Louie Giglio - Walking to Macon
Shane Kimbrough is a friend of our house, and he has been in space multiple times. I didn’t think he would go to space again, but as it turns out, he is going to fly to space, Lord willing, this spring on the new Dragon rocket, which is very cool. I thought it was cool, at least—everybody’s like, «Oh yeah, Shane’s going to space again! Oh boy, that’s great!» He’s going to travel on this new, super cool SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station, which means he will return on the Dragon capsule. When you talk to any astronaut about going into space and returning home, they will mention that the liftoff is pretty unbelievable; everything inside you is rumbling. However, they also talk about that moment when the capsule is returning to Earth.
You are screaming through space at over 17,000 miles an hour, and you need to ensure your angle is good, so you don’t bounce off into space—that’s an issue. Secondly, once you enter the atmosphere, there is friction on the capsule—3,500 degrees worth of heat is on the other side of that wall while you are sitting inside the capsule. Astronauts will tell you that this is the hairiest part of the journey. Everything is rumbling and shaking, and you can feel the heat inside the capsule. Flames start coming off the side, and you can see them around the windows. These capsules splash down, and you look at the heat shield, which is just black on the side where the layer that was created melted through as a protection for the astronauts from incineration on reentry. So, there is a glorious splashdown in the ocean, and the difference between life and death in that moment is the heat shield.
What Peter wants to say is that God has started you on an amazing journey, and there will be a glorious splashdown for every believer. But in the process, it’s going to get hairy, and it’s going to be challenging. There will be a heat shield of your faith and the power of God that will be sufficient to ensure the splashdown happens and that you don’t incinerate. It will help you endure through the troubled times and hardships, and you will have a glorious reunion with the one who started this process in your life.
First Peter reminds us today that the splashdown is coming, but in the meantime, it’s going to be tough. There are no «amens» in the building for that thought because all of us are faced with that reality. We know life is going to be hard. In fact, maybe we came into the gathering today trying to shake that off and remember all the good things about God, but living together in First Peter, all the good things about God and the hard things about life are juxtaposed in one message today. Even though there’s fire, the heat shield is going to be good. Even though there will be trials, Jesus is going to bring you through. Even though there will be persecution for the followers of God, Jesus has stored up a reward for you, and he is going to make sure you get there if you put your faith and trust in him. So, we will dive into the beginning and see how this plays out, but before we do that, I want to speed up to what I would consider the central text in First Peter, and then we will back up and see how all of this unfolds.
Let’s fast forward to chapter 2, to a couple of verses that are really the cornerstone of the culture of Passion City Church, found in verses 9 and 10. It says, «But you,» speaking to these believers that God has started this work in, «are a chosen people;» your translation may say «a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession.» Think about that—God intended for you to be his; he decided he wanted you and me to be his. He has placed us in a position where we have access to the things of God and access through Jesus to the throne of God, so we can be ambassadors for Christ, inviting the world to be reconciled to God. We are a holy nation—we’ll talk about that in a moment—but look at this next phrase as though God put a circle around you and put a circle around the church and said, «These are my people.»
In other words, among all the people on Earth, all the gods on Earth, all the religions on Earth, all the ways and options on Earth, these are my people. I chose them. I gave them access to all the things of God. I’m setting them apart as a holy nation, and these are my people. He’s telling us who we are. Peter wants you to know today who you are; God wants you to know who you are. The enemy is in the business of telling you who you’re not; God is in the business of telling you who you are. It’s imperative that you hear the right voice today because you will act according to whoever you think you are. God is saying, «I want you to know again today, chosen—that’s who you are. I want you to know today, royal—that’s who you are. I want you to remember today, holy—that is who you are. Mine—that is who you are.»
So he’s telling us who we are, but now he’s telling us why we are, and it comes naturally out of this verse: You are God’s special possession so that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. This equation is simple and defining for every believer: I wasn’t, but now I am. I didn’t, but now I do. I was without, but now I’m with. And you know who I am? I’m chosen. I’m royal. I’m holy. I’m God’s possession. And the way I’m God’s possession is because of an amazing work where he took me out of darkness and made me a participant in his glorious, marvelous light. So the result is easy: I’m going to declare the praises of him who did that work and made me who I am. My life’s mission now is clear: it is to declare the praise of the God who made me who I am and called me out of darkness into marvelous light.
I love the way he says it here; it’s all throughout the culture document of our house and throughout the DNA of Passion City Church. It’s not that I ought to declare his praise, or I have to declare his praise, or I should declare his praise, or I’ll get more credit in heaven if I declare his praise. No! It’s that I may declare his praise. When I was dead, I couldn’t, but I’m not dead anymore, so I may. When I was in the dark, I couldn’t, but now I’m in his marvelous light, so I may. I may go to church. I may serve God. I may give generously. I may yield my life to him. I may join the song of heaven. I may lift up a shout of praise. I may join in his eternal purposes on planet Earth. It’s a privilege of mine to enter into the things of God. Nobody’s twisting my arm to put my life in the hands of God. I may declare his praise!
You walk in the door of church with an «ought to» or «should,» and then people on stage have to prompt you and prod you to open your heart to God. But if you walk through church through the shadow of the cross of Jesus Christ, when you come through the door, you say, «God, I don’t know the situation or circumstance, but thank you today that I may open my mouth and declare the praises of the living and awesome God! I am chosen. I am royal. I am holy. I belong to God, and I may praise him, and I’m going to praise him.» I invite us into that mentality—that’s what Peter’s trying to get across to you today.
While we say, «Wow, that’s good news! Man, I love that; that is so amazing!» it all sounds great, and it does sound great and is amazing, except for the context in which it sits. The context, simply, if you break the word apart, means «with the text.» So, if you put that idea of who I am and why I am with the text, now you have the juxtaposition. This book is written to remind us that life on Earth will be filled with challenges, suffering as a believer, and persecution. But in the midst of that context, here’s how great it’s going to be: you already know who you are, and you already know why you are. So, in the midst of the fire, just be who you are and why you are. Don’t let the fire diminish your appreciation for who God’s made you, and don’t let the difficulty diminish your opportunity to do the thing he’s allowing you to do, which is to declare his praise.
Look at verse 3 of chapter 1: «Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!» In his great mercy, he has given us new birth—that’s how we got to be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation—into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance. That’s where we’re going: that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you who, through faith, are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. Now, that is a benediction! It gives us the full picture of what has happened and what is going to happen. We can count on the fact that we are a part of a new birth and have an inheritance—a safety deposit box of all safety deposit boxes that is stored up for us, guarded by God himself right now, waiting for our arrival as we come through the storms, trials, and this broken world to arrive safely where he has destined us to be.
But look at the next verse: «In all this, you greatly rejoice!» So far, so good. «Though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.» Can anyone bear witness to that verse right there? Has anyone been through any kind of trials lately? All different kinds! He says all variety, all shapes, all sizes, all levels of difficulty and tension—all kinds of trials for a little while in this season. We’ve all had to come through them, and Peter understands this because he knows the world’s context in which he’s living. He’s writing this book about 30 years or so after Jesus went to heaven. The church is expanding through the known world, but it’s expanding into areas where there are pagan gods, pagan worship, and rulers and emperors who are opposed to the gospel. So very quickly, the message that Jesus is Lord runs into the reality that Nero is Lord.
Very quickly, the message that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life encounters the message that there are lots of ways to truth and lots of ways to life—lots of ways, period. Now there’s friction everywhere the gospel goes; that friction is growing, especially in Asia Minor, with the believers that Peter is addressing. He says in verse one, «Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.» There’s a whole sermon in that phrase, but we’ll leave that for another time—to God’s elect, again, God’s choosing these believers and setting them apart. «Exiles scattered throughout the provinces,» and he names all the places where they are scattered—"who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood.» Grace and peace be yours in abundance!
Now if you have that highly highlighted in your Bible, congratulations! You’re in the minority if you have anything circled or highlighted in those first verses because those are usually the throwaway verses: «Oh, that’s the introduction; let me get down to that powerful benediction and get down to that key text and see what the book is really about.» Well, the book is really about that introduction right there. It’s being written by a man called by God to be a foundational stone in the church—Peter. His name was originally Simon. Jesus changed his name to Cephas in the Aramaic, then to Peter in the Greek, saying, «You’re going to be a chip off the old block. You’re going to be one of the stones by which the church is built. The major stone is me,» Jesus was saying, «but Peter, you’re going to be a rock in the church.»
He was a leader of the Jerusalem church, now speaking to all the churches. Tradition tells us he is on his way, within a few years, to be crucified upside down for his faith. So we don’t have a guy in a coffee shop writing a letter, «Could I get another latte? I got my new iPad stand, and it’s so cool! I got a new iPhone coming next week!» No, dear believers, «God is good all the time!» That sounds good, right? Whoo! That’s a lot of work! «I’m just going to take a selfie of this moment right here, just hanging out with the King writing some words of truth.» This guy Peter is just a few years away from having nails driven through his hands and feet. His association with Jesus is going to cost him his life, and so he’s writing to a scattered church that he calls aliens or strangers—not strange in that they’re weird, just strange in that they’re different than everyone else. He’s writing to them, saying «Grace and peace—lots of it!» Not as a sweet little opening, but because you’re going to need all the grace you can get, and you’re going to need all the peace you can get.
The grace he’s talking about isn’t the grace that gets you into heaven; it’s the grace that gets you through the end of the week. The peace he’s talking about isn’t just peace with God; it’s peace of mind and peace of heart. He said, «Hey, just know on my way to being crucified for my association with Jesus, God gives us grace every step of the way, and God gives us a greater peace of mind and a greater peace of heart, no matter what’s happening on the outside of our life.» So I’m just going to begin with the benediction, «Praise be to the God and Father,» and he comes with his Trinitarian benediction.
Then he unpacks it in a Trinitarian salvation, and he unfolds it more fully in a Trinitarian relationship—God the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Son all at work saving me, and all that work keeping me as a heat shield through the fire. That’s what he’s doing in your life, and that’s what he’s doing in mine—scattered strangers and suffering. People have said, «I don’t believe in a God who would allow suffering in anyone’s life. I wouldn’t believe in a God like that, because no one would want to allow suffering in any situation.» But the truth is that we’re living on a broken planet because of our decisions. Suffering actually has a positive outcome for our faith. That doesn’t mean God loves to see people suffer; it just indicates that people actually appreciate seeing people suffer for the good.
Think about this: I remember being at a football training complex for guys who were making this their career and living. They had this massive weight room, which was one thing, and they had all these other apparatuses for working out. But they also built outside the weight room an artificial hill with a steep incline. Guys would run up the hill while other guys were pulling on a rope attached to a harness they had, running up the hill with someone pulling them along, then running back down and running up again. Some would stop at the end and throw up on the ground. When they did, others would say, «Way to go, man! That’s how you do it! Let’s go, let’s go!» The one who was sick would get up and run up the hill again, and everyone would cheer him on. Nobody was saying, «Hey, this isn’t good—this guy is throwing up!»
Why do we want to build an artificial hill? Well, here’s why: when we’re done, we’ll go to the sand pit and run in there for a while, putting cones in there to do drills until everyone falls over. That makes sense because if you want to be in the game in the fourth quarter, if you want to have the ball in your hands in the third overtime, you’re going to be glad you went up that incline with a guy pulling you along, because you’ll end up faster and better than everyone else. You’ll finish and say, «Yes, I suffered, but man, am I glad I did because it made me better!»
That’s what those who have gone through med school tell you about residency. They make you suffer; they make you work without sleep. Think about how great that is if you’re the patient! They put you through all manner of hardship—why? Because they’re trying to forge in you what they forge in Navy SEALs or what’s developed when you’re studying for the bar exam. It is a fire for a reason, and that’s what Peter is talking about. You know, suffering actually and persecution is what got the Church going in the beginning, and in history, it is what has kept it going. Without it, all of us are prone to comfort, and though we start out with a pioneering spirit, it’s easy for us to become settlers and say, «I’m good.» God says, «Oh no, there are many people on the planet who don’t know me. I don’t need you to be good; I need you to be going. I don’t need you to be good; I need you declaring my praise—the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.»
Here’s the thing: these people were scattered. It names all the places where they lived: they lived in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Asia Minor. These people were spread out through the major metropolitan areas of Asia Minor, most of them Jewish believers who had moved there for jobs, opportunities, or a better life, having migrated out of Jerusalem into these pagan cities. What God is saying is, «By your scattering, you’re next to neighbors in a lost world.» As chosen, royal, holy—trust me, in Pontus, they’re watching you. In Galatia, they’re watching you. In Cappadocia, they’re watching you. In Asia Minor, they’re watching you; they’re all watching because you’re one of those in the fire. They’re watching to see what’s going to come out of your life.
We get it; Jesus got it. Forty days and forty nights, he suffered in the wilderness and was tempted like crazy at the very end of it all. Why? Because his mission wasn’t just to be good in the fourth quarter; it wasn’t just to pass the bar exam, be an attorney on record, be a medical doctor, or a Navy SEAL. His mission was to save people and jettison them out of darkness and into light, and when that’s your mission, you’ve got to go through fire—even if your name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God in human flesh.
So suffering, when you put it in this context, isn’t God trying to hurt us; it’s God trying to help us, refine us in the best way. A few things will happen to you and me when we go through the fire:
1. We will shed what’s not needed for the mission. That’s what happens when those guys are running up and down that incline.
2. We will steel our resolve as we discover that our faith is real. Has anybody ever gone through a really difficult time, and at the end of it, you’re not glad you did it but you don’t want to do it again? At the end, you might say, «You know what? I learned in that fire more about my faith than I knew before that fire. God was more real to me in that fire than he ever was before!»
I can promise you my faith has been steeled in the process. It is more solid and fortified. I believe in God—that’s why I still believe, because of Jesus' example. The fact is that if God wants to use you greatly, he will put you through fire. Then your message isn’t, «I read it in a book,» or «I heard it in a story.» Your message is, «Bro, I went through the fire! He’s real—that’s the irrefutable argument.»
«Well, I don’t believe in God.» «Great! I went through the fire, and he was real!» That’s what it means to steel your resolve: shed what you don’t need, steel your resolve. A third thing that happens when we go through suffering is that we shine.
Think about it like this: and this would have been in the mind of someone reading this text in verse 7 when it says about these trials—these different kinds of things we’re going to suffer—that they come so that the proven genuineness of your faith, of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. The trials have come so that the genuineness of your faith will result in praise and honor to God.
In this period of time, a goldsmith talking about putting gold in the fire would put gold ore under intense heat; it would liquefy and the impurities would rise to the surface. The goldsmiths would skim the impurities off the surface until he could see his reflection clearly in the surface of the liquefied gold. Only then would he know it’s time to take it off the fire—this gold is pure! Isn’t that a beautiful example of God putting us through the shaker, if you will—putting us under pressure so that he can skim off what’s not of him, and then see himself in us? When he sees that, he says, «Now, now, now! You need to be on display in the world because now after this purifying process, I can be seen more clearly and receive more praise, more honor, and more glory in your life.»
It’s Peter asking, «Is your faith diamond faith or cubic zirconia faith?» You can get a big cubic zirconia for $99; it’s synthetic, and you can hardly tell it from a diamond unless you put them under pressure or have them inspected by someone who really understands true worth and value. That’s what Peter is trying to get at. He’s trying to say God’s looking for faithfulness.
Pastor Crawford Lawrence was with our team this week, and one of the lines he said, which Shelley wrote down and I think maybe even Instagrammed afterward, was that we were discussing it. I don’t know his exact words, but he said something like, «It’s not necessarily the most gifted or the most talented person that God is looking for; it’s the most faithful.»
The most faithful person is someone who’s gone through the fire and knows there is a payoff in heaven. Look, if you will, a few verses down in verse 13: «Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.» In other words, there’s a guarantee for me, no matter how much suffering I go through: there’s an inheritance that is incorruptible waiting for me at the end of the day, and I’m willing to walk through anything knowing that that is my certain outcome.
The question that stirs when you ask that is, how real is heaven to you? How real is heaven to the church? How real is this place we think about—this Jesus we talk about, these streets of gold and glory of God that we sing about? How real is that to you? Is it real enough that even if everything goes off the rails, you’re thinking, «I’m still going to be faithful and true, and I’m still going to have my hope set on what is to come»? That payday payoff—the end result—is for sure.
It says, «If I said we’re all going to walk to Macon,» and you’re like, «I don’t want to walk to Macon.» I don’t know how far Macon is—30, 40, 50 miles from here? I should have looked that up. But I say, «We’re all going to walk to Macon. It might take a couple of days.» «Okay, good! Everybody ready to go?» You’re like, «Why do I want to walk to Macon?» I say, «Well, there’s a guy there, and he’s guaranteed me that everyone from Passion City Church who walks for two days—had to start today, by the way—will arrive, and will pay off your credit card debt, your mortgage, your medical bills, or your student loans. You get to pick two of those!» You’re like, «I don’t have a mortgage!»
«Great! Then student loans and credit card debts—he will take care of those because he’s good for it.» Everybody is walking down the road. They’re not saying, «Oh, honey, we’ve got a roast in the crock pot, and we can’t walk to Macon today. It’ll be dog food by the time we get home. We can’t go today; we’ve got an appointment. We’re watching the Falcons' game with our neighbors; we need to take a nap!» You’re like, «No man, I’m walking to Macon!» Because I believe that when I get there, there’s going to be a guy who will pay off my mortgage or student loans or medical bills or credit card debt. With your eyes on that, you just keep walking to Macon, shedding the «what-ifs» and «I need to’s,» and saying, «No, this is going to be worth it at the end.»
Peter is talking about a faith like that—a faith that doesn’t just say «heaven,» but really believes «heaven.» A faith that believes it enough to say, «I’m going to keep moving. I’m going to stay faithful. I’m going to stay focused on Jesus. I’m going to keep declaring his praise. I’m going to keep walking, even though there are fiery trials. I’m going to keep walking, even though we’re scattered. I’m going to keep walking, even though we’re strangers. I’m going to keep walking, even though there’s suffering, because I believe in where I’m going. When I get there, it’s going to be stunning!»
You know what the simple prayer today might be? «Lord, I really need a revelation of the reality of heaven, because I’ve sung about it, but man, one speed bump on Earth, and all of a sudden my faith gets wobbly. My praise gets shaky. I start questioning if you still love me. The enemy comes in and tells me who I’m not, and I forget who I am. All of a sudden, there’s pain, hardship, difficulty, suffering, loss, or death, and I don’t know if God’s big enough. I don’t know if God can be trusted. I don’t know if God really is who he says he is.»
In the midst of all of that, Peter is saying, «Do you have, look at the way he says in verse 13—you have minds that are alert and fully sober?» What that means literally is, to the reader, «Pull your robe up"—that’s what they wore in the day—"gird it up around your waist so you can run.» But do that in your mind—not with your robe. Gird up your mind so that you can run free. Free your mind so you can run, so you can be awake, so you can see what is real and so you can freely move. Free your mind from worry, fear, jealousy, anger, unforgiveness—whatever it is that clamps down your mind so that you can’t move toward the finish line. Today, say, «Free up your mind based on who you are so you can be sober,» which means awake, and then you can move with hope set on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus is revealed at his coming.
So let’s just park there for today. There’s a plan in motion, and he who began a good work in you, the Scripture says, is faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. That means he’s still working today. He’s still God today. He means he’s the same God who chose you today, offering you abundance of grace today to take one more step today through whatever it is that you’re walking through. Today, he’s given you an abundance of peace so that your heart and mind will be covered as you walk through whatever you’re walking through.
Today, have your mind fixed on the splashdown that is guaranteed in the ocean called eternity, where the prize is Jesus himself. Peter said, «You guys haven’t seen him in the verses above. You’re not one of the apostles like me; I have actually seen the guy that I’m telling you about right now. Imagine that; that’s good sermon material! Oh no, I was with him! I ate with him! I walked with him! We hung out together! I was in the inner circle with him! I saw Jesus; I saw him crucified; I ran to the empty tomb; I saw the nail marks in his wrists and in his feet. I was there when he ascended into heaven. I saw him! But even though you haven’t seen him yet, you still believe. You are still trusting based on what you’ve experienced in your life that you are going to see him at the end of the day. It is not just going to be the people from Bible times who see Jesus face to face, but all of us who have been called into his marvelous light are going see the Son of God face to face.
So forget about the house he’s building for me or the streets of gold or the crystal sea— I don’t care; he’s going to be there, and I’m going to see him, and he’s going to call my name! Can you imagine? In that moment, it’s going to be a blink of an eye opportunity for your life. In that moment, when he calls your name, you bring praise, honor, and glory to him. Can you hear heaven now? „Oh, you should have seen her! Her husband walked out on her; the situation was horrible. Yet her faith never wavered in the heat shield of my power, and she came through the rumbling, through the fire, and through the flames. She came through the cancer treatment, through the death of her sister, through her pension evaporating when her company folded, and she just kept believing that God was bigger, that God had a plan, that God had put in a safe deposit box an eternal reward, and that he was standing at the end of the race.
She just kept holding on to her faith, even though everything was shaken and the temperature was rising. But the heat shield held, and now she’s splashing down in glory! I want to tell her story to heaven today. I want to tell the story of someone who was strong in the fourth quarter and who, when the moment needed it, was able to shine. See, there is no suffering wasted in the economy of God; it’s all shedding and stealing and giving us that extra capacity to shine—all from a Jesus who, this very text said, suffered for us.