(applause) - Thank you very much, you can be seated. There is no where I'd rather be this Sunday morning than
with my Saddleback family. If you don't know me, I am your
crazy aunt from Down Under. And so, I've been here so many times. The first time you come you're a guest, but then, by the time you
keep getting asked back, now you're just a crazy
aunt from the other side of the world where they
speak the Queen's English. In case you don't recognize the accent, this is how the convicts
from Down Under speak. That's just what we have
done to the British accent and we've made it more
posh than it already was. You Americans just threw the tea overboard and said, "See ya later." So, you know, that's typical America, we'll do it our way, thanks. And so, us Australians are
still under the monarchy. But anyway, I love Pastor
Rick and Kay so dearly. I got so fired up listening
to what you all are doing through the peace plan in Rwanda. And I just need to tell you,
as part of the body of Christ around the world, we are so
grateful for your church. We are so grateful for the light that you are to the world. The fact that you have
continued to stay on mission and take the gospel to the
outermost parts of the earth and bring change and transformation. You inspire us all. I know you're suffering for Jesus here in southern California,
but someone has to do it, I do understand that. That you are like, "Here I am, Lord. "Send me to the nations. "Oh, okay, I'll stay in
southern California." So, I get that. But what you're doing
in Rwanda is amazing. The opportunities that God has opened to your pastor around the world. We from Hillsong have been
so blessed by his ministry. You oughta thank God that you are planted in such a wonderful church
under such great leadership because you really, really do have phenomenal leadership in this house, so. (applause) I love that and I couldn't wait. I was very, very blessed
when he asked me to come. The church has been awesome. I turned 50 years old on Friday. So for two days, I have
been in the second half a century of my life and I love it. You know, I would never go
back to the first half century. That was really boring. Life does not start
til 50, I have decided. And, it is like hilarious. I just love saying it,
'cause it's just like, I'm in the second half century. It sounds awesome. Okay, so I thought there's no where I'd rather be on my birthday
weekend than with you guys. I do want to introduce
you to some of the humans that are in my life,
because we all have humans, and I had two that come out of me. So, here is my daughter. This is my 14-year-old daughter, they'll be in the next service. And this is my Catherine
Bobbie and she is 14. And just beautiful, taller than me now. And I'm so grateful to God,
one of the greatest gifts that's happened over the last six months is that she's grown out of my shoes. And so she now will longer steal my shoes because, you know, that
just makes me very happy. And then I have my little Sophia Joyce and she is 10 and just sassy
and the delight of my life. And then I am married to
the single most ravishing piece of masculine flesh on planet earth. And so this is my husband of 20 years. And he is a Ballarat boy from Australia. His mother had 15 full term
pregnancies in 17 years. And all the women are in
sympathy in this room right now. And I'm just like, there was no television in that part of Australia, so
they disconnected that late. And so my mother-in-law used to think you were not even a woman
until you popped out number 10. And so, I'm like, that's where
when I had my two daughters, I would always say,
this is Alpha and Omega, this is the beginning and the
end of my childbearing years. And I didn't, I popped out my
first at 35, my second at 40. I'm thinking any woman that pops out a kid at 40 needs a purple heart. But anyway, so that was, we're done. That is the deal, so. You know being 50 is a great milestone. I think if you're under 50 in the room and you think that's
old, it'll happen to you, just live, don't die and you'll get there. And so, people are like,
"How did you get to 50?" I'm like, I didn't die. And so, it really wasn't
that difficult, but. You know 50 years ago I was left in a hospital in Sydney, Australia. And many of you may know
that my husband and I oversee an organization
called the A21 Campaign in 14 countries around the world where we help to rescue the
victims of human trafficking. (applause) It is particularly meaningful to me. If you guys would just put
my birth certificate up. And I know some of you have seen it, but there'll be so many new people. You would see that 50 years ago, my birth certificate simply had the name, Unnamed, typed in and that
I was number 2508 of 1966. And, I guess the last couple of days, turning 50, I've reflected on this deeply. Because that kid that
was number 2508 of 1966 left in a hospital, unnamed and unwanted. That kid that was then sexually abused for 12 years by several different men. That kid that grew up in the
poorest zip code in my state, the third poorest zip code
in the nation of Australia. That kid that was so
marginalized because my parents were Greek immigrants
from Alexandria, Egypt. And we lived in a very low class area. Very marginalized
because of our ethnicity. If you saw My Big Fat Greek Wedding, that is my big fat Greek life. And so, that's kind of where it was. And very also marginalized
because of my gender. I grew up in a culture, very
strict Greek Orthodox culture, where women were not
encouraged to do anything or to aspire to anything
great in their life. And that kid should have been a statistic. That kid should have been
addicted to something if I still stayed alive,
but I am living proof that in and through a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you can start bad and you can finish good. That Jesus Christ truly does redeem lives and He restores lives and
He turns lives around. He is so wonderful. So I don't know what your story is in this place today and
to our online community and whatever campus you might be on, but I want you to know that God knows you, God loves you, and that God cares. And He took this unnamed,
unknown, unwanted kid from the back of Sydney, Australia, and not only did He rescue my life, but then He now uses my life
to help rescue other people. I am living proof that God can even take all of the bad things
that have happened to you and work them together for
good, Romans 8:28 says. And He's done that in my life. That everything that the
enemy wanted to destroy my life with, God said, "You know what, "I might just redeem that. "And not only rescue her, but I might take "all those unnamed, unknown, abused girls "and children from around the world "that are being trafficked,
and I might just use "this chick from Down Under
to open the prison doors "for those that are still bound. "I might just use that very same girl "that the devil wanted to destroy." You know every time we
put a trafficker in jail, every time we see a young woman or a young man or a child rescued, I feel like Joseph in
Genesis chapter 50, verse 20. And I feel, you know what enemy? You meant this for evil against me, but God meant it for this very purpose to save many people alive. So devil you can stick that
in your pipe and smoke it, I'm gonna make you pay til the day I die for the thing that
you've done in your life. That's what you could do. That's the power of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. He makes us more than conquerors. You know what a more than a conqueror is? Is you take the very thing that the enemy wanted to destroy your life with, and you turn it around
and allow God to use it to give someone else a future. You know the enemy wanted to destroy me, but I'm living proof that your history doesn't have to define your destiny, but you can use your history to help give other people a destiny. So on that note, we gonna
turn to our text this morning. I got myself fired up right now. I love Jesus. I'm just, I'm like you cannot, I'm like those, in the book of Acts, the disciples would say,
"You might try to silence me "but we cannot help but
speak of all of the things "that we've seen and heard." I'm just one of those people
that just really, truly did get saved 28 years ago and every day, I am so grateful for that. I hope you are still so grateful
for so great a salvation. Jesus Christ did not come
to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive. I was dead and now I'm alive
and I am so grateful to God for the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. So, Pastor Rick said that
I was going to be teaching from Joshua chapter one and that's because that's what I texted him that I was going to be (audience laughter) teaching. From Joshua, chapter one. I do wanna preface what I'm gonna say with the fact that the whole
Bible is inspired by God. Everything is good. If you want to read Joshua this morning, feel free to do that because
every word in the Bible was written under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit so it's all inspired and great. I personally am gonna
read from Deuteronomy. You can stay in Joshua. (audience laughter) I had spiritual dyslexia
when I texted him. It was not his fault, it was mine. But it was by the time
they made the video. I went, I'm so sorry,
it's actually Deuteronomy. But the whole Bible is good, so it's okay. And so, it would go there. I do want to mention, I
wrote a couple of months ago this book, Unashamed, came out. And I kind of hear some
of you have read it and done the study. This is not a chick book. I know there's a chick
on the front cover, guys, but that's 'cause I am a chick, okay. So, you know, but, the fact is, and it's not a book about abuse, it's a book about our worth. And two years ago I went into
a, 18 months ago actually, some very intense therapy
because I'd had some still some broken areas of my life. I'm gonna talk a little bit about that. And God had a whole
new season of influence and impact for our family. But who knows that if God's gonna make you more impactful outwards, He's gonna go inwards and downwards first. And there was new levels of stuff that I just had to deal with,
'cause we all carry stuff, whatever might happen. I don't know what your story is, but that feeling of unworthiness right from the Garden of Eden. The enemy came in to the
woman and he said to her, "Did God really say?" And we have a world that is trying to drown the voice of God. The media tells us things. The politicians tell us things. And of course, that's all
true if the politicians say. You know, the politicians tell us things. Magazines tell us you're not good enough, you're not smart enough,
you're not rich enough, you're not wealthy enough,
you're not talented enough, you're not thin enough,
you're not beautiful enough. I mean, it's endless. We get up in the morning and there's this fundamental feeling of unworthiness. We fail at things in our lives, maybe a marriage fails, a
business fails, a dream fails. Perhaps we feel like we failed as parents. Perhaps we are frustrated that our dream hasn't come to pass. Somewhere in there we feel like I have just not made it. We have people more medicated
than they've ever been. Drinking more than they ever have. Numbing our reality because
somewhere it's just too much and we feel fundamentally unworthy. So the enemy came to
the woman in the garden, he said, "Did God really
say you shouldn't eat?" Now here's the problem. If you don't know what God really said, you're gonna believe what the enemy says. If you don't know what God really said, you're gonna believe what the media says. If you don't know what God really said, you're gonna believe
what your ex-spouse says. You're gonna believe the lies of the enemy if you don't know what God really said. And then the enemy said, "You know what. "God doesn't want you to eat of that tree "because then you're gonna be like Him. "He doesn't want you to be like Him." Here's the issue. She already was like him because she was created in His image. And if you don't know who
you already are in God, you're gonna go trying to chase it through relationships, through money, through substances, through
tryin' to climb the ladder. You're gonna try to become
what you already are in Christ if you don't
learn to get it from Christ. And so the issue then is,
God comes into the garden after they've blown it. He's like, "Adam where are you?" It's not 'cause He didn't
know, He's omniscient, He did know, He's like, God. He's not like, "Oh, hide
and seek, I can't see you." No, that's not what He was doing. He's like God, just in
case you're wondering. Like burped one day, "Earth,
oops, look what I did." Anyway, so that's what God
does, He's very powerful. God's not freaking out
about what's happening in this country right now. You know we all like, "Oh God, "do You know there's an election?" "Oh, I had no idea. "Oh, my God, now I am
God, all three of me, "what am I going to do? "Okay, I'm having an existential crisis. "Peter, did you know that
America's having an-- "Oh, no, what am I gonna do?" Do you think God's in
heaven going, "O-M me, "what am I going to do? "I just don't know." It's, He's God, He's
sovereign, it's alright people. He's not like, "Whoa." He knew this was gonna happen. He wrote the book,
actually wrote the ending, and it's alright, it's not, oh God, the sky's not gonna fall, and in fact, it's gonna roll back and He's coming back. Don't freak out. It's all not ending, it's culminating in what we're all going to. So, it's okay.
(applause) It's okay. You could sleep at night. That's another sermon. Okay.
So, let me stay on point, stop distracting me
Saddleback, you are naughty. Okay. So in the midst of all of that, God says, "Where are you?" Adam says, "I was naked,
afraid and so I hid." And then the Lord says these words, "Who told you? "Who told you?" Truly that's my question today. The title is Don't Say
No When God Says Go. And a lot of us say no when God says go. And more often than not, it's because somewhere along the
line, we believed a lie. I'm not good enough, I can't. I'm not smart enough. It's not ready yet. I don't have enough. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not,
I can't, I can't, I can't. Where a whole generation that
said no when God said go. And a whole generation
died in the wilderness instead of going into the promise land. We need a generation of Christians that are not gonna
settle for the wilderness but are gonna go in and possess the promises that God has for us. The scripture tell us that in Christ Jesus all the promises of God are yes and amen. You did not get delivered
to live in the wilderness. You got saved for freedom. Christ set us free to go into
your spiritual promise land. But somewhere along the line,
the enemy told you a lie. You've believed it. And we've just stopped. Stopped and settled for
either a complacent, comfortable, apathetic Christianity. Or settled to say, my
past, I've failed so much, so God can't use someone like me. I was abused, God can't
use someone like me. That business venture's failed, God can't use someone like me. Somewhere along the line,
"It's just too hard. "It's too painful." And we just stop. So, really I wrote all of
that to go wherever you're at, from the highest corporate executive to the most broken person. The one thing the enemy
came at us in the garden was to tell us that we're
not who we already are. And to stop us from moving
into the purposes of God. The only thing that God said we were not in Genesis 2:25, before the fall, "Adam and Eve were naked,
and they knew no shame." So the enemy thought, "He
didn't say they knew no fear, "they knew no doubt,
they knew no insecurity, "they knew no pain." It says, they knew no shame. So the enemy thought, "If
I can heap shame on you, "then I'm gonna stop you from walking "into your God given destiny and purpose." Christians need to know
who we are in Christ, what we have in Christ and
what we can do in Christ, so that we can be the
salt and light of Christ in a lost and a broken generation. We need to walk into the promises of God for our generation. So with that, I'm gonna read from, okay, you can clap, I'll
breathe, okay, how's that? (applause) I feel sorry for you
all like, "Do we clap? "Does she breathe?" Turn to your neighbor and say, "I have heard a rumor she breathes. "I really have." You're awesome. I'm both Greek and a
woman, guys, so it's okay. I only speak three ways. Hard, fast and continuously. So you will not fall asleep this morning. And so strap yourself
in, we're gonna go there. I am going to give you three points for the right half of your brain because Pastor Rick loves points. And if you're trying to take notes on me this morning, good luck. But, I will give you
three points (laughing), so that we can feel
like, for those of you, that you will not sleep if there's not just something written down, okay? So, I don't know if the points have got anything to do with my message, but you can have a point, okay? So, the Bible says in the book
of Deuteronomy, chapter one. "These are the words Moses spoke to "all Israel in the wilderness." Do you know God will speak
to you in the wilderness? You might of come here this morning and you're in a wilderness experience. God will speak to you in
that place, wherever you are. You can leave that up guys. I love you all. I feel sorry for anyone that has to work any kind of machine when I'm speaking. It's like they have to move in the spirit and really just go, "What
a knowledge, put it up." Okay, "These are the words Moses spoke "to all Israel in the
wilderness east of the Jordan, "that is, in the Arabah, opposite Suph, "between Paran, Tophel,
Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. "It takes eleven days to go from Horeb "to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road." I want you to see that, it's in the Bible. Everyone say, 11 days. - [Congregation] 11 days. - Okay, next verse. "In the fortieth year." I'm just putting it out there. (audience laughter) In the--we could actually stop right there and I could speak the
next six weeks on that. It takes 11 days, in the 40th year. How much of our Christianity
is exactly there? What should only take 11 days? 40 years later. We're doing laps around
the same old mountains. The same old issues. I was abused for 12 years. I was left in a hospital
unnamed and unwanted. I did grow up in poverty. I did grow up marginalized. But the fact is, I am now 50 years old and two days, and I still
take presents, if you want. And so I am now (laughing)
50 years old and two days. So nothing will ever change the fact that I was abused for 12 years, nothing. The blood of Jesus does
not give you amnesia, just in case you're wondering. So it's not that your past didn't happen. But the blood of Jesus does give you a life beyond your past. And so I could've be here at 50, still walking around going, it was so bad. Man, you don't know what it was like to grow up in Australia 50 years, to be left in a hospital,
I really don't remember it, but it was really, really so bad. And just, I was just so rejected and it was so painful
and I'm still so full of unforgiveness because I
don't know who my mother is and I'm still so bitter
towards all those guys that abused me and because
of that I hate men. And I'm gonna make my husband pay for something he never did to me. And I'm going to be a psychotic mother because my girls just
deserve all my dysfunction. Because you don't know what happened. I was a victim and this
happened to me 50 years ago. And it just wasn't right. I'm getting dizzy, I'm gonna stop, okay. So and then it just didn't,
and we go round and round. You don't know what that boss did to me. You don't know what they said to me at that church back there. You don't know what, it's not my fault, the teacher said that I
was not able to do this and the parents said
this and 50 years later. In the case of the children
of Israel, 40 years later. Murmuring, grumbling, complaining. You don't know how bad it was. You don't know what happened to us. And then we'll sing songs of redemption and songs of the power of the cross and songs of the power
of the resurrection, but we don't believe them. 'Cause we're still doing our same old laps around our same old mountains. And God says, "Hang on a minute." It's supposed to be 11 days. Yes, there was pain. And no one is denying a
process of restoration, nobody. But it should be 11 days to come out of the slavery of Egypt to walk into the freedom and the promise of Canaan. 40 years later. 40 years later. I wonder what your 40 years later is. What bitterness, what unforgiveness, what lust, what greed, what envy, what pride, what addiction, what pain, what suffering, what
hurt, what, what is it? Still same old mountains. Same old issue. Same old thing going on. Sat under a thousand sermons, but it's still the same old thing. And you just keep going,
and I'll tell you one thing, by the time we finish this, whoever has had these 50 year issues, your friend is gonna turn next to you, and when you try to say, you know, go on about that issue
again, they're gonna go, "Look man, she got over it. "Maybe you could too. "Maybe you need to get a new issue." But anyway, so the thing is
that maybe that it needs to be we need to get over the
fact that something happened 40 years ago or something
happened 50 years ago. I was abused, that nothing's
ever gonna change that. But the fact is that I'm 50 years old now. So you do the math. I have not been being abuse for 38 years. Why would I allow 12 years
to define my whole life, when I've not been being abused for a whole lot longer than
I have been being abused? Why not talk about the redemptive power of Jesus Christ setting me free and giving a life beyond my past? Why keep talking-- (applause) about the other? I'm not saying deny what happened. But it doesn't have power over me. What Jesus did on the cross does. And for some of us, you've
come to church this morning because it's time to make
what Jesus did for you bigger than what they did to you. It is time to make what
Jesus did for you at Calvary bigger than what those people said to you. Some of you need to make God bigger. "Yeah, what do you mean, Christine? "Theologically, how do
you make God bigger?" God is as big as He ever needs to be. God is as big as He's ever gonna be. God is omnipotent, God is
omniscient, God is omnipresent. You're right. But the God of the universe
is made big or small in the hearts of His people. So how big is your God? How big is your God? What is still going on in your heart? Is your heart still full, are you having a spiritual heart attack? Because your heart is clogged up. Your spiritual arteries are clogged up with unforgiveness or
bitterness or shame or guilt or hurt or condemnation or
pride or lust or greed or envy. I don't know what it might be. But we have to allow God to move in so that we can find freedom. Otherwise we're gonna take 40 years to do what it should
take us 11 days to do. 40 years, metaphorically
speaking, whatever that might be. We are all a work in process. We are all being conformed and transformed to the image of Jesus. That's what we're here for. But the fact is that
there should be progress. Scripture teaches us that
we go from faith to faith, from grace to grace, from
strength to strength. If we are truly gonna be
salt and light on this earth and make a difference in our generation and see the world transformed around us, then we have to be transformed
from the inside out. The greatest testimony
we are to this world that Jesus Christ is still
alive and Jesus Christ reigns, is not a force spiritual laws track. It's the fact that He's reigning in me. It's the fact that He's
flowing through me. It's the fact that we
can stand up and say, "I once was, but now am." There is a change. There is a transformation now that happens from the inside out. So, of course, in this context, I'm talking about an Old
Testament physical promise land. In the New Testament, of course, we're talking about a
spiritual promise land. But all the promises of
God are in Christ Jesus, yes and amen, Corinthians tells us. Which means you and I have access to all of the promises of God in the word of God. But they're not gonna fall out of the sky because Jesus has
already given them to us. We have to go in and take
what is already ours. I'm gonna show you that from scripture if I can get past this second verse. (audience laughter) "In the fortieth year, on the first day "of the eleventh month, Moses
proclaimed to the Israelites "all that the Lord had
commanded him concerning them. "This was after he had defeated
Sihon, king of the Amorites, "who reigned in Heshbon, and at Edrei "and defeated Og, king of Bashan, "who reigned in that place. "East of the Jordan of
the territory of Moab, "Moses began to expound this law. "The Lord our God said to us at Horeb, "'You have stayed long
enough at this mountain.'" That's what I've come here
to say to someone today. You've stayed long
enough at that mountain. Long enough at the mountain of guilt. Long enough at the mountain of shame. Long enough at the
mountain of condemnation. Long enough at the mountain of defeat. Long enough at the mountain of murmuring. Long enough at the
mountain of complacency. Long enough at the mountain of apathy. Long enough at the
mountain of indifference. Long enough at the mountain of addiction. Long enough! God comes in after 40 years and He says, "Hey! "You've been here long enough!" I love this. "Break camp and advance." There's gotta come a time
where you gotta make a decision to disrupt something by breaking camp. You've gotta break camp with complacency. Break camp with apathy. Break camp with people
that are holding you back. Break camp with the status quo. You ever broken something? It hurts.
It hurts. So we've gotta break camp and advance. The nature of the gospel is advancing. We are an unshakable kingdom. We're in the midst of a
series on being unshakable. I bet you're wondering
how I was gonna tie it in. And so we are in an unshakable kingdom. I love the book of Hebrews. It says only those things
that can be shaken, so that those things that
cannot be shaken shall remain. We've got a lot of cray-cray things happening in the world today. If you just look at the news, you go, the world is cray-cray. But it is okay, 'cause
God is not cray-cray. Because the one thing
that cannot be shaken is the church of Jesus Christ. He said, "I will build my church "and the gates of hell
cannot, shall not, will not "prevail against the
church of the living God." She's alive and well.
(applause) She's alive and well.
(applause) Just in case you're wondering what we're doing here on a Sunday morning. We're not a bunch of
socially dysfunctional morons that had nothing else to
do on a Sunday morning so we went with all the
other nerds to church 'cause we're losers. No!
We are on the winning side. I read the end of the book. You might think, "Jeez,
she's really excited "for a Sunday morning." Well, you know why? It's because Jesus Christ
rose from the dead. Have you ever been into the locker room of a losing football team? So depressing. Everyone's quiet, somber. Depressed, like a lot of
churches on Sunday morning. But have you ever been into the locker room of a
winning football team? Everyone is high-fiving. Everyone is excited. Everyone is pumped. Friend, if this is your
first time in church today and you think that woman on
stage is really, really excited, it's because I read the
end of the book and we win! We're on the winning side, church! We're on the winning side! (applause)
It's okay. It's unshakable. Therefore we are, Christ
in us is unstoppable. What's the theology for that? The same spirit that raised
Jesus Christ from the dead, scripture says lives on
the inside of you and me. That same spirit that raised Jesus from. If you are saved, Ephesians teaches us that all of us have been sealed until the day of redemption
with the holy spirit of God. He lives in all of us. So the fact is now, we've
gotta get that flow of God from us into a world around
us to bring transformation. He is unshakable, His
kingdom is unshakable and Christ in us, the hope
of glory is unstoppable. It doesn't matter what
happens politically, morally, socially, economically
in the world around us because we have the
kingdom of God within us. And we are here to bring a taste of heaven to Earth and bring change around us. And so the Lord's saying
to the children of Israel, "I brought you out of 430
years of slavery in Egypt. "And you came out of Egypt. "You came out of it and there
was an 11 day wilderness." In fact, scripture teaches us that God took them the long way around
through the wilderness. Not every wilderness
experience is from the devil. Sometimes God will take
us the long way around to get us into our destiny. And He took them through the wilderness. 11 days. That's what it was supposed to take. And you go, "Well, why does God do that?" Because although they
had come out of Egypt, Egypt had not yet come out of them. And so God had to get Egypt out of them. They came out of slavery, but
they still thought like slaves and they still acted like slaves. See, you can get saved and
delivered out of a situation, but then, there's a
time of sanctification, which is our whole life on Earth. And when God gets what was in us out of us and we replace that with
what's in Him and His word. So, some of the major stuff, 11 days. But they just can't, 40 years later. Because they murmured,
grumbled, and complain. And scripture goes on at
the end of Deuteronomy, chapter one, it talks about, Moses said, "You wanted to spy out the land. "I sent 12 leaders in to spy out the land. "God said He was giving us that land. "But 10 of the leaders came
back with a negative report." "Oh, you should see the economy. "You should see the political system. "You should see the morality. "Oh, it's so bad, it's all falling apart. "We cannot go in." And only one, two guys,
Joshua and Caleb came back and said, "What are you all talking about? "We are well able to take the land. "God said He's giving it to us. "We can take what He said He's given." Greater is He that is in us,
than he that is in the world. It's exactly the same today. We have nothing to fear
because God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of
love, power and a sound mind. Greater is He that is in us,
than he that is in the world. So everywhere we go, we
transform the world around us. But what happened was 10 leaders came back with a negative report and
kept a whole generation out of their destiny. That's why what we blog does matter. What we Tweet does matter. What we Facebook does matter. What we put out there does matter. Are you part of the
conversation of naysayers and negativity and fear
and doubt in this nation? Or are we part of the conversation of lifegiving hope and faith? Are we building up those around us or are we tearing them down? Because the words of 10 people kept a whole generation
out of their destiny. 10 people that said, "We can't do it." 10 people that said, "It's too hard." I know that God said we have victory, but we can't can't do it. We have this moment in history and this moment in this
nation at the moment, where we the church can
change the narrative. If we speak words of
life and hope and faith in our sphere of influence, let people know that
Jesus is still in control. That He is unshakable and
His church is unstoppable and His love and His grace and His mercy and His compassion it continues to reign. And we walk in the victory that is ours in and through a relationship
with Jesus Christ. 10 people kept a generation
out of their destiny. And God said, "You know what? "You've stayed here long enough. "I want you to go and advance." He says see in verse eight,
"See I have given you this land. "Go in and take possession of the land "the Lord swore He would give "to your fathers Abraham, Isaac. "Go in and take possession." And there's some of us, we need to go in and take possession. God has given us the inheritance. I can leave an inheritance
for my daughters, but it's not gonna fall out of the sky. They've gotta go in and
take what I've left. So freedom was mine. I had been abused, I had been hurt, I had been rejected, I'd been abandoned. All of those things are very real. But in and through a
relationship with Jesus Christ, I now had access to freedom. To come out of that brokenness
and walk into the fullness of the freedom of what God has for me. How did I do that? I had to let God come in. If you want to find freedom in Christ and walk into your spiritual promise land, then you cannot just visit God on Sundays. He wants to move into
your Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. The Bible says in John 1:14, I love Eugene Peterson's
version in the message, he says, "The word became flesh and
moved into the neighborhood." God wants to move into the neighborhood. See a lot of us, we
could visit Him on Sunday because what do you do when you have a visitor come to your house? If you're having visitors today for lunch, you've cleaned the lounge room,
it's really nice and neat. You've gone into the kid's bedrooms, you've thrown all the dirty
undies into the cupboards and just made it all nice. You've gone into the bathroom, you've got rid of the sandpaper
and you've put really nice, soft toilet paper into the bathroom because the visitors are coming. You've got rid of the cheap cookies and you've got the really
good chocolate cake. But if the kids have touched
it while you're gone, they're dead because
that's for the visitors, that's all nice. And the visitor comes
at the appointed time. He sits there, it's all lovely,
we all have a nice time. You have threatened the kids, there are no Christmas
presents for the next 20 years if they fight when the visitors are there. I mean, you've done it all. And so then, as soon
as the visitor leaves, I mean honestly, like World War 15 has just broken out in the house. Well, yeah, we do that when
we come to church every week. Well, not here at Saddleback, but every other church in North America. Just not here, okay. But you could be coming to church, driving to church and I mean, you're having a full on fight in the car. You've nearly killed the kids. You've said lots of four letter words, none of them are love, none
of them are in the Bible. And so, you are just going, and you pull into that church parking lot. And I'm telling you it
happens the world over, that the spirit of hypocrisy,
it just comes upon us all. And you get to this front door, I mean, you've nearly killed everyone, but now you get to the front door and the greeter from the welcome team with their nice t-shirt meets you and says, "How are you this morning?" And you're like, "I'm blessed." (audience laughter) "I'm blessed. "It's amazing. "You know I've been sanctified, justified "and redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. "In fact, here's my
cherubim and my seraphim "and they going into kid's church "and it's all wonderful and you know, "we're just God blessed." And you're sitting through worship. "I worship You almighty God. "I hate his guts if he thinks
he's getting any this month." Anyway it's amazing what
you could be thinking on a Sunday morning with
your unsanctified mind. And so it is all happening. Pastor Rick brings a beautiful message. You're taking notes. I mean, you do not even get
the door closed in the car, in the parking lot before
you've hit your spouse, "Did you hear what Pastor Rick said? "Every word was for you. "It was for you, every word." (laughing) (audience laughter) And maybe you're still gonna
be a Christian by tonight. Maybe, on a good Sunday, on a good Sunday. But by Monday, your
evil twin has turned up. (audience laughter) And the kids are like, Jekyll
and Hyde, what is going on? And by Tuesday you hate yourself. 'Cause you've got this yo-yo Christianity and you actually don't even want that. You want to be more like Christ. So you try more, you
pray more, you fast more. And it doesn't work and
eventually you give up and you end up just turning up out of a religious obligation. And you really don't think God's
power can change your life. 'Cause you tried. And He says the issue isn't
you trying, you can't do more. You've got to allow His
spirit to come in and move in. See, I had locked God out of a lot of broken places in my life. I had locked Him out. I had made vows, I will
never trust like that. I'll show them, if they, I'll do. And I had locked God's light out of the healing places in my life. And I had to let God move in. That's very painful. And really through the book and curriculum that's what I unpack and I don't know that there's a greater
gift I could've given the body turning 50, going, you know what, let me just tell you, you
can walk into freedom. You don't have to die in the wilderness. Saved, delivered, but not free. You can say yes when God says go. But you can only say yes if you're strong enough in Him to do it. And there's a process. It does take 11 days. You have to commit to the process. And that process is painful. There's no doubt about it. But there is victory on the other side. And you can walk into the
fullness of what God says. So, the first point was
that you have to let God move in if you're gonna move on. And the second point is, you must embrace the pain of recovery. You know a couple of years ago, I went skiing with my family. I'm from Sydney, Australia, so we surf. There's no snow, you know,
we don't know how to ski. But because there was five
American families there and I was Australian with my family, I felt a moral obligation
to represent Australia and look like I could ski. And so I would sort of watch
the ski Olympics at night and then I would try to
copy what they were doing in the day, which is really not wise. If you are underage, do not do this. And so, but I was useless. I could only ski on the flat, green slope. So this one day, I made
my husband come with me but all his mates, all the guys were skiing down this
double black diamond, you know those killer run kind of thing. And I was skiing away, just barely moving. And I said to my husband, "Honey, if you were
with the guys right now, "you wouldn't be having
any more fun, would you?" And anyone that's married in this room and wants to remain
married, if your wife ever asks you a loaded question like that, the correct answer
always, without exception, there is never an
exception, is always to say, "Yes, honey, you know the
pinnacle of my ski life "is on this flat, green slope with you. "This just makes my day." You know if you were wanting
any action that night, married men that's
exactly what you would say to your wife, I'm just
throwing it out there. That was for free, that was
worth coming to church right? There's some of you just
woke up for the first time. "She just said that?" Okay, so.
(audience laughter) And so the issue is my husband,
being a man of integrity, says to me, "You know
what, honey, if I was, "I wish I was with the guys right now, "We would, I'd be having
so much more fun." I'm like, what planet are you on? Okay, so, famous last
words, I said to him. My skis were loaded downwards, I go, well honey, eat my snow. And then I took off downhill. About 20 seconds later,
not one word of a lie, 20 seconds later, I knew
I was in serious trouble. On my second somersault
that was not intentional. And as I was hanging upside down, one of my skis went flying,
the other one stayed on. And I heard the loudest, pop,
pop, pop that you have heard. I snapped my ACL, tore my MCL, tore my meniscus, and fractured my knee. There's obviously a lot
of athletes in the room. So, I did it up. Couldn't move. You know they had to get the ski patrol. They put you in that little coffin thing, you go down the mountain. (audience laughter) And that's more painful than
the injury, I'm telling you. And everyone's like, "Who's that? "What a nerd?" I'm like, yes, that was me. Anyway, so, on all of that point, my mother being good Greek Orthodox, my mother all my life used to say to me before I left home, "Christina! "Are you wearing good, clean underwear?" (audience laughter) To which I would say,
mum, what does it matter? "Christina." Think My Big Fat Greek Wedding. "If you have an accident and you end up "in the back of an ambulance,
you must be wearing "good underwear for the ambulance driver." (audience laughter) Therein is Greek logic everyone. Greeks are fatalists. It doesn't matter how bad things are, they could always get worse. And so.
(audience laughter) I used to always say to my mother, mum, I'm not believing
to have an accident. And if I have an accident where I end up in the back of an ambulance, I don't care about the
condition of my underwear! All I'm saying because
this is Sunday morning and I'm being respectful. If it was a women's conference, you would get the unedited
version, let me just say. But as they were lifting
me up into the ambulance, all I want to say to you, is
I've lived long enough again to say the words yet
again, my mother was right. Okay, so that's all I'm saying. So, I ended up, they flew
me back to Australia. I had a hamstring graft
and the doctor came in and I'm gonna end with this, 'cause this is what we have to understand. If we're gonna take 11 days, not 40 years. If we're gonna step into the
freedom that is ours in Christ. If we gonna appropriate what
Jesus did for us on the cross 'cause there is freedom and our world needs to see that you can be free. Galatians chapter five, verse one says it's for freedom Christ set us free. And this freedom is not
based on a personality. It's not because of Chris
Caine's a strong personality. Freedom is not a personality type. Freedom is a blood type. It's the blood of Jesus Christ of Nazareth that sets us free so we
can all walk in freedom. We can all walk in the fullness
of what God has for us. But this is what we have to do. The PT came into me and he said, "You know, Mrs. Caine, you've
had a very serious injury." And I think you do patella
grafts here in America. We do hamstring grafts in Australia. He came in and he said, "Your
right knee technically now "after the hamstring graft, "your right knee is stronger
than your left knee. "But most people do not fully
recover from this injury. "You can have a full life. "You can go down and
up, you can begin run, "you can do it, but most won't. "And if you're a professional athlete, "this would've ended your career." He said, "It's not
necessarily that you can't "because your knee is stronger." He said, "But I need you to know "that most people don't
commit to the recovery process "because the injury was painful. "But it happened in a split second. "The recovery process is much longer. "And more often than
not, the pain of recovery "far outweighs the pain of the injury." He says, "So, it's your choice Mrs. Caine. "You can recover completely or partially. "You can recover quickly or slowly. "It is entirely your choice." And then he said these words. "The degree to which you are willing "to embrace the pain of recovery "is the degree to which you will recover." And I'm here to say to us
as the body of Christ today, none of us could suffer more than Jesus Christ did on the cross. None of us could pay a bigger price than our heavenly
Father, loving us so much that He gave His only begotten son. But if you and I are truly gonna walk into the freedom of our future. If we are not gonna allow our
history to define our destiny. If we are going to allow the broken shards and the broken places of our
heart to be healed and whole. If we are gonna allow
God to go in and deep so that He can do a great
and mighty work through us, which is the purpose of God for us, it is to our Father's
great glory, John says, that we would bear much fruit. We are on this planet, in this time to be highly effective
for the kingdom of God. It gives our God great glory
for us to bear much fruit. You will not bear fruit
if you keep saying no when God says go because you
are stuck in the wilderness when you should be in the promise land. So let's make a decision
as the body of Christ that we gonna allow God to
move in so we can move on. We are gonna embrace the pain of recovery and we are gonna trust
that the same spirit that raised Jesus from
the dead is gonna give us the grace to do what we could
never do in our own strength. And if we are feeling weary. And if we are feeling worn out in the middle of the wilderness and dry. My Bible says in Isaiah, that
those that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. We will mount up on wings like eagles. Guess what the promise is
for us young 50-year-olds. We will run and not grow weary. We will walk and not faint. It's not about what you
and I can do or can't do. It's not about what you
and I are or are not. It's about who Christ
is on the inside of us. And our God is big. And our God is great. And there is nothing
that our God cannot do. There is not a disease He cannot heal. There is not a mountain He cannot move. There is not a soul He cannot save. There is not a need He cannot meet. There is not a heart He cannot mend. There is not a pain He cannot redeem. There is nothing our God cannot do. And because there is nothing
that our God cannot do and the same spirit that
raised Jesus from the dead lives on the inside of
us, then guess what? I can do all things through
Christ Jesus who strengthens me! We could do it church! We could do it in Jesus' name. We could do great things for
the glory of God, Saddleback. We can do great things! We can move on and we can
possess in Jesus' name. Come on, if you believe it, give Jesus a mighty ovation
in this place today. (audience cheering and applause) Come on.
Hallelujah. We could do great things. (applause)
We can do great things. (audience cheering and applause) Praise God. Let me pray for you, stand
to your feet, let me pray. Man, we came to have church this morning. I love you, Saddleback, like family. I love Pastor Kay so dearly. Nick and I so honor and
respect Pastor Rick and Kay. Your church is so significant
in the body of Christ, what God is doing through you. But sometimes you can get
caught up in the momentum of what God's doing as
a church, Saddleback, and forget that you as an
individual are part of that. And momentum is only as strong as impetus. So the more we keep putting in, the more we'll keep putting out. It takes all of us together. God knows the situation in America. Economically, politically, morally, socially, environment, in every realm. And the Bible teaches
us in the book of Acts that God picks and chooses the times and places He puts us in. So He knew what was going on. And you are His plan A
for being salt and light to this generation, in this generation. But we've gotta move on
and get over our stuff in order to do what God's called us to do. If you're able, why don't
you just bow your heads and let me just pray. So Father, I thank You for
every person in this room. I thank You for this mighty house. I thank You for Pastor Rick and Kay. I thank You that
Saddleback's greatest days are still ahead and not behind. And so I pray for every single person under the sound of my voice,
online and in this room. And Lord together we just commit ourselves afresh this Sunday morning, I do too. That Lord we're committed to allowing You to keep moving into those
deep places of our heart so that we can keep moving on into the purpose that You have for us. That we're willing to
embrace the pain of recovery so that we can freely
move into the promise land that You have for us. So Jesus, we say, have Your way. The fact that we are
still living and breathing means You've still got a plan and You've still got a
purpose and it's not over. And we want to live every day
on mission and intentionally. We don't want to die and get to heaven and go, "I missed it." We thank You for the privilege of serving You in our generation. We thank You for the privilege of being on the planet at this time. To bring hope and life
and proclaim the gospel to a lost and a broken world. So Father, I pray that freedom would be in the house this morning. In the name of Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ, I speak freedom and life and liberty. I pray that everyone would
have strength and courage to do what You've called us to do today. To let go of the past, to break camp, to advance and move on and step up and into the promises of God. In Jesus' name. And all God's people said.
- Amen. - Amen, God bless you,
Saddleback, thank you. (applause)
