Passion 2020 - Christine Caine

[Applause] hello my passion 2020 you could be seated okay that was incredible the Latino social club misfits I was thinking that um they need a Greek chick in their lineup I was going to get up and start dancing but my daughters are up to my right and they would disown me for life if I tried to pretend anything other than I am well I'm so honored to be here you're kind of finding your seats what a day what a way to start a new decade and just what an epic moment I just want to continue to echo what everyone has said you know I was in Copenhagen a few years ago and I was in a cab and as we were driving around Copenhagen I kept going on about the beauty of the city how stunning the city was I mean the city was so old I come from Australia which is just a couple of hundred years old so there's nothing really old there but there were buildings and churches that were you know over a thousand years old and there were just beautiful architecture and I kept saying to the cab driver this place is amazing this place is awesome and being kind of hyper enthusiastic like I am the cab driver started to cry and not because he was scared that he was trapped in a cab with a weird Greek woman that was going on about how awesome it was but because he was overwhelmed by how overwhelmed I was about how beautiful his city was and literally right there in the middle of Copenhagen he pulled the cab over I'll never forget this as long as I live he looked at me tears streaming down his face and he said you know sometimes you can be living in the midst of a miracle and not even realize it and it's my prayer and my hope that as we are in this incredible stadium in this moment in history that it doesn't pass by one of you that we are right now in this moment in this second in a modern-day miracle generations before us have prayed to see such signs and wonders and miracles and by the grace of God in the mercy of God in the timing of God he has chosen this moment in this hour for us to be gathered in one Accord in one place I know in the book of Acts when a group of believers were in an upper room in one Accord in one place God poured out his spirit and did something unprecedented who could believe that the Holy Spirit of God could do something so unprecedented in this place today that would just blow us away so Lois Shelley thank you for your faith thank you for your courage they dug a well of faith 1997 stand up if you are 23 years old or younger in this place stand up I just want you to stop the most iconic arena right now in the world probably and when a bunch of people around 2000 gathered in 1997 you were not even born you were not even born I know Sadie mentioned it it's just stunning to me and a bunch of people pray to prayer then consecrated themselves then dared to believe God then and because they did there then and continue to be faithful and steadfast you are here today and if you and I have got the faith that our God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond anything we could ever ask hope or think then the greatest days of this nation and the world are ahead of us the Bible says that no eye has seen so I want you to look around it says no ears heard I want you to hear a sound nor has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has for those that love him now your eyes have seen an arena full your ears have heard the sound of praise going up in a house like this and it's entered into your heart what God can do what was once impossible is in this moment possible we're not even in the faith realm anymore because this is the now realm and the real realm and the possible realm so I am believing God that into all of your hearts that God is gonna drop something that is gonna blow your mind that what God is going to use you to do our eyes have not yet seen our ears have not yet heard nor has it entered even into our hearts yet the things that God has for this generation God is going to do his mighty ascent greatest marks in and through your generation for our generation I want you to lift your hands to heaven if you want God to use you to do something mighty in your generation Lord we're not warming up you've already fired this place up we're just saying we are willing do with us what you want to do do through us what you want to do we are wholly available to you Father blow our minds and let your love and grace and mercy flood through this planet because of the faith of this generation of young people who will not sell out to the lie that Christianity is dead that God is obsolete that God is disinterested in this world I thank you for a generation that believes that Jesus Christ is alive that Jesus Christ loves this planet and that we are willing to be the hands and the feet of Jesus in our generation to our generation come on give Jesus Christ and also foundation in this arena today come on he is worthy he's worthy he's worthy hallelujah y'all better sit down so that I can get into my message because we started and you're gonna see that the Lord is just gonna keep building that's all he's done we started with Levi last night and then pastor John this morning and Sadie and you just think that we all sat in a room and that we prepared our messages together it's how God always does it and yet we'd never spoken to one another about our messages before this event this is how you know that the Holy Spirit is weaving everything together so let's just jump right into Genesis 26 Genesis 26 the Bible says now there was a famine in the land besides the form of famine that was in the days of Abraham ham and Isaac went to Guerra to Abimelech king of the Philistines and the Lord appeared to him and said do not go down to Egypt dwell in the land of which I shall tell you sojourn in this land and I will be with you and will bless you for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and I will give to your offspring all these lands and in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge my commandments my statutes and my laws so Isaac settled in Gera when the men of the place asked him about his wife he said she's my sister note to all men that are gonna get married never do this she's my sister for he feared to say my wife thinking lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebecca because she was attractive in appearance when he had been there a long time Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebecca his wife to Abimelech called Isaac and said Behold she's your wife how then could you say that she is my sister Isaac said to him because I thought lest I die because of her Abimelech said what is this you have done to us one of the people might easily have lain with your wife and you would have brought guilt upon us so Abimelech warned all the people saying whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death so Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold the Lord blessed him and the man became rich and gained more and more until he became very wealthy he had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants so that the Philistines envied him now the Philistines had stopped and filled the earth with earth all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father and a boom except to Isaac go away from us for you are much mightier than we so Isaac departed from there and encamped in the valley of gerra and settled there and Isaac dug again everyone say dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father which the Philistines had to stop after the death of Abraham and he gave them the names that his father had given them but when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water the herdsmen of Gerar quarrelled with Isaac's herdsmen saying the water is else so he called the name of the well ESIC because they contended with him then they dug another will and they quarreled over that one also so he called its name Sydnor and he moved from there and dug another will and they did not quarrel over it so he called its name Rehoboth saying for now the Lord has made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land no no that's a lot of scripture on the 1st of January 2020 but for those of you that wanted to get ahead in your 1 year bible reading plan i've just actually made you go right ahead so you'll be ok to the end of January I love this passage of Scripture of course Isaac is one of the patriarchs as Abraham Isaac and Jacob this is the only chapter in the Bible that's fully just committed to Isaac he doesn't get as much real estate as his father Abraham had got about 14 chapters and then his son Jacob that got 11 chapters but there's something very interesting here that I want to focus on on this new year's day for our generation now Isaac of course he was there in a time of famine he was running to Egypt and God said to him don't go to Egypt I'm gonna bless you in the land of famine I want you to know that wherever you are that's the place that God's gonna bless you you might think your University your college your community your church your area is a place that is full of famine but I want you to know that the Spirit of God is with you wherever you are he can turn that desert into a place of blessing and a place of abundance and so God said now I'm gonna bless you right there and he did in fact he blessed him so much that the king freaked out and said look I want you to leave so he left and the Bible says he went and he settled in Gera and it's so interesting in this chapter there's something that Isaac does repeatedly he went there and of course you know Nick and I have just come back from Qatar in the Middle East and I don't know if you've ever been in a desert in the Middle East it is really hot and so a well becomes very very important a well is literally the lifeline for people in the desert it keeps families our lives it keeps livestock alive it is the source of life and so when you went into an unoccupied land you you dug a will and that denoted ownership this land is mine and then this becomes the lifeline to everyone in it so the thing that happened is once Isaac had to leave the first thing he did the Bible says that he turned up and he went and he found his father's well and he began to dig a well because what had happened the Philistines they didn't want them to have ownership of these lands so when Abraham left they filled the wells with dirt and debris and a whole lot of garbage because they wanted to stop up the well there was a water supply that had basically taken care of Abraham and his family and his livestock and there was a promise there for the generations that were to come but what I what the Philistines had done was they they preferred to stop up the water supply rather than have anyone else have ownership of this and so they stopped up the wells Isak turns up and the first thing he does is he goes back to the wells that his father Abraham had done and then he began to get rid of all of the junk that had stopped the water supply the very first thing he did was dig up his father's Wells and he renamed them what his father had named them now the Philistines had filtered in you and I are living in an interesting generation were so many wells that were dug before us have been stopped up stopped up with secular humanism and stocked up with racism and stocked up with sexism and stocked up with you know just atheism and stocked up with lust and stocked up with greed and envy and jam we could just go through whole lot of dirt that's clogged up a whole lot of wells a whole lot of religion and judgment and condemnation a whole lot of stuff that has stopped the flow of the water of God now as I unpack this today of course I'm not gonna be suggesting that this is what Moses meant when he was writing this about Isaac's will but there's some imagery in Isaac's experience that I want to relate to us today in the mercedes-benz arena in 2020 there are some things that are relevant from this text and I think we can take from that experience and apply to our lives and I think there are some things that God wants us to do in our generation for us and for the future generations and basically today I'm talking from one subject and I'm gonna challenge your generation that it's time for us to pick up some shovels and start digging some wells not waiting for everyone else to dig them for us but it's going to take us to have responsibility to put in the effort to dig some wells digging wells it's not trendy digging wells is really dirty digging wells is really lonely digging wells is not cool but if you and I want a source of ribbing living water to flow through us into a lost and a broken world what you and I need to do is be committed to digging some wells I want you to go with me to the book of John chapter 7 in verse 37 and 38 jesus said on the last day of the feast the great day Jesus stood up and cried out if anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water out of his heart will flow rivers of living water here's the key there are some things from Isaac experience that we can apply to the things that God has for us today in this century in Christ the first thing that Jesus says is if you are thirsty come to me he is the source of all living water he is the source of eternal life we have heard we heard from Levi we heard it from Pastor John we've heard it from Sadie everything that we're looking for can only be found in Christ it's not going to be found in other people it's not going to be found in possessions it's not gonna be found in titles Jesus is the living water we dig our wells because we want to get to the source himself Jesus Christ we're looking for what we can only get from him in every other place which is why we are the most anxious generation has ever been why there are so many challenges in our life because we're trying to get from things and people and experiences what we can only ultimately get from Jesus he says come to and then he says out of you some of us have got to come to me stuff happening it's just me and Jesus I'm just gonna keep going to Jesus and Jesus is going that's awesome but I need you to go into a lust in a broken world your college your community I need you to go so that out of you will flow rivers of living water those places are dry those places are barren those places are full of no hope or purpose or destiny we are so postmodern post Christian were so posted we've been posted into Auburn our world has lost its mine it's waiting for a generation of Christians to know who we are in Christ so that out of us will flow rivers of living water into a lost and a broken world they're waiting for the living water that's in you but here's my question that living water flows out of our hearts how is the condition of your heart I wonder if your heart is a stopped-up with debris and junk as the wells were in Isaac's day because see a lot of what stops the ripping the rivers of living water from flowing out of us is our own selfishness it's our own greed it's our own lust it's our own Envy it's our own bitterness it's our own unforgiveness it's our own insecurity it's our own shame it's our own guilt and we can get good at playing the Christian game but then we might wonder why rivers of living water are not flowing out of us and transforming the world around us you know many of you know my story you know that I came from a background where when I was born I was left in a hospice unnamed and unwanted my birth certificate doesn't have a name on it I was sexually abused at the hands of four men for 12 years grew up in the poorest ZIP code in my state in Australia in government assisted housing very marginalized because my ethnicity Greeks who were incredibly marginalized in the 60s and 70s in Australia and so I grew up full of shame full of guilt full of so much anger full of so much bitterness and so God wanted to do a work through me but he couldn't because the condition of my heart was stopping up the rivers of living water from flowing through me and there are countless tens of thousands of you in this room that God wants to do and also work through you and you've done that coming to Jesus but there's a gap between coming to Jesus and the rivers of living water flowing from you and that gap is often the condition of our heart and what I've prayed and what I've asked the Holy Spirit to do is to come and do open-heart surgery and every single one of us this afternoon because some of us are on the verge of a spiritual heart attack the arteries into our hearts spiritually speaking a clogged up and what we have to do is what Isaac did and only the Holy Spirit can do that in us say God I give you my heart unplug the junk that is stopping the rivers of living water from flowing through me on this first day of January 2020 Holy Spirit would you come and I'm gonna give you permission to come into my heart I'm not just gonna visit God at a Christian event I love what Eugene Peterson says in the message he says the word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood see a lot of us we don't want God to move into the neighborhood of our hearts we want to visit God at a Christian event we don't want God to invade us and invade our colleges and our universities and our communities will I God I'll visit you a church I'll visit you a Bible study I'll visit you a passion but God's saying he's not in prison he doesn't need visitation rights you're not in prison you don't need visitation rights God doesn't just want to visit he wants to invade he wants to permeate every part of us so that out of us will flow rivers of living water into a lust and a broken world would you let him do that today would you allow him to come and do what only he can do no one up here could do this only the Holy Spirit of God I stand here before you because I want those of you in this room that had been abused in her and statistics tell us that's tens of thousands of you in this room I want you to see that there is freedom you don't have to live bitter you don't have to live in bondage you don't have to live angry your history does not need to define your destiny because of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross you can know freedom you can know healing you can know deliverance you can walk beyond your past into the fullness that Jesus Christ has for you there would be no a21 today if I didn't allow God to come and clean up the junk in my heart and that has to happen daily but when I was 20 to the age of so many of you in this room that's where it began for me my well was dried up I need a God to come and do a work on the inside of me to save me for heaven yes but also to release me into my purpose here on earth you can know that deliverance in a world that cries victimhood and anger I'm here to declare and decree to you today that he whom the Sun sets free shall be free indeed you can know freedom and you can know deliverance and you can know healing in Christ you know the fact is that if you and I are going to be committed to producing that living water we have to know that old Wells kids still produce living water you see you and I are in a generation where it seems like anything that the generation did before us is not cool so we've just deconstructed everything and we're throwing everything away who needs the Bible who needs to pray church is just so 20th century I mean really Christine it is amazing to me I mean sanctification really Christine do we need to be holy Christine haven't you heard of grace who needs to be obedient anymore that is just so last century and we're walking around dying evangelism what do you mean evangelism Christine that's a bit exclusive that's not loving what do you mean Jesus is the only way I mean Christine we live in a pluralistic world all roads lead to Rome isn't it that is so unloving of you and Christine I thought you were into social justice I cannot believe that you think Jesus is the only way to God I cannot believe that you think Jesus is the way I cannot believe that you think Jesus is the truth I cannot believe that you think Jesus is their life I can't believe that you actually really still believe that no one comes to the Father but through Jesus unlike people I didn't say it he did I just believed it and I wanted to Claire into Kriya to a generation that is lost and broke Jesus is the one that gives us a way to salvation through him alone but see a lot of us we just think we don't need that that is so old-school so we throw it out the wood or we've cut out all the bits that we don't like I like that man I don't like that and because I don't like it obviously it must be true then it's pretty much how we measure everything Christine what do you mean sure you don't know that church hurt me and so we just started cruising the Bible says with two or three ago that it doesn't matter where we gather we're just gonna gather at Starbucks and it's just me and my friend and we're just going to have a Bible study why should I submit to any Authority Christine don't you know a thority is just so bad can't believe you're gonna use the submission word Christine and you're a woman we expected more it is amazing to me how we just think these things that have been foundational that have built the Church of God on the earth and will continue to whether we choose to believe it or not what some of us need to do is go back and begin to pick up a shovel and say I need to go back to some of those wells that our forefathers dug we need to name them again and say you know what prayer is awesome because it gets me to the source church is awesome because it gets me to the source being in the Word of God is awesome because it gets me to the source being holy it's not legalistic it's being like God and I want to be holy because he is holy sanctification is important evangelism is important and I am going to dig out the dwell of my father and I'm gonna say you know what I'm gonna stand in the gap for my generation yes we're gonna throw away legalism yes we're gonna throw whay misogyny yes we're going to throw away sexism yes we're going to throw away racism yes we're gonna throw away lovelessness yes we're gonna throw away a whole lot of the things we don't need but we will keep the foundations we build our life on the Word of God we pray to God we go to the house of God and we build the house of God and we are committed to becoming holy like he is holy for without holiness we shall not see him it's not old-school its Christianity you can deconstruct what you want but don't deconstruct yourself on believing the foundational truths of the word of God of the history of the Church of God let's make a decision we are going to dig deep we're going to get rid of the junk but we're gonna stick to the supply his name is Jesus we're gonna stick to that not only did he have to dig the wells of his father and rename them and some of you need to do some renaming of some things you've thrown out that are foundational you're wondering why you're running dry because you've pulled yourself out of the source of the thing that keeps you connected to the supply I've been in one church for 31 years you wonder why I'm here today submitted 31 years it hasn't hindered what God has wanted to do in and through my life it's the vehicle through which I've been released into the purpose that God has for my life prayer is a lifeline not a religious duty reading the Bible and building my life in alignment with the parameters and the boundaries of the Word of God hasn't restricted me it has catapulted me into the purposes of God we've got to read eke the wells of Our Fathers the second thing that I said did the Bible says that he dug new wells and my prayer is that you'll take up the challenge to dig new wells in your generation every generation has to dig wells in their generation for the future generations in isaiah 43:18 221 scripture says remember not the form of things nor consider the things of old behold I am doing a new thing now it springs forth do you not perceive it I will make away in the wilderness and rivers in the desert the wild beasts will honor me the Jackals and the ostriches for I give water in the wilderness rivers in the desert to give drink to my chosen people the people whom I formed for myself that they may declare my praise so the Israelites in exile in Babylon seventy years felt they had no future God was reminding them I pulled you out of Egypt I parted the Red Sea I did signs and wonders and miracles but he reminded them what I did then is nothing compared to what I'm about to do God's done mighty things but even as majestic as all of this if there could be one person in this building that would dare to believe that God could do even more than then you're worth us hosting all of this for because God's saying even this is nothing compared to what I want to do nothing compared to what I've got to hit you thought this was awesome just wait and see what I've got in the future what God has done in the past is not all that God is going to do how God did it in the past is not the only way that God is going to do it we learn from the past we don't live in it so for some of us it's time to start digging some new wells remember the first thing he did was read his father's will so let's get our foundations right and then from that let's go digging what they knew wells are the by says that God can't put new wine into old wine skin you like Christine you're missing metaphors but you know Jesus turned water into wine so just go with me you can't put new wine into old wineskins there's certain things that only your generation can do only you can do your the new wine that's gonna go into the new wine skin you've got to be willing to pick up a shovel and dig I can't dig for you you have to dig let me just say we've got an opportunity in our generation to do perhaps what has never been done in the history of the church when we talk about the new wineskin and the new one in the old paradigm that has kept us polarized and divided was either/or passion is a glimpse of what the Lord is doing with a new wineskin not either/or but both and your generation could take us forward into both and like never before things that have divided the church in the world crostinis of faith all works um both faith and works is it male or female both is a spirit or truth both is it young or old both do we need skill or zeal both is God blessing attraction or omission or both is it about evangelism or social justice both is it about gifts of the Spirit of fruit of the Spirit both is it about grace or obedience both is it preaching or teaching both he's a house church or the mega church both is that the old theological are practical both is it about our heart or our head both is it about this earth or the new earth both he's gone into counseling or deliverance both is gone into using medicine or divine healing both it's got into discipleship or outreach both easy in a traditional church or contemporary church both easy into liturgical on non liturgical but easy to holiness or relevance both easy into prayer or action both so the very things that we have used to divide us are the things that say God is saying to a generation would you pour new wine into a new wineskin and catapult and flow rivers of living water into a lost in a broken world we got to dig some new wells because the world's dying the world's dying but you're gonna encounter resistance I want you to know that when Isaac started to dig the new wells in Genesis 26 19 and 20 he called that first one ESIC because it was strife and contention the second one was called Sydnor because there was contention and accusation but this is what I want you to hear he didn't sit there in the contention and accusation some of you need to get off social media and stop all the arguing and go and dig a new well somewhere else that is going to bring life and hope and mercy and justice and grace and truth to a lost in a broken world some people go we'll Christine what's the answer in all of the contention in our world do I go further right do I go further left no it's not a matter of going right or left or we got a dig deeper we've got to dig deeper to the source of living water Jesus we need a generation that is willing to stop the arguing and start digging start digging deeper this is the deal there are enemies to digging and I'm gonna give you three quick ones the first enemy to digging is FOMO I love how Sadie alluded to that today our fear of missing out study after study shows is killing our generation causes so much anxiety because I'm so scared I might miss something I might miss something it's not new started in the Garden of Eden Eve was scared she was missing out God was withholding something I might miss out and that fear of missing out is astounding to me what happens is in stead of digging in the church God's called us in the youth ministry God's called us on the campus instead of doing the hard work of digging we're scrolling we're swiping we're competing we're comparing we're liking we're doing everything other than digging and we keep trying to get some kind of satisfaction from something that is never gonna give it to us you know if we're in Christ I think cluster John Piper said this beautiful there ought to be no FOMO Christian's ought not to have FOMO why because as long as we have Christ we miss nothing there is no good thing some 16-2 says apart from him nothing we heard this morning all joy is found in Christ we have every spiritual blessing Ephesians 1:3 in him Ephesians 2:6 we are seated in heavenly places in Christ so many of us are like man when I get to the top honey I'm here to tell you you are at the top you're never gonna get any higher you are seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus we are as high as we are ever going to get our job now is to come into the world and have flown from us rivers of living water into a loss and a broken world in Christ you oughta not feel like you missing out on anything let me tell you as a 53 year old woman that's been following Jesus for thirty years I'm gonna confess to you this morning I've got FOMO but the FOMO that I've got especially as for me the end is closer than the beginning my FOMO is the fear of missing out on what God's doing on the earth I want to show you I've got a fear of missing out on the good works I'm doing the good works that God has prepared for me I have a fear of missing out on all the eternal rewards that I could get I'm hearing well done good and faithful servant I don't want to stumble into having to go well you're done I have a fear of missing out of all the crowds that are possible to cast at his feet on that day of not living the abundant life that he's called me to live because I'm too busy scrolling through everybody else's life of not having him of doing a whole bunch of activity here on earth but not having his presence with me and I care how much people applaud me for what I do with a 21 will propell if God's not in it I'm not interested I'm not interested I have a fear of the fact that I could be in a place like this and God is in this place and I end up like Jacob saying I didn't even know it I didn't even know it imagine not being ready when he returns she talks about that in the Gospels and the epistles oh yeah I live with a holy awareness that Jesus could come back any minute imagine not making his last commandment my first priority I have a fear of missing out on that I have a fear of missing out that I might miss my time such as this because I'm looking at everybody else this time such as this I'm missing out on becoming holy as his holy or not seeking first his kingdom or not stepping into what he's called me to do and colabor with him we ought to have FOMO but not a temporal FOMO we ought to have an eternal further I think God's hardwired into us the enemy's hijacked it through social media try to get us so consumed on the here and now hard to fix your eyes on Jesus when you fix your eyes on your phone if you elevate your eyes view our life here on earth from an eternal perspective it changes everything second thing we fear commitment see how FOMO leads to a fear of commitment we don't want to do that because if I pick up this shovel and start digging what if a better shovel comes and I mean Christine this is the day where I've got apps for everything there's always something better I don't want to come in we are the most commitment commitment-phobic generation that's what they call us we don't want to commit to anything not a partner not a job not a church Sadie spoke to that beautifully this morning but our lack of commitment is an enemy to our digging you know if I didn't commit to serving in my youth ministry 30 years ago I wouldn't be here today but you know 30 years ago I couldn't have imagined this today if I wasn't doing community-based use Sena there would be no a21 today but I didn't even know that I would be doing 821 till I was 40 I'm glad I didn't wait till I was 40 to get committed cuz that's the deal you can only ever start where you are with what you have at some point you've just got to make a decision now I'm committed and now is where I'm gonna do it there is no way you're gonna fulfill the purpose that you profess to want to fulfill if at some point you just do not make a decision that I'm gonna start digging here the greatest gift I think that God gave me is that I got saved before there was an Internet so I just had to pray because I couldn't go online and have a look at what everyone else was doing cuz I didn't know what they were doing I was in the back of Australia I couldn't scroll through social media I had to get on my face before Jesus so I learnt to trust God to open doors that no man can shut I learned to believe that God that promotion doesn't come from the north south east or west it comes from God I learned to just trust God with the next step and allow him to open the door I didn't have to try to market myself anywhere because it's God that lifts people up and when you get committed to the purpose of God where you are when you have full skin in the game where you are God will blow your mind but when you're using God to get what you think you want then you're never going to get to where you think you want to be driving kids to youth for all the youth leaders in the room working in university ministry in Australia in 1996 97 98 99 mm 2001 I didn't know what God was gonna do it my future but I had fullness of joy there because I had Jesus there and he was my rivers of living water and as God has done what is done with our life God has continued to astound me but he is the one that completes me he is the one that fills me he's the one that fulfills me so the same fulfillment I had back then is the same fulfillment I have now this doesn't make me any more fulfilled Jesus is the one that fulfills me Jesus is why I'm doing this Jesus is why I will continue to do this if you don't find him where you are and you don't start digging where you are then you're never ever going to be satisfied and when you get to where you think you want to be you will still be so empty because only Jesus is ever gonna fill that need on the inside of you my times up so let me quickly give you this last point the enemies of digging is firm o the fact that we lack commitment and finally the fact that we're not patient we lack patience man we our generation doesn't want to be patient I mean we've got news on demand we have Amazon Prime I can get groceries just at the touch of an app ubers gonna take me wherever I want to go today's world is always about the short-term isn't it our financial markets are about the next quarter our you know fashion markets are about the next season the stock market is just it's just everything is like quick quick quick our social media is about the next post so we have FOMO because this is what drives it we want it all now but the Bible says in Hebrews 6:12 we do not want you to become lazy but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised I'm here to tell you today faith is not enough to inherit the promise of God we need faith and patience you know we brought in during 2019 a thousandth survivor at a 21 through our aftercare program which was just absolutely stunning but people say how did it happen I'm like well it took 12 years and 20 years before that doing a whole bunch of other stuff you need faith and patience so you can leave this conference with all the faith in the world but if you are not prepared to have the patience to turn up and keep digging turn up day in and day out at college and keep sowing those seeds turn up at church and keep serving and keep giving and keep opening the Bible and keep believing God and keep praying it's dirty work it's boring work you're on your own we love this whole arena but when this thing was a hole in the ground nobody was applauding it nobody thought it was awesome today we've packed it out but you don't know if you start digging a hole in the ground where you are you begin to put in that shovel and say god this is where you have me I'm not going to wait till I'm there because I am here so right here I'm gonna start digging right here in my college in my church in my community I'm gonna pick up a shovel it doesn't look glamorous it doesn't look awesome but I'm gonna take I'm gonna dig out these old wells I'm gonna get to that source of living water and my God is gonna use me does it take faith or does it take work he takes both so passion 2020 pick up a shovel and start digging wherever you are in Jesus name in Jesus name in Jesus name if you're willing to do it I want you to stand - you don't stand if you're not because God will call you on this the Spirit of God if you're able just as a sign of surrender and you're comfortable just lift your hands to the Lord as a sign of surrender Demon Lord our hands are raised we say Lord take these hands we're gonna pick up a shovel with these hands wherever it is our colleges our communities our local churches our families and what we say that we're committed and we're not going to get obsessed with everybody else's life that we don't live the life that you've called us to live fomo isn't going to hold us back in a commitment-phobic world we say that father we want to be committed we have decided to follow Jesus and there is no turning back none we will put our hand to the plow and we're going to follow you all the way and Lord we're not going to rush ahead of your timing we're not gonna try to make happen in our own strength what only you can make happen so we say we are submitted to you we are yielded to you we say holy spirit have your way and we declare today that we're going to be a diggin generation we're gonna go back and we're gonna redo the wells of our fathers and we're gonna rename them we're not throwing out the word we're not throwing out prayer we're not throwing our church we're not throwing out sanctification we're not throwing out holiness we're not throwing out righteousness we're not throwing out evangelism we're gonna redo closed wells in our generation for our generation and Lord we say that we will dig the new wells not either/or not polarized but both end and United and we ask you Lord do something in our generation that would utterly astound this world use us we will come to you and we will drink of those rivers of living water and then father we believe that your Holy Spirit will flow through us and refresh a dry and thirsty land around us in Jesus name and all God's people said amen god bless you guys thank you so much

Channel: passionconferences

Views: 180,735

Rating: 4.8710589 out of 5

Keywords: Passion, Passion 2020, John Piper, Isaiah 26:8, Desires, Desiring God, Jesus, Sermons, Passion Sermons, Passion Messages, Sadie Robertson, Louie Giglio, Shelley Giglio, Levi Lusko, Tim Tebow, Mercedes-Benz, Atlanta, Ravi Zacharias, Christine Caine, christian

Id: 0Ai2ukyggLo

Length: 55min 34sec (3334 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 06 2020