Louie Giglio focuses on Revelation chapters two and three, which contain the letters of Jesus to the seven churches. Found within these messages from the risen and reigning Christ are lessons for everyone who calls themselves Christian today.

This five-day track through the book of Ruth, taught by Grant Partrick, demonstrates what it means to trust God even in the face of adversity and embrace His redemption.  As we dive deep into this book, which is often highly regarded as the greatest short story of all time, we pray that you will be inspired by the faithfulness of a young Moabite girl named Ruth and encouraged in your faith to trust God in all things obediently. 

In week two of the collection, “Anchors,” Ben Stuart focuses on the glory of God and how it is tangible in the greater narrative of our lives. All of us ask why questions, but God gives us the overarching and the detailed answer: Himself. Join us as we search the Scripture and begin to understand why we love and are anchored in His glory.

Scrolling isn’t the same as sympathy. Followers don’t compare to fellowship. And the art of aesthetics pales in comparison to the art of authenticity. You have influence right now, right where you are. With algorithms forcing influencers and too-relevant reels to interrupt our screens constantly—the temptation to believe that your following is equivalent to the capacity of your calling is ever-present.  But the invitation to step into your influence right where you are for the sake of the Kingdom is trajectory-shifting. If we were face-to-face right now enjoying your go-to drink order in your favorite hometown coffee shop (can never go wrong with an almond milk cappuccino), I would look you in the eyes and tell you this in love:  You don’t need a huge following to make a difference; you just need to tap into the influence God has given you today.  This is something so counter-cultural to what we see happening online, but here are a few practical ways you can tap into your influence right where you are. 1. Share the gospel. I once heard Jonathan Pokluda, Lead Pastor of Harris Creek Church, share a leadership nugget in a podcast I loved. He was in a team meeting and asked the people around him if they had shared the gospel lately. They all hadn’t, so he encouraged them to share the gospel and come back to work once they had done so. Those people weren’t the lead pastor preaching each Sunday, but he wanted them to share the gospel regularly. Not because they had growing platforms or countless followers—but because they had influence and it was essential to their mission. As believers, we have the invitation to share the gospel right where we are.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20 We’re told to share the gospel.  We’re not told to share the gospel only if… We have __ amount of followers. We have an audience. It’s convenient. We have the right blog. We have a book publishing deal to share it in. It fits into our schedule. Somebody puts us on a platform. We feel like it. We’re told to share the gospel…no asterisk attached. 2. Ask yourself the question, “How am I stewarding what I’ve been given?”  It doesn’t matter how big your following is as much as it matters what you’re doing with the following you have. Whether you have 3 followers or 3 million, how are you bringing hope, light, and the power of Jesus to the people in your sphere of influence? At the end of the day, we’re all responsible for stewarding what God has given us well, regardless of our social networks. Luke 16:10 says, Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” Are you being faithful with what God has given you?  If you don’t aim to make an eternal significance with the influence you have now, what will make you decide to make an eternal significance with a bigger audience? 3. Recognize your influence instead of focusing on the influence you wish you had.  When I think of somebody who shared their influence regardless of the cultural barriers around her or the lack of followers she had, I think about the Samaritan woman. She didn’t go to Jerusalem to get a huge following—she went to her hometown and told as many people as possible about Jesus and what He had done. Why? Because she was so overwhelmed with awe and wonder she had to share it with as many people as she could.  She told the whole city about the One who knew everything she had ever done but saved her anyway. The best part? It led to much of that town being saved. Who has God put in front of you to connect with? Let’s be intentional with the friends surrounding us. Let’s share endless hope with the people at our gyms. Let’s be a light to the other parents at our child’s school. Let’s cultivate the art of authenticity in our lives to propel others into the mission and vision of the gospel. Let’s ask God to clarify who our people are to pour into, and let’s watch Him show up above and beyond what we’d imagine.  The Enemy would love for the influence you don’t have to distract you from the influence you do have.  It’s his low-hanging fruit plan we saw play out in the garden. God abundantly gave to Adam and Eve—but the Enemy distracted them with what they didn’t have. You’re not missing out on anything. 2 Peter 1:3 tells us, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” The season, people, and influence God has intentionally placed right in front of you is too good to miss.  

I used to think I was immune to the effects social media could have on you. I wasn’t someone who scrolled through Instagram feeling less than because of what I was seeing. I wasn’t comparing myself to the random strangers on my discovery page. But I was wrong. Here is what I’ve come to realize: comparison is not just the feeling of “I am not enough” or “I don’t have enough.” While it is that, it is so much more. Comparison is “a consideration or estimate of the similarities or dissimilarities between two things or people.”¹ In other words, the moments when I scroll through social media and identify the similarities I have with other people or the things they have that I don’t. Or the places I have the upper hand because I have things they don’t have. It is the moments where I want to be able to feel better about myself, not just the moments I feel worse. The reality is that I was holding up my life and evaluating it based on the image of other people’s lives. I had a gut-wrenching awareness that I had fallen into the trap of comparison on social media more often than I had even realized. So, what now? What do I do now that I know this can be something I partake in? At the end of the day, I do not want it to be true of me that I spend my days considering the similarities or dissimilarities I have with the people I see on a screen. I don’t think you do, either. The starting line for all of us is the humility to admit that apart from the Holy Spirit, at any moment, we can fall into a mindset on the flesh. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.  Romans 8:6 (NIV) The mind governed by The Spirit leads to peace. When I get off social media, do I feel peace? Or do I feel jealousy? Resentment? There is a beautiful invitation for us all to slow down before we scroll and ask Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, to govern our minds. In this, we can depend fully on Him to replace our feelings of comparison with feelings of peace. Apart from the Holy Spirit, we can all fall into the temptation of measuring our lives by society’s standards. Society tells us the number of likes, and the blue check mark beside our name indicates we are seen.  Yet, Scripture tells us in Psalm 33:13 (NIV),  From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind.  Nothing that is or is not on social media gets to determine whether you and I are on God’s radar.  There are so many different and untrue feelings that may arise as we scroll through social media. What we must do is take each of these thoughts we may have and hold them up to Scripture to see what the real truth is based on what God says. Here are a few things you may be feeling and how Scripture counters these.  1. You feel left behind in life in a never-ending season of waiting. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Romans 5:6 (NIV) 2. You feel the unhealthy urge to match someone else’s appearance and achievements. Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10 (NIV) 3. You feel the pangs of lust. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 1 John 2:16 (NIV) 4. You feel despise the things God has given you because you covet what He hasn’t. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.  Psalm 84:11 (NIV) 5. You feel like you should turn to social media for numbness rather than God’s word for nutrients. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold, they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. Psalm 119:9-10 (NIV) 6. You feel ashamed to admit your online habits. Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.  Isaiah 54:4 (NIV) 7. You feel online is the place to get affirmation instead of from your Holy Father and community. But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.  Isaiah 43:1 (NIV)    If comparison is carefully thinking of the similarities or dissimilarities we have with people, then there must be a shift in what we are considering. A shift in what we are thinking about. Comparison is us considering the wrong things.  We must consider the Gospel.  Think carefully about the gospel. Think carefully about a God who left heaven, came to earth, gave His life on the cross, and conquered the grave, all so we could be reconciled to Him. When I think carefully about that, I consider that—there is no room for comparison; there is only room for gratitude. The Gospel reminds me that all that I have is already more than I deserve. The gospel reminds me that grace and mercy are the headlines over my life.  One of the greatest weapons we can have against comparison is to consider the gospel. The action we can all take today is what the writer of Hebrews tells us to do—fix our eyes on Jesus.  Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV) ¹Webster Dictionary, s.v. “Comparison,” Accessed September 11, 2023, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comparison

Maybe you’ve been there. Maybe it was while you were waiting for your morning coffee to brew. Maybe it was when you tried to work while the kids screamed. Maybe it was at the night’s end as you fought to fall asleep. Maybe you’ve had a moment like this where you suddenly realized you were more scared than you’d told anyone, more anxious about what could come next than you’d realized, or closer to panicking than you had ever been before. And maybe in that moment, you felt ashamed, as if someone was whispering in your ear, “How can you be so uncertain? Don’t you trust God?” Have you been there?  Here’s the truth: we all have.  Even the heroes of our faith, the men and women who walked with God for decades, have come to the same place you may have found yourself in. Hear my cry, O God;     listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you,     I call as my heart grows faint;     lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge,     a strong tower against the foe. Psalm 61:1-3 Even David knew what it felt like to experience moments of desperation. If the man who conquered Goliath (with the help of God) as a small child found his heart growing faint at times, maybe we can say to ourselves:  It’s okay to freak out.  Still feeling like you shouldn’t? Maybe you feel like this should have been titled, “Overcoming The Sense of Being Overwhelmed By The Storms Of Life To Walk Triumphant In All Things Through Christ By The Indwelling Power of the Spirit of the Living God?”  Well, here’s the good news: those two titles are saying the same thing, just in a different way.  Look at the Psalm again. Notice how it doesn’t end with David’s heart growing faint. It’s his response mid-freakout that teaches us three things about walking with God through trying times: It’s okay to freak out as long as you visit and don’t move in. Too often, we imagine freaking out as a house we call home. Sure, maybe now and then, we step away, but our default position is anxiety and panic. We begin to confuse concern with worry.  Concern results in asking God to help us deal with real dilemmas right in front of us. Worry is forecasting dilemmas that don’t yet exist and spending our mental and emotional energy trying to mitigate problems that don’t yet exist. It’s okay to freak out if you make it a step up and not a step-down. Don’t give up on God. Don’t give up on who He is.  I call as my heart grows faint;     lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge,     a strong tower against the foe.   Psalm 61:2-3 God is the rock who is Higher than you, and He is calling you up. When the freakout comes, we have to remember that we’re not looking for a place, we’re looking for a person. God is our refuge—not our job, our coffee, or even our social interaction. God is and has always been our refuge, a strong tower against the foe.    We have two choices amidst the storm: will we step, or will we sink?  It’s like when Peter was walking on water, and suddenly, the wind and the waves took his eyes off Jesus. That’s the same moment we discussed earlier—the moment of freak-out. Peter’s choice, and our choice, is to be paralyzed and sink under the weight of our circumstances or to walk towards Jesus and cry out to God to lead us up. The freak-out can be a gift from God if it leads us to follow Jesus and take a step up. It’s okay to freak out if you let it remind you that Christ Is able. God isn’t looking for you to be a superhero. He isn’t sitting back and waiting for you to put all the pieces together. So many of us walk through life worried that if we show God any weakness, He’ll slap us on the wrist out of disappointment, but that isn’t the character of our God. As a father has compassion on his children,     so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; Psalm 103:13 Our God is ready for our freak-out because He is more than able to take us by the hand and in compassion, lead us through it. He isn’t afraid, and the moment isn’t a surprise. He formed us, and He knows us. He knows us so well that He believes in us despite our disposition to panic: God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  2 Corinthians 4:6-9 So what does God say to us when the freakout comes? What does He say when we’re pressed on every side, and we feel as if we are at the very end of our rope?  He doesn’t say, “Just hold on tighter.”  He says, “Just let Go.”  You have never been alone. Your Father in heaven has been holding you all along. So let go and fall into grace. He is able.  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10  Adapted from Louie Giglio’s talk, It’s Okay to Freak Out

It’s the word used in the text 1 Peter 3:15, a verse that has become increasingly correlated with this expression of ministry when the Apostle Peter wrote: but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 1 Peter 3:15 Although Peter is writing this letter to the saints of the Church, specifically to the “elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,” (1 Peter 1:1), we today have often blurred the lines in making apologetics more of a vocational profession and less of an imperative responsibility for every believer. Simply put, being prepared to “give a defense” is not the responsibility of a select few but the necessity of each person who calls Jesus Lord. In Ephesians 4, the Apostle Paul gives a list of ministerial offices that are purposed for building up the body of believers, and “apologist” is not included. In Romans 12, Paul describes different measures of grace given to those who follow Christ, and once again, “apologist” is left off the list. From the earliest days of the 1st century Church, Jesus’ followers have been encouraged to know what they believe and why they believe it. We have been given a great commandment and a great commission—to love God and to make disciples—both tasks that will require us to have a deeper and more mature understanding of our beliefs and those truths that drive our faith. Apologetics can come off as a daunting or, for some, debilitating word. It’s no secret that men and women, living in the spirit of the flesh, have often abused the call to “give a defense” by graceless and guilt-laden accusations masquerading as convictions. But at its core, apologetics and the defense of the Christian faith is not something that should drum up fear,  anger, or apathy. Apologetics should help remind us that Christianity is not a blind leap of faith; it’s the most rational, logical, and beneficial worldview that someone could hold. Faith in Jesus provides deep, rich, and satisfying answers to life’s hardest questions. Many of the tensions we get hung up on within Christianity are terrifyingly worse if the resulting conclusion is the absence of a great and holy God who loves His people even though they didn’t deserve it. Because apologetics is not something that can be avoided, you have a few ways of moving forward. You can neglect the call to be ready or you can prepare. If you follow Jesus and worship His name above all other names, I pray you choose the latter. The world is desperately looking for men and women who can provide a logical, well-thought-out reason, not for the pride and condemnation they hold, but for the hope that can only be found through the resurrection of the Son of God.  If you’d like to refresh how you approach apologetics, here are six things to be mindful of as you begin your journey. 1.Apologetics is for everyone. We’ve already covered this in part, but the bottom line is that you are an apologist. Maybe you’ve never thought of yourself with that reality before, but not only do you have beliefs, it’s common for you to defend what you believe. You have faith in something, whether it’s as small and practical as a faith that the chair you’re sitting in will hold you or the light switch you flip will be followed by an illumination of the room. Or maybe it’s faith in something bigger—that you’ll wake up tomorrow morning from your sleep, that you’ll likely reach your 50th birthday, or that the pieces of your car will all hold together as you barrel down the interstate at 75 miles per hour. Every person has and expresses faith, and as such, we spend a large amount of our time on planet Earth either consciously or subconsciously affirming and defending our beliefs. If this is true, it’s not your job to convince someone to have faith, they already have faith! It’s our job instead to show people what to put their faith in. As you approach this topic, remember that apologetics is for everyone which means it is for you! 2.Apologetics is a call to see people. As marketing and media outlets have become more of a staple of everyday life, it’s become easier to reduce the preparation of apologetics to the answering of a few crucial questions. You’ve probably heard them or asked them yourself. “If God is good, why does he allow evil to exist?” “How did everything come from nothing?” “How do we know what is right and what is wrong?” While it’s encouraged and even important to step into questions like these and to study the biblical, historical, and orthodoxical approaches and answers, if we stop on the surface and let the questions just remain as questions, we’ll miss the point of apologetics. Questions come from people and people have stories. Maybe the question of how a good God interacts with evil is coming from someone who recently lost a family member to a difficult medical situation. Or the question of morality and right or wrong is coming from someone facing a hard decision that seems to have no clear path forward. An approach to apologetics rooted in answering questions will always fall short of an approach to apologetics that is rooted in seeing and loving people. It is true that loving people well often requires answering questions, but in this context, the answers are the fruit and not the root of a healthy approach to apologetics. 3.You aren’t meant to go at Apologetics alone. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived on planet Earth, wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes that “there is nothing new under the sun,” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Have you ever wondered how that works? Clearly, before the middle of the 20th century, the internet wasn’t a thing. And before 2008, the general public had never held an iPhone in their hands. There are new things all the time, so what did Solomon mean? He wasn’t necessarily talking about the material things of life, but about the innate, central elements and aspects of life on earth. Think about it—everything that is under the sun has been under the sun since the beginning. Said another way, nothing has been spontaneously created out of thin air. We might not have had an iPhone before, but the raw components that make up the iPhone and the components of all the machines that went into building that device have always been on planet earth. Similarly, we might be experiencing unique combinations of emotions and societal circumstances, but the underlying characteristics of who we are—our desire to be known, our fears, our hopes, and our imaginations—those things aren’t new. So when it comes to Apologetics, we can look back to the people who have come before us and who have asked a lot of the same questions we’re asking today. You can be sure that any question or doubt you may have towards Christianity or that you may hear from someone else has almost certainly been asked, debated, and in many ways answered before. So don’t go on the journey alone. 4.As you approach Apologetics, it’s okay to acknowledge the complexity. If there were 100%, clear-cut answers for every one of life’s hardest questions, we wouldn’t need faith. Christianity would be overwhelmingly obvious, so much so that the only rational response to such absurd assurance would be to ubiquitously obey.  However, dozens of Scriptures point to the necessity of faith and its importance in the pursuit of following Christ. Romans 8:24-25 says, “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” The writer of the book of Hebrews recorded, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  We won’t always get the full picture right now, and that can be difficult. It’s okay to acknowledge that. It’s okay to take a short step back and just recognize that God is good and life can still be hard. Both can co-exist. Approaching apologetics in a God-honoring way doesn’t mean eliminating all complexity. Rather, when the complexity comes or when a topic seems too daunting to understand, we allow that tension to turn us towards God and not away from Him.  There are things in life that our human minds will not be able to comprehend. But if God is who He says He is (all-knowing and all-understanding) He is our best hope for gaining any semblance of clarity within the complexity. 5.Apologetics, done correctly, will be costly (from a worldly standpoint). Sean Covey once said, “saying yes to one thing means saying no to another.” It sounds simple, but as you parse this out, you’ll begin to notice a healthy approach Apologetics means making decisions about what you believe and standing behind those choices. Many people want to be firm in what they believe, but they don’t always count the cost of what that firmness demands. Saying yes requires that you also say “no.” If you believe that Jesus is the only way to true life, then you are effectively saying “no” to money being the way, “no” to reputation being the way, “no” to your friends, family, spouse, workplace, and a thousand other avenues that could fight to be the way towards true life. A good approach to Apologetics will cost you your ignorance. It will cost you your comfort. It could cost you your perceived status or worldly affection. People may call you close-minded. They may disassociate with you, or even in more extreme circumstances, persecute you.  You’re likely thinking – “That’s great. So why would I ever approach Apologetics?” Because no matter what it might cost you on this Earth, what you gain from a deeper and more intimate theology is abundantly more valuable in eternity than what you lose here. That’s what Paul means in Romans 8:18-19 and 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. Even Jesus himself said, “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.” (Luke 17:33) There is a reason why the most infamous verse geared towards Apologetics (remember 1 Peter 3:15?) is right in the middle of a section of Scripture that starts with “suffering for righteousness’ sake” and ends with a call to steward God’s grace. If we are to approach Apologetics well, we’ll need to be ready to suffer graciously. 6.Apologetics should always begin with humility and continue with grace. No matter what, Apologetics should begin with humility. Later in 1 Peter, we read in chapter 5 these words:  Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.  1 Peter 5:5-7 Humility is the starting point for increased intimacy with Christ. Humility is the mechanism that unlocks abundant grace to flow freely in our lives. Humility is the precursor to exaltation, the antidote to God’s opposition, and the funnel by which we pour our concerns, doubts, and fears onto the shoulders of Christ. Through humility, we understand that the God of the universe cares for us. He cares for you. But just as starting with humility is important to your journey into apologetics, so too is the next step: continuing with grace. A popular verse tossed out by aspiring Apologists is John 1:14 which culminates by saying that Jesus was “full of grace and truth.” That text is often used to justify sharing a conviction respectably, and certainly, Christ did this to perfection. However, there’s more to these words than we often realize.  Being full of grace doesn’t just mean being well-intentioned. It means being fully surrendered and dead to yourself. If you are full of grace, you are not able to have any sliver of self-interest, self-promotion, or self-protection. You are emptied of your pursuits and filled by the one thing that is sufficient for your every need: the truth of God’s grace. This is the reality we see of Jesus as detailed in Philippians 2. This is why Paul after pleading with God in 2 Corinthians 12 hears the beautiful words, “My grace is sufficient for you.”  Approaching Apologetics is not about you. It’s not about your knowledge, your pride, or your ability to convince someone to trust in God. That’s the work of the Spirit. Apologetics is not about getting you closer to heaven, it’s about getting heaven closer to you. It’s about seeing more of who God is and what makes Him so uniquely special, wonderful, mighty, and beautiful. It’s about emptying yourself and taking on more of Christ, of being crucified with Him, buried in a baptism like His, that you may one day be so fully and freely resurrected to a perfected and eternal life of joy. Start with humility and continue with grace.  Now that we’ve covered the 6 ways to approach Apologetics, you’re ready to begin. You’ve already started. Each step you take from here on is an opportunity to lean more towards God and the Son that He chose not to spare, but to give up for you and me.  Towards the end of Romans in Chapter 15, Paul, knowing he is winding down this letter to the Church in Rome writes these words, May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:5-6 A few verses later he concludes this train of thought by writing,  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13 That’s the prayer for you as you step into this journey. Endurance. Encouragement. Harmony together with Christ results in one voice glorifying God. All wrapped in an abundance of hope, rooted in joy and peace.

Navigating the Scriptures for new believers and seasoned saints alike can be a daunting task. How do we unpack the historical and cultural context? How do we apply what was written to a specific group of people in the past to ourselves in our present day and circumstances? What does it mean to get an actual, in-depth look into the inspired Word of God? Over the course of the next three days, our aim is to deposit practical and insightful methods that will help you move from reading to studying scripture.