Embrace the Place You're In | Christine Caine

can we please stand to our feet and welcome my boss of six and a half years at 8:21 Christine came [Applause] hey judge I am so excited to be here you see that I love pastor Matt and Bianca so much I invited myself here just so you all know I really did I'm like this is when I can come and I'm coming so I'm like that crazy aunt that everyone needs that just does it but Nick and I so love pastor Matt and Bianca and you ought to thank God that you are in such a great Church under such great leadership because they are unbelievable and I love them with all my heart she's kind of my non-biological daughter in the faith but I love it with a passion I love this house I feel like I prayed you into being with these guys and just have been there since you were conceived in the spirit in their heart and we've just kind of prayed I know it sounds a bit weird if this is your first time in church it gets weird oh don't worry and so but you know and to see it come to pass and every week I do every Monday I'm like okay how did it go what happened I want to know like everything I'm that person and I'm not sure who's doing the lights or whether we did have enough in the tithes and offerings to pay for the light bill but I need a bit more light only because I'm very old so I like to look at the people that I'm speaking at Bianca's like trendy next generation she doesn't care but I actually like to see the people and so lights is really good for me so I'm glad that you all came in you have to know that I'm not speaking as a guest here because I am family and so you just like if you're visiting a welcome you came to the crazy Christmas dinner that the auntie came from Australia and there's like really weird every family has a crazy aunt and I'm that one so if you don't like me it's okay come back next week because the real people will be here anyway there won't be any crazy people so I'm talking to our family in this in this place today and I love the local church I've been in one house for thirty-one years there's a Sunday night why and I love Sunday nights I love Sunday's period but Sunday night on the last Sunday in January in 1989 I was such a mess and a friend invited me to a meeting just like this a church meeting in Sydney Australia and I had never been into an atmosphere like this at all maybe like some of you and I walked in and it was in the back of a warehouse in the back of Sydney Australia and I walked in and I didn't know what hit me but it was worship like this I didn't even know it was worship I just thought man I came from a Greek Orthodox Church and and like the priests and the candles didn't look like this and I thought man am I in a a nightclub I wasn't sure whether we walked into a nightclub or a church because I'd never seen it but something arrested me which now I know to be the presence of God and I found home 31 years ago on a Sunday night just like this and I never left and it's just like I've been in the same church for 31 years it changed my life change and so that's why I know the power of nights like this I know the power of houses like this that some of you have walked in you know I'm quite sure how you ended up here and nights like to not have the potential to change your whole life and it certainly did for me in the last Sunday in January 1989 and I believe it's going to do that for November the 4th 2018 nearly 30 years later for a bunch of people in this room so we're gonna go straight to the Bible and because I love the Word of God I want you to go to be there 1st Corinthians chapter 12 and so I don't know if anyone still can't do or use the Bible in this church just checking which is Fanta I am married to the single most ravishing piece of masculine flesh on planet earth he's on the front row Nick you want to stand up you might be able to see him because it's so dark but there's Nick and down there and I don't know if we've got any pictures I'll probably didn't send any of my daughters I've got two daughters Katherine Bobby who is 16 and saphir Joyce who is 12 now my husband is the 14th of 15 children I know it's like there was no television in that part of Australia and so you're his mother popped out like 15 kids and and no twins I mean it's just crazy so because I've got to I would take children to my mother-in-law's house and I'd be going this is Catherine Bobby she is my alpha and this is Sofia Joyce and she is the Omega and this is the beginning and the end of my childbearing years and so man when you don't pop out your second kid til you're 40 you're not gonna have 15 I just want you to know so you deserve a Purple Heart if you do that which is what I did so we've been married for 22 almost 23 years which i think is like so awesome and we're loving it so you know I am you don't know much about me yet you will as a church life goes on because I'm gonna be regularly dropping in just so I'm inviting myself right now just so that you'll know but um I I'm quite obsessive compulsive about lots of things and so I just kind of am very particular like if you come into my closet my clothes are ordered light to dark long-sleeve two short-sleeve everything I know I'm one of those people just like Bianca I'm sure exactly the same knot and I am obsessed with my family and I say to my family all the time that there's a place for everything and everything must be in its place exactly I tell them all the time and it's good because what it does is it means that you abide a lot of conflict you avoid a lot of wasted time and but you know Nick has a very different philosophy of life to me Nick believes that you don't need to limit anything to one place because there's a plethora of places that you could put any one thing and which is awesome he leaves like trails everywhere but there's often times in the morning we have times of very intense fellowship and it's normally around the car keys because Nick can't remember which one of the many places that he may have placed it that his car keys have ended up and in variably three mornings a week you're gonna hear come out of my mouth at a very Greek loud tone is if you just put the keys in their place we wouldn't be having this conversation at this volume at this hour and the kids wouldn't be stressed and it would be awesome now for a woman and for a chicken for a chick preacher there is nothing more kind of fulfilling in life then when God agrees with you and so basically I'm just putting it out there there's nothing is satisfying so we're gonna go to the text today and you're just gonna see that God and me we're in agreement about this issue that's all you're gonna see so the prescription says to us in first Corinthians chapter 12 verse 12 for just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body though many are one body so it is with Christ for in one Spirit were all baptized into one body Jews or Greeks I love that because Greek is my first language and I am Greek and I just love the fact that the Bible loves Greeks slaves or free and all we're made to drink of one spirit for the body does not consist of one member but of many if the foot should say because I'm not a hand I do not belong to the body that would not make it any less part of the body and if the ear should say because I'm not an eye I don't belong to the body that would not make it any less part of the body if the whole body were an eye where would be the sense of hearing if the whole body were an ear where would be the sense of smell but as it is God arranged the members in the body each one of them as he chose if all were a single member where would the body be as it is there are many parts yet one body the eye cannot say to the hand I have no need of you nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you on the contrary the parts of the body that seemed to be weaker are indispensable and those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor and now on our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty which are more presentable parts do not require but God has so composed the body giving greater honor to the part that lacked it that there may be no division in the body but that the members may have the same care for one another if one member suffers all suffer together if one member is honored all rejoice together now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it that's a lot of Bible reading for a Sunday night I know that that's probably more Bible than most of you have read all years so it's awesome I've just caught you up on your Bible reading plan so you will finish your one-year Bible reading plan now because we did all of that but but I love this scripture and I want to point out one verse in particular right there in verse 18 I want to read it to you from the NIV it says this but in fact God has placed everyone say placed God has I love that I still get used to live in America an American citizen now but it all sounds so cute when you say placed placed every once I placed are you sound awesome that's awesome everyone say placed okay now say awesome you sound very Australian and dignified now that's also everyone say awesome okay now say it like an American Cielo it says that God has placed the pots in the body every one of them just as he wanted them to be God has placed every part of the body in the place where he wants it to be which really works when you're God and it's your body you get to choose where you want the parts to be we were singing tonight in my father's house there's a place for me scripture says that God has set every member in place sometimes we sing that song and we think in my father's house there's a place for me so that means kumbaya I could just float around the cosmic organic Universal thing called the church capital C and I'm just going to butterfly ballet into my place and there's a place here and here plays there a place everywhere a place place but that's not what the text tells us the text actually says the antithesis to that it says that God sets every member of his body if you are born again and you are born again into the body of Christ then God sets every member in place and he goes to a lot of trouble to do that it says that right here in the text and the thing that we see first and foremost is that in that body contrary to the world in which we live the unseen parts of that body doesn't mean that they are unimportant and see what happens in the world in which you and I live a world that is just a social media world welcome to it it's not going away this is the world in which we live you and I often can fall into the trap of compute of confusing visibility with importance because in our world if you can't see it we think it's not important and I mean of course if it's not on Instagram it did not even happen did it happen if it's not on Instagram stories I don't know but isn't it interesting deep down that's what we really think we live in a celebrity culture we live in a globalized culture we live in a social media culture where we live so much of our lives online we get to live our real life because we're so busy scrolling through everybody else's life and because we spend our lives scrolling through everyone else's we often don't embrace the place that God has put us in because we're too busy lusting after everyone else's place and position and we think if it's visible to man it must be important to God and this text tells us quite the contrary it says in fact you've missed it I think God knew well I know that God knew that in the 21st century we would be facing challenges that the church in previous centuries never faced because there was no social media in previous centuries there was no internet I'm always grateful to God I've gotta tell you the truth that I got saved before there was an Internet I know that May that locates how old I am I was born with the dinosaurs and so I got saved so because there was no internet internet I had to get in a prayer closet with God so that I could actually lay ahold of God because there was no one else's life I could scroll through there was no other ministry I could compare myself to I got saved and I went to church and I got planted in my church because I didn't know there was any other option I didn't know that you could actually look everywhere else and just float like a butterfly I wasn't Muhammad Ali and so that might be only if you're over 50 you might know what that means but the point is I didn't know because I thought God saved me in that house so God set me in place in that house and it was my responsibility to embrace that place I didn't dream of what I'm doing today because it didn't exist I didn't sit there and think I've got to scroll through what everyone's doing and what culture looks the coolest to where I want to go and that's where I'm gonna go I got saved and I got planted because scripture says in Psalm 92 those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish not those that occasionally visit the house of the Lord not those that float from house of the Lord to the house of the Lord but those that are planted shall flourish and you know what else that scripture says that they're going to continue to bear fruit we guess what in old age well when you're 52 you start to go whoa I'm glad that I got planted when I was 22 and I haven't even left the I was planted in a 22 so at 52 I'm bearing more fruit than on my previous 30 years combined because I got planted in the house of God and began to move on but if you do not settle the issue that and that unless something is seen by man it's not important to God you will always be looking to be seen by man and then you will miss what God has for you in fact this text tells us it's those parts that you can't see that are actually more important than the parts that you can't see and what the enemy has done he has seduced our eyes and I'm not talking about just looking at porn because you don't need to look at naked women or men's body to be looking at porn this a lot of Christian porn going on as people are lusting after everyone else's church and ministry around the place lusting and going down a track and gods going I've got a place for you in my body I've got a place for you but you're too busy for your is tickly looking at everyone else's that you're missing what it is that I have for you your purpose and your destiny and the biggest lie that Satan is feeding our generation is that if man can't see you then it's not important if it's not big and spectacular and if you don't put a nice filter on it then it's really not important but the issue is most of the things that matter to God I've never seen by man the things that I do that are the most fruitful in my life you don't even know about you don't even see on Instagram you don't even read about on Twitter and the fact of the matter is when you can settle it in your life that I want my life to be important and significant to God whether it is seen by man or not then you're never going to fulfill the destiny that God has for you you're going to spend your life running around looking to be approved off by man and man ultimately doesn't care about you I need to tell you that God does people come and people go you wonder why the scripture and I think the most important promise in the Bible that we so overlook is the fact that time time again the Lord says I will never leave you I will never forsake you I will be faithful to you because I promise you people will leave you people will forsake you people come people go people are fickle jobs come jobs go money comes money goes only the Lord is the same yesterday today and forever and he will never leave you and he will never forsake you so you've got a lawn you've got to learn to find God in the unseen places and to be used by God in the unseen places because unless you're prepared to be used by God when no one's looking don't ever expect to be used by God when everyone's looking because if God cannot trust you when nobody's looking why is he going to put the spotlight on you when everybody's looking and it's when nobody's looking that sanctification that's a big spiritual word to mean becoming more like Jesus it's when nobody's looking that you're becoming more like Jesus and when you're becoming more like Jesus that means the light of Christ is being developed more and more on the inside of you now that is crucial because if the light that is on you is more prominent than the light that is in you that light will destroy you and so God says I am taking you to build my character to build my to build my character to build Who I am on the inside of you so that when that light is on you you are not going to wither up and die and we have a generation that so celebrate with the first generation in history they kiss more much more about charisma visibility and appearance than we do about character and commitment and faithfulness and loyalty and I'm promise you charisma and visibility and gift and talent is only ever going to take you so far in your life but the thing that will take you to your destiny is character and faithfulness and commitment and loyalty and they are the building blocks of everything I built my life and ministry on but we have a generation that loves to applaud gift and talent but give some talents that break chains and bondages they entertain a crowd they're awesome you know pastor biank has been teaching and pastor Matt just all about what yes to be new wine and crushing that comes with that that's where the oil comes that's where the anointing comes if you know willing to be crushed in the back in then in behind the scenes you are never gonna pour oil out you wonder why why do I go to meetings and I'm really entertained and why is that so many churches around the country and people come into those churches bound and they walk out of those churches still bound that's because a gift has entertained them a gift may have even helped to medicate them for a while but it's only the anointing that breaks the yokes and chains and bondages and so you've got to have an anointing that is developed behind the scenes in order for those bandages to break is that it interesting that in our generation the most trending hashtag is hashtag selfie that little hashtag selfie that didn't even exist 10 years ago didn't even wasn't even in the vernacular it's it's now in the dictionary because we're so busy looking at ourselves and taking pictures of ourselves that we're not looking to God to say where do you want to put me and if God actually says I want you in an invisible place we think get thee behind me Satan that cannot be God God don't you know my gift and my talent I mean seriously god I should have been leading the worship tonight I'm that good what do you mean that I need to go to worship rehearsals and and sing backing vocalist what do you mean I mean if pastor Matt was remotely spiritual he'd get a word of knowledge and he would know that I am just such an awesome singer and he would just prophesy over me and I would levitate across the room and I would just come and grab the microphone and I would just because we don't want to do any of the work that it takes to get to where God wants us to get to so that we could stay there when we get there and a lot of people can't stay there when they get there because they've not done the work of character development in order to get there the thing I want to stress to you more than anything is unseen to man is often extremely important to God and if we would understand in our Christian life on this earth it's not supposed to be spectacular our job is to hold up the head Jesus that's actually what it's about so if you actually really care about that you wouldn't care what position you had because it's you'd be thanking God that you just had any place in the body you would be like I can't even believe I get to be in this body that gets to hold up the head that's all you would care about nothing reveals your motives more than places of invisibility nothing reveals where your hearts at for God more than what you're willing to do when nobody's looking at what you do or applauding what you're doing or inviting you to all the cool things when David was on the backside of the desert and Samuel came in to anoint a new king and Jesse parades all his sons he braids seven sons and David's in the backside of the desert just killing sheep and I mean nothing he's not actually killing sheep he's killing lions and bears he's looking after the Sheep that's not gonna go well don't quote that don't tweet that out there the heretic Saint David killed sheep and so at the end of the day well he's not doing what he's supposed to be doing the others are paraded in front of him because they look the best the Prophet says the Bible says that the Prophet looked at Elia and thought because it's amazing often we look at external things and think and we think the wrong things we scroll through social media we look at external things and think here was the prophet in the right house looking at the wrong thing you can be in the right house looking at the wrong thing I mean that's another sermon and I could go there no doubt you'd have a prophet in the house looking at the wrong thing and picking the wrong thing because he wouldn't go through it but I want you to know that that that unseen is not important and let me just say scripture says if one part suffers every part suffers with it in verse 26 every part matters to God look I'll tell you why this is such a revelation to me because there was a time I would have thought sure until I went skiing in Colorado a few years ago and so I went skiing and our family was skiing we didn't ski much we're from Australia so we surf and I thought there's no difference between surfing and skiing until I got on the slopes and so um as we went that we were there with five families from Louisiana and they're all Americans and you know we're the only Australian families and it was during the Winter Olympics and so I thought we are representing Australia at the Winter Olympics were doing it so it didn't matter that I didn't know how to ski I would watch the Olympics at night and then I would get up the next day I'd get on that chairlift nearly dying and falling off and I get on the chairlift and go I'm representing Australia I'm doing it for us and so this one day I was on the green slope which if you know anything about skiing is like the baby flats slope okay and so Nick was with me and all the boys had gone on this double black diamond suicide kind of like you know mountain run and I'm like doom a little you know thing that I was doing and done and I turned around to Nick and okay hey babe if you are with the guys today you would not be having any more fun than this would you and I'm any man that's been married for three seconds or wants to remain married for more than three seconds if your wife ever asks you a loaded question like that the answer is always honey there is nowhere I'd rather be on earth and on this flat green slope with you and look if you were wanting any action that night that's exactly what you would say to your wife like I'm just putting it out there and I did say wife if it hasn't got a ring on it no but anyway so just so at that moment um my husband who's a man of integrity and honesty he says to me well babe you know if I was with the guys I'd be having more fun I know that's like a red rag in front of a bull for me so I just point my skis down here all famous last words look over my shoulder and I went well sweetheart eat my snow and down I go now I knew I was in trouble about 20 seconds later on my second somersault that I did not plan to do and while I'm in mid-air one ski goes off and the right ski stayed on and I heard the loudest pop-pop-pop you have ever heard and I fell down I couldn't get back up Nick how to get the Ski Patrol you know they put you in that little coffin and you have to go down the mountain and everyone's like that nerd it's like yes me and then I go they got to put me in the ambulance to take me to Vail Hospital and you know I'm Greek so my mother every day of my life I would leave the house and my mother would say to me who's dinner are you wearing good new clean underwear to which I would always say mum what does it matter Cristina if you have an accident and you end up in the back of an ambulance you want to be wearing good after anyone else's mother care about there under Erika to which I would always say to my mother mommy bye had an accident that was so bad that I would end up in the back of an ambulance I couldn't care about the condition of underwear well all I want you to know his ass they were elevating me into the ambulance I lived yet another year of my life to go my mother was right so what happened was I snapped my ACL my yeah tore my MCL and my meniscus and fractured my knee I did it all I did the worst that you could do to a knee we flew back to Australia so that I could have in Australia you have a hamstring graft and that was what was going to happen and it was can I just tell you before that day on the mountain I didn't even know that my knee had an ACL I didn't know if there was an ABC XYZ efg I had no idea I mean I just had a knee and my knee was awesome but an ACL is a ligament that is smaller than my little finger tucked in behind my knee so alig Ament smaller than my little finger that I didn't even know was in my body tucked behind my knee that nobody could see so crippled and paralyzed me that I couldn't even think I couldn't do everything you see me doing now because I couldn't walk I couldn't move my brain I had so much pain there's no way I could do all the things that everyone sees me doing because something that nobody saw that was in my body crippled and paralyzed me see the body is full of ligaments and in fact that text tells us those ligaments are even more important than things that you see and so many churches on the earth are crippled because a whole lot of ligaments don't want to embrace their place because they think I'm tucked in behind a knee and nobody can see me and I'm not important and it doesn't matter and we wonder why the church is limping on the earth because everyone wants to be a mouth or everyone wants to be seen in God says I've got a whole lot of members that I have set in place that don't want to be there and when you don't embrace your place here you think well I'm just a little finger I'm just so tiny every time you don't tithe every time you don't serve every time you don't your faith to church oh they'll never notice it's a nice day in Orange County I'm just gonna go on the boat cuz god bless me and now I've got my boat so I don't need to go to church praise You Jesus I used you until I got what I wanted and now that I've got what I wanted I don't need you anymore I'll be back when I'm desperate again okay when my marriage falls down I'll be at church when one of my kids are sick I'll be at church until then the boats great so it just got very quiet in this Presbyterian Church I'm gonna go over here you're the Christians but a whole bunch of us we think it really doesn't matter my tithe doesn't matter it's so small and you could the whole body me turning up and serving and offering Donuts and giving a smile it doesn't matter it's it no one's gonna know you just crippled a party because we so devalue the things that are unseen because an ACL is not Instagram herbal and so we think that's not that's not Instagram herbal that's not really cool so it must be unimportant to God snap your ACL and see if it's unimportant to your body all of a sudden I discovered parts that I didn't even know I remember last Christmas I had a small sty in my eye you get a little sty in your eye the agony I couldn't see I couldn't preach I was in so much pain you just have a small have you ever done a paper cut on your finger ever stubbed your toe and said lots of words that are not in the Bible I mean that's just like a little toe and you're thinking it all doesn't matter I need you to see this visually because it actually does and we wonder why the church on the earth looks like she's crippled because so many ligaments and sinus and tissues and muscles think that they're not important and they're crippling the whole body because we won't embrace our body and if you the whole body you're not holding up the head to its full stature which is what it's all about which is what the whole thing is about and you know what one ligament that ACL tucked in it caused my whole body to suffer that's why scripture says when one member suffers we all suffer every time you think you know what it just doesn't matter and I tell you the whole body suffers everybody does and that's why God never asked you to do what anybody else is supposed to do he only ever asks you to do what you're supposed to do I love that even when it comes to our giving I especially love how God does it God doesn't say all the rich people you don't think God could move if he wanted to have a revival just go Bill Gates give 10 billion dollars to the church of course he could do that but it's not like some cosmic sugar daddy he says actually actually I want all my body to equally carry the weight and responsibility so I'm saying to all my body I'm gonna make it possible for all of you to play a part so I'm gonna ask all of you to bring your whole tithe not part of it and in just in case you don't know what a tithe is it's 10% and and that's before tax don't have a heart attack but really that's what it actually means and so he says I want you to bring it all because whether you're earning twenty dollars or twenty million dollars everyone can bring their whole time into the storehouse so I'm making it possible for everyone to be able to do it and so we just think well it really doesn't matter and go guys I actually does actually it really does I could get the job done however I want but your presence and your faith it actually really does matter you coming and finding a position to so it actually really does matter you're giving as small as it might be it actually really does matter and you don't even begin to step into the adventure of the journey that is yours until you embrace the place that God has put you in and it's not a matter of like a cause it's not a matter of does God love me of course he does I'm talking about your purpose and your destiny here I'm talking about entering into your place in the body and saying I'm playing a part of advancing the kingdom of God on this earth God planted this church this is God's idea and he said I have God everyone that I'm putting in this house and I want them to be planted in this house and to embrace their place in this house so the house can be strong so that together my body can be strong and we can begin to change the spiritual climate of this part of America and yawn but it's going to take all of the sign use all of the tissues all of the muscles all of the ligaments to embrace their place in order to have that happen so you're encouraged but doesn't mean something your generosity means something your hospitality means something your kindness means something your love means something your patience means something your forgiveness means something someone that came here and set up the the lights and the sound and the drum kid and someone that's out there as I drove in and the car park holding those awesome signs and you guys were so cute and so it was awesome I want you to understand just because something's not on social media doesn't mean it's not on God's radar and I think a lot of us forget the fact that God is watching Thank You Bette Midler he is he is and so every part matters and I need you to understand that something that's displaced can't be easily replaced there's a huge consequence to to not embracing your place because if you don't your body is out of alignment I had to walk with the leg brace so I was walking for such a long time with the leg brace and my body was out of alignment and half of my body had to carry the additional weight of the other half do you know how much our body our Christian body is out of alignment because we've got a whole bunch of people carrying a load that they're not supposed to be carrying because we're not carrying our load and so then you're wondering why there is so much depression and anxiety and burnout in the church because people are carrying things they're not supposed to carry because other parts of the body are not carrying their part God's put everything in this house that we need in this house to do what God has called us to do in this season if we all just embraced our place but we've got a disproportionate amount of people carrying a disproportionate amount of the weight because the rest of us are not embracing our place and you think this ligament doesn't really matter it matters and here is the deal God if God sets you in place it's not that you're replaceable God's still gonna get his job done but you are not gonna fulfill the purpose that he has for you unless you embrace that place and what we have is a whole bunch of misplaced and displaced Christians in the body of Christ just floating like a butterfly around the world because they won't embrace their place and we wonder why there's not fulfillment and there's not blessing and there's not a sense of destiny because it's attached to your place because if God didn't put you there he's not obligated to keep you there if you put yourself there you're gonna have to keep yourself there but the Bible says God sets every member in place so when he sets you in place he says my protections on you there my blessings over the year my coverings on you that I never understand people that the kids are sewn into a a church and a youth ministry and they're thriving and everything's great and just because you might get a better offer of a job somewhere across the country so for the god of $50,000 you'll uproot everyone never even thinking about a church and then you wonder the rehab bills are going to cost more for your kids down the track because in your place is protection in your place is provision in your place there's anointing in your place there is grace but it's in your place and we're out there chasing position and many people are sacrificing their destiny on the altar of a position they want because they won't embrace the place God has for them and then we wonder why they're not fulfilling their purpose and their destiny because we've sold out to the God of position rather than the God that sets us in place so it's time to get back in place I wonder whether you're displace maybe because of a heart attitude some hurt or some offense or some betrayal or a sense of shame or guilt or unworthiness and you feel like hey I've been displaced there are so many Christians that just step out of the will of God out of hurt or offense or bitterness unforgiveness and just leave the place that God sent them and leave the blessing and leave the Destiny and leave the purpose because destiny has a place you need to understand that it's not like I'm just gonna go and make it myself I've got this gift that I've got this talent this is not a secular corporate career it's a Christian calling God sets us in place we are part of a spiritual body and God's plan for the salvation of the planet is through his local church and so we find our place in the house of God and it doesn't mean that God can't move us I had a hamstring graft so God took one of my a different ligament to replace that ligament there's times that these things happen but you have to understand in the midst of all of that grafts happen but God grafts us we don't just kind of get shafted by someone else no matter if the doctor went in to do the surgery and the week before my operation my hamstring said I don't want to be a hamstring anymore I don't like being a hamstring I get no glory Christine's up there in front of everyone she's on television and it's her mouth her mouth her mouth her mouth the mouth gets all the glory it's just her mouth a mouth I don't want to be a hamstring I want to be an elbow I mean we think that's absurd but I wish you could see in the spirit because that's what happens everywhere oh I don't want to be ahead I want to so imagine God had the hamstring destined for a different place but if he went in and the hamstring wasn't there because it ran off to another place trying to be an elbow the hamstring would never have fulfilled its destiny weird a whole lot of Christians that are not fulfilling their destiny because they're off chasing their thing and God comes to the placing God comes to a place I want you you go Christine chapter and verse when the Lord wanted to send Moses to set the captives free where did he go he went to a place the desert the burning bush turned up to a place so imagine if Moses the week before thought I don't want to be in the desert any more looking after Aaron sheep I'm gonna go and I want to be spectacular somewhere else God be like knock yourself out because I'm not going where you're going I'm going to the place sent you and if you're not at the place that I sent you I can't call you anywhere else and that's exactly what happened with David he's on the hill the Prophet comes through and the father of the house didn't even see him the Prophet didn't even see him but God had set him in place so if you're in anonymity and obscurity if you're working in the parking lot or you're working in the children's ministry or you're setting up something in the sound or you're working where no one else can see you and you think god I mean I've got all this gift and all this talent and David was destined to be king but when the anointing moment came if David wasn't in his place it would never have happened let me tell you've got assigned you God will find you and God will find you at the place that he sent you and he assigned David at that place and so then when the Prophet goes okay it's none of these guys do you have another son oh yeah got the kid working in the parking lot yeah okay we'll wait and he's the cool thing about God when he wants to find you he'll send the ones that thought they were going to be you out into the parking lot to find you and bring you in and do that that's how God works all the time that's how God works I'm gonna wrap up I could talk to you forever about this stuff I don't even think I'm just flicking because I'm like not even at a halfway point so that's okay let me just explain to you how important all this is you know when I started it at my church I was I turned up at a youth the youth pastor said we've got a church cleaning day on the Tuesday that was Saturday night at year's group and the band can come up because I won't finish till the Second Coming if you don't sir so what happened was he said to be you know they said that it's gonna be a clean up day well I turned up to the cleanup day on a Tuesday and I was the only one that turned up this is normally how things happen for me because God ends up with no other options there's just me and so it's like well tag you're it I guess I'm going to get a lot of glory because they're gonna know you're not that good and there's nobody else so that's what I this is how I find that you fulfill destiny is you just keep turning up and nobody else will I promise you and so at that point I turned up and that was when because I was the only one the assister youth pastor said I'm going on a missions trip with our senior pastor for six weeks and we've got a youth service and I'd love you to be involved and he didn't even know who I was but he wanted me to be involved cuz there was no one else to be involved so it's like I love you to be involved and what that became I became the director of the hills district news service around the community-based arm of our of our youth ministry for seven years which all laid the foundation for everything you see me do with a21 today if I didn't do that that was 30 years ago that was 30 years ago I was learning to write government submissions I was learning to work with government authorities and learning to work with communities today a twenty ones in fifteen countries around the world working with the UN working with governments in airports all around the world curriculums all around the world but if I didn't embrace my place 30 years ago at the youth service I've never prayed to do use meanest tree in my life Christine did you feel cold no I just turned up took a broom and today I'm running one of the largest daily trafficking organizations in the world but if I didn't embrace my place back then I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today I'm telling you and then my pastor called me in and said Christine I want you to take over Youth alive our denominations are youth movement so I have not even spoken in our church or anything now people would say preaching is the predominant gift on my life for seven years I never did that in our church I drove 14-year olds to youth as many as I could fit in a car but you know when I was driving them that's when I learned to communicate with young people I would put our chairs at youth and then I went from that to speaking to 20,000 kids in arenas and people call what an overnight success something and it was a flippin long night the dreams were in my heart but if I didn't drive those kids to youth and put up those chairs for the seven years there wouldn't have been any youth alive there's a lot of suddenly in the Bible but most suddenly take about 15 years I've worked out in my experience but God was building not one minute if that was being wasted God was forging his character in me so when the spotlight came on me I'd be able to do what he called me to do and continue to bring him glory because that's what the whole thing is about so then seven years of that and then our pastor sent Nick and I out to become the global pastors of the Hillsong network around the world what did I learn to do there to love the church to build the church another seven years most things in my life happened like it's seven seven seven in the eighth year the change comes for those of you that are into the Bible and numbers there's a lot in that but that's another sermon and I'm already over but another seven years there my love for the church and out of that my pastor sent me out and a21 came out of that and a seven year period there and then propel came out of that but a lot of you just see the Instagram propel now but you don't know there was like 25 years nearly 30 years and if I didn't embrace my place there then I would have been strong enough to keep embracing my place because God can only put as much weight on you as you can carry and you only learn to carry the weight when you embrace the place in anonymity and obscurity and you do it over a sustained period of time and in our snap and upload culture we think it all happens overnight because we see it overnight on Instagram but destiny is not an Instagram post destiny xur life unfolding of Christ likeness of conformity to his will so what am I saying to you thank God has set you in place but you've got to embrace that place and step into his purpose and get planted with your roots deep stop running around from place to place get planted so that you can reap the benefit of that and then when you embrace your place whether you're a ligament for a season behind a knee if there's a different thing on the inside of you God will reveal it because God sets people in place God opens doors that no man can shut promotion doesn't come from the north south east or west it comes from God you're not building a corporate career you are serving a resurrected King and it's all about holding up the head the Lord Jesus Christ I'm just gonna read this scripture to you and we'll end it but I want you to see this is only about one person it is only about Jesus and our job is to put the spotlight on that head in Colossians 1:18 scripture says and he is the head of the body the church he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in everything he might be preeminent Colossians 2:18 let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels going on in detail of our visions puffed up without reasons by sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God if we're going to see the growth that is from God in this house then we need to nourish the body and the scripture tells us that nourishment comes through the joints and the ligaments it's not by what is visible it's by a whole bunch of people rolling up their sleeves and saying I'm going to be a koan laborer with Jesus Christ we are not called to be co-stars we are cold lay so let's be a church that runs up their sleeves and says we are here to serve this community we are here to serve a lost in a broken world we're gonna go to the highways and the byways of preparer house that is a farm where people will find salvation people will find healing people will find restoration people will find Redemption marriages will be restored children will be safe we will exalt the head Jesus Christ we are by the king of kings and the Lord of lords this is all about Jesus [Music]

Channel: The Father's House OC

Views: 186,018

Rating: 4.8987341 out of 5

Keywords: Christine Caine, a21, propel, propel women, Chris Caine, TFHOC, TFH, The Father's House OC, The Father's House, How to endure the pain, Bianca Olthoff, Bianca Juarez Olthoff, Matt Olthoff, orange county, church in orange county, 2 corinthians 10

Id: G47TEsn9m18

Length: 48min 53sec (2933 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 06 2018