January 4, 2011
Freedom is found in serving Jesus. Louie Giglio inspires us today by shedding light on how truly encountering Jesus today changes everything.
Scripture References
1Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:
1Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest
2and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
3As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
4He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him,
“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,”
he replied. 6“Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The Vine and the Branches
1
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes
so that it will be even more fruitful.
3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
4Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
6If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
10If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
13Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
14You are my friends if you do what I command.
15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
17This is my command: Love each other.
The World Hates the Disciples
18
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
19If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
20Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’
If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
21They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.
22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.
24If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.
25But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
The Work of the Holy Spirit
26
“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.
27And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
21For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Louie Giglio
Louie Giglio is the Visionary Architect and Director of the Passion Movement, comprised of Passion Conferences, Passion City Church, Passion Publishing and sixstepsrecords, and the founder of Passion Institute.