wife? Tons of them have, amen! Do people get their calling clarified at every gathering? Yes! Do people get a sense of purpose for their lives? Yes! Are people pulled out of pits and standing on solid ground? For sure! Are prisoners set free? Yes! Are people called out to the nations? For sure! But it’s all because we get around a God who is glorious and beautiful and sovereign in every way. We just say, «Let’s get our eyes on Him and get our heartbeat synced to His heartbeat,» and then He will do all the rest. We’ll get swept up in His glory.
So we’re saying again this year to 18 and 25-year-olds: come to an event that is not about you, but come to a God who is at the center of everything, and embrace the most powerful message you can embrace in your life. It is not about you; you are all about Him. You’re like, «Louie, why do I want to get excited about this today?» I mean, I do get what you’re saying, and I understand what you’re saying, and I know that if God’s God, He has to be great and center and all that stuff, but why do I want to get excited about this message today? Two reasons: number one, it’s going to put you in a bigger story for the rest of your life, a story that can still contribute to no matter what you’re going through right now.
A few years ago, I was in a green room after preaching a similar message, just a message about the sovereignty of God, about the beauty of God, about the centrality of God. At a break in this conference, a pastor came over to me, and honestly, I never had a conversation like this. It caught me slightly off guard. We’re just sitting at a table talking, having lunch, with people all around, and this pastor said, «Louie, I just have to tell you, I don’t get the whole passion thing. I mean, it’s all about God and His sovereignty and how He’s at the center of everything. Why do we need to preach to people it’s not about you; it’s all about God? Don’t we just want to tell everyone God loves you? Why do we need to tell them that God is into God?»
I thought, «That’s a good question.» How am I going to answer that quickly to someone I don’t know very well? Just as I started to formulate an answer, I looked over this person’s shoulder, and on the other side of the green room was a friend of ours, a friend of passion, who would be speaking at Passion in the Benz in a few weeks. I said, «The reason why it’s important that people’s theology is centered around a sovereign God is because we live in a disappointing and broken planet.» I said, «Take, for example, my friend.» We both could see my friend. He loved my friend; in fact, he introduced me to my friend. I said, «Take my friend whose daughter died on their kitchen counter a few years ago, having an asthma attack. They buried their five-year-old daughter. He needs a net of theology to fall into that’s bigger than simply 'God loves you.' Because everything in his world right now is telling him God isn’t loving at all. He needs to know that we’re not always going to understand how this sovereign God is moving, but in every moment of life, wherever we are, if we surrender to the heart of a God who does love us, that everything we go through in life can be used for the purpose of bringing glory to God on earth.»
Therefore, everything in life—death and life, our failures and our successes, when we have splattered on the ground and everything is shattered, and on our very best day when it all went the way we hoped it would go—can somehow be surrendered to God and used in a story to help someone else see and know the goodness of God. So whatever you’re in today, you’re not out of the story of a sovereign God. You’re like, «But I’ve blown it all up!» I know, but imagine how amazing it will be when people see that your God is big enough to put it all back together again. Amen!
We’ve suffered great loss; we all have. But how powerful will it be when the world sees that your God is so great that He can bring you through great loss and still give you joy that triumphs over everything this world can bring? I’ll tell you the second reason why this is good news: you get what’s ultimate when you get that it’s all about the ultimate God. You then get what’s ultimate. Do you realize the world can’t add one thing to your value right now if you’re in Christ, and the world can’t add one thing to your portfolio if you know the one who is at the center of it all? You are already in the greatest story of all. I love that God is bringing Passion City Church Atlanta to Atlanta. I love it because this is a creative hub. This is where people whose minds and imaginations do crazy things are gathering. This is where art is made on many different levels, reflecting back the incredible beauty of the God we’re talking about today, this God who has given us the ability to write poetry and melody, create cinematic beauty, and write stories. All that comes from the Creator of the universe. When we’re creating, we’re reflecting the glory of God, and I love that we are now right in the middle of it.
We are literally today right in the middle of it, but we are in the middle of a story, and the story we’re in the middle of today, if I can say this, is greater than any other story that’s going to be created at any other moment in the history of humanity. We’re already in the ultimate story. You have a role in that story, which is the glory of God. Shelley and I went to see this movie, you’ve heard me tell this story before, called «Bobby Jones.» It’s about a great amateur golfer who had roots in Atlanta. We got there early because I’m really particular about wanting to get the right seat. When we arrived, there were only eight people at the theater. We sat right where we wanted, on the aisle toward the back. There were two couples over there and a guy sitting interestingly on the front row of the theater, looking up at the pre-roll stuff that was happening. I thought, «Wow, I don’t know what that guy’s deal is, but he could move back here and not have to go to the chiropractor tomorrow.»
After a moment, he turned around to scan who else was in the theater. It was just the two couples over there and Shelley and me. He seemed to like Shelley, particularly; he just started staring at her. I gently moved over into the frame, like, «What’s up?» He could see me, but he didn’t turn around. A few minutes later, he turned around again and started staring at her. I’m like, «Hey.» You know? Like, «Listen, that’s not a good plan, buddy.» I thought, «What’s your deal?» Finally, he stands up, walks across, and up and out of the theater. I’m staring him down the whole way, like, «Yeah, that’s a good plan. I’d go to another movie too if I were you.»
God was so weird. The guy comes in our side of the theater and sits down in the row in front of us. It’s a true story. Shelley’s right there, and I’m like, «What is happening?» Finally, he just turns around, puts his arm on the chair, and turns around and starts staring right at Shelley. I’m like, «You can feel my palms are wet right now.» I’m going, «If this guy makes one more move…» I’m like, «I’m sorry. I wasn’t the pastor of Passion City Church at the time.» I thought, «I’m going to take this guy out right here.»
Then he asked me, «Do you like golf?» I was like, «Well, you know, a lot of things were going through my mind. We’re at a golf movie, so that’s probably a yes. Why are you staring at my wife?» The movie is called «Bobby Jones.» It’s about a famous golfer. We’re here early, so yes, probably, we like golf. I still can’t get anything out, so no words come out yet. Here comes the second question, and this one caught us off guard. He said, «Are you in the movie?» I was like, «Wait, okay. Like in the movie? Like in here right now? Yes, we’re in the movie. We’re in the seven o’clock showing at Perimeter of the movie. Are you asking if we’re like in the movie, like will we be on screen momentarily?» I can’t get any words out because my hands are sweaty, and I’m thinking it was going to be an altercation. He says, «I’m in the movie.» I’m like, «Oh, thank God. Thank God I’m in the movie.»
I realize that—and I’ll say this kind of gently—I realize the guy is socially operating; he’s a sweet guy. «I’m in the movie; you’ll see me in the movie—bar scene. I’ll be in the bar scene, and you’ll see me when the bar scene happens; look for me; I’ll be in the movie at a table in the bar scene.» Then I realize this guy has been at the theater all day, from the beginning of the first showing to every movie, front row. «Bar scene?» He’s in the movie, and I’m like, «Man, that’s so great!»
At that time, the two couples I told you were down here; one of the ladies says, «I’m in the movie,» and he goes, «You’re in the movie?» I’m in a movie! All of a sudden, he gets up again, goes right down here, and now he’s right in the middle of these two couples and is talking to this lady. I realize they shot a lot of this movie in Atlanta, and a lot of extras got in this movie. Now they’re all leaning out—the same popcorn, passing it back and forth. The theater fills to capacity. The movie starts, and I don’t even know what happens in this film. All I know is there’s going to be a bar scene soon, and when it happens, babe, we are going to watch this dude!
Sure enough, at some point, they get out of a car and walk into a bar, and I’m like, «Here it comes! Here it comes! This is going to be it right here.» They go into the bar—there are a hundred people in there; it swings around to this table where the Bobby Jones character is at the table; they have three conversational sentences, and then they’re out of the bar. That was it. I look over and feel the presence of this guy, so I stare over. Sure enough, he’s over there going, «Yeah!» I just lie, «Whoa, man, way to go! Killed it! Killed it, man!»
We got out of there when that movie ended, got home, and I was driving in the city of Atlanta a few days later, and it all came crashing down. I was like, «Oh my word! I’m in the movie! I am in the movie!» Do you see it? He was and He is and He is to come. In the beginning, it was God. Right now, it’s God. When this whole thing is done, guess what? It will be God. This story, it’s His story! It’s His script! He’s the A-lister! It’s about Him! He’s at the top of the building. The story is the story of God, but God has given me a role in the story of God—the story that has no beginning and no ending, the story that isn’t temporal, the story that outlasts time, the story that is above all stories.
I’m in that story! God has said to me, «Louie, I want to invite you in. I want you to know me so that you’ll know the ultimate, and you will have ultimate meaning and value and significance because you’ll have me, and I am ultimate meaning and value and significance. I want to invite you into a story that, no matter whether it’s death or life or the highs or the lows, whatever happens in life, I can still weave whatever happens in a broken world into a story that brings glory to me by allowing people to see how beautiful I am!»
Louie, I’m going to give you a gift. I’m going to fill you with the Spirit. I’m going to give you an assignment, an opportunity. I’m going to invite you into places and people and time and space, and if you would be willing to be in my story, I would like you to play a role in the story of God. I’m telling you this is the beauty of today! Jesus said it this way: «If a kernel of wheat remains by itself, it dies alone. But if that kernel of wheat goes into the ground and dies, it produces much fruit.» In other words, if you want to make it all about you, you can, but at the end of the day, it’s just all about you. But if you want to get planted in the story of a great and glorious God and say, «I want it to be all about you,» then at the end of your life, there will be a multiplication of life that outlasts time and lives on into eternity.
He said, «The one who wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.» Then Jesus spoke these words affirming and running a lap today around this talk. Jesus said, «Father, it is for this purpose that I came to this hour, the hour of His death,» and then He spoke these words: «It is for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.»
So we have a choice today. We have a choice: we can write a little mini-story, or we can just say, «God, thank You for giving me a role in the story that will never end. Put me in Your story for Your glory. Passion is about the glory of God, and you have a place. You are loved by God! He has the power to turn your story around, but it is not about your story. That’s too small; it’s about His story, and there’s no greater meaning than that.