God in the Storm

Louie Giglio, pastor and author of The Comeback, joins Life Today hosts James and Betty Robison. In this half-hour video, Giglio shares his story of entering a turbulent season of life to illustrate God’s promise to bring us through every storm.

Editor’s Note: The transcript that follows was automatically generated and lightly edited, so please be aware there could be typos or other small errors. The Stream is working toward a transcription service that does fast, accurate, and reliable work; thank you in advance for your patience!

00:00:00:26 – 00:00:07:09
The following program is sponsored by Friends of Life Outreach International.

00:00:07:12 – 00:00:25:24
I went to bed on a regular night like I have my entire lifetime. I woke up at 2:00 with, thought I was literally dying of a heart attack in that moment. And for the next three months, James and Betty, I was pretty much out of commission. My mind basically shut down my brain shut down the doc.

00:00:25:26 – 00:01:00:16
Coming up on life today. Pastor, speaker and founder of the passion movement, Louis Giglio, shares about a time when he felt like his place in God’s story was over.

00:01:00:18 – 00:01:04:28
Well, thank you so much, Grace. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to life today.

00:01:04:29 – 00:01:25:23
I’m thrilled to have this opportunity. I’m James Robison, my wife, Betty. And I welcome you, Louis Giglio is with us. And if you don’t know what passion is, and the church city pastors in the Atlanta area will check it out and go to the website. We’ll tell you how to find it in a little bit. But what he’s doing with young people and he just absolutely overflowed Coliseum.

00:01:25:25 – 00:01:50:15
It’s Betty and I have actually played some of not only the message that Louis delivers and others, but but the worship with students and young people and you’re literally lifted into the presence of the Lord. I mean, it’s absolutely indescribable. And, I think you can find on our website, which again, will direct you there in just a little while, you can probably see and visit some of these encounters with the presence of God.

00:01:50:17 – 00:02:17:13
But he’s written a book called The Comeback. Now listen to the subheading. It’s not too late and you’re never too far. I have an idea. Means too far gone, too far down, too far away. You never are. It cannot escape the limitless, boundless love of God and His grace. Would you welcome Louis Giglio back by tonight?

00:02:17:15 – 00:02:22:12
We’re Vatican. Before you talk.

00:02:22:14 – 00:02:45:04
You talk about come back. Because I think this is a personal journey and a personal story. And I think it reaches beyond. There’s no question it has a lot to do with what you’re doing now. But I think it’s something about what went on with you. And I feel like you wanted to share it because you think there are others who identify with it who might have felt like they’re the only ones, and maybe it’s too late and too far gone.

00:02:45:05 – 00:02:46:21
Am I right about that?

00:02:46:23 – 00:03:07:06
And you know, the book is filled with a lot of personal stories about my life, but it’s also filled with personal stories about other real people who have been way down and way out. And so that’s the reason why I wanted to write the book. But all that was brought to the surface by being a pastor. And you don’t have to be a pastor to know that life is hard.

00:03:07:09 – 00:03:23:27
But when you are a pastor, you bump up against it every single day. And the way I like to say it is every single person, every person watching this show today is either in a storm. They’re just coming out of a storm, or they’re on their way into a storm.

00:03:23:27 – 00:03:24:16
That’s life.

00:03:24:18 – 00:03:43:13
That’s life. And we don’t know what’s on the other side of the next phone call we’re going to receive. We don’t know what is on the calendar for us tomorrow. And but what we do know is Jesus said, in this world you will have trouble in this world. You can guarantee on a broken planet there’s going to be hardship of every kind.

00:03:43:16 – 00:04:03:08
You have walked through that with your daughter. All of us have walked through that with people that we love, and some of it we bring on ourselves. And a lot of it is just circumstantial that all of a sudden we wake up and the whole landscape of our life has changed. But at the core of our message, the reason why we’re on this show today is because of Jesus.

00:04:03:10 – 00:04:25:04
And at the core of the story of Jesus is resurrection. That it doesn’t matter how bad it looks. Our God is greater. It doesn’t matter how dark the night God still can see as though it were noonday sun. And he’s ever present, ever helping, ever on the scene. He always has a plan and he can bring a miracle out of nothing.

00:04:25:04 – 00:04:29:14
That thief on the cross was a breath away from an eternity without God.

00:04:29:17 – 00:04:30:19
That’s right.

00:04:30:21 – 00:04:35:15
Jesus that the historians tell us died on a garbage dump outside of Jerusalem.

00:04:35:16 – 00:04:36:01
That’s right.

00:04:36:01 – 00:04:46:23
And so on. A garbage dump. With a few breaths left, Jesus Christ intersected the story of a convicted criminal, and he went to Paradise.

00:04:46:29 – 00:04:48:01
Today, that.

00:04:48:03 – 00:05:02:12
Very day. This is a story of our God, and it all comes out of the resurrection story of Jesus Christ. You’re never too far, and it’s never too late for God to intervene and to change the story.

00:05:02:14 – 00:05:14:04
That was the importance of this story and all that you try to detail in the book. How was it birthed in you to the point that you just had to share it for the benefit of others?

00:05:14:07 – 00:05:42:01
Well, you know, I’ve had a lot of difficulty in my life. I’ve been through debilitating and, illness with both my parents ending up in death. We’ve had a lot of storms in life, some physical, literal storms and passion events that are epic and then a lot of other kinds of storms. But what I open the book with is just telling the story of what I went into in 2008, which was a complete mental meltdown.

00:05:42:04 – 00:06:01:08
We call it an anxiety attack, panic disorder. Those are all nice terms we put around it these days. But I went to bed on a regular night like I have my entire lifetime. I woke up at 2:00 with, thought I was literally dying of a heart attack in that moment. And for the next three months, James and Betty, I was pretty much out of commission.

00:06:01:11 – 00:06:31:13
My mind basically shut down, my brain shut down. The doctor said it’s like putting the RPM in your car in the red zone for too long, and it gets stuck there. And eventually, in self-defense, your brain just stops functioning. And I went through these crazy physical symptoms, ended up in the emergency room twice and in 36 hours when you walk into an emergency room and at two in the morning, your wife driving you to the hospital, you’re having convulsions that you can’t stop, you can’t feel your arm.

00:06:31:18 – 00:06:52:29
You walk into the desk, it’s early in the morning and there’s a waiting room full of people. And I said, the lady said, May I help you? I said, I’m 50 years old. I can’t feel my face, and I don’t know what’s wrong with me. And she just immediately takes me straight back. No paperwork, no nothing. They hooked me up to all those tests and as it turns out, I had nothing physically wrong with me.

00:06:53:01 – 00:07:20:09
But I my brain was overwhelmed with a sense of fear. Could have been a root of depression. Could have been all the enemy, all rolled in there. But the end result was for me. I wondered if I was ever going to function again. And after three, 4 or 5 months of coming out of this, I didn’t know if I was ever going to preach again, if I was ever going to sit down and have a conversation where my heart and soul, I was going to blow out of my chest again if I was ever going to sleep through the night again.

00:07:20:12 – 00:07:26:13
If I was ever going to enter into life as I had known it and I thought I was going crazy, I literally thought I was leaving.

00:07:26:13 – 00:07:29:15
Had anything been going on around you that would have set the song?

00:07:29:15 – 00:07:55:25
Well, absolutely. You know, there’s always things going on, and when you look back, it’s a perfect storm for me. We’d finished a world tour with passion. We’d been in 17 cities and 16 nations and three months in that year, trusting God for $6.5 million to to provide for it all. My mom diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. It was a global economic meltdown in this particular year, and anybody that was middle age like me felt it.

00:07:55:27 – 00:08:13:22
Middle aged men felt that because all of what they’d worked for was eroding under them. We were in the middle of a change of home. My wife had had her back go out in Sydney on the last of those stops, and have been flat on her back for three weeks. So there were and we planted a church, thank you very much.

00:08:13:22 – 00:08:34:18
And when you plant a church, you better get ready because the enemy comes at you a different way. When you start shepherding and caring for this body of Christ in a local context. So all those things were pinching in. But I think underneath it all, probably in hindsight was that sense that we all have that somehow I’ve got to shoulder all this, I’ve got to figure out how to carry this.

00:08:34:18 – 00:08:54:23
I’ve got to figure out how to make sense of all this. And, and fear comes through that door. And when fear comes through the door, bad things happen and the lights usually go out, and, you know, it was amazing that God and grace, met me. Had the deepest, deepest point of that valley in a really profound way, though.

00:08:54:26 – 00:08:56:28
And that’s the turnaround story for me.

00:08:57:05 – 00:08:59:17
But what happened to you? How did you get out for money? Well, for.

00:08:59:17 – 00:09:26:11
Me it was worship. And worship has always been the way out for me, and I think it’s the way out for all of us. Remember the scripture where Jesus is announcing his ministry and he is the prophet Isaiah, and he says that God gives us a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And so whenever we feel the tunnel coming or the pit coming or the cloud coming in, I learn how many people live in the way that I was living for a little while.

00:09:26:11 – 00:09:45:12
I was on medication to sort of reset my mind, and I would tell people, I’m taking X and my wife takes that, or my son takes that, or my cousin takes that, or I take that. I was like our whole country is on some sort of antidepressant right now. And I think underneath a lot of that is the fear and the dread that the enemy bring to us.

00:09:45:12 – 00:10:08:05
And that’s always best combated with setting our eyes back on the greatness and the grandeur of God. And in worship is a way that lights up the dark for us. And it is the way out of the tunnel. Even Psalm 23, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. And the end of that psalm is a praise, is a praise to God.

00:10:08:05 – 00:10:24:22
It’s putting our focus back on God. And so I remember a night I was laying in bed and Shelly was there, bless her heart. She had just she was trying to hold our lives together. And, I mean, I literally didn’t leave the house a lot of days. I didn’t go to work a lot of days. I, I was going to doctors every day because I thought I had something different.

00:10:24:22 – 00:10:41:25
Wrong with me every day because my body was all out of whack. And I remember this night I went to bed. I knew 2:00 was coming, 2:00 was to cloud the dread. And that night it came and I woke up. And I was so broken down by it all because there wasn’t a fix or months in. Now there wasn’t a quick change.

00:10:41:25 – 00:10:56:16
And guys want things to change in a hurry. Oh yeah, and people that live a fast paced life like you and me, we want something to change. We want to go see somebody, want to take something we wanted to be over. And I was broken down. And I remember just saying, God, I can’t do this one more night.

00:10:56:19 – 00:11:19:14
I cannot do this one more night. We’ve prayed. Everyone’s prayed. We believe. We fasted. Trust me. We’ve claimed every Bible promise. We know people were covering us in prayer, but nothing was changing. And I said, God, I can’t do this another night. And then I just thought back to a time in my life which was another deep, dark hole way back due to some other circumstances in our family.

00:11:19:19 – 00:11:40:22
And I remember Jobe, the Lord gives songs in the night. And I said, God, if you’ll give me a song tonight, I’ll sing it to you. And just out of my heart I don’t know where it came from came this little chorus. Be still there is a healer. His love is deeper than the sea. His mercy is unfailing.

00:11:40:22 – 00:12:02:11
And his arms a fortress, a refuge for the weak. And a melody came. And I just start singing it up to God. And I just remember lifting my hands up in the bed at two in the morning, and I just said, be still. There’s a healer. His love is deeper than the sea is, mercy is unending, and his arms are a fortress for the weak.

00:12:02:13 – 00:12:22:18
And I remember just singing that until, till morning. I just stayed on that little thought all night long until morning. And the next day. Guess what I woke up. Nothing changed. But when I went to bed the next night, I said, if 2:00 comes and the cloud comes, I got a song for 2:00. And I’ve got a song for the cloud.

00:12:22:18 – 00:12:47:08
So the next night 2:00 came and the cloud came. But the song came and the progression was Cloud song, cloud song. But then it was song song, song cloud. And then it was song song song song, song cloud. And then it was song maybe a cloud, and then it was song. And I’m not going to say today, because it wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t say that somehow.

00:12:47:08 – 00:13:05:09
Now after going through that, that, that anxiety, that sense of that panic, it’s somewhere over in left field and I’m somewhere up at third base. And but I know now when it starts coming, I know it’s that I’m not going crazy. And if anybody’s watching this today and you’re like, I know exactly what you’re talking about. I’ve been through this.

00:13:05:09 – 00:13:23:00
I want to tell you two things. Number one, you’re not crazy. That’s what the enemy’s going to tell you. You are crazy and losing your mind. You’re not crazy. A lot of people have been where you’ve been. But the second thing I want you to know is, is that God is in that moment with you right now, and he is going to bring you through.

00:13:23:06 – 00:13:42:18
He is committed to the process of bringing you all the way through. And it doesn’t happen in neat, tidy little stories because that’s somewhere still over there. And a set of circumstances can make me sense that coming again. But I know now that’s not real. I’m not dying. I’m not dying. Thank you very much that I’m not going to die tonight.

00:13:42:18 – 00:14:02:07
That is the enemy coming at me. I’m going to turn my eyes on God. I’m going to set my focus again on God. I’m going to renew my worship again in God. And I tell you, it’s a miracle to me that eight years later, I can do that, eight years later that I have, that I’m in the light because there’s a day in that tunnel where you think I’m never coming out of the dark.

00:14:02:07 – 00:14:03:24
Don’t you appreciate the journey.

00:14:03:24 – 00:14:09:27
And what you’ve heard and the glory and that and you shared this in detail.

00:14:10:00 – 00:14:30:04
But you broke it out where the reader could go on that journey and reach that place where you are in his presence, and you’re beginning to experience the manifestation of that presence and that power. And I want you to tell us how to go to the website and how we can learn about passion and the things that you have available to help people, as well as the book or the material.

00:14:30:04 – 00:14:49:11
And by the way, I would suggest that you go online or you go to the bookstores right now, get the book, not just because you may find hope, but you know someone who desperately needs what, what he shares here, and he shares it in a very effective manner, just like you heard him pouring out his love to you, talking to you right there because he knows there’s there’s hope and help available.

00:14:49:16 – 00:14:54:25
So get this and pass it on. But when one of the next big passion events is it early next year.

00:14:54:25 – 00:15:13:21
Yeah. So passion is a gathering for 18 to 25 year olds and their leaders, primarily university students and conferences. Dot com is the best place to find all the information on passion. If you’ve got university age young people as children or grandchildren, you need to buy them a ticket and send them an email and tell them that they’re going to go.

00:15:13:23 – 00:15:25:10
And if you’re in that age group, please come. The other website is Passion City church.com, and that’s where all the messages from Sunday to Sunday are. If people just want to tap in to what we’re doing week by week.

00:15:25:13 – 00:15:26:28
Thank you. Would you say thank you to them?

00:15:26:28 – 00:15:37:22
What a lovely question. You and the book will be a blessing, Louis, our our audience and our viewers. And by the way, if you feel like I’m where.

00:15:37:22 – 00:15:58:16
He was talking, you see that phone number? There’s someone waiting to pray with you, to agree with you into that point of praise and release and healing. Don’t hesitate to call. And that number is paid for by love. The love of God through people who care about you is they just call no matter where you are. So you need someone to be in prayer with.

00:15:58:16 – 00:16:17:21
They don’t hesitate to call Louis. Our viewers love to extend the hands of Jesus literally. You know, if we’re the body of Christ and I know you try to tell these students you’re the body of Christ. So let’s get on with expressing him as who he is. And by the way, we have to do it collectively because no one of us have all the aspects of what he has in his body.

00:16:17:25 – 00:16:41:20
We got to connect. We got to have each member connected. Well, what we do is we extend effectively the hands of Jesus, and we express his love in a way that totally changes everything. And I want you to look in and I want you to see if you don’t want to be Jesus moving in to the situation you observe.

00:16:41:20 – 00:16:49:06
But watch it very closely and God’s going to move. You watch.

00:16:49:09 – 00:16:57:03
Angola leads most African countries in child mortality for children under the age of five, and about half.

00:16:57:03 – 00:16:59:02
Of those deaths are attributed to.

00:16:59:02 – 00:17:06:16
The effects of malnutrition. There just isn’t enough food.

00:17:06:18 – 00:17:10:14
I want to interrupt this.

00:17:10:17 – 00:17:32:12
And I want you to look at the child that first walked out there. So lovely. And then I want you to look at the next shot of the child. Now, I want you to stop and think about this reality. You may think that’s just a little child wandering around through what looks like a desert terrain. Obviously, there’s nothing there.

00:17:32:12 – 00:18:03:10
There’s nothing growing. There’s there’s tremendous famine. Need. And you see that little child, I want to ask you this. Do you think the God of heaven and earth notices that little child? Well, let me tell you something. The God of heaven and earth that lives in me sees that little child, and the God that I know says, I don’t want that little child wandering around in that desert, deserted land.

00:18:03:13 – 00:18:19:12
I want to hold that child, and we hold him by responding as the body of Christ. Now continue. Watch, listen. And above all, hear God watch.

00:18:19:15 – 00:18:26:15
For Dominga, a couple of years ago, this statistic became a reality during a food crisis.

00:18:26:17 – 00:18:48:05
So I’m. Himba Bana. Sandy. I’m Molina or Joanne. I should be daddy. So I did on my body.

00:18:48:07 – 00:19:06:02
Watch me daddy. Bella. Aguilar. I did it. For Maria Bana.

00:19:06:05 – 00:19:20:25
Once again, famine has struck the village where Dominga lives will only be a matter of time before her remaining children find themselves in a downward spiral, moving towards severe malnutrition.

00:19:20:27 – 00:19:45:07
Or waiting on what you. Appear. Hungry about what would you like better? I do a delicacy. Don’t worry. I’m out today. I will be.

00:19:45:09 – 00:19:48:12
These children will end up in a clinic struggling.

00:19:48:12 – 00:19:51:13
For their lives. Or worse.

00:19:51:15 – 00:19:55:08
In an early grave. If we don’t act to help.

00:19:55:08 – 00:20:02:22
Dominga and her precious children.

00:20:02:24 – 00:20:31:28
It is so important to actually understand what’s taking place. Here’s a mother trying to get a child to a clinic. Yeah, that love through you helped establish. It’s the last resort. It’s for a child that is in the throes of death. Can perhaps be saved at the last moment. That’s where she was headed. She didn’t get there. The son died while she was traveling.

00:20:32:01 – 00:21:08:13
A daughter back home, starving, died. Now, here’s what you must understand. We will maintain those literal malnutrition clinics as a last resort because of love for what we’re trying to do is to join the missionaries who have found the famished areas, the great need. And they have established a feeding center there where we can feed them who we take these orange bowls like this that you thought up because you didn’t want to bring in tin cans and plastic bags and the food burning through the bag and having an old dirty can.

00:21:08:13 – 00:21:26:13
You said, let’s give them heat resistant bowls. We want to feed them out there. We found them. If we catch them there, maybe they never end up hit. The malnutrition clinic, the last resort. So we’re reaching out where they are in love to save their lives. So you don’t have to have a story like you just.

00:21:26:13 – 00:21:46:27
Heard and understand how important these bowls are. We thought at first when our supporters suggest giving them something burn their little hands, but we found out to its mark on the inside so we can give the right levels of food so that it goes further for the children and then one that hit the back of the line doesn’t end up being left out.

00:21:47:04 – 00:21:55:22
Now, I saw that Jane thought I was so important to me that the one that stood there the longest won’t have to be turned away because we ran out.

00:21:55:24 – 00:22:15:20
Well, Mary is exactly right. You can’t see this, but there are portion lines. And when we have more children, always show up than you anticipate. And so if you give the same amount, you can certainly run out, but you learn to apportion it based on the need and the number. So what our viewers thought up became even more significant that you might have imagined.

00:22:15:25 – 00:22:37:19
So here’s what we need. We’re asking you to go to life today.org. Take your bank card. Use it like a check. Now think about this $30, $50, $100 enables us to feed three, 5 or 10 children for the next months. So there’s a level at which you can join life today.org use your bank card or now the number there on the screen.

00:22:37:21 – 00:23:05:23
Take your bank card. Use it like a check please extend the hands of Jesus. Become an answer to the prayer and heart cries of mothers and parents for their children and give those little children that seem to be so overlooked. Let them see the love and the power of that love expressed through you and through the missionaries. Please make that call or go on line and make the gift.

00:23:05:26 – 00:23:09:03
Thank you for doing it right now.

00:23:09:03 – 00:23:35:19
Across the continent of Africa, children are suffering, facing severe malnutrition and even death, with food reserves gone and many areas experiencing severe famine, we urgently need to replenish supplies to keep feeding the 350,000 children who are counting on us through life’s mission. Feeding outreach. Your gift of love can be an answer to prayer for a hurting and hungry child in their time of need.

00:23:35:21 – 00:24:20:05
Call now with your life saving gift of 30, 50, or $100 to help feed and care for three, 5 or 10 children for three four months. With your gift, we’ll send you natural remedies. This beautifully illustrated book explores ancient nutrition and the health benefits found in God’s creation. To help you live your best life with your gift of $100 or more, please request your health and Wellness bundle this three books that includes natural remedies as well as a central fasting, a simple eating strategy to accelerate weight loss, crush cravings and reverse aging, and the probiotic diet that gives effective strategies to improve digestion, boost brain health, and supercharge your immune system.

00:24:20:07 – 00:24:38:04
Finally, please consider a gift of $1,000 or more, which will help feed 100 children and you may request our inspiring bronze sculpture, Lion of Judah. Please call right or make your gift online today.

00:24:38:07 – 00:24:38:27
Hi, I’m Jordan.

00:24:38:27 – 00:24:43:28
Rubin, and for over two decades, my wife Nikki and I have been supporting the ministries of life.

00:24:43:28 – 00:24:56:15
With any gift to mission feeding you will transform the lives of 350,000 children in Africa by giving them nutritious food and a hope for the future. With your gift.

00:24:56:15 – 00:25:00:15
You’ll receive a powerful wellness bundle, which can bring the power of health.

00:25:00:15 – 00:25:17:06
And nutrition into your own home, transform the lives of thousands and your own family. Do it today.

00:25:17:08 – 00:25:40:18
Multiple years of failed crops and once again this year, the crops are failing. You can see just how dry these are. You can understand that this there. There’s no life. Yeah. There’s no way that these crops are going to produce food. When you look at the the soil, you can see how it’s just it’s dry, there’s no moisture, there’s no life in the soil the same as there’s no life in this crop at all.

00:25:40:18 – 00:26:08:13
But the reality is that failed crops mean failed lives and lack. There’s no life in the soil. If we’re not able to respond soon, there’ll be no life in these communities. Please don’t let number on your screen or get online and give the very best gift that you can give today. Please give the gift of food. Give the gift of life.

00:26:08:16 – 00:26:29:11
You know we’re anxious to send you blessings as you bless others. And if you would like to have you extend the hands of love to these children in desperate need, not think you’re anxious to do it, and you believe you know someone that needs this story that Louis tells so effectively. His journey into the presence and liberty and freedom and healing power of God.

00:26:29:13 – 00:26:40:26
You need it. Or you know someone who does will gladly send you. The book used to say thank you for helping us share God’s love in desperate situations. And would you join us in saying thanks to you?

00:26:40:29 – 00:27:12:19
Thank you for all you doing for the little bless you. Bless you. Thank you for watching live today. Please encourage others to watch today and share. Like today.

00:27:12:22 – 00:27:20:05
Oh, you can hear me cry. See my dreams fold I.

00:27:20:07 – 00:27:26:06
From where you standing on your home.

00:27:26:08 – 00:28:00:11
It’s so quiet here in.

00:28:00:13 – 00:28:04:06
I opted to take my life. I jumped headfirst into my third storey loft window.

00:28:04:09 – 00:28:25:28
Rob Decker was falsely accused of rape and attempted murder. But God showed up. Life today is made possible by the supporters of Life Outreach International. Your gift will be used exclusively for the purposes of life. The ministry features specific outreaches as examples of the programs it supports and conducts. Guests are considered to be without restriction as to use unless explicitly stipulated by the donor.

00:28:25:29 – 00:28:27:27
The ministry is a member of the SFA.