The Real Meaning of Life - Louie Giglio

so it's a new year at the beginning of every year we take stock don't we and we take stock of our lives and we ask questions like am I on the right track there's my life matter another year has gone by before we know what another year will have gone by and then another year will have gone by and we ask ourselves two questions at the beginning of the year that we're not really that focused on in the middle of the summer maybe not so much in October as the year sort of winding to a close but at the beginning of the year we asked questions like this am i doing the right thing with my life does my life matter am I making a difference on earth is my life important and as we ask those questions today we're coming to the right place because God wants to respond to the biggest questions that we have in our lives today and he wants to answer them for us I saw again this poem the summer day by Mary Oliver any poets in the house and he poetry people in the house know Mary Oliver awesome that's what I thought so maybe you don't know the summer day so I just wanted to bring the last line to us today because I think it's a great mindset for us going into the new year the poem ends like this tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life what is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life your one shot at being alive what do you plan to do with that life and if you're in that mindset today if you're in that mindset starting this new year am i doing the right thing am I making a difference then you've come to the right place today in the old days we used to frame it around this question am I in God's will in fact when we were doing early college ministry 30 years ago if you wanted to pack the place either do a series on relationships or a series on finding God's will for your life because who could ever know if we're doing the very thing God wants us to be doing with our lives and then we complicated it even more it wasn't just enough that you were in God's will you had to find that any old-school church people know where I'm going here you had to find the center of God's will so you had to get into the bullseye of knowing I am doing exactly what God wants me to do with my life and for a lot of us growing up it was a little bit like trying to find a needle in a bale of hay it was a little complex to believe that I can really know what God wants me to do and know that the thing I meant giving my life for is God's will for me but here's how beautiful God is he doesn't want to leave us in the dark he doesn't want to leave you combing through a haystack trying to find something for your life every one of us this is how good god is every single one of us is going to be able to leave this gathering today having answered the question what is God's will for my life because God isn't playing games with you God isn't playing games with me God isn't wanting you to live your whole life in limbo not being sure about what it is he wants you to do so to find the answer to this question I want us to look at the book of Colossians in this little letter of Colossians is going to give us a biblical answer to the question what is God's will from a lot Colossians was written in a context where there was a lot of different opinions about who Jesus was some people thought he was just a souped-up angel other people thought that only a select number of highly mystical people would ever figure out what was going on with Jesus and in the kingdom of God and Paul writes to clarify who Jesus is to let us see in know that Jesus is supreme and everything and sufficient for everyone and we get this really boiled down in chapter 1 beginning in verse 15 about Jesus it says 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 Jesus is the head of the body the church he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead so that in every thing can you say everything with me that in every thing Jesus might have the supremacy so as we underscore the sufficiency and supremacy of Jesus we answer the biggest question we're asking in life which is what is my purpose and why am I here and what is my life about we see two things in this text that clarify this for us and give us confidence the first thing we see is that we are here because Jesus made us and we are here for Jesus so the first thing we see today is that we weren't created to do a job we weren't created for a vocation or a role primarily we were created for a person created by a person for a person created by Jesus for Jesus created to be in a relationship where we know God but then at the end of the text we see that Jesus is the beginning of everything the creator of everything the sustainer of everything he holds together everything the first one out of the grave was Jesus the one who gives life to everyone else who trusts him is Jesus the head of this church is Jesus and in every single thing Jesus then should get supremacy should get all the applause he should get the Encore away we say it around churches he should get all the glory and so that answers for me the big question of my life what is God's will for my life you could say it like this it is to know him and to make him known that's God's will for your life to know Jesus and to make Jesus known to understand that you were made by and for him so that you pursue him as a singular focus of life I want to know Jesus whatever else happens on this planet with me I want to know the one who made me to know him and secondly he's got to get to supremacy in everything this Jesus because he is everything so in knowing him I want my life to make him known and that simplifies for all of us today God's will for our lives now you're like Louie that's a spiritual answer and I don't want to spiritually answer I want to know if I'm working at the right job or not I want to know if I'm supposed to marry her or wait for another I need to know if I'm supposed to go to grad school in Nebraska or to go to grad school in Alabama that's what I'm concerned about today don't give me all this spiritual mumbo-jumbo about God's will for my life being knowing Jesus and making Jesus known okay great then what if God just sent you a letter today and said go to the one in Nebraska then buy go Cornhuskers see you said all you needed awesome hope it's great and then you go there to Nebraska and you get your degree your graduate degree and you frame your diploma and get that job and find the guy and build your life and you still have no idea why you're here see it's not about an assignment it's about a big picture of life and for us when we hear God's will we immediately want to connect that to vocation connect that to location connect that to relationship connect that to husband wife kids now this season next season we immediately hear God's will and when a link it to a specific temporal temporary decision but God is saying you were created for something bigger than just knowing which grad school to go to you were created to know God and to make God known to know Jesus and through your life give an encore for Jesus through your life bring applause to Jesus through your life bring glory to Jesus and this is God's will for our life but if you're asking what like what do I do to bring glory to God or how then do I make decisions to bring glory to God he'll answer that for us also today and he does it one page over Colossians chapter 3 verse 17 the message I wish I had heard when I was 15 years old because Paul is opening a wide array of possibilities today to every one of us to live in God's will because when you hear well I'm supposed to know him and to make him known then you might think well does that mean I should become a pastor then or should I get into church work or should I get into Christian ministry or maybe I should get out of my psyche Euler job and get into social work or get into the nonprofit space how do I know Jesus and make Jesus known and so he answers for us in verse 17 and whatever you do hello get ready because this is game-changing let's just read those four words together out loud and and you read them the way I'm reading him that will sound even better and whatever you do that seems like he's opening a big doorway here let's see how he clarifies this for us and whatever you do whether in word or in deed do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him whatever you do in word or in deed that's pretty comprehensive do it all more comprehensive in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God the Father through him Paul is shifting the conversation from what should I do - why do I do what I do so that the what I do isn't under the microscope the why I do what I do is under the microscope because he's opening a big doorway here and he's saying your purpose in life is to know God and make him known but you are wired with many gifts abilities talents aptitudes and passions just go do that but make sure that as you do that you're doing it underneath this grand purpose that God has put in your life so I have the ability now to reframe life or to frame life under this big calling this big purpose to know him and make him known we see this in Romans chapter 11 at the end of a stunning text about God's mercy and grace there's a little doxology and we see it in verse 33 it says oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his councilor who has ever given to God that God should repay him all these are rhetorical questions no one in Heaven's waiting for an answer to these questions it's God again saying look I don't call anybody I don't get stressed I don't have a counselor I don't lay on anyone's sofa I've never run out of money and needed a bridge loan to Thursday I'm good and if that's who he is in reality he knows everything doesn't need any advice doesn't need any help no one has ever loaned him a dime then here comes the end of the doxology for from God and through God and to God are all things to him be the glory forever amen in other words putting it down to a personal level I came from God I didn't just pop on the scene and go walleye everybody look at me I am created I'm also sustained I am happening today through God the breath that I'm breathing is a gift from a Creator God the brain that I'm using right now was given to me as a gift of the Creator God the grace that is enabling me to do what I'm doing right now is provided for me by the spirit in Christ so I am moving through life by God I came into life by God and I in my life and terminate at God I don't just end up somewhere out in the great wherever I end up at the same place I began I came from God I'm sustained by God I end with God therefore let all the applause go to God let all of the encores go to God let all of the attention go to God let all of the glory go to God I've got a purpose and my purpose is to know him and make him known that's the a but I also have a passion and so do you I've got something gern and inside of me and so do you and Paul is saying if you get the frame right then God wants to release you to go do that thing that you are really passionate about doing and that's how you answer the question what is God's will for my life this talk started at passion 2006 in Nashville Tennessee anybody passed in 2006 Nashville Tennessee one thank you amazing the fruit of passion stunning to the ripple effects will knock you over and the talk was called passion purpose and designer jeans does anybody remember when jeans became a thing maybe about 15 years ago we kind of started tipping over from it's either Levi's or Calvin Klein anybody remember those days that was kind of your options you're like no we were just at Old Navy okay throw them in there old Navy Levi's Calvin Klein if you're a Texan or some you know Nebraska maybe Wranglers but that was kind of gene world wasn't really overcomplicated and then all of a sudden it got real complicated like you can't just get Levi's or Calvin Klein Jeans you got to pay $200 for raw denim and then you have to pay $500 to get the seat in your car replaced because you're gonna get blue ink all over your upholstery anybody remember living through those days in raw denims coming back which is amazing just don't come to our house in raw denim thank you and all of a sudden diesel jeans hit the scene anybody hello no great still and Levi's and Calvin Klein AG jeans hit the scene anybody remember seven jeans hit the scene citizens of humanity hit the scene Joe jeans Jos jeans hit the scene what am I missing here nudee jeans and you might remember nudie jeans save up bro I mean save your nickels but you can wear him for a whole year without washing him that was reality and true I did that I know but so did you they convinced us they're better if you don't wash him fold him and put him in the freezer we were folding and putting our jeans in a freezer it was an explosion of denim everywhere in 2006 Nashville Tennessee and so the message was called passion purpose and designer jeans because my question was who's going to make the jeans if the whole world wants them then who's going to make em and could you run a denim boutique and still be in God's will surely not I mean surely you're gonna be playing a church to be in the will of God you cannot have a boutique and be in the will of God but now nobody's that concerned about denim anymore and so I don't know the message could be called a lot of different things now I would probably call it passion purpose and Chelsea boots a lot of you looked at my shoes just then which was weird and they're not Chelsea boots which is also weird but that would have been too weird that say that and have Chelsea boots on but I've gotten a few pair in the last two years from sort of like we started in our basement we're making these ourselves we're sourcing the leather out of Argentina it's a it's a cause behind every pair of boots and so you're wearing something that looks good and helps somebody else and all of a sudden it was like everybody's got their little niche thing and it changes from season to season to season but the big point of it is this is it possible that you could have a passion for something like fashion and still fulfill your purpose for being on the planet and the answer is absolutely because Paul opens this wide door that says whatever you do do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him now we're gonna talk more about this specifically how that happens next week because we're not really looking for people to do chelsea boots with a little fish in embossed on the bottom of the sole so as you're walking on a rainy day you're leaving a little symbol of the gospel everywhere you know down the sidewalk but people are like man these most uncomfortable boots I've ever worn but I'm gonna keep wearing them because I'm telling people about Jesus you know awesome you're gonna have to have you know surgery on my toe next year no that that's not how it works we're not looking for more little symbols on things we're looking for people who have a big frame who understand it's not about what I do as much as is about why I do what I do and so I'm gonna run with this passion that is in my heart to the glory of God because a lot of you truth be told you've got a lot of passion rolling inside of you and it's not to be a pastor to be a preacher to be a worship leader it's to build a rocket or to come up with a cure for something or to raise a family or to run a plumbing business or whatever is that is firing you up right now and God's saying whatever whatever you do go for it as long as you get the purpose right and reframe with the purpose then God wants to release you to run after the passion that he's put in your heart I love the way one of my spiritual mentor says it aw Tozer because he's answering the question can it it matter if I open a calligraphy or a handwriting business so send me your invitations and I'm gonna handwrite I'm better than anybody's ever handwritten them before send me your Christmas wrapping and I'm gonna handwrite every label for your family members and friends more amazingly than anybody ever has if it's an organic smoothie business can God use that for his glory and aw Tozer answers the question I think in a beautiful way he said it's not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular it's why he does it the motive is everything let a man sanctify or a woman the Lord God in his heart and he can thereafter do no common Act that means that you can walk into finance into education into entertainment into the arts into any form of business any form of enterprise and you can in fact do an uncommon supernatural god-honoring thing with your life and the beauty and the reality of it all is is that a pastor's probably not coming to your company this year hi everyone today on Thursday we're having a pastor come and glorify God please be in the lobby at 2:30 pastor probably not coming to your classroom not coming to your place of business but you are going into your classroom and you are going into your place of business you are going into all the seams of culture with a purpose in your heart I want to know Jesus and I want to make Jesus known and that's the beauty of how God wants to work in our lives now this Colossians 3:17 opens a big door but it also closes a lot of doors too because it says whatever that's that's wide but it also says whatever you do do it in the name of the Lord and some of us this may be what we're doing that we can't do in the name of the Lord I mean if you're money laundering right now and you're really good at it and you really have a passion for it you're gonna need to stop doing that this year because you can't say in Jesus name if you're cooking the books and you're phenomenal at it in fact you've been doing it 19 years and even the auditors don't know you're doing you're gonna need to stop cooking the books this year because you can't cook the books in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God the Father through him so it is a wide door but it also is an illuminating pathway but if your can do it in the name of the Lord then you have to decide I want to figure out then how am I gonna do it in such a way that God gets the applause that God gets the encore that God gets the glory in my life and that's what we're gonna specifically look at next week but before we do that I want to ask the question how do you know which passion is the passion you're supposed to to run after and I think there are few super practical ways to come at this and the first one is this it's by asking the question what keeps you up at night and what wakes you up in the morning like have you noticed if there's some things when that's on the schedule that day you have a hard time and you're hitting the snooze three or four times but there are other things that are on the agenda and on that day you go like Bing I'm done ready to go let's go excited and sometimes when you're laying down at night things just turn inside of you and you can't you can't dial it down you're just excited about what you're thinking about dreaming about well that's a first clue to maybe what it is that you need to be doing on the passion side of life under the purpose of knowing God in making him known Howard Thurman said it like this he said don't ask what the world needs ask what makes you come alive and go do it because what the world needs is people who have come alive so it's asking the question what what's stirring in me in understanding from Colossians 3:17 that it's okay for me to say that because I think you know if you're in your small group and you're just talking about what do you think God wants to do with your life I'm gonna be a missionary in the Congo Wow okay praise God that's big next first around I'm gonna open a homeless shelter for the disadvantaged in our city amazing next person I'm gonna start a non-profit we're gonna you know bring clean resources to people around the world as getting around to you and you're thinking man all I really want to do is be a bond trader that's all I've ever dreamed about I was trading bonds in my mind when I was 14 years old I already understood how the bond markets work and I just want to make it to Wall Street and so it gets around to you preacher teacher helper do-gooder and it gets around to you and you're like I'm decided yet so praying about it pray for me just trying to find the center of God's will for my life and I just want to tell you if bond trading keeps you up at night and wakes you up in the morning then maybe you need to be a bond trader to the glory of God and you need to say what we said at 2006 somebody going to Ghana that is a big deal to be celebrating the church should get behind it and resource it but maybe for you it's just as big a deal to go to goldman sachs as it is to go to ghana because both places need the light and the truth of jesus shine to real people who have a big purpose over their lives and this is the starting point possibly for you second thing is to ask the question what are you best at in other words maybe you're not a child prodigy at it but you notice it over time you're incrementally getting better at it and and every time you get a chance you grow and you learn and you develop and from here to here there's definitely a track up in your life and you're getting better and better and better and better it's not just that you're you know okay at it everybody wants to have their own network cooking show and maybe that's what you were dreaming of when you were chopping up all of your stuff in the kitchen you're talking into the camera now we're going to chop up the celery and we're gonna make a roux and it's gonna be amazing I don't even know if celery goes in a roux but it probably could but when you do it it's phenomenal and in your mind you're thinking I'm really good at this and every time I try it differently it just keeps getting incrementally better and better and better that is a big clue to maybe what Lane you need to be running in in your life I think a third way you understand this passion is it in the community of people who are God loving people and who love you you just listen to what people are affirming in your life so what are the people around you affirming I believe God will put people in your life if you really want to know am I on the right track am I really doing the right thing I have a purpose but I'm not sure about the passion side of it he's gonna put people in your path he may have done that in 2000 in 18 somebody may have said to you last year hey have you ever thought about doing X anybody say that to you last year have you ever thought about maybe opening a why have you ever thought about going into that full-time have you ever thought that maybe that's something you should look into and we're like oh no I shouldn't look into that I mean I'm good I got a job I got a paycheck come in I don't know I'm 41 years old how would I start all over again I don't know I don't know if you can even do that to the glory of God I'm just gonna stay in the lane I'm in right now you kind of know what's going on and know what's expected and you just pushed it off but people were telling you hey you're really good at this I mean for me when I was in high school people were telling me hey you're a really good speaker I mean I don't know if they were saying really good but they were saying hey you should talk somebody's gonna talk you talked so he's got to talk get Giglio get him to talk he can talk put him in front of the whole student body in high school he's the guy put him up they're gonna go on a mission trip get an D and get Louie and they'll do the messages because they're the ones that can talk we weren't going hey we're preachers of a next generation man put us in we were like probably up to some kind of mischief in the back but it was get Louie get Andy they can talk good I mean I overslept the morning that we were giving her speeches for president of my senior class and not that I had a big speech planned anyway but if I had I overslept and I woke up to my friend's car horn blaring in my bedroom window we lived in an apartment so he could park literally eight feet from my window so I'm not exaggerating ah I wake up look at the family whoa we got to be at school like 15 minutes ago its speech morning elections are today we jump in the car we raced down to Campbell High School roll right into the library and now our next candidate is louie giglio and i come right into the hi people i want to tell you something it's the bicentennial year the 200th anniversary of this nation it is time to celebrate who we are as a people who we have been as a nation and where we are going forward and this senior class is going to lead the way we are going to feel lights out in this bicentennial year thank you I appreciate your vote it was a landslide and people say you're good at talking in front of people but I didn't really see a career in being good and talking in front of people so I just got back on my other track and God said no what they've been trying to tell you is that I wired you to talk in front of people and so even when I was terrible so I'd go to preach maybe two three years after that I'd be at a little church never more than 40 people and I'd preach the best message that one of my mentors had preached there are my best imitation of them which probably wasn't all that great and then I'd go stayin at the back at the end and every time at whether it was terrible which it was half the time terrible or it was okay there would be two or three people sometimes more every time and they would say I mean sincerely you know God is gonna use you God has put something in you and I'm 19 20 years old I'm like thank you awesome thank you thank you thank you there were 40 people here and it was okay but see people typically see what God's about to do through you before you do so if you're trying to convince the world that you're gonna do something and everybody around you is going okay okay all right don't count them all out as naysayers that may be God trying to help redirect something in you that doesn't mean that every now and then the people around you get it wrong we've seen it happen time and time again I'm gonna write the next composition that's gonna be as good as Brahms and always I yeah I can't wait to see that then you do it they're like I knew you could do it you are amazing most of the time the people around you are gonna yes and amen the passion in you so now you're locking in on this keeps me up at night and wakes me up in the morning I'm good at this in fact I get better at it every time I do it and people around me are saying you're really good at that you should consider that and then the last question I would ask is what are you willing to sacrifice for coz that's gonna help you know you're getting in the right lane of passion for your life what are you willing to sacrifice for like in other words maybe you've got something going on right now and you're willing to put in eighty percent maybe a couple days a month 100 percent or in that crunch time I jumped in there with everybody else but as you're rolling into it most days it's kind of like I can kind of do this in my sleep and I sort of know what I'm doing and blah blah blah but what is that thing that would make you go I'm gonna put all the focus all the energy all the determination that I've got into this thing I am willing to sweat I am willing to bleed I am willing to pay a price for that and get on board with that and I'll tell you why because if our big purpose is applause to Jesus he's not gonna get applause by people who are putting out about 80% and their passion ly nobody in the entertainment industry is gonna get on board with that nobody in the arts is gonna come around that nobody on Wall Street's gonna come around that nobody at the top who doesn't have a need for Jesus is gonna pay attention to a believer who says I'm doing it all all 81% of it for the glory of God do you know Jesus they're gonna go I don't want to know what Jesus who causes someone to spend their one wild and precious life putting out eighty one percent for something I want to know what Jesus who calls up in people a full-throttle investment in this one shot called life I want to know somebody who is alive and who's putting everything they've got into the passion lane that they are in so that eventually an encore is gonna come to Jesus and that's very tricky we're gonna talk about that in a couple of weeks down the road because the biggest enemy to the purpose is uber success in the passion amen so how do you become over successful in the passion and never lose your edge on the purpose but it all starts with being amazing it starts with doing your best it starts with saying I found something I'm willing to sacrifice for the kiss I want applause to come to Jesus and I wanted to come through a life that showed the world what the best looks like so then I could say let me tell you about my best my best is the one who made me and I live my life for his glory

Channel: Passion City Church

Views: 58,339

Keywords: louie giglio, passion city church, passion, passion church, louie giglio sermons, passion 2019, passion and purpose louie giglio, louie giglio passion and purpose, purpose, giglio louie, louie giglio passion 2019, passion city, passion city church worship, passion city church sermons, louis giglio, passion and purpose, The meaning of life, Passion Music, atlanta, giglio, louie giglio 2019, Worship Matters, W2O2R2S2H2I2P

Id: p9OXNPPcJ5o

Length: 38min 6sec (2286 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 09 2019