Caine Christine : What was the best part of God for the New Year?

to be here but i've always wanted to come to your house so here i am in your house right now i know some of you have got cheerios kind of coming out of your mouth and others are trying to get kids all sorted but it is my honor and privilege i'm here with the single most ravishing piece of masculine flesh on planet earth is my husband of almost 25 years and so nick is here and um i told him i said you are going to love these people that was kind of prophetic because i really really didn't know john mark and tammy but um and their family but uh you ought to thank god those of you that are planted in this house because you are planted in a great church under great leaders that are doing something that is impacting the globe and i'm i'm one of the recipients like i'm honored to be here i just really wanted to sit and have john mark teach and so i am so sorry you've got me if you don't like it come back next week the real pastor will be here it'll be fantastic it'll be awesome but the lord orchestrates things every now and again i do believe that um the lord has me here in the timing of god in the purpose of god i love portland i've come many many times it's certainly a little bit different this time there is not the restaurants open that normally there are and there's not the buzz around the city normally that there is because we're in a another lockdown i'm from california so we have our lockdowns as well and 821 has got offices at 22 offices in 18 countries of the world so all our countries are in different levels of lockdown so i get it i get what you're all feeling some of you like our team in bulgaria there's a couple and they've got four children under eight in a two-bedroom apartment in sofia bulgaria i know some of you are already like weeping and now you're thanking god because um it's just you in your apartment on your own so you were complaining this morning you're already giving thanks right now over that so we're all in different places and different seasons but i'm telling you same holy spirit is right there with each and every one of us right now i've learned to do church just like you all uh so differently this year and the thing that i've discovered is that god has always turned up and if you're willing to hear from him so i have two daughters um one that is i have a 14 year old and an 18 year old and so they're almost 15 and 19 as they would want me to say that they're watching and so they want to make sure that you know that they're nearly 15 and 19. and as you can tell from my accent and especially those of you that are on season four of the crown that have probably binge watched it all week and done that that uh this is actually how the queen wishes she could speak english and so those of us that were sent to the colonies um this is actually we refined the english language and so this is how we all speak and so nick and i from australia he's from a place called geelong in melbourne and i i'm in uh in yes i'm trying to think i can't even remember the states of australia anymore and i'm from sydney but i'm greek my parents are from alexandria egypt um and they're greek um egyptian i'm greek australian everyone wants to be greek i know you do too give me a word any word and if you've seen my big fat greek wedding that is my big fat greek life and so i think i've got a photo of my daughter so this is sophia joyce and this is catherine bobby uh named after the two most influential women in my life my pastor bobby my spiritual mother uh joyce and so my husband is number 14 of 15 children and so um you know my mother-in-law well obviously as you know there was like no television in that part of australia but but my mother-in-law never thought you were a chick until you popped out like number 10. so i would take my daughters to my mother-in-law's house and i'd say this is catherine bobby this is my alpha and this is sophia joyce and she is my omega and this is the beginning and the end of my childbearing years and so that's what happens like you know i popped out a kid when i was 40. and when you pop out a kid when you're 40 men you deserve a purple heart you're not like looking for more children that's all i could say so i love my girls i love my fans so grace if you knew my background um this is a miracle of the grace of god i was a kid that was left in a hospital in sydney australia when i was born unnamed and unwanted i didn't even really find that out until i was uh 33 years old i got a phone call from my brother george because when you greek all your brothers are george or spiro or nico or khan and so george called me and he said christine i just got a letter from the government and it says that i've been adopted and i thought he was like joking you know when you're growing up you always tell your siblings that you're from different parents and their parents are from mars and so but when was your brother actually tells you this is like legit i got into this defensive mode i said of course you're not there must have been some kind of error and anyway he calls me back i said call the government this department in australia it's called the department of community services i said call it and tell them there's been some kind of administrative error so he calls me back about 10 minutes later this time he is sobbing and he says to me chris it's true they told me the name of my biological mother my biological father when i was born when i was immunized i i freaked and if you know anything about greeks greeks are extremely volatile we kind of act first and think later and so i'm thinking my brother my brother could really you know just kind of spiral out of control my mother was 61 at the time at home by herself my father had died when i was 19 and so i'm kind of thinking you know this is going to go south really quick so i die i jump in my car i go to my mom's house because my brother's like i'm going there to confront her i walk into the living room as my brother is giving my mother this piece of paper from the government and in that moment um my mum just starts crying i freak out i'm thinking this is true and my mom starts crying she said george all the adoption laws in australia 35 years ago they were all closed adoptions and we never thought you would find out and one of the final things before your dad died i promised him i would never tell you and so i tore up all of the paperwork and you all can imagine what that was like um i felt like i was watching a movie you know my mom's crying my brother's crying my dog's crying you know it's it's a big fat greek moment it's all happening and so i go to the kitchen because what do you do in that moment it's when you greek you know food is the answer to life the universe and everything so i go into the kitchen i'm thinking i'm gonna make some baklava coffee do something as i'm making it about you know my mother walks in and she says to me christina since we speak greek at home is my first language she says christina since we're telling the truth today do you want to know the whole truth and i'm not even quite sure why i said this i turned around i went uh i've been adopted too i don't even know why and just tears streaming down her face this is two weeks before my 33rd birthday um she just said yes and church i was like stunned like stunned and um you know the very first thing the actual very first thing i said to her i went am i still greek because i thought i was like called a lot of names at school for a lot of years for being greek so i needed to make sure that that was the case and that's what most of you will actually care about it with all these stories so the answer is yes and so i said am i still greek then the very next thing that came out of my mouth right there in my greek orthodox mother's kitchen i went oh well mum before i was formed in my mother's womb whosoever wound that was he knew me he fashioned all of my days before as yet there was one of them i am fearfully and wonderfully made and you know that day every fact that i thought to be true about my life changed what my name was what my history was every fact change and to this morning i still don't know the facts surrounding my conception i don't know if i'm the result of a one-night stand i don't know if it was an adulterous affair i don't know if it was um a rape but here is the truth that although i don't know the facts surrounding my conception the truth in ephesians 2 verse 10 doesn't say that i'm the workmanship of a rape or an adulterous affair it says that we are his workmanship and that we've been recreated in christ jesus for good works that god prepared for us from before the beginning of time and let me just say that although you know i don't know all the details concerning my my arrival on this planet i do know that there is a god in heaven that loves me that's got a purpose and a plan and a destiny not only for my life but for your life and i don't believe it's an accident that you're on the other side of this screen today i said this is a miracle because not only you know a year later i got my birth certificate my doctor's report my birth certificate literally says child's name unnamed number 2508 of 1966. my social work report says it is evident that this mother is totally disconnected from this child and wants to get it over and done with as soon as possible and return back to work my my document says that i'm unnamed my document from the royal hospital for women in sydney australia crown street women's hospital says that i'm unwanted but i'm here to tell you that although the facts say that i was this unnamed unwanted kid in the back of sydney australia there's a force on the planet much higher than the faction it's called the truth of the word of god and the truth of the word of god does not say that i'm unnamed it says before i was even formed in my mother's womb god named my name god knew me god knitted together my inner motes passed isaiah 49 verse 1 says from the womb of your mother i named your name and it's the bible says that you know what god wanted me even if nobody else did why am i telling you this i don't normally start a message with this but i believe there's someone on the other side of the screen and today you need to know that god knows your name god knows your story god's got a plan and a purpose and a destiny for you and if god could take an unnamed unwanted and i was a victim of sexual abuse for 12 years of my life not from my immediate family but from people that my parents allowed into my home that they should have been able to trust that you know defied that trust and violated me and that word abuse means to use an object for a purpose for which it was never designed and for 12 years i was used for a purpose for which god never designed me but i want you to tell you that i want you to know that that you could be on the receiving end of that like i was you can be unnamed you can be unwanted you can be abused you can be adopted but i'm here to tell you that in and through a relationship with jesus christ you can start bad and you can finish good that jesus christ has a plan and a purpose and no demon in hell and no person on earth can thwart the plan and the purpose of god for your life what jesus did for us at calvary when jesus came and was crucified and died and buried and resurrected again we have resurrection life living on the inside of us and it would be just like god to take an unnamed unwanted abused adopted chick from the back of sydney australia and not only rescue me but then turn my life around and say christine i'm gonna now use you to rescue a generation that are bound in sex slavery and in forced labor slavery around the world it is just like god to use us to open prison doors for those that are bound that is the abundant life not only does god rescue us not only does god redeem us not only does god save us but he gives us the opportunity to be a help to other people on the planet and to talk of his great grace and his great life you know what every time we put a trafficker in jail can i just say during a global pandemic we have seen so many traffickers prosecuted so many cases go to trial so many traffickers go to jail we have seen dozens and dozens and literally oh hundreds of victims of of human trafficking rescue during a global pandemic and been reached and rescued and are being restored through our freedom centers around the world why am i telling you this because every time we put a trafficker in jail every time we see someone rescued i think devil you can stick that in your pipe and smoke it i bet you wish you left me alone i feel like joseph in genesis chapter 50 verse 20 that said to his brothers you meant this for evil against me but god meant it for this very purpose of life can i just say 2020 has been a year and you know what maybe the enemies come against you and meant things for evil against you but our god is able to work all things together for our good and for his glory there is not a hurt that is wasted in god there is not a hurt that god cannot redeem and use for his glory and for your good in the future don't write it off yet on that note we're gonna go to the scripture in the book of acts chapter 27 i haven't even gotten in here y'all yo i'm about to read the bible and i'm a bit intimidated because your pastor's in the front row and i'm just like oh my gosh he's like one of the best preachers and teachers on planet earth and i'm like okay i've had this triple checked by 17 theologians just to make sure that i am going to be we're going to read a lot of bible if you have fallen behind in your bible reading plan this year i'm about to catch you up you are going to finish this year and you're going to have read your bible in a year just because chris cain's going to have read half the bible to you this morning so i want you to turn with me in the book of acts 27 i love it you have such a high value for the word of god in this church i don't need to pump you up to open the word this word is life to me this word is living and act this word jesus christ saved my soul but this word saved my mind i would not be here if it was not for the word of god this is life to me the bible says in acts chapter 27 and when it was decided that we should sail for italy i bet you're excited already listen i i get to travel around the world a lot because of what i do people go where do you live and i'm like in an aeroplane you know basically we just do laps of the globe except for in covert season i've never been in a country this long for the last 35 years this is like phenomenal i'm like wow america you're like nice and so the fact is that um italy's somewhere i love and when i'm reading this it's like and when it was decided that we should sell for italy we're like positano we're thinking the amalfi coast we're thinking revello you know we're thinking this is awesome we're going to go to italy but then the bible says they delivered paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the augustan cohort named julius and so let me just give you just a little bit of context before you think we're about to go on a mediterranean cruise this morning where you're thinking man are we going to go to santorini are we going to go to mykonos so we're going to go to naxos so we're going to go to paros so we're going to go all around the mediterranean um right here what happened was paul had received an offering the church in jerusalem uh was going through a a time of famine a time of it was it was um there was a drought there was famine they were very hungry very poor paul had taken a collection from many of the outpost churches to bring to jerusalem now people were saying to him don't go to jerusalem because the mob is going to kill you he was he didn't have a whole lot of friends there and they wanted to destroy him but i think jerusalem was very uh for paul it was a place where obviously he had persecuted so many christians it was a place where his messiah his savior had been crucified jerusalem was very special to him he wanted to take the offering to the church in jerusalem himself well then obviously what had happened was there was riots they did try to kill paul and actually the romans were who saved him by making him a prisoner by taking him as a prisoner he went through a series of trials and then he appealed he said you know what i want to go to rome as a roman citizen and i'm going to stand before caesar now in paul's heart paul had always wanted to go to rome and to go right there to rome from rome him talking to caesar the gospel of the lord jesus christ you've got to all understand this is so hard for me to stand still right now so this is for your sake so you don't get dizzy in your living room while you're eating your cheerios but for me this is such an act of discipline to stand here but the fact is that the the gospel of the lord jesus christ could have gone throughout the then known world paul knew his purpose was in rome paul had a sense i'm going to stand before caesar and rome is where i am going and so we're picking up the text where paul finally after two years in prison is going to go to rome so we're thinking you know don't think big yacht if you've been watching the crown we're not going on the royal yacht on a nice little cruise throughout here this is just think a cargo ship is about to take them to rome and so he goes on and says they delivered paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the augustan cohort name julius and embarking on a ship of adremitium which was about to sail to the ports along the coast of asia we put to see accompanied by aristarchus a macedonian from thessalonica now i love all of this because our a21 headquarters is in thessaloniki greece and so you know anywhere you can get greek in the bible it's excited or greece and because you all want to be greek everyone wants to be greek i know that so it says the next day we put in its side and julius treated paul kindly and gave him leave to go to his friends and be cared for and putting out to see from there we sailed under the lee of cyprus because the winds were against us and so of course i had to look at this up because you know i i'm not a ship i don't i don't you know go on ships for a living and so i didn't know what the lee of cyprus was so ali is when there's a lot of wind you're going to travel very very close to the coast so that you can be protected from the wind so that is what is happening i want you to catch this right from the beginning uh dr luke's writing this luke's writing this and he's saying the wind was against us sounds a bit like january 2020 but we weren't quite aware just how much the wind was going to be against us and he goes on and he says the winds were against us and when we sailed across the open sea along the coast of cecilia and pamphilia we came to mira in la silla then the centurion found a ship of alexandria that's where my parents are from sailing for italy and put us on board we sailed slowly for a number of days and arrived with difficulty so i don't know where you're watching this from this morning but i want you in your mind to say with difficulty we're about to see this word repeated throughout this text i want you to be thinking 2020 because you're going to think did luke write this with 2020 in mind because that's where we're going to go he says with difficulty of knight us as the wind did not allow us to go further and we sailed under the lee of crete of salmon coasting along it with difficulty there it is again we came to a place called fair havens near the city of la sia since much time had passed so there's difficulty and there's difficulty and it didn't just last for a few seconds but there was much time and the voyage was now dangerous so we've gone from difficulty to dangerous so we have just now clicked in from february to march and the voyage was now dangerous because even the fast was already over so of course this would now would because it says the fast was already over we're now after the day of atonement so we're getting into the winter i don't know if you've been into the mediterranean sea during the winter but that's not when you want to go on a cruise i've been there and the waves are insane nick and i have been uh going over to do different sets of work we've had a lot of victims of trafficking rescued from that region whether it's in the aegean or the mediterranean or the ionian there's just so the waves are huge the winds are uh huge and i've been on a boat literally where people are just throwing up on either side everywhere this is what paul's talking about he's talking like we're getting ready for a category five off the florida coast we're talking about that kind of hurricane condition but he starts going on and he's saying um since much time had passed the voyage was now dangerous because even the fast was already over paul advised them saying sirs i perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss welcome to 2020 and not only of the cargo of the ship but also of our lives but the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what paul said and you know of course i would too because paul was not uh you know the expert in this case and because the harbor was not suitable to spend the winter the majority oh we love the majority don't we because the majority is always right the majority knows what to do oh we love the majority here it says and the majority decided to put out to sea from there don't always trust the majority the majority doesn't always know what's best on the chance that somehow they could reach phoenix we're not talking about arizona here a harbor of creed facing both southwest and northwest and spend the winter there now in the south wind blew gently supposing that they had obtained their purpose they weighed anchor and sailed along crete close to the shore but soon a tempestuous wind called the northeaster struck down from the land you know later after the message you could google the north easter i mean we are now talking the kind of wind i mean in this region of the world we are talking a full scale hurricane storm don't think just a nice rainy afternoon in portland oregon we're talking about a full-on hurry this is like full-on storm the northeaster was notorious and the bible says it struck down from the land and when the ship was caught and could not face the wind we gave way to it and were driven along sounds a bit like april and may and june and july were just driven along running under the lee of the small island called calder we manage with difficulty there it is again to secure the ship's boat after hoisting it up they used supports to undergird the ship then fearing that they would run aground on the cities they lowered the gear and thus they were driven along since we were violently storm tossed are you feeling at church violently storm tossed anyone in 2020 feel not just storm tossed but violently storm tossed it's like whichever way we look wherever we go i just feel like i'm throwing up i feel the nausea i can feel the wind i can feel the waves i can feel the storm none of us are exempt whether you're our christ follower or not none of us have been exempt we have all felt the waves we have all felt the wind we've all been violently storm tossed no matter where we stand and it goes on it says and on the third day they we began to jettison the cargo and on the third day they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hand so they were so uh violently storm tossed they began to throw all of the cargo overboard i wonder this year whether anyone feels like you've started to have to throw some stuff overboard some stuff that you thought that was going to come through the year with you some stuff that you thought you needed to get to rome some stuff that you thought you needed on this journey and all of a sudden we're here we are in november and you're like man i've been throwing cargo overboard all year things that i thought that i needed things that i thought were part of my future it just seems like they've had to go they've had to go i've had to throw it all overboard and the scripture goes on and says when neither the sun or the stars appear for many days and no small tempest lay upon us or hope of our being saved was at last abandoned some of us are feeling like that right now in november going are you kidding me god are you kidding me is there any way we could be is there any way have you just left us they couldn't see the sun they could not see the stars now that might not mean much to you but this was their navigation system this was this was pre-gps they didn't have a compass there was just the sun there was the moon that was the stars that was what guided them anyone else felt like you can't even see two feet in front of you this year you're like where did it go where did where did my navigation system go god i started 2020 and this was the year of vision this was the year of purpose god you put in my spirit i'm going to rome i was on track i was doing what you called me to do and now here i am and i feel nauseous and i've been throwing up and i've had to throw everything overboard and i've lost my job and i've lost friends and i don't know what's going on and now god i cannot even see you where is the sense of your guidance god i can't see you i can't feel you i it feels dark pulls in this pitch black moment can't see the stars can't see the moon god i was in your will i got on this ship because you were taking me to rome i've got to stand before caesar the gospel is at stake and here i am in the middle of the mediterranean feeling nauseous and it's dark and we've lost all of our cargo i didn't plan to be here thanksgiving week 2020 lord it's not how i saw it when we started and to my best knowledge i'm not even sure that i did anything to deserve to be here and yet it's pitch black god where are you paul says since sorry since they had been without food for a long time paul stood up among them and said in typical poor fashion men you should have listened to me said no woman to her husband ever but anyway that's another one men you should have listened to me and not set sail from crete and incurred this injury and loss yet now i urge you to take heart i'm here today bridgetown because i'm urging you to take heart oh this is going to get good don't freak out this is going to get good paul says in the midst it's dark the wind is happening the waves are happening the storm's there no one's exempt from it no one's been released from it oh boy we would have all loved to have been delivered from this year somehow we would have loved to have just not had felt the wind and the waves and the storm and the loss and the grief and the pain and the suffering and the chaos and the division and the divisive we would have loved to have not felt it all but paul says in the midst of it all i want you to take out because as christians if we don't proactively take heart we will lose heart there is no other way you have got to make a choice and scripture says that jesus says consistent take heart it is a conscious act and in the day in the hour in which we live it's a conscious act of resistance for us as christ followers to make a decision that i'm going to get up today and i am taking proactively taking her paul says take heart yet i now urge you to take up for there will be no loss of life among you but only of the ship i want you to hear this church paul's not saying the ship's not going to get lost see some ships have to get lost in this season some ships have to run aground in this season god's still going to take us to our purpose we're still going to fulfill destiny paul is going to get to rome if you keep reading a few chapters but the fact is along the way there's some cargo that we thought needed to come that we're discovering doesn't need to come there's some ships and we're going to see must run aground some french ships some relationships there's plenty of ships that we thought we needed to take with us to our purpose but we're going to discover they needed to run aground because we thought the ship was the thing that was going to take us there and the lord's reminding us that no he's the one that's going to take us there that he's the only one that's promised to never leave us nor forsake us but we put our hope in our ships and so many of our ships are running aground in this season and god's like well i'm just checking out to see if your trust and your faith and your hope was in the ship or whether it was in me i'm the one that told you i will never leave you nor forsake you i'm the one that told you that i am going to empower you to do what i've called you to do but you put so much hope in the ship and then when the ship ran aground you thought i left you but i never left you the ship ran aground and he goes on and he says for the this very night they stood before me an angel of the lord to whom i belong and whom i worship listen if this does not make you run a lap even if you're a cessationist i don't know what will paul is sitting there and he's saying that in the midst of this storm the night is still dark he's feeling every bit of the angst like every one of us is feeling in november 2020 he is declaring and decreeing let me let me just tell you about this god whom i worship this god to whom i belong oh i know there's a lot of cray-cray going on around the world but church just because the world's going cray-cray does not mean we have to in the midst of what is going on we can stand and go there is a god whom i worship there is a god to whom i belong oh i know everything's out of control i'm feeling it just like you oh i'm feeling the wind i'm feeling the waves i'm feeling the nausea i'm feeling the loss i'm feeling the gray the grief i'm feeling the pain i'm feeling it but in the midst of it all man only just needs to take a minute in 2020 i need to tell you about this god that i worship this god that i serve he goes on and he says and he said this god to whom i belonged to in my worship and he said do not be afraid paul you must stand before caesar i'm here to remind somebody that you have a promise here the angel of the lord is reminding paul of the promise that god gave him you must stand before caesar i'm here to remind somebody on the other side of that screen that god's given you a promise listen when you can't see two feet in front of you when it is pitch black when you feel like you've lost everything when you feel like you've been battered and violently storm tossed by 2020 what you hang on to is the promise that god gave you what promise has god given you because let me tell you no storm can take a promise no win can take a promise paul says the angel of the lord says to paul you must stand before caesar and there's some of you you must you must the promise of god the promise of god will prevail in your life the issue is when we cannot trace god in this season will we still trust him because many of us because we can't trace him we stop trusting him and listen when you're losing a ship you need to hang on to a promise in this season my husband and i have gotten out every prophetic word that the lord's given us that we've written down and we've got them all written down i'm old so sorry guys i've got some like from 1989 i know some of you didn't even know that life could be on earth at that time but there was life on earth and they were on cassette tapes and we've got them all transcribed and i pulled it out from the very first weeks of this pandemic and brought it before my two daughters and my husband all of our words and said girls i need you to know there's so much that hasn't come to pass yet we we must stand before caesar we must we're going to fill the winds of 2020 like everybody else we're going to feel the loss we're going to feel the grief we're going to feel the pain we're going to feel the storm we're going to feel the nausea but let me tell you if the lord said it the lord would do it you've got to hang on to a word when you can't see two feet in front of you you've got to hang on to what god has and we've got a whole word here we have 66 books of the word of god and if god has promised that the scripture says all the promises of god are what in christ jesus yes and amen so if god has said it you hang on to it we do not change our theology we do not change our confession based on what is happening in the storms and the winds and the waves and the changes of the culture around us we continue to declare and decree the truth of the word of god we stand on the truth of the word of god do you have a word we've got 66 books of that word right here paul says the angel of the lord said to me you must i'm here to remind someone today you've forgotten about the promise that god said to you and you've got so caught up just looking and feeling the pain and the suffering and the loss and the grief of this year that you've forgotten that you must stand before caesar you must the lord didn't tell us how we're going to get to rome see we just think because there's winds and waves and storms and racial conflict and violence and division and political instability and social instability and economic instability and moral and so we just think god must have changed his mind and god's like i never told you there wasn't going to be a storm i didn't tell you how you were going to get to rome i just said i'm going to get you there i just told you i'm going to get you there so you hang on to the word when you can't see in front of you and he says and i love this so take heart man for i have faith in god that it will be exactly as i have been told bridgetown church i want you to take heart because i have faith in god that it will be exactly as it has been to i know where i i'm in a building and you're like we got this building and like here we are and we can't even meet at this season but it's okay take heart i have confidence it will be exactly as god said when he asked you to step into this moment in faith god knows what's going on even if we don't and we say okay god i'm hanging on to your word and your promise even when i can't see in front of me when the fourteenth night had come as we were being driven across the adriatic sea about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land so they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms a little further they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms and fearing that we might run on the rocks they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come and as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship and lowered the ship's boat into the sea under the pretense of laying out anchors from the bow paul said to the centurion and the soldiers unless these men stay in the ship you cannot be saved i want someone to hear me on the other side of that screen because of all of the pain because of all of the loss because of all of the confusion that you've been feeling this year so many of you are on the verge of going you know what this ain't even worth it i'm just going to jump ship i'm going to jump ship on jesus i'm going to jump ship on church i'm going to jump ship on the bible i'm just going to ju and i'm here to say to you don't jump ship stay on the ship there is something we go but the ship's going to run aground it looks like the church of jesus christ is going to run aground it looks like people are hemorrhaging from church it looks like church is declining it seems like church is irrelevant it seems like church is just totally disco but i'm here to say stay on the ship don't jump ship paul's telling him not to jump ship at the same time as paul knows the ship's going to run aground church i'm here to say stay on the ship knowing that the ship perhaps as we know it is going to run aground but stay on it because somehow there's the other side and we're going to get to rome and we might not even recognize the ship that we're going to be on but don't jump ship don't jump ship someone needs to hear that today don't jump ship don't leave don't walk away don't jump someone else don't jump ship on that marriage don't jump ship on that commitment everything in you is like you know man i can't do this anymore i know the pressure's huge but don't jump ship but chris is going to run aground i know but don't jump ship somehow staying on it it's going to happen as the day was about to dawn paul urged them all to take some food saying today's the 14th day that you have continued in suspense and without food having taken nothing therefore i urge you to take some food for it will give you strength for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you and some of you need to stop freaking out and just honestly have a really good meal have a really good meal go on a long hike do some exercise do something you love freaking out isn't getting you anywhere in this moment paul says you need some strength you need something to strengthen you naturally and when he said these things i love this the storm's still happening the ship's about to run aground i mean in the natural it's like y'all yo could somebody like call an election that would be fantastic right now could somebody like uh tell us what's going to happen in our city that just like man we've had riots we've just got stuff out what is going on and i'm still feeling the wind and i'm still feeling the waves and it feels like we're about to run aground yes in the midst of all of that this is what paul does this is the ultimate act of resistance and when he said these things he took bread and giving thanks to god in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat breach down you've been doing this for the body of christ worldwide without you even realizing it during perhaps certainly in my lifetime one of the most chaotic and painful seasons on earth probably 2020 will go down as one of the the just most volatile obviously ah times in history somewhere in the midst of it whether it's the the daily the bridgetown daily or or even your sermons on the weekend with through your pastors and team and your church just continuing in your practices in the midst of that you're just saying you know what we're probably in one not only in one of the craziest times on earth we're in one of the craziest cities in the craziest time on earth and you really are i like you all myself so glad it's you i live in orange county anyway so the thing is that you got all that going on and yet you're saying we're just gonna keep breaking bread somewhere we're just going to keep declaring and decreeing the gospel of the lord jesus christ somewhere in the midst of all of this it just seems so counter-cultural it just seems like how on earth can this even begin to make sense but don't underestimate the power of breaking bread in a storm don't underestimate the power of breaking bread when it looks like we're gonna run aground when it looks like whoa looks like i think we're gonna hit the rocks yep what are we going to do let's take communion let's honor the lord in the midst of all of this your church is reminding us all of this it goes on and says then they were all encouraged and ate some food themselves we were in all 276 persons in the ship 276. it's a you know it's a lot of people and when they had eaten enough they lightened the ship throwing wheat to the sea now when it was day they did not recognize the land but they noticed a bay with a beach on which they planned it possible to run the ship ashore so they cast off the anchors left them in the sea and at the same time loosening the ropes that tied the rudders then hoisting the four sailed to the wind they made for the beach but striking a reef they ran the vessel of ground and the bow struck and remained immovable and the stern was being broken up by the surf the soldier's plan was to kill the prisoners unless they should swim away and escape this just cracks me up this is just the nonsense of the world like we're about to run aground we're all let's just kill you anyway like it's just like honestly this is like really i could go on there but the centurion wishing to save paul kept them from carrying out their plan he ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship and so it was that they all were all brought safely to land i want you to hear this dr luke has just given us this epic chapter of scripture where i mean imagine this on film the storms what was going on the conversations the cargo i mean we're talking about in a chapter of scripture paul is embarking on his purpose he's starting 2020. i'm on my way to rome the gospel is going to go forth this is going to be amazing i have prayed for this moment i've wanted this moment i'm on my way to rome so on his way to rome there is this storm that is just like unbelievable nobody was expecting how bad this was going to be they lost everything they lost all their cargo which was this was a cargo ship this was all their profit so all their stocks went overboard all their entrepreneurial endeavors went overboard all their profits or their increases many of you know what that felt like this year you were thinking this is it and that everything's tanked instead of your you know going up and to the right man it's been going down and you're like what am i going to do you've lost it all i mean he's gone through all of this and then this is how he ends it so it was we were all brought safely to land i'm saying this very specifically as we're coming into thanksgiving and christmas and the end of the year because i want you to see specifically how acts 27 finishes and how acts 28 starts we were brought safely to lan and then acts 28 after we were brought safely through i wonder how you're going to talk about 2020 because he's not spending a whole lot of time by the time we get to 28 talking about everything that we lost this is so bad and look what happened there's a point where we stop talking about how bad the storm is and say hang on a minute i'm going to magnify i'm going to make bigger the fact that god brought me safely through i'm about to shift my perspective on 2020. instead of yes i'm acknowledging the grief i'm acknowledging the loss i'm acknowledging the storm i'm acknowledging the chaos i'm acknowledging the division i'm acknowledging the confusion i'm acknowledging the darkness but i am not going to focus on that for the rest of my life my testimony at the end of 2020 is my god brought me safely through i'm still here he starts 28 and says after we were brought safely through perhaps what god wants us to focus on this year it's not just all of the losses but his presence i brought you safely through i don't know where you all thought i promised you the ship i did tell you when i was here in this world you you will have trials not you might tribulation will come peter says do not be surprised i'm sure the lord's saying that to his church like really really everyone do you do you read the bible i jesus told you you will not you might you will but be of good cheer because i've overcome the world you read the end of the book that's pretty awesome i don't know what you're freaking out about i'll send you pete too peter write a few words don't be surprised no i'm not yet at the james stage i will get there but then let me just reinforce it with james count it all joy oh well no we've really matured when we get there but i wonder if we could be with luke and go hang on a minute i was brought safely through let me just reframe 2020. let me just reframe the fact that you probably safely through and he goes on let me wrap the whole next six weeks after we were brought safely through we then learned that the island was called malta that's when he found out it was called malta we see a lot of us we're here thanksgiving week and we're like oh where are we what what is this call i didn't plan to be here in november and a lot of us we didn't even know the name of where we are no idea and malta if you could see i think it's up here somewhere is a a little island it's only 17 miles long by uh nine miles wide right down here i've been here it's got all these shrines to pull it's beautiful island beautiful island paul was not planning to go and paul didn't know malta was called malta paul did not know malta was on the map paul was going to rome see we're in november 2020 a lot of us didn't think where we are we didn't even know where we are existed we did not even know this was a pla if i had asked you in january where you would be right now what would it be called you would have no frame of reference to place it you go oh i don't even know that place exists and here we are we're all on malta we're like wow didn't plan to be on malta didn't plan to get here this way but see the lord was getting ready for a revival on malta he was still going to take paul to rome and a lot of us we're missing the revival in malta because we are so lamenting the way the fact that we don't like how we didn't get to rome yet so a lot of us because we're not in rome in november 2020 we're despising malta and god's like whoa i brought you to malta because i've got a plan remember you told me you wanted me to use you so i've got a plan for you here on malta but you're missing malta because you're so angry about what happened on the way to rome and you're not there yet and all you're thinking about is all the loss and all the nausea and all the wind and all the storms and i've got something for you in malta and i wonder if we're missing the miracle in malta because we're so angry that we're not in romeo and we're so angry that we've lost our ship along the way he goes on and says the native people that's just the people that didn't speak greek as their first language that's what it meant here the native people showed us unusual kindness for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all because they had begun to rain and was called when paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire so he's he's now serving what do you do when you end up in malta and you don't want to be there what do you do see a lot of us what we need to start doing is serving our way out of our funk right now that's what we need to do this is the apostle paul who wrote two thirds of the new testament he could have said well look i'm a big deal man i'm not picking up sticks but he gets on malta now remember he's going to stand before caesar he's a big deal and what does he start doing he goes well i'm in malta better find something to do i'm going to start a fire so i can warm everyone up i wonder what you could be doing right where you are instead of being so angry because you're not where you want to be we can start serving our way out of our funk right here right where we are so he goes on and he says the lady uh and they killed the fire and welcomed the sword because it had begun to rain and was cold when paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on a fire a viper came out because of the heat let me just say some of us are starting to heat up in the things of god right now now the commentators would say that you know the the snake the viper that was in the wood uh the heat the fire would cause it to come out sometimes when you start to get a bit more on fire for god do not be surprised when the vipers start coming out the attacks start coming out the bites start coming out so the bible says that the viper came out because of the heat fastened his hand and when the native people saw the creature hanging from his end they said to one another no doubt this man is a murderer now this is how i want you to see how the crowd is right now the crowd's calling him a murderer because of the viper though again there's great theology that says you must have sinned in your life there's a snake hanging off you you are just so evil you're a murderer you you know it's such destructive theology though though he has escaped from the sea justice does not allow him to leave he however shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm they were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead but when they had waited long time and saw no misfortune come to him they changed their minds and said that he was a god welcome to the crowd this is that it doesn't take long does it people go chris why are you not so engaged i'm just loving what everyone says about you on social media i'm like honey the same people that have called me a god this week will call me a murderer next week and so many of us are trying to build our life and our esteem and what the crowd says honey the crowd is so fickle so fickle god murderer same afternoon that's what happens right here but you know this is like the it goes on and says now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island named publius who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days it happened that the father of publius lay sick with fever and dysentery and paul visited him and prayed and putting his hands on him healed him and when this had taken place the rest of the people on the island who had diseases came and were cured god had a revival ready right there in malta got the most influential man on the island brought his father god used paul to heal his father every sick person came and then i want you to see in verse 10 they also honored us greatly and when we were about to sail they put on board whatever we needed i'll get to that in a moment let me jump here i had to bring this because you know it's the best that i could do and just for some of you this is going to confirm everything you think about the snake handling pentecostal so there i am so just see there you go so the the fact here right here is that the bible says that a viper came out jumped on and latched himself onto paul can i just tell you what's happening in the body of christ right now we've had a hell of a storm we say that in australia it's not cussing this is an international broadcast there's more than just portland watching it in portland that's not casting either so that's okay we've had a very big storm and so the fact is that 2020 yet man every one of us every one of us has felt this storm every one of us has in some way shape or form suffered some kind of shipwreck to varying degrees but for all of us some of our ships have run aground there's no doubt about it no doubt about it but if god if the enemy couldn't take you out with the storm and the enemy couldn't take you out with the shipwreck what the enemy has made sure has happened especially over the last three or four or five weeks is that he's made sure that the viper has come to try to get his venom into you from the inside out because if he can't take us out with the storm and the shipwreck from the outside in what the viper will do is come and try to get offense into our hearts try to get gossip and slander and jealousy and guile and all of the inner attitudes of the heart because if he can't take you out with a storm can't take you out with a shipwreck he's going to try to take us out as the body of christ from the inside out if i could just get some toxic venom on the inside of you and then i can make you all hate each other and i can make you all argue and there can be division and there can be chaos and there can be just slander and there can be gossip and there could be jealousy and there can be accusation oh i'll take you out from the inside out if i can't take you out from the outside in and what does the scripture say paul didn't entertain the viper the bible says that he shook it off into the fire i want you to hear this church he didn't shake it off onto twitter he didn't shake it off onto instagram he shook it off into the fire i'm here to tell you bridgetown that before there was taylor swift there was the apostle paul and what do we as the body of christ need to do in this moment we need to shake it off some of us need to make a decision in 2020 to shake it off shake it off the offense the bitterness the gossip the slander the anger the jealousy the greed the lust the envy shake it off we got to make that decision because there's a revival waiting don't miss the revival in malta don't let the snake the storm didn't take us out we're still here the shipwreck didn't take us out we're still here don't let the snake take you out from the inside out don't let it take you out they also honored us greatly and when we were about to sail they put on board whatever we needed here's the word for you someone needs to hear this we're coming into 2021. listen however it's going to look i'm not saying how it's going to look but if god said we're going to rome we're going to rome and we're going to get a ship it's not the one that we ran aground i don't know what it's going to be like and scripture says whatever we needed whatever we needed stop lamenting everything we've lost and trust god with what we need it's going to come god will provide whatever he says he will provide for whatever it is that he has called us to do don't get stuck with a snake bite in malta and die when there's a revival waiting to happen in malta and we must go to rome bridgetown we must go to rome god has a call god has a purpose god has a destiny it hasn't changed there was a storm on the way there's shipwrecks on the way there's malta's on the way don't miss the miracle in malta because you will go to rome you must stand before caesar but don't let the storm or the shipwreck or the snakebite take you out in jesus name let me pray for you father i thank you for this mighty church father i thank you for the call you have on this apostolic house father there's people on the other side of the screen people just in so much pain just feel so battered and bruised by the storm some feel like they're just lying in a bloodied mess hitting the rocks running aground others lord have got snakes in the spirit hanging off their wrists metaphorically speaking that venom threatening to take them out so i pray in the name of jesus christ that you would do what only you could do in this moment lord

Channel: Christine Caine Sermons

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Rating: 4.9166665 out of 5

Keywords: christine caine passion 2018, christine caine passion, christine caine 2018, christine caine shame, christine caine lost and found, christine caine sermon, christine caine undaunted, christine caine break camp, christine caine identity, christine caine liberty university, christine caine, christine caine 2020, 2020 Is Your Year, Message 2020, 2021 Is Your Year, christine caine 2021

Id: rYIW1VPnwY4

Length: 52min 54sec (3174 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 18 2021