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[Music] [Applause] [Music] hello church it's good to be back i hope you're excited to be back it's gonna be a great day come on [Music] you see my victory [Music] when all i see is the mountain you see a mountain and as i walk through the shadow your love surrounds me there's nothing to fear now before i am safe with you [Music] come on let's [Music] lifted high oh god the battle belongs to you and [Music] belongs to you for jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] you see the beauty [Applause] [Music] when all i see is [Music] that'll the battle belongs to you and almighty fortress you go before us nothing can stand against the power of our god you shine in the shadows you win every battle and nothing can stand against you today it's true come on [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is belongs to you [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] don't be so [Music] don't be so down castle [Music] it's so great to step in today and just remember what we're just saying that the battle has already been won today that there's victory because jesus has overcome the grave so that's where we start from today and then we remind ourselves that's church that we can come in this place to stand together and remind each other of truth today your neighbor needs to hear it you need to hear it your voice needs to see it even if you don't believe it today i want to encourage you to take a step to sing it and let your heart catch up maybe later but man this is the truth that jesus is victorious over every circumstance that you're walking through and that you're currently in so stand in that hope today that he offers hope a confidence in the future so come on church tell each other tell yourself this truth come [Music] are my on miracle why should my heart grow don't be so downcastle my soul you are in every moment and you are my greatest [Music] you are my greatest [Music] you are my greatest [Music] oh is [Music] is one with us forever [Music] and then from north to south and east to us we'd hear christ be magnified [Music] his name would first [Music] [Music] [Applause] christ [Music] christ be [Music] melody [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] me [Music] me [Music] i'll stand strong and worship you and if it puts me in the fire i'll rejoice cause you're all there too i won't be formed by feelings i hold fast [Music] is [Music] [Music] ever my heart will still be seen [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] christ [Music] me oh jesus be magnified alive this is our hearts be magnified [Music] christ be magnified in me o christ the magnify from the altar of my life christ be magnified in me [Music] how high the [Music] and spoke your name into the net and through the darkness your loving kindness is all through the shadows [Music] jesus christ [Music] but [Music] to where [Music] oh jesus christ [Music] [Applause] set me free [Music] jesus christ oh [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] the promise you sing you'll be [Music] declared the grave has no clay [Music] you're very high [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus christ [Applause] [Applause] [Music] come on church are you glad to be back in the house of god today [Music] so good to be all together uh after not gathering the last two weeks it just feels good to be together as a family and it feels good to sing this song to come back and to remember this is what we're about we're about the fact that we have a living hope whose name is jesus he's reigned for all of eternity and he's still seated on his throne today you know hope is a scarce thing to find in 2021. people all over the world are searching everywhere they can to find something that will give them hope and it's good to be in this place where the search has ceased and we can say we found it and it's in a person and his name is jesus christ i love getting these lyrics in our heart especially as we stopped yesterday and remembered 20 years ago the horrific events that happened on september 11th and i just don't want to get too far in our gathering to without just saying to people who yesterday wasn't about remembering an event yesterday was about the fact that there's still an empty chair at the table and thousands of thousands of people lost a family member a son or a daughter a brother or a sister and today we just want to share in your sorrow and say we haven't moved on we haven't stopped thinking about you and at the same time i want to celebrate the heroic heroic first responders service men and women who rushed into the world trade center buildings they were heroes on that day and they're still heroes on this day and ultimately more than anything i want us to just remember and be grateful for this word hope it means to be confident in something that's coming in the future and for all of us we know that jesus christ came conquered sin hell death in the grave to reconcile us to god and then we he told us he's coming back for his church people we have hope we as a people us as a nation in this world has hope thank you jesus i want to say welcome to everybody linking in with us around the world we say all the time that we're a family and a family is about doing life together and getting to know each other and so in this room we just want to give you a minute to give somebody a hug a handshake an elbow a high five whatever you're comfortable with get to know their name don't just sit by someone at church we're family here so why don't you do that and then grab a seat [Music] awesome hey we're really excited to be kicking off a new series today at passion city church called imprint and pastor louie's going to be starting us off in just a few minutes but before he comes uh two things i want to make sure you know about one i'm holding in my hand uh volume two of the flourish book which is maybe the most beautiful book i've ever seen so much work has gone into making this book available this book is for women in our house and all over planet earth who are growing in a mentor relationship being discipled hundreds thousands of women have been have been in a mentor relationship this resource now is not only in our house but people are using this resource all over planet earth right now in a mentor relationship which is incredible that's happening from our house and so uh this is the this is release day for volume two of the curriculum for flourish and the teams worked so hard on this i would say i'm going to give this away to the first person that's ever going to get it but if you wanted that you should have come to the 9 30. so the second person who's ever going to get one of these any any ladies in the room want this copy right here i see you seem excited about it come on down you can have this one awesome if you're not a part of flourish yet and you want to be in a mentor relationship you can still do that you can go to flourishmenture.com and after the gathering you can grab your copy of the book today only for 20 and also some of the grove team is out at resources just outside these doors they love to talk to you and answer any of your questions next thing i want you to know about is passion 22 is coming and it's coming quickly feels far off 2022 but get this it's in 16 weeks which is pretty crazy we're gonna gather at mercedes-benz down in atlanta to gather a generation to lift up the name of jesus and so i want you to check out this quick video for a little of the heartbeat behind passion and then i'm going to come back and tell us about opportunity we have and we'll continue so y'all check out this video 2020 we saw the flag [Music] of worship and justice [Music] his come on so here's the thing this coming friday the price goes up by twenty dollars from 119 to 139 are there any college 18 to 25 year olds in this gathering a couple you didn't want to say anything you can say something we're glad you're here and i hope that you'll go if one of these students maybe you're sitting by then be awesome if you just got their ticket for them today but another thing i've been thinking about is what if everybody went online and bought a couple tickets and then you asked god who do you want these tickets to be for i say that because i came to passion uh and i didn't buy a ticket someone had an extra ticket and they said to me hey do you want to go and here i am 12 years later everything about my life is different because someone extended an invite for me to come be a part of this gathering and you can do the same thing so go online grab a ticket if you're a college student grab some tickets if you're not and pray and ask god who do you want to be in atlanta georgia mercedes-benz for these days general lawhorn's going to come and lead us in our giving you guys help me welcome him he helps lead and steer all our family ministries lead us what's up bro hey good afternoon super excited to be here i hope you all are pumped for passion 2022 i know that i am hey my wife and i about a month ago circled up and we had a conversation around our giving around the time of above and beyond here in our house and we decided that we wanted to be sacrificial givers as a family and the lord has been teaching me a lot about what it means to be a sacrificial giver i just want to lean into that and share that with you real quick fun fact i have been in ministry for a little while so i am super open but i'm also a massive introvert so i'm just going to share with you secretly and to you at home um i had gastric bypass december of 2019. at the time i had that surgery i weighed 570 pounds that is four soaking wet pastures brandt and that's like if you gave him two water jugs as well like it was a lot today i weigh 230 pounds i'll take it i'll take it i'll take it now listen when i went to my initial appointment my doctor looked at me and he said gee i'm gonna give you a surgery and this surgery is just a tool there are a lot of people that have access to this tool and they have to decide how they're going to use that tool and how they're going to leverage and you have to make a decision right now are you going to make the necessary sacrifices so that this tool can be all that it can be and so my wife can verify what i'm about to tell you since that day i've not had a piece of bread i've not had a soda i've not had a donut i've not had anything that starts with little or debbie and that hasn't been easy but i have not and i did not do those things so that i could do other things and because i made those sacrifices my life is drastically better today than it was then y'all when i think about passion city when i think about this house when i think about this church i think about this house being a tool a great tool a tool that god is using to get his message to the ends of the earth and i have to ask you a question today church and our friends watching at home are you willing to make sacrifices to leverage this tool so that it can be all that it could be so i'm going to tell you what my doctor told me we can be all in we can make a decision a day to dip a toe in or we can link arms and jump to the deep end of the pool and collectively spread the glory of jesus to places that none of us could get to on our own but as a collective we can reach as a house and so this morning i just want to encourage you i'm going to read real quick i'm not going to read it i got 25 seconds left it says this in joshua have i not commanded you to be bold and courageous you have nothing to fear god is with you wherever you go i just want to encourage you to be bold this morning be courageous let's give to him so that we can give for him and do things together as a family let me pray father god heaven thank you for this day thank you for this house thank you for these people thank you for your son in jesus name amen [Applause] [Music] so [Music] smattering of applause hi cumberland so glad to be linked up with you guys how's everybody feeling no seriously has everybody feeling good i'm so happy to be back at church shelly and i so happy to be back today and i love that our church pauses i love that we do the unthinkable we just stop you know it's very rare for that to happen and anything in life and i love it when our church can stop and our team appreciates that our door holders appreciate it so much but i just think it says a lot to god and um we had something happen actually it's always true but we've been working on something all year most of the year and um within our organization not passion city church particularly but within our passion organization and it's just been a you know one of those things where it just wasn't going and we weren't working over sabbath break of course because we stopped but the rest of the world does work on stuff and on the friday of the week between our two sundays of sabbath phone rang and a person left a message and the thing we've been working on as an organization all year that wasn't going anywhere was going somewhere on the friday of sabbath god said this is going to go somewhere because i'm working while you're resting i'm doing what i'm going to do and almost every year maybe every year but almost every year something like that happens in our story and something like that happens in our giving almost every single time coming out of above and beyond sunday going into sabbath god says i want to show you what i can do and so i just love that our church took that time so thank you for giving us the grace to do that and uh you guys online i know it feels a little bit weird when you're not you know in the mix with us necessarily if you're not in atlanta or in dc but what an incredible time and so good to be back and awesome just to be in worship today amen and so i i love it when we sing the message before we preached the message and we did that today i was speaking at another church a few weeks before sabbath on a wednesday night at their young adult gathering and they were singing some songs from their church that i didn't actually know a lot of the songs their team had written them and one of their worship leaders just stood up and started leading this song i'd never heard before and it was a good 47 of my sermon the setup the song the ministry moment in the middle and i'm like this is so great a lot of people were like oh no you're you're preaching my message i'm like no i got the right message hallelujah thank you god i'm on the right track here tonight and it just encouraged me so much and today what we're saying is that there's a name above all names and if you've been to church you've heard that what 500 times a thousand times 10 000 times if you have never been to church welcome today to a church that believes what god's word says that jesus name is greater higher superior to above every other name [Applause] and so i know that we know this [Music] but when when it settles deep things change [Music] because the tug of war that you and i are all in today all of us together is what name is going to get the headline in our story and i'm just telling you today christ's name is bigger [Music] than loss it's bigger than divorce it's bigger than depression is bigger than the biggest pile of money that's in this house today it's bigger than any brand any company it's bigger than your family's name it's bigger than the robinsons or the johnsons or the halls or the whoever you came from awesome i love the giglio name but there is a name that is bigger than the giglio name it's bigger than your cause it's bigger than your philosophy than your school than your mascot than your friends than whatever it is that's competing in your heart to be the biggest name and i just want us to sing this we sang it already in both gatherings but i just want us to sing this chorus just as an entry into the message today just as a statement of fact and hope for our lives jordan's gonna lead us [Music] christ being magnified let his praise arise christ be magnified hear me oh christ be magnified from the altar of my life christ be magnified in me sing it up christ be magnified and let his praise rise christ be magnified in me oh christ be magnified from the altar of my life christ [Music] yeah jesus that's our hope today so i just would like us to start there with you jesus and pray that you would open your word in our hearts and that truly we would all be able to end there in a new and a fresh way today and i thank you for that and we're trusting you for it in jesus name amen [Music] [Applause] you know i don't do this a ton uh and i would just say this is this impression in my heart but as i lead into the talk today i was just thinking about toledo ohio and i don't know why because that mean you'd have to be uh online but i don't know maybe somebody's here from toledo ohio that'd be even cooler um but not specifically right in toledo but you say you're from toledo but you're from a little town and a community is just outside of toledo ohio if that's you today the lord has a word for you and i'm excited about that and it's not you and there's no one from toledo ohio then it's just me and that's cool too so i'm excited the series that we're in is called imprint and what we're trying to do is introduce ourselves as passion city church and you're like wait a minute we already know passion city church that's how we're here and why we're here today but what i'm learning in these weeks after the global crisis that we've all been through is there's been a tremendous amount of upheaval in the world have you noticed this lots of people are transitioning people are leaving one line of work and getting in a new line of work people are leaving an old place of employment coming to a new place of employment we're leaving one city moving to another city maybe moving to toledo or moving from toledo there are people moving around and internally and externally there's a lot of change going on and i know this is real because of the people i'm meeting at passion city church and i'm saying hi who are you and they're like we're the so-and-sos we just got here we just moved from city x y or z or we found passion city online during the global crisis and now we're here at the building for the first time and we don't know anybody but we're excited to be here and it made me think i just love to introduce ourselves so that we all know who we are and so imprint is the mark that you leave on the world imprint is the mark you leave on a person that you meet every single day and imprint is what we want to do as passion city church we want to leave a mark on the world and so i want to talk for a few weeks or we want to talk for a few weeks about the imprint passion city church wants to leave on the world and you don't leave imprints by accident if you want to make a mark on the world that lasts forever and so we have a document at passion city church called our culture and standards it's online at passioncitychurch.com i would encourage you to check it out but if you come and join our team you eventually get immersed into this document we take a few minutes at our all team meetings and we talk about one of these values on our team and we're going to talk about a few of them over the next few days and the one we're talking about today is really excited but before we jump into it i want to invite you to open your text to colossians chapter one that's where we're going to be today and we're talking about headlines anybody been in the newspaper i know that sounds crazy because there aren't newspapers anymore but um there are i know but nobody reads a real newspaper anybody been in a newspaper in here anybody got in the paper growing up okay dar we know you've been in the paper we got a world-class triathlete right here anybody i did and see anybody been in the paper yeah for good reasons let's just say for good reasons anybody been in the paper for something semi-decent it's pretty exciting when you get in the paper for a good reason and uh june 4th friday 1976 was one of the days i got in the paper for a good reason i was excited about it uh the article looks something like this i'll just let you take that in for a minute just as a blessing to you and to your family yes meet c-h-s-s-c-h-s's sorry to get that out court specialists ray dukes and butch giglio and the butch giglio is the guy on the right in case you're struggling to kind of figure it out the hair is real by the way just letting you know that's not a perm uh from the 70s that's the real deal and you're looking at the regional tennis champions from cobb county area region and the sub region second seed at the state tennis tournament in georgia playing doubles together the little line at the bottom says campbell netters that's campbell high school smyrna georgia campbell netters ray dukes left and butch giglio make plans dot dot dot our illustrious high school tennis career has come to a close but we've got plans and you needed to know about it and so it's in the paper we both are heading for georgia state and more tennis now i'm just going to leave that up there longer hoping that head will see this and send a sponsorship check to to ray or myself today for the head tennis rockets that we're supporting there i've got the pro model which is the lower end model he has the arthur ash special uh which i couldn't quite afford in our family but nonetheless we were styling we were winning and we made it into the marietta daily journal now i'm not knocking the marietta paper but it was the marietta paper and ray duke's mom worked at the marietta paper and so we got a lot of little bylines in the marietta paper the point is we didn't make it to the headline that day uh we were just in the sports section on page 3b and there's some other things going on in the deal marietta high school cheerleaders are being honored over here on the right hand side but if you uh falcons quarterbacks steve barkowski anybody remember back to those days so this is how far we're talking back now but we made it in we didn't get the headline on the front page we didn't even get the front page of the sports section but we made it into page three b and for a lot of us life is like that we're looking for the opportunity to find that headline and when we do we think oh man i i got in the news or i got in the paper or i got the byline but at the end of the day this was 40 crazy 45 years ago and nobody gives a rip and yes we did both go to georgia state that happened and yes one of us played tennis at georgia state and it wasn't your boy and um one of us was good enough to make the georgia state tennis team the other one wasn't but i did get called to preach in the process of not making the georgia state tennis team so i'm grateful that that didn't happen because god had a different path and a different plan for me but at the end of the day none of this really matters and all the detail that's in here about how we met at andover gardens apartments which was weird because if you'd asked me the name of the apartments that i was living in i would have had a hard time remembering that at my age but it's right there in the paper andover gardens apartments they're not still called that so don't go looking for them and stalking me or anything like that but um then it talks about how we met when we started playing tennis all about our love of doubles how we became the doubles team even though we weren't the number one and two singles on our on our high school team blah blah blah blah blah none of it matters anymore and what god is wanting to say about us as passion city church is that we need to be careful what headline we want to print in other words what do we want to be known for as passion city church and so when you look at our culture and our standards document the number one culture value of this house is jesus is our lead story so no matter what day of the week it is what season of the year it is what climate it is globally or politically or culturally or any other way jesus is our lead story we have a name that we believe is above every other name and therefore we're going to make that name the lead story of our house the headline of our house is jesus jesus is our lead story if you look the value of this is what you'll find and i'll read it for us jesus is our lead story in fact jesus is our only story he is preeminent in our hearts and central in all we do we believe jesus is unrivaled in history and eternity he is god and he is good glorious both now and forever his name is the only name that saves his power is the only power that can raise us from the dead our goal is not just to get people to church ultimately we want people to meet jesus that's why we say we are a jesus church we really don't want to be identified by any other name jesus is our lead story i said this many times but two or three questions into meeting anyone anywhere uh comes up the fact that i'm a pastor and that question is always followed by a perplexing look and uh like what kind of church are you a pastor of and i'll say well um we're at jesus church people often will ask well what denomination is it because they that's like a default question while they're thinking of what else are they going to say to this guy that they just found out is a pastor and so like oh you're a pastor oh well what kind of church is it or what denomination are you and i'm like we're at jesus church and people were like what does that mean and i'm like i know see we just believe in jesus we believe he's the son of god we believe he is the way to salvation we believe his words are words of truth we believe he is the way the truth and the life so we're digging into his word we want to be changed by his life we want to be raised into his likeness we want to follow him and tell the whole world who he is and they're like oh okay so you're not lutherans then we're like no it's not about being lutherans or baptist or you know reform baptist or primitive baptist or uh shady grove baptist or or methodist or these are those of the other and people finally they're trying to add it all up and then people say oh i understand what you're saying now you're non-denominational like no no we're not a non-denominational church because we don't want to be not something we want to be something and what we are is the jesus church he's the center of our church he's the story that we tell he's the reason that we're alive and he is the name above all names he's the headline in life and the headline in eternity that's the way god's word describes him in colossians chapter 1. in verse 15 it says about him he so i'll just put his name there jesus is the image of the invisible god the firstborn over all creation for by jesus all things were created things in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities all things were created by jesus and for jesus jesus is before all things and in jesus all things hold together and jesus is the head of the body the church jesus is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead so that in everything jesus might have the supremacy for god was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in jesus and then through jesus reconcile to himself all things whether things on earth or things in heaven by making peace through jesus blood shed on the cross jesus before it all so before you there was jesus jesus made it all so everything that's been made has been made by jesus including you and including me i was made by jesus but not only was i made by jesus i was made for jesus jesus before everything and in jesus everything holds together so the very cosmos is connected today because of the sustaining power of jesus and jesus is the head of the church nobody else runs the church but jesus he is in charge of his church and he is the head of his church and he's the first born from the dead first one out of the grape first one out of hell first one out of sin first one out of the darkness the first one alive from the dead was jesus so that he could bring a whole lot of us out of death with him into his life therefore he is the one who gets all the supremacy in other words he's ultimate there's no name higher there's no name greater there's no name more powerful no name more worthy no name that shakes the darkness more there's no name that lasts in eternity more than the name of jesus therefore it makes sense right that jesus would be our lead story but yet we're a trinitarian church and so let's talk theology just for a moment because we do believe in god the father and we want to be connected in a relationship with him and do his will and we 1000 believe in the holy spirit and we want to be filled with him and led by him to do supernatural things that only he can empower us to do so we've got a father and we've got a spirit and now we're talking about making it all about jesus but i want you to know that this community of god's called the trinity the father the son and the holy spirit who are each individually god and equally god yet all together combined to be god they love making it all about jesus that doesn't mean that the father isn't in the story and doesn't want to be in your story doesn't mean the spirit's not in the story doesn't want to be in your story just means the father was thrilled to send the son and to raise him up as an offering for all mankind and the spirit is thrilled to amplify jesus his teaching his word his truth his ways so that we then can fully know all of the power that is in jesus and that power that can be in us and the trinity they're not freaked out they're they don't get jealous when they walk into passion city church and go oh i see that jesus is life wall oh look who's getting all the glory around here oh man kids getting all the glory again son's getting all the praise again why doesn't say the spirit is life or the father is life for the trinity is life because the trinity even though they are all equally god they exist to exalt the finished and final work of jesus that gives them the name above all names and this is how comfortable they are jesus said this himself when he was teaching about the holy spirit in chapter 15 of john's gospel when he's unfolding the coming of the spirit here's how he says it verse 26 when the counselor comes whom i will send to you from the father see how the trinity is working together the spirit of truth who goes out from the father he will testify about me so the spirit is being sent out by jesus from the father with a mission to tell people about jesus so that on pentecost we've said this so many times here on the day that the spirit came on pentecost and filled the believers in the upper room waiting the very first thing that happened was that they all preached the gospel in languages they couldn't preach to people who were gathered from all over the known world and 3 000 people got saved that day by hearing the gospel of jesus and so he says again in chapter 16 a little bit further down he says let's just pick it up in verse 12. i have much more to say to you more than you can bear but when he the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth he will not speak on his own he will speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is yet to come he will bring glory to who to me so this spirit is going to give glory to jesus by taking from what is mine in making it known to you all that belongs to the father is mine and that is why i said the spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you so when we're writing a headline that says it's all about jesus the father is going i'm cool with that and the spirit's going that's what i want to do i want to make it all about jesus and so are we um you know picking and choosing over the trinity no we're just living in the community of the trinity in an intimate relationship with a perfect father which all of us need to be called the sons and daughters of almighty god brought to life by the finished work of jesus and empowered and led by the holy spirit to live the life that only he could live why so that at the end of the day the headline of our life the imprint of our life will last longer than a little bitty chintzy headline in a newspaper on page 3b but that the imprint of our life the imprint of the 70 years 30 years 17 years 28 years however many years you're graced on this earth that the imprint of your life will be the headline that lasts forever jesus is our lead story and that makes sense right you're like louie if if there was any other lead story at pageant city church we wouldn't be here we don't need any people's names to be the lead story we want jesus to be magnified in this house because he is the hope of the nations and he's the only name by which people can be saved so yes that makes total sense that jesus be the lead story of passion city church i'm i'm hoping that i haven't really gotten an amen on that yet but i'm hoping that you're agreeing that that's a good idea that jesus is the lead story of our house but the the changing element here is when what's good enough for the church in our house is good enough for me in my house that if it makes sense that jesus should be the church's lead story then something clicks and you go hello it makes the same sense that jesus should be my lead story and the power will come today when we can say collectively jesus is our lead story and then it can be said about you jesus is your lead story it's the essential why it's when jesus is our lead story changes to you and now it's jesus is your lead story how does that work will there be people all over the map in our house today and it would always start by just asking the question why he said what do you mean okay there's a group of people here today and you're in a season of favor amen isn't it awesome to be in a season of favor your family is going good the rhythm is right everything you invest in is exploding and blowing up you're the first person to bitcoin and you're so happy now you you have gotten a promotion at your place of work the deal that you're working on came through your the baby that you prayed for has arrived i mean it's favor and you wake up in the morning in his favor you're so uh you're so embarrassed by you don't even tell people half of it anybody like that in the house today could you just let us know um thank you um our team will be circling over your way a little bit later um you're so it's going so good you feel horrible going to coffee with people they're like man how are you doing oh i'm doing okay yeah i made 75 000 this morning so far my kid just got into harvard law we're good and it's favor and you don't have to feel bad about it do you understand you have to feel bad about walking in favor when favor starts coming on your life that's god's choice that's god's season that's god's timing and normally no one lives an entire life a favor but you might have favor on your life consistently through your whole life and you never have to feel bad about favor whether it's financial favor or family favor or business favor or influence favor or success favor you never have to feel bad about favor but you have to ask why you have to bring the essential y in and it's simple all you have to do is ask of god this question how can i use this favor for your glory in other words you're saying to god i believe there's a headline and it ain't my favor i believe there's a name and it's not my favor i believe there's something that is essential and ultimate and it's not me and it's not my favor but thank you that i'm in a season of favor how can i use the favor to lift up the headline because it's not just that our house has a lead story my house has a lead story and my lead story is jesus therefore in a season of great favor i'm not turning it all towards me i want to turn it all towards thee there's another person in our house today and you're understanding your platform and everyone has one and i'm so bummed that everybody makes that a negative thing oh your social media platform look social media is probably the worst thing that's ever happened to humanity a amen but at the same time it could be the best thing that's ever happened to humanity if anyone's asking the why is there social media and if we just ask the question oh i've got a platform you're like well louie i hate it when people talk about social media platforms because i have 79 followers and i get two likes on every post and if i get a comment somebody accidentally found my account or it was sister so and so telling me about the amazing investment she made with xyz person so and so and so and so on if i'll just get in touch with them via direct message they can do for me financially what they've done for her you're like i don't have that listen everybody sitting in this room has a platform every single person in this room has a platform and it may be four people but please do not disparage your four people one of them may be the president of this country or one of them may be a doctor that cures the coronavirus or one of them may be a mother who's going to have two children who are going to grow up to do something that impacts and changes the trajectory of the entire world so the number of people god has given you a platform with is irrelevant it's the power of the god who has entrusted you with the platform to change and transform the lives of the people who your platform influences that matters and if you do have more people in your platform great if you have a few people in your platform that's great the question is why do i have this platform you've been elevated at your job you've been elevated at your school you've been elevated in your community you're now the leader of your family you're the one everyone's looking to to make the decisions you've been given some measure of stewardship of a platform the question that we have to ask if we know what the headlines are that are ultimate is how can i make my platform more about jesus and less about me that doesn't mean every post every tweet every facebook post has to be a bible verse but if i scroll down your feed and every image is something other than the ultimate then maybe the headline isn't jesus maybe something on page 3b kind of rose up and said let's just let's just do this instead and every one of us has that opportunity i encourage you to use it wisely i encourage you to be as wise as a snake and as innocent as a dove i encourage you to let the holy spirit lead you i encourage you to look normal act normal and show the world you're normal but every now and then you've got to tell people that there's something more important than everything else there's some people in the house today and you are in a dark dark valley and there's no way to sugarcoat it there's no bumper sticker face quote to put on it you don't need a little instagram saying you're in a valley it doesn't make sense you can't add it up and the people around you honestly can't add it up it just is a dark valley and in that valley you're already asking why we all ask why in those places and that's okay i love the way priscilla chara said it at on the podcast that we did together a few weeks ago and she said it's okay you can ask god questions without questioning god i said i like that you can be in a dark valley and say god i don't see how any of this makes sense i don't see how any of this can be used for any good i don't see how anything glorious can come out of this i don't see how anybody's going to see jesus in this so i'm kind of trying to figure all that out i'm not questioning that you are good and that you are god and that you have already done enough to prove that to me in my life but i mean this doesn't make any sense and if you're in that valley you've got an opportunity today to take the valley of uncertainty and to link it to a headline that is absolutely sure and it's not easy it's not simple it's not cute it's not a band-aid it's gritty and it's real and it's hard but in that moment there's an opportunity to take a mess and link it to a story that proves that god can take messes and make something amazing out of them and you can do that by saying something like this god i don't know how and i can't see why but i'm just saying use this mess for your glory that prayer i believe will change you it it likely won't instantly change the circumstance but it'll start changing you there's someone else in the house today and you you're just realizing it i've got a thing i've got a skill i i might not have a platform but i certainly have a skill i'm really good at this i am maybe one of the best at this then you got to ask why why am i one of the best at this why am i so good at this why is it that this comes naturally to me everyone struggles with this but me and i just this is like the thing for me i just get it why you've got to ask the question god show me how to be the best at what i do for your glory in other words i don't need to go do what somebody else is doing i don't need to do what louie's doing i'm not good at what louie's doing but i am really good at what i'm doing and i can see how what louie's doing would be for your glory because he talks about you that's what he does but how can i do what i'm doing at my peak level for your glory show me that teach me that let me understand that because i want to connect my skill to the ultimate headline because if you're really gifted you're going to get headlines you're going to get in the company newsletter you're going to get in the quarterly update you're going to get in the newspaper you're going to get on social media if you're really good at what you do you're you're going to get recognized by the the head of your school you're going to get recognized you're going to get headlines if you're really good at what you do you just want to make sure that they don't become the ultimate headline so that 45 years from now people are going oh didn't know interesting didn't know there's somebody else in the house today and will close and you've been through so much pain and so much loss and so much defeat and you feel like that's your life story it's just one big gigantic scar and i think jesus among all of us can come alongside you today and go i get it i got him you had things done to you i get it me too maybe it was you doing things that got you the scars and what the world wants to say is the scar is the headline especially in this culture what happened to you that's the only headline that's the final and last and ultimate headline is what happened to you and i'm not belittling what happened to any of us i'm just saying that coming alongside us today is a is a true headline maker and the true headline maker is in fact the golden boy who did come down off the throne of power and did come into this earth with trumpet sound and angel shout and did have all of the money in the world in his dad's bank account and did actually in fact create the earth on his own accord and could walk on water and could call up the morning sun he was that guy but yet he took on skin and bones and decided to humble himself into human frailty and at the end of the day made himself available to cruel plans to lies to mocking to betrayal to blows into wounds and to death and he's got the scars to prove it where they crushed the thorns into his head and drove the nails in his hands and feet and stuck a spear all the way through his side he's got the scars to come alongside you today and say your scars don't have to be the final headline of your life because mine aren't i took the wounds so that you could be healed my scars i offer up to my father's glory what does that mean it means that now we know no other god who's ever come or will come has the story that says i'm willing to give my best for your best so what if it changed today what if today you said jesus is my lead story not is he just the lead story of our passion city house he's the lead story of my house so you know what that means in my house no longer is my past the lead story no longer is my pain the lead story no longer are my scars the lead story the lead story in my house is jesus healed my pain and my scars jesus was greater than what i've been through what jesus went through for me is greater than everything that i have been through in my life and so i want to not hide my scars i want to show the world my scars and say i'm not perfect but he is i didn't get it right and people around me didn't get it right but god still brought me through and i'm standing here by the grace of god i am empowered by a spirit i'm connected to a perfect father i've got a passion and a purpose and a will for my life and a name to carry and i've been called into something glorious and something beautiful and something unchanging and something ultimate i got a new headline jesus heals jesus heals jesus restores jesus makes things new jesus puts broken things back together again jesus overcomes i got a new story some of you are going to run the risk of having a brown paper sack of personal effects at the end of your life because you couldn't get past your past and jesus is saying let me come beside you today because i'm not going to belittle it i'm not going to act like it didn't happen i'm not going to act like it wasn't anything but i'm going to show you how to overcome and i'm going to lead you through my victory into your victory so that you'll have a story in a name and i'm telling you it's worth it if you've got favor it's your season to say i want the world to know about jesus if you've got a skill figure out how to use it if you're in a valley figure out how to connect that valley of confusion to the name that's above every other name if you've been through it let jesus lead you through it if you've got a platform take a chance take a courageous step tell everybody the four people or the 444 people who listen to you i believe jesus is the lead story i don't get it right every single day but i'm still looking at him as my lead story and it will be worth it in the end don't trade the ultimate headline for a little bitty byline that looks so great right now but isn't anything in the inn as i was praying through this talk i kept hearing these words in my mind and i knew i knew the story but i just couldn't connect it all together and finally all the dots connected again for me and there were words of a famous cricket player from england from over a century ago someone born of prominence and born of wealth born into the right family went to eaton and played cricket went to cambridge and played qriket ultimately played cricket for the england nationals team played in the first match a test match against australia which if you're into cricket you this is you know this is a big deal it's called the ashes and it has a reason why it's called that but the trophy the ashes trophy to this day has a reference to ct stud engraved on the trophy to this day the ashes still played england australia huge test match in the qriket world but ct stud in college got radically saved and became one of the cambridge seven six of whom went to cambridge and one who didn't but they called him the cambridge seven they all got radically saved and under um the ministry and the voice of hudson taylor they all felt convicted to sell out of their lives and to go to china inland china to preach the gospel and they did they were the seeds of the student volunteer movement a sister cousin brother to the passion movement all these decades later all seven of them went to china ct stud said to his family to the wealth to the position to the prominence to the cricket possibility i'm going to china because i believe there's a name that's greater than every name and i want the people in inland china to hear the name of jesus he got sick in china so sick so ill they had to send him home to england and i'm thinking that's when you write your book i left my family left my fortune left my life went to china did the thing huge sacrifice i got deathly ill barely made it back to england now i tell my story about my great sacrifice for the great king right no he recovers and when he recovers he gets a heart for the heart of africa and ct stud goes to the congo to preach the gospel until the day in the congo that he meets jesus face to face in death and he wrote the words that have been bouncing around on my heart the entire time i was praying about this talk a poem called only one life i encourage you to go read the whole poem but i'll read a few stanzas two little lines i heard one day traveling along life's busy way bringing conviction to my heart and from my mind would not depart only one life will soon be past only what's done for christ will last only one life yes only one soon will its fleeting hours be done then in that day my lord to meet and stand before his judgment seat only one life till soon be passed only what's done for christ will last give me father a purpose deep in joy or sorrow thy word to keep faithful and true would air the strife pleasing thee in my daily life only one life till soon be past only what's done for christ will last oh let my love with fervor burn and from the world now let me turn living for thee and thee alone bringing thee pleasure on thy throne only one life will soon be passed only what's done for christ will last and he closes only one life yes only one now let me say thy will be done and when at last i hear the call i know i'll say it was worth it all only one life till soon be passed only what's done for christ will last that's why we say jesus is our lead story and i wonder if we can say today jesus you're my lead story i will not give this one life for a byline that will be irrelevant surely 45 years from now but most certainly in eternity when jesus stands in the midst of glory and receives all the praise all the honor all the blessing all the glory all the dominion from all of those who've been redeemed from every nation every language every tribe and every tongue for all time [Music] so i invite you today let's trade let's trade little headlines and little bylines for the name above all names jesus thank you thank you for inviting us into a big story i thank you that today from toledo to to cumberland to here at 515 to places all around the world i hear that gentle voice saying that's not worth being the story of your days on earth that's not that's not a headline worth living for she's not a headline worth living for that pleasure it's not a headline worth living for your name is not a headline worth living for thank you jesus for inviting us into something big i just pray that you would shift and turn and transform our hearts even now that we could say it and mean it today that if you're not in it we don't want to be a part of it if you're not doing it we're not doing it if it doesn't bring glory to you then we're not going to pour our lives our affection our time our resources into it we love you jesus and we love your great name that's our hope today in jesus name amen [Music] let all of us fade away take the whole world and give me jesus let all of us fade away [Music] let all of us fade [Music] to give me jesus [Music] let all of us paid [Music] give me jesus fade away [Music] that's our hope and heart today is to just say in light of this idea of jesus being not just collectively hourly story but individually your lead story that everything else that competes day by day will fade away and that jesus will take his rightful place as the headline of our life and so i just wanted to give us a minute to uh respond i want to invite everybody to just close your eyes i'm going to lead us in a prayer and really for two groups of people one group of people maybe you've never made jesus your lead story maybe you've heard about him but you've never believed in him maybe he's been in the peripheral of your life but you've never understood that he is the ultimate thing in life and he there is something or someone that matters more than all the other things and you just need to make a decision i've put my hope in my performance in my career in my net worth in in all these things that i can do in my striving and today i want to print the headline of jesus in my life for the first time and i want him to be the headline of my life that's somebody in this room and then another group of people maybe you've been walking with jesus for a minute maybe for years and to be honest every single day god's given us the ability to be the the general chief editor of our lives you don't get to decide everything that goes in your story but you do get to decide every day you wake up what's going to be the headline of your life and maybe intentionally or unintentionally your life has just been printing a different headline maybe you've been printing what's urgent at the expense of what's ultimate and today you just want to say that's me i've been walking with jesus for a while but to be honest he's on page 4b right now and i need to make a decision to say hey i'm going to let the ultimate thing be the ultimate thing that's if you're either one of those people i just want to pray over you and i just want to invite you to just slip a hand up in the air so i can see that that's you who i'm praying for awesome beautiful anybody else awesome awesome jesus we agree today with god who decreed and declared that you have the name above every other name so we say today god that that's true for us we're choosing to agree with god that jesus is our lead story god for people who are starting a new relationship with you i pray that you'll surround them with a community that will push them and propel them towards all you have planned for them and for anybody in this room that's been walking with you for a while god give us the confidence and the boldness to wake up tomorrow morning and to look at all the stories that exist in our life and to make sure and have the confidence to put you up in lights and let everything else fade away jesus we love you and we worship you this is all for you it's in your name we pray amen amen [Music] fade away [Music] fade away [Music] take [Music] give me jesus [Music] [Music] fade away [Music] oh your name is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] want to say thanks to everybody who's been part of our gathering online we love you we'll see you next sunday and for everybody uh in the room uh thanks for being here today if that's you that raised your hand and you either need to put your faith in jesus or just want to pray with someone on our team out of these doors to the left is our access space our team's there would love to pray for you also welcome to church is happening today right now after this gathering there's lunch being provided you can leave your kids and kids or bloom if you're looking to take your next step how do i get involved in this family go to welcome to church today's a fast track so it's a one-stop shop and you'll be done so go to welcome to church see y'all next sunday [Music] you

Channel: Passion City Church

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Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: louie giglio, passion city church worship, louie giglio sermons, passion city, giglio louie, city church, passion, giglio, passion city church sermons, Atlanta, passion church, louis giglio, cumberland, temptations, live church, live worship, live worship songs, live worship music, live worship songs 2020, christmas message, W2O2R2S2H2I2P

Id: dx2esvkZ5bU

Length: 93min 31sec (5611 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021