This Is For Me - Louie Giglio

last week when we kicked off this series i told a story again about climbing the matterhorn in switzerland the reason i tell this story periodically is because if you climb the matterhorn you don't use it one time as a sermon illustration and then leave it in the dust you talk about it regularly because it's a pretty major deal just a little bit of a glimpse of what we're talking about when we talk about the matterhorn your pastor went up that okay that's pretty significant i will add barely and made it back down again so that's the good news so the first guy that climbed this mountain by the way was the last of the french alps to be conquered by man was a pastor a pastor from london and his team traveled up the matterhorn eight of them only four of them made it safely back down to zermatt and so i was thinking about pastors going up the matterhorn the whole time but i was telling a story about my guide and i love this guy because he he literally ended up getting me off this mountain it was pretty a pretty amazing uh experience uh in the good and in the oh my goodness what am i doing up here side of things but he was my fill-in guide my guide i'd been training with all week got sick the night before i get this guy as a pinch hitter and all he can think about is i gotta get this louie guy up this mountain down this mountain i gotta leave go to another town to get another guy up another mountain tomorrow so right out of the gate 4 45 a.m in the dark we are booking it way faster than i've trained and it was kind of that idea of what kind of shepherd is leading your life or my life today jesus said i'm the good shepherd and i lay my life down for the sheep i'm not gonna just try to get you up the mountain and down again to do a job you know check a box get paid and go on to the next thing i actually care about you i want to lead you in and i want to lead you out so you can find good pasture i want to restore your soul i want you to lie down in a green pasture i want to lead you beside still water i want to anoint your head with oil i want to be with you through the valley of the shadow of death i want to prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies i want your cup to overflow i want to say to you surely goodness and love are going to follow you all the days of your life why because i'm a good shepherd and if the good shepherd's leading you the fear meter goes down the the want meter goes down the stress meter goes down the rushing and hurrying through life for no reason goes down and our heart begins to rest with god and we know that he knows my name so i'm talking about the matterhorn last week and there's a person sitting on the other side of the lens here in atlanta georgia and the person is sitting watching the screen with a photo of the matterhorn on the wall in the room can you imagine how cool that was in the moment person's been up the matterhorn shared experience all of a sudden is in the story all of a sudden everything's clarifying and personalizing for that person as they're at church that day and their story is that they texted and during the gathering like so many have the word alive to 33864 meaning i want to put my faith in jesus i want a new start with jesus today and so when that happens this is amazing thing when that happens even though there are tens of thousands of people around the world are going to be linked into this gathering today all of a sudden it became about this person and god is now speaking into my story i'm going to text in and see what happens but it's a big thing passion city church and i don't know who's on the other side of my computer screen but lo and behold a phone call came and a conversation happened and in that conversation the person who saw the matterhorn understood the story all of a sudden realized god is speaking to me that this is for everybody this isn't just for a bunch of people around the planet today this is for me that person went from saying i don't know if i'm ever going to be good enough for god i'm trying to do all the good works to get to heaven just saying i realize it's not about me doing good works it's about what jesus has already done on my behalf i want to put my faith and put my trust in the finished work of jesus and the person said and i'm not using their name just because we're all in a brand new relationship together and i just want to protect that for your sake but we did uh double check into the story to say gonna share this today but all of a sudden a person has realized this this gospel this death burial and resurrection of the king of kings this is for everybody and that's what we want to have happen in the minds of every person in church and every person who's looking at church from the outside wondering if they have a place in church is that they would understand this reality that they would be awakened to the possibility that the promises and the purpose and the power of god can be accessed by everybody and that you are in the everybody that this isn't an insider's club this isn't like a hierarchy oh someone got the password somebody had the secret code somebody knew knew the right panel to push on the side of the door and then things opened up this is for a select few this is for those who came from the right family or have the right spiritual background or came from the right context no this is for everybody the promises of god they're for you the power of god this miracle power is for you and to get in on the purposes of god what he's doing on earth what he's doing through the ages what he is doing it in time and space you have a place and the purposes and in the power of god we love the great assembly at bastian city church but we also recognize that everybody needs to get in a circle because it's in that circle of relationship a belonging of community of growth and if i can say it of accountability that you're going to tap in to everything god is wanting you to be and right now all the talk's been about when are we going to be back in church listen the church is doing fine jesus said i'm going to build my church and the gates of hell are not going to stand against it i guarantee you no pandemic is going to stand against the church that i'm going to build and he's building that church right now he's building it all over planet earth and he's building it in atlanta georgia he's building it through our local family at passion city church and here's the thing maybe what he's trying to say to us is don't focus so much on the big coming together in the thousands and tens of thousands and into arenas and stadiums focus on are you in a circle by answering this question today who's in my circle who knows me where do i fit where do i belong and who have i invited in so that i can be a part of what god wants to do 2020 i just was looking at it yesterday and all of a sudden i saw it it's two circle two circle 20 20. you have to think about it for a minute to circle that's what the year's about to circle to find your place to find your circle to find where you fit to find where do you belong to find community that can't be defied to find a place where you can walk in and say these are my people and these are the people i'm gonna walk with in the process of becoming more like jesus this is the year to circle two zero to circle again and when we come back together when buildings are packed and arenas are packed i believe the church is gonna look stronger healthier more vibrant and more powerful than it's ever been i just say get ready for another wave of the great move of the spirit of almighty god when this church comes back together something's going to explode why because we've all been fragmented and dismayed no because we've been in our circles and in the word and we've been growing deeper and putting roots down and getting stronger and letting god refine us so that we can be the people he wants us to be and i'm just trying to help you see today that's for you it's for everybody there are 10 major statements that obviously i can't preach on them today but hopefully we can roll them out through our social media over the next couple of days or maybe the next week or so so you can get a little more of a deep dive into each of these but here are at least 10 things that god wants for everybody everybody can know they matter to god and i just think about how many people in atlanta georgia today or in your town today do not know that they are on heaven's radar that they are not ancillary or incidental they are purposed by god and they are on the radar of heaven today that god sees them he knows them he is aware of them they are valuable to him their life matters to god and it matters to heaven and it matters on earth and everybody can know that and everybody's got to know that when they wake up and take a breath i matter to god almighty and that's the operating point now for which i'm going to move out into the world secondly everybody can know god's love it's like eugene peterson wrote it in the message in this amazing passage in psalm 36 i love the way he wrote it he said god's love is meteoric his loyalty astronomic his purposes titanic his verdicts oceanic yet in his largeness nothing gets lost not a man not a mouse slips through the cracks everybody can know that god sees them and more than that everybody can know that the god who sees them actually loves them this is for every body and i pray even today that revelation sight will come to somebody at church today and you will leave church today for the first time going god doesn't hate me god loves me god is not against me god is for me god hasn't written me off god wants to write me in how do i know because his son stretched out his arms on a cross to say i love you and i am for you and i am the good shepherd laying down his life for you thirdly everybody can be forgiven everybody can be called a child of god everybody can be changed and be an agent of change everybody has equal access to the things of god i'll just tell you what we mean by that when i just drop in and some of this will unfold in the next few days what does that mean that everybody has equal access to the things of god everybody can understand and put to memory the scriptures commune with god in a meaningful and intimate way renew their minds to truth find their gifting walk in spirit power learn to explain their faith raise up others and live in a supernatural story everybody has equal access to the things of god and you do and see what the enemy story has always been is somebody somebody can get that somebody can understand that somebody can walk in that gift somebody can share their faith somebody can see a friend or a co-worker go from death to life somebody can see a vision for their life that changes a city or a community somebody can understand spirit power somebody can really put to memory the word of god and operate in its truth and power but that's probably not going to be me and the enemy will help you understand it's probably not going to be you but you've got to understand that that enemy voice is a lie from hell and god is one who is opening the doors today flinging wide the gates today and saying let the light in everybody is a part of the gospel story in other words this isn't limited to a few missionaries that went on a mission trip or an evangelist that really likes to tell people about jesus or our door holder who is on the other side of the matterhorn conversation this week who pretty much leads somebody to jesus every single week it's not limited to just a few people who've had evangelism training or memorized a few verses in the bible and know how to lead somebody to put their faith in jesus this gospel story is for everybody everybody is a part of the gospel story everybody can shape history through prayer amazingly the church doesn't pray the average christian doesn't pray the average dad doesn't pray we work we're busy we attend we come we sit in seats we sit in the building we maybe have a devotional reading but the average christian doesn't pray oh we pray when we face a hardship or difficulty our family's going through the fire yes then we pray or we get a phone call from a friend or our business is on the rock chest we send out prayers in those moments but consistently faithfully regularly on our knees saying god i believe what i do right here can change my city and can change my family and can change my community can change my brother over here and can change the direction of this nation i believe i can topple governments and change i can change history right here everybody can access the throne of god through faithful prayer the enemy uh you don't need to worry about that you're not one of the intercessors you don't have that you know spiritual prayer thing you you know that's for like the uh the ladies in the church no that's for you through the power of jesus to change and shape history through prayer and lastly everybody can live and die with purpose everybody can not just a few people who they say about you at your memorial service man she really lived she crushed it and people are standing up to applaud the way that you impacted their lives and their stories and your world and the community that you live in that there's a legacy and a remembrance that five years later 10 years later 50 years later 100 years later they're still talking about you because you lived and died with purpose in your life everybody everybody can live and everybody can die with purpose and this is god's promise for you and me last week we talked about the shepherd and the sheep john chapter 10. but there's a beautiful illustration of this everybody idea in the chapter before in chapter nine and it is our text today and it doesn't really need a lot of preaching around it that's the good news of the bible you can just read it in chapter 9 you see the beauty and the power of the somebody and jesus trumping it with the everybody so i just want to walk through it with you if you have your scripture john chapter 9 this gospel this promise this power is for everybody it says in verse 1 talking about jesus as he went along he saw a man blind from birth now that's a problem his disciples asked him rabbi who sent this man or his parents that he was born blind neither this man nor his parent's sin said jesus but this happened so that the work of god might be displayed in his life as long as it is day we must do the work of him who sent me night is coming when no one can work while i am in the world i jesus said am the light of the world having said this jesus spit on the ground made some mud with the saliva and put it on the man's eyes go he told him wash in the pool of siloam this word siloam means sent so the man went and he washed and he came home seeing now just going to give a little break right there so that we don't get stuck in the text and shipped into our sunday school bible study mentality here and you just realize what just happened so i'm going to read that one more time and uh in your den or living room or out on the porch or wherever you are right now there should be some kind of interjection at that point because this same jesus is in the room with us right now and so the man went and he washed and he came home seeing okay not bad a pretty good miracle decent miracle his neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg well some claim that he was and others said no he only looks like him but he himself insisted i am the man so what a great story i have been born from blind this guy just rolls up i don't ask him i i'm not i'm looking for mud and saliva he just walks up spits on the ground makes mud puts it on my eyes tells me what to do and voila i see my next encounter is people going no you're not the guy that was blind no you're not that guy oh come on we know you're not the same guy we've seen day after day after day after day begging here by the road and he's like no no no no i'm right here guys i am that man then how were your eyes open they demanded he replied the man they called jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes he told me to go wash uh to go to siloam and wash so i went and i washed and then i could see well where is this man they asked him i don't know he said i mean can't you hear like some of the undercurrent of the christian culture in this it's like oh really oh really well oh really and this guy's like had a miracle happen in his life this guy was a somebody over here that this is never going to happen to you do you understand you're never going to be a part of the synagogue in full you're never going to really tap into the promises of god why because obviously there's something wrong with you you were born blind so you're not going to be in the inner circle you're not going to be in the in crowd you're not going to be one of those who walks closely with god because there's something wrong with you you're the somebody who's not gonna get it you're not the everybody who's gonna get it but jesus he's not interested in somebody's getting it he's interested in everybody getting it and he's trying to make a big giant point of how that happens and so they've asked him where is this man and he says i don't know so then it gets worse the religious leaders show up the pharisees the the people who are holier than everybody else and outwardly more religious than everybody else they show up they brought to the pharisees the man who had been blind now the day this is where it gets really frustrating the day which jesus made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a sabbath therefore the pharisees red flag can't do that no no no no no nobody who's born blind gets to see on the sabbath if making mud is involved so they're frustrated and so they say [Music] also asking him how he had received his site i'm down in verse 15. he put mud on my eyes he's telling it again the man replied and i washed and now i see some of the pharisees said this man speaking of jesus is not from god for he does not keep the sabbath but others ask how can a sinner do such marvelous signs so they were divided okay just heads up that's not a 20 20 thing that's a human thing you can have a dude who's born blind standing right in front of you who can see and half the people are going to say i don't think so and the other half are going to say wow this is amazing half the people are going to say this guy is from the devil the other half we're going to i don't know looks like he's got miracle power i don't know where you get that from so we've got to keep our eyes on jesus in the midst and follow along with how he's trying to help us understand the process so they were divided in verse 16. finally they turned again to the blind man what have you to say about him it was your eyes that he opened the man replied he's a prophet that's what i got to say i don't know more than that but this guy has got something the jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents is this your son they ask is this the one you say was born blind how is it that now he can see and boy you talk about taking the safe road we know that he's our son the parents they answered and we know that he was born blind but how can he see now or who opened his eyes we don't know ask him he's of age he'll speak for himself so his parents they said this because they were afraid of the jews for already the jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that jesus was the christ would be put out of the synagogue that was why his parents said he's of age ask him the second time they summoned the man can you imagine this guy by now who had been blind give glory to god they said we know this man speaking of jesus is a sinner and he replied whether he's a sinner or not i don't know one thing i do know i was blind but now i see [Applause] you see how he instantly got into the gospel story i don't know when he went to evangelism training it doesn't say in the paragraph above when he went to his evangelism training class or when someone told him up above oh by the way you're gonna need to share your faith i miss that verse i'm sure it's in here and it's probably just because john didn't have time to write the entire conversation down where they said okay now that you have seen you're gonna have to go out and tell other people about jesus and what he's done in your life now see that's just a natural part of being touched by the power of almighty god when he touches you and gives you a story of grace you then have a story of grace to tell you don't need a whole lot of training necessarily you just need to be able to speak up and say i don't know i'm not sure i don't know where this is all going i can't tell you one thing i used to couldn't see and now i can't see i was blind but i'm looking right at you right now see they were called the pharisees but they couldn't see they're looking right at jesus and can't see him they're looking right at the miracle but they can't see it that they're looking right at god in their midst saying listen guys everything's changing right here and the power of god right now is for everybody who wants to reach out and take hold of me and they're like well we've got questions and we got hurdles and we got laws and we've got moses and we've got the sabbath to deal with and we can't see what god's doing right in front of us the blind guy he didn't have all those hurdles because all he'd seen all his life was you're out and now he had seen that he was in and the only thing standing between him and fellowship in a circle in the family of god were the religious leaders of the day and whether they let him in or not so it comes down to verse 26 just want to finish this out i love it and they asked him what did he do to you how did he open your eyes and you could tell he's already you know got a measure of patience he says well i've told you already and you didn't listen so why do you want to hear it again do you want to become his disciples too and then they hurled insults at him is going good for this guy's parents don't want to really stand with him people are divided whether he's even the guy that couldn't see and now the religious leaders are hurling insults at him they said you are this fellow's disciple and we're the disciples of moses trying to divide right away which side are you on you moses are you jesus and they didn't understand jesus said i'm here to fulfill the law moses and all of the prophets i'm here to bring it all together through the cross my death barely in resurrection i'm here to bring it all together into one glorious family where everybody has access to the promises and the power and the purposes of god through me jesus christ they're trying to split it all up we know that god spoke to moses but as for this fellow we don't even know where he comes from and then look at the insight of the blind guy who can see the man answered now that is remarkable you don't know where he comes from yet he opened my eyes and listened to his theological understanding of that right off the bat we know that god does not listen to sinners he listens to the godly man who does his will nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind if this man were not from god he could do nothing to this they replied you are steeped in sin at birth how dare you lecture us and they threw him out you know sometimes the church hasn't had the best track record but jesus is here to give sight now whenever we say something like everybody there's always a little a little ruffle around the edges of like yeah everybody can come louie but make sure you tell them that they all have to believe in jesus and they all have to understand he's the way the truth and the life that's just a few verses later right here and they all have to understand that it's a narrow gate and they have to all understand they're going to be changed and transformed and become disciples and they're going to have to be be made into the image of jesus of course all of that is true jesus though is the one who's standing on planet earth god in human skin he didn't walk up to this guy born blind and say hey what i'm going to do is spit in the mud and put it in your eyes and then you're going to have to do a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p and then we're going to put you through the thing and do the thing and then do the thing and do the thing and do the thing and then all of us who are already in are going to vote on you as to whether you can be in or not he just said you need to see go wash in the pool of siloam see what happens miracle sight so as we've said before everybody is welcome it's the lord's table he sets the pace he he teaches us the manners he transforms by the power of the spirit so that ultimately he gets glory as we become more and more like jesus but how quickly do we want to say who's in and who's out without saying you can be changed you can be forgiven you can experience a transformation your life can be totally changed that can happen to you i was reading the other day about chuck colson i don't know if that name rings a bell or not but back in the 70s when i was coming through high school and into college the biggest story in america was watergate it was a giant political mess where one party broke into some of the campaign headquarters of the other party and a whole lot of mess went down a president ended up resigning in the midst of it and a bunch of guys went to prison and one of those guys was a special counsel to the president named chuck coulson and chuck colson was convicted of crimes and went to federal prison so this is a guy that's brown educated he's got his juris doctorate from george washington university has worked his way up to becoming a special counsel to the president and they said about him that he was the hatchet man of the president imagine having that job he was the guy that you did not want to run across okay so we got a smart dude we got a guy with a lot of experience we got a guy with political motive we got a guy who will do just about anything this is chuck coulson okay so he's indicted and arrested in the process of which a friend of his who's the ceo of a major corporation in in america in the world comes to his friend chuck colson and gives him a copy of c.s lewis's mere christianity and says you got some time on your hands you're gonna be sitting around for a little while you need to read this chuck coulson opens the pages to mere christianity reads this brilliant essay by c s lewis and chuck coulson sees god spits on the ground and puts mud in his eyes and while he's reading the pages he sees jesus gives his life to jesus surrenders to the lordship of christ in his life becomes a born again christian writes a book a classic one of the best selling books of the age called born again and goes to prison realizes there's a lot of injustice in prison realize there's a lot of inequity in the system of incarceration starts caring more about that than he ever had before realized that his dad and a generation before had cared about the justice system and about equality and about uh the injustices that are woven into incarceration so he now starts lifting up the cause of prison reform and then he starts a ministry called a prison fellowship which still exists to this day taking the gospel to tens if not hundreds of thousands of prisoners around the world right now they've seen countless people come to know jesus behind prison bars baptized discipled and churches started inside prisons all because of a radical conversion of chuck coulson a guy i'm guessing it most people would have written off you're probably not gonna get in and jesus said don't ever write anybody off because this gospel is for everybody and you can be the hatchet man of a president and you can go to prison for your crimes and right there the doorway will open to a brand new life do not let satan write you off today oh you've been through that with your relationship you've been through these failures you've you've got this baggage you you've got this history that's not your kind of people that's not your family you're not a church type person who's telling you that the enemy's telling you that well i've never really seen myself as one of the followers of jesus why not because the enemy told you that or because you met some of the pharisees who couldn't see and you were like i don't know if i really want to be in there or not but i'm telling you jesus wants to open your eyes you're like you don't know i've been to prison so what you don't know i've i've got a story so what you don't know i'm successful i built a business so what you don't know how much i've got in the bank so what you don't you don't know what water has gone under the bridge so what i know what blood has flowed down the cross and that's all that matters the difference between you being in and being out and that is available for everybody and so all of a sudden a guy born blind basically an id card for you're never getting in [Music] even so much that jesus owned followers said what is this guy's problem is it him or his parents because something went down wrong here and jesus said no is neither one this guy was born blind so that i could stand right here today and show all of you that what we need is revelation sight and i'm going to do it in the natural so that you can understand that it can happen in the spirit so look at the conclusion it's pretty great it always comes down to this and that's where we're closing right now always comes down to this great story crazy pharisees again missing the point family caught up in the tension of did we stand with our son or do we stay in the church people in the community want to talk more about whether the guy's even the guy or not before they just go i don't know where to go which direction did this jesus guy go in because i'm going after him great story but this is where it always comes down jesus heard that they'd thrown him out so he went and found him isn't that cool can i just pause one second i know a lot of you been out of church for a minute and you're not sure if you want to be back in or if you even can be back in can i just tell you if you're out of church right now you know what jesus does he comes and finds you so when the 99 sheep were in the pen the shepherd didn't go are you kidding me we got 99 attendance today that's gonna be like the best attendance in the city i'm gonna get a plaque i'm gonna get a lapel pin we're gonna get an award 99 attendance at church today we are killing it he said uh oh there's a sheep that's not here you guys good all right cool can you watch the gate for a second i gotta go get this guy and then he does what he comes back with the lamb on his shoulders yeah and all the other sheep are like bad this is so good we don't know why the sheep got lost could have wandered off could have got caught in a thick it could have been an idiot could have been stubborn could have been rebellious could it just not been paying attention but jesus comes and finds you and he's coming right now for you and jesus said to him do you believe in the son of man who is he sir the man asked tell me so that i might believe in him and jesus said you have now seen him in fact he's the one speaking with you and then the man said lord i believe and he worshipped jesus at some point you have to have revelation you can hear a thousand sermons you can go to church hundreds of times your grandma can be a believer and your mom can be a believer and your dad could have been a pastor but there's a moment in time where jesus spits in the ground and he puts the mud in your eyes and you take that step and you go wash in the pool and all of a sudden it's like you got to be kidding to me i was blind but now i see and if you need one more step jesus will come find you do you believe in the son of man i don't know who who is he you're looking at him and he said i knew it and he worshipped jesus he said you're the one about my heart about my affection about my life to you i'm just asking you today has has god been taking layers off has he been clarifying is he been bringing things more into focus and maybe it's today the day that all of a sudden it's like wow this is my matterhorn day jesus is standing here and he wants me in i matter he loves me i can be forgiven yeah this scarlet letter became his scarlet letter and i can walk clean i can walk forgiven i can walk knowing that i'm in the righteousness of jesus i can be a game changer and a history maker i can be changed and transformed i can be turned into a brand new person and be a part of seeing that happen in the lives of other people i can access the things of god i can walk in the spirit i can know the word i can learn how to share my faith i can be a part of this grand story i can live a generous life i can live and die with purpose i can you

Channel: Passion City Church

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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, passion city online sunday gathering, jesus, louie giglio 2020, pastor louie giglio, louie giglio messages, atlanta, passion city church, Worship Matters, W2O2R2S2H2I2P

Id: OHa6R2PBLrk

Length: 39min 10sec (2350 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 21 2020