Arrows In The Bow of a Sovereign God - Louie Giglio

So we ended camp with a challenge and then we came home and I was working on the talk that I've been planning on giving today for a while and got into working on that and was going pretty good but then I just kept thinking back to camp. And I don't know if you went to camp or not. I came from another era so I didn't go to anything like what we just went to. You know I went to Kumbaya and you know. Anybody go to that camp? No? Somebody? Okay you're still here still following the Lord. See something worked. I don't know what it was but I saw the light. That's about as high as we got on the worship park. You know that's when heaven came down, the Spirit of God moved, people got saved, lives were changed. Some glad morning when this life is over I'll fly away. I don't know if you've ever been in an atmosphere, an environment like that, but the thing that struck me was how hungry these teenagers are. They're still teenagers. I get it. They're still you know working on making good rational decisions. Making good decisions period. But they're hungry and you're seeing the trickle of that down from like the older group that we're normally with in passion trickling down into teenagers who are like I know there's nothing else out there. So I'm going to try Jesus and to sit in a room with teenagers who by and large had a Bible in their lap and as I've said before the bigger the better in this generation. I mean I got this little puny I feel so embarrassed even bring this Bible into our environments. You can put six of these in the average Bible size of a student at Passion Camp. They've got a notebook open. I'm looking down the row four different highlighters, colors. I didn't know what that's about. They're taking notes in multiple color. They're leaning in. They're wanting more. They're not there to say entertain me. They're there to say teach me. Show me. Help me. Lead me. Build me up. Because they know there's nothing else out there. And it creates an environment where the challenge is strong. And I kept thinking while I was working on this talk why not come back to the whole house today and give the same challenge? Why not come back to 47-year-olds and give the same challenge? The 39-year-olds and give the same challenge. The people who are building businesses and raising families and in all spheres of influence in our

city and give the same challenge. This collection is called Recommended for You. The idea is not to get into a fight with the culture. That is not helpful. It's just to highlight the reality that you and I are being discipled by the algorithm. And again, you're like, some of the guys here are like, no, I'm not really on social media. I've just got Facebook. And the algorithm, not coming from me, just dial back a few talks in the collection where we ask the algorithm per se, we ask chat GPT, how does the algorithm control my life? And in a nanosecond, the answer is pretty riveting. The algorithm isn't neutral. It has purpose for you. And it wants to capture your attention. It wants to keep you online as long as possible. It wants to shape the way that you think, ultimately push you further into various positions, tell you what to buy, and where you should go, and who you should like and who you should not like, who you should trust and who you should not trust. And at the end of the day, we said it before, but you've got people coming to church on a gathering time like today to listen to a message. from a pastor, their pastor for 40 minutes or so, having already been discipled on average for seven hours by the algorithm. And so pastors are waking up to that and they're realizing, you know, back in the day, there's a time where you really got under the teaching of God's Word and let it shape your life. But now a pastor is just one of a hundred voices in any given person's week. And probably given the climate of today, one of a dozen pastors that someone maybe has listened to in a given week. The algorithm wants us to stare at the screen. But today God is recommending something different for you and me, and it is that we go to the world. We were not created to stare at screens. We have been saved by God to go to the world. Salvation is not the end of it all. It's the beginning of it all. The day that we got saved is like the day we were born. People were happy. There are photographs. There's probably some memorabilia somewhere and a scrapbook or a little box somewhere at the house of the things that happened on day one. And it was a big day, the day that we were born. But it wasn't the end of all days. The idea was there would be another day and another day and another day and a birthday and another year and a birthday and a birthday and a birthday and a birthday and a birthday

and that we would all grow up into something. Not that we simply would be born. And that's what Jesus is really wanting to say today. Your salvation is not the ending point of the journey. It's just the beginning of the journey. And it is a journey of being sent by God to the world. That's what Jesus said at the end of the gospel. In Matthew 28, he said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. OK, that's that's worth just taking note of right there. We're not just listening to some wise teacher. We're listening to the one who says, I have all authority in heaven. I have all authority on earth. That's been given to me. Therefore, go. There's our word. Go where? To all nations. To do what? To make disciples. How do we do that? Well, baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. So what's the plan? To go. Where are we supposed to go? To all the nations. What are we supposed to do? To make disciples. How do you make disciples? You see people saved. You baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. You teach them everything that God has taught you. And lo, surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Go. The gospel starts with go. And that's the plan. This is God's will for our lives is that we go. He's saying, go where? Go everywhere. Who's going? Everyone's going. Everyone in the gathering today is sent. Everyone in the gathering today has the same mission. Everyone in this gathering today is invited into the same plan. Go, ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations. You're like, wow, is this like a missionary message? Yes. This is a mission's message. And the message hopefully will land in such a way that everybody in the gathering will realize today, who knew? I am a missionary. I'm a missionary because the plan is not to stare. The plan is to be sent. To be sent into the world. If you've seen grace, if you've seen the glory of God, if you've seen and experienced who he is, then you have a message to share with the world. That's what we see in Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah the prophet, this amazing voice of God for an entire generation and now dominoing into our lives. Our very ministry is built around the words that God gave through this man. Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your truth, we eagerly wait for you, for your name and your renown are the desire.

fire of our souls. Isaiah was the mouthpiece of God that gave us the very heartbeat of our mission. In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah said, I saw the Lord. Now this is important that we see this today. He says, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him, I wish we could just camp out in this for an hour or two, were seraphim, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces. With two they covered their feet. And with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. And at the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. So this seeing the Lord, it was beautiful and awesome, but mostly for Isaiah it was terrifying. Because when he saw the holy, holy, holy, he realized in a heartbeat that he was not holy, not holy, not holy. And he said, woe to me. I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips and not only that, I live among a people of unclean lips. And my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. This is the gospel, by the way, just one more time. The gospel is seeing the holiness of God and understanding the predicament of man. It's seeing how holy God is and then understanding the predicament of our sinful state. And Isaiah, when he sees this, he doesn't go, oh, I have a plan. I think I know how to get up there. I think I know how to get into that. I think I know how to navigate that or negotiate that. I think I can figure out a way to improve my condition enough that I can go in there where the holy, holy, holy is. No, he knows in a heartbeat, I'm done. I'm done. And done for. But then something unexpected happens. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. So here comes this seraphim, holy, holy, flying down with a live coal in his hand that he's taken with these tongs from the altar. And Isaiah is thinking, this is it right here. This is how they're going to finish me off. But grace had a curveball. And when it touched my mouth with it, he touched my mouth and he didn't say, you're right, you're finished. He said something else. He said, see, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for. Now this isn't the fullness of the salvation that you and I have received. It's just God showing Isaiah a picture of what Jesus was going to make available to you and me. And

Isaiah knew that because he wrote the chapter about the suffering servant. And he knew that Jesus, the one that was coming, Messiah that was promised to us, was the one that by his stripes we were going to be healed. That he was going to be crushed for us. That he was going to be smitten in our place. That he was going to take the brunt of the wrath of God for you and me. But Isaiah now is experiencing it in this vision. While I think I'm finished and I know that I don't have a chance, here comes grace flying at me. And the seraphim says to me, your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for. So I've seen the Lord and now I've seen the grace of God. And that's all I need to get into the position that I'm about to get into. Listen to what happens next. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? So this is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the Trinity. They're all in conversation together. They have a plan. They have a mission. There's something on their mind, something on their heart. And they're saying in the hearing of the one who just saw the Lord and... saw the grace of God, they're saying who is going to go for us? Who should we send? I don't know. Who should we pick? And Isaiah, having this revelation of glory and grace, he says, here am I. Send me. Five words. Here am I. Send me. Notice that there is no unveiling of what the mission is going to be about. There is no descriptor like, oh, and who's going to go for us to the X, Y, Z place for X, Y, Z amount of time and do A, B, and C and have a partnership with 1, 2, and 3? No. He's just saying who's going to go? Who's going to reach the people? And we'll see in Isaiah as it plays all the way out to the end, going out to the distant islands, to the distant shores, to the people who haven't heard yet about the glory of God and about the grace of God. They're staring at a screen of life way dumbed down from the majesty that is God. And somebody's got to go. And somebody's got to tell them who I am. And he said, here am I. Send me. That's where we left off at camp. With your 14-year-old son or daughter. God wants to send somebody to their middle school. And our prayer was that they would hear him saying, who will we send to Sutton Middle School? And that they would say, here I am. Send me. If you're looking for somebody to send, send me. If you're looking for somebody to send into my sphere, the city, send me. I'm available. Now, the enemy comes really quickly and he says, yeah, well, I'm not Isaiah. And I didn't, in the year that King Uzziah died,

have this kind of a vision. And I didn't see a thing flying down out of the sky with a, you know, a coal from the altar. And I, that's not me. I'm just a regular, ordinary guy. Okay, let me give you a couple of keys to being sent really quickly today. Number one, you don't have to have it all together to be sent. It helps if you're getting it together. But you don't have to have it all together. We shared the story the other night about the woman at the well in John chapter 4. You can read all about her. If you don't know her story, she's at the well in the middle of the day by herself under the blazing heat, not in the morning with the other ladies, because she struck out five times at marriage and is living with a guy that's probably going to go the same way. And Jesus comes through her town and engages her in a conversation at this well. And he offers her living water. She's like, I don't know what that is. They get into a conversation. Eventually she says to him, well, that someone's coming named Messiah. And when they, when they get here, they'll be able to sort all this out. And Jesus looks at the woman and says, yes, there is someone coming called Messiah. And the one talking to you right now is him. She was like, oh, wow. And he had already read her mail. She said, I want this water. And he said, okay, we'll go get your husband and then I'll show you where the water is. And she said, I don't have a husband. He goes, I know you've been had five husbands and I got you're living with right now is not your husband. And she was like, sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. So I am. And I'm the promised one, the Messiah. As soon as he said that to her, his disciples who'd gone into town to get food, came back to the well, saw him talking to this woman. And that was not usual in that time. And they're like, why are you talking to this woman out here in the middle of the day, in the middle of this town? We don't know these people. And when they started talking, she left. The scripture says she left, left her water pot right there and went back to the village. And she went back to the village and her story back in the village was, look at verse 28. This is John four, leaving her water jar. The woman went back to the town and said to the people, here's our whole testimony. Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah? She didn't say I got saved. She didn't say I'm being discipled. She didn't say I'm working. on a deep dive study in the book of Acts right now. She didn't say, let me explain to you how my theology has all shifted. She just said, I met a guy. Unusual guy. You should come see this guy. And so many of the Samaritans, 39, from that town believed in Him because of the woman's testimony. What was her testimony? He told me everything I ever did. That's her

whole testimony? So when the Samaritans came to Him, they urged Him to stay with them. And He stayed two days. And because of His words, many more became believers. Many more. And they said to the woman, we no longer believe just because of what you said. Now we have heard for ourselves. And we know that this man really is, taking it up a notch now, the Savior of the world. This lady barely had met Jesus. And immediately her mode was to go. I've got to tell people. I've got to, I've got to let people in on what's happening right here at the well today. And she didn't have it all together. She was in the process of getting it together. She had met the Miracle Man. I wonder if anybody here has met the Miracle Man. Because if you've met the Miracle Man, you're good to go. Yeah, but I don't have it all together. I know, but you've met the Miracle Man. The second key to being sent is that you don't have to have all the answers. In other words, you don't have to be one of these guys that you see in your reel or your feed that's out on the street corner engaging people in dialogue and answering all their questions just off the cuff. You don't have to be Cliff Connectly, who is that passionate and goes and stands in the courtyard of university campuses across America and just takes on the conversation for an hour or two or three and answers any and every question that comes his way. You don't have to be Cliff Connectly. It would be fun if you were. This guy fell down out of a planet somewhere and has got a special gift from God. You don't have to have all the answers. You just have to have an irrefutable argument. What do you mean by that? You just have to experience something that you're convinced of. I used to be a drunk. I've never been freer. I used to be so angry and filled with bitterness. And I'm telling you, when I met this man, he changed my heart. I was the most fearful person you could ever be around. But when I met Jesus, I started taking on His heart and His sense of peace. I used to have no purpose in life. I was just out there, no reason, like a pinball in life. And God has just given me such clarity and such purpose. That's all you need. It's called the irrefutable argument. We've talked about it a lot at Passion City Church. You cannot tell me that I don't love barbecue. I don't care who you are. I don't care. You could have a Ph.D. from atheist university. I don't care who you are. You cannot tell me I don't drive out of the way a long way for the right barbecue. I do. I

have. And I will. It's the irrefutable argument. And people can tell you, yeah, but what about the so-and-so? And what about the whatever? And what about the letter that was lost and now has been found? And it's kind of just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you're like, I don't know about that. I haven't heard about that. I haven't read about that. I'm not an expert on that. What I do know is when I met Jesus, this changed in my life. And I'm certain of it. Number three, you don't have to save them. Praise God. You don't have to save anybody at your work. You're like, well, thank goodness for that because that, she's not getting saved most likely. And if my whole being sent hinges on her, not going to go good when I see him. Not going to go good when I see him. Why didn't you save her? I tried. Tough one. You, you don't have to save them. All you have to do is care about them. To see them as an image bearer of God in a predicament called sin, needing a glimpse of a glorious, gracious God that will wreck their world and then set them on fire and free them for life. This lady, when she went back to her town, Sychar, it says, this is an amazing verse, there's a lot of verses like this in the gospel, verse 41, and because of his words, Jesus' words, he stayed there two days, many more became believers. Now why doesn't this say Jesus himself went to their town and stayed there two days, and that's enough when you're Jesus, and all of them became believers. Because there are some people that are so hardened of heart that even if Jesus comes to their town, they're still not getting saved. Now that's heartbreaking, but that's called free will of man to shove it back in the face of holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The earth is full of his glory. And so it's likely that all the people at your work aren't going to get saved, but many of them will. It's likely that all the kids in your high school aren't going to get saved, but many of them will. It's likely that all the people on your campus are not going to get saved, but many of them will. And you don't have to save them. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. You just need to care about them and share. I was talking to some of our student leaders the first night or so of camp. Amazing room full of people, student leaders from Trillith and Cumberland. These are the people sleeping on the air mattresses in the rooms and not sleeping, laying on the air mattresses in the rooms. These are the heroes of camp. These are the people who make camp what camp is. And I was sharing with them, I said, whatever you do this week, don't buy whatever these students are trying to give you. Because some

of them are trying to give you, I don't care. I couldn't give a rip about Jesus. And they are one millimeter from putting their faith in him. Don't buy what they're giving you. You just keep believing. I'm going to care about them this week. I'm going to share with them this week, and I'm going to let the Holy Spirit work. God was so kind to put these two beautiful little young guys right in front of where our team seating was. We're sitting on the side of the arena facing kind of that way, but there's the thing over there. All these people are sitting on the floor facing that way. And these two guys right here got a prime view of the two of these guys. They're right closest to you right now. And first night of camp, they are not having it. They are sitting down through the whole thing. Never saying a syllable, never smiled. Looked like, you know, people were, you know, twisting their toes off. You know, they're just not happy. They're sitting there like for the whole thing. The people around them are literally going crazy. All ages, middle school kids just pumping it, worshiping, praising God. They're just like, it's like, Lord, thank you so much for putting them right there. Thank you so much for putting them right there so that two mornings later, when the opportunity was given for people to put their faith in Jesus, we could have a very close up seat to one of them standing and saying, I want to put my faith in Jesus. Number four, you don't need to know all the details. Now it's going back to Isaiah. He didn't get a lot of details. He just said, here am I sin, me. And we've talked about this in the past, but I was remembering while we were at camp being at a college retreat at St. Simon's Island, Georgia, if you've been there. Epworth by the sea. Anybody spent any time there? Hello? Come on. I got the biggest response of the entire collection. Epworth by the sea. I'm in there as a Georgia state student, minding my own business on a weekend college retreat. And God. knocked me out of my seat onto my knees. And I don't know what king died that year, but I know I saw the Lord. A kid had grown up in church, but I saw the cross of Christ. And it put me on the floor. And I remember going back to our cabin that night

and just saying again to God, whatever you want to do in me, yes. And so God sent this angel and he came and sat on the end of my bed. And he said, well, let me explain passion to you. It's going to be a couple of decades before that happened, but let me work through the details of that. You like Austin? That's where we're going to start it. And I know church is going to be a little bit of a left turn cause you're going to be 50, but I'll help you. Shelly will be there. Let me tell you about Shelly. Oh my goodness. Wow. It's how all this is going to work. Cause Shelly. Anyway, so you're going to go to seminary and then you're going to go to grad school after that. And then you're going to go to grad school after that. It's kind of like a makeup for failing out of Georgia state. It's kind of like you get a payback. But eventually, you know, no, there was no plan. It was just a kid saying, yes. And to say yes, you don't have to know the plan. You just have to have seen something. And then lastly, the last thing about being sin is that you're not sin in your power. Praise God. But in his, Jesus said, after he was raised from the dead,

he said to his followers, but you will receive power when the Holy spirit comes on you. This is acts one. And you will be my witnesses. In other words, you will tell people what you've seen and who you've met. Where? In Jerusalem. That's right here. You don't have to go anywhere. A lot of you are going to be witnesses right here. Congratulations. You're a missionary. Where? Right here. Awesome. Others of you in all Judea. That means the surrounding area. So some of you might be Woodstock or Noonan or Macon generally speaking. And in Samaria. In other words, we're going to cross back over like I did into the area of the people that we have a little bit of friction with. And some of you are going to be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. And then Jesus came, remember, and he appeared to them when they were locked in the house because they were scared that maybe they were going to get crushed like he did on the cross.

On the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "'Peace be with you.'" That's what you say when you walk through a wall. And after this, he showed them his hands and sighed. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw, there it is, saw, they saw the Lord. Again, Jesus said, "'Peace be with you.'" Peace be with you, peace, peace, peace to you. And then listen to what he said. "'As the Father has sent me, "'I am sending you.'" Jesus is not here today talking theoretically to you. He's talking to you as someone who was sent and who got the message, I gotta go. And he knew the plan. He knew the cross was at the end of the mission. And he said, "'Here am I, send me.'" And he said, "'And just like the Father sent me, "'I am sending you.'" But don't get too worried about the fact that you don't know if he can do this or not, because with that, he breathed on. them and said receive the Holy Spirit, the advocate. I'm not sending you in your own strength. I am not sending you in your own power. I am not sending you in your own wisdom. I am not sending you with your own resources. I'm not sending you counting on you. I'm sending you with the power and the help of the advocate

who is the Holy Spirit, who is God. And that's the only way that I would send any of you. We left camp the way we've done at conference so many different times and I just want to make sure we see it today as we close this picture. This is the picture today. This is really what God is wanting to say to you and say to me today. It wasn't just His plan to get us in the building today. Well we made it to the building. Well we've got people at multiple buildings today. We got people in DC in a building. We got people in Cumberland in a building. We got people in their living room in a building. We got people at Trillith in a building. This building is full of people. But that wasn't the goal. Let's just see how many people we can get in the building. That wasn't the goal. Can you be my helper? Just hold that for me. Thank you. These are very, very sharp and my team has asked me explicitly to say to you, please don't touch them. There are people right now interceding for me on your behalf. And so you won't get nervous. Peace be with you. I'm not gonna pull the bow back because these are legitimate. But I just want us to have a picture of why God saved you. Why did God come down, lay His life down, and save you? Well obviously for His glory. But so that He could put your life, the good, the bad, and the ugly, saved by grace in the bow of a sovereign God, and launch you in His grace to the world. Launch you out in His grace here, there, and everywhere. Who's He launching? Everybody. Where's He launching us? Everywhere. There's a person sitting right next to me right now. Leads a team that runs a hospital in the Middle East. Serves the most critically needy babies in that region. Living there, praying there, believing there, serving there, day by day by day by day by day, sent by God in the name of Christ to the middle of it all. An arrow in the hands of a sovereign God, launched out in the power of the Holy Spirit to be the light of the world. It's awesome. I have a chance to walk in His hospital, see with my own eyes the power of what God is doing there. You're like, well I don't know if that's where my arrow's going. I don't either. I'm just saying yes. If you're looking for somebody, and I think I heard y'all saying that you were, here am I.

Send me If you're looking for somebody to launch then I heard that you were Then here am I Send me I Put my life in the hands of the sovereign archer of the ages Here am I Send me You know, it's a short runway to this question Trillith and Cumberland But I this is where we left off at Daytona Beach, Florida And I think it maybe it's a good place to pick up today Maybe the Lord's been teeing this up for somebody today and you're like I had no idea This is how this was gonna go today, but God did So we're all gonna be sent back to our businesses back to our neighborhoods back to our world all of us sent Everybody here's a missionary. Amen Everybody here's a missionary Here they're everywhere But someone today is sensing that God's calling you specifically to what we would call full-time ministry. I Don't know the plan Louie, but I know that I'm supposed to be doing something similar to what you and your team do I'm supposed to lead an organization. I'm supposed to be a pastor I'm supposed to be a builder in some kingdom at ministry I'm supposed to be a church planner a worship leader a Bible teacher. I don't know all the details I just know that there is a call. I'm sensing on my life To serve and build up God's church as a living Not just as a missionary in my company or missionary on my campus God's calling me into ministry And I want to say yes today, I don't know what it means. I don't know where it's gonna take me I don't know all the details. I don't know anything other than I sense God calling me and today I want to say Yes My yes is on the table Take my life and use me and lead me anyway in anywhere that you will for your glory

You