Christine Caine - Your Best Work
Can you believe that the God of the universe invites you and me to be a coworker with him in his harvest field. That is the ultimate ultimate job profile ever. Now I'm not talking about being a missionary in a foreign mission field because that's who we think God's workers are. You can be a doctor, you can be a lawyer, you can be a computer scientist, you can be an entrepreneur you can be a full-time homeschooling mother. It doesn't matter what your job title is here on earth. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ then we are co-workers with God. We are invited into kingdom work with God. It would change your whole day and your entire attitude if you got up every day knowing I am a co-laborer with God.
You know where I work there is, where I live there is this little area and there's a lot of day laborers that offer up their services for the day. So in the morning, there's a couple of hundred of them that are waiting for different contractors to come and pick them up. And a day laborer is just kind of waiting. They don't know what job they're gonna do that day. They don't know, they're like a jack of all trades and they just jump in the back of the truck and they're gonna be a day laborer, they're a day worker, and they're just up for what ever so that they could work.
Well I think that needs to be the attitude of Christians. See what we do, is we go no, what's gonna be my job? And does that fit in with my gift mix? And is that my personality profile? And how many days off am I gonna get? And I need to have balance and I need to be, have you ever seen those day laborers? They're not asking for any of that. They just jump in on the truck going awesome, I've got a job. I'm so excited. And we need to be a group of Christians that get up every day and go Father, I wanna be about your business today. I'm turning up and I'm a day laborer. For you, I'm a day worker, for you. I wanna be about the Father's business. It would change so much.
We've all had those mornings when we just didn't want to get out of bed or face the work that's on our plate that day. But the truth is, you have an important part to play in this world. And if you don't get out there and do your part something important will be missing from this world. I'm Christine Caine and I have a personal mission to equip and empower people like you to connect with your God-given purpose and potential. I'm so glad you're joining us today. Let's get right into the message.
Hey, everyone. I am so excited to be with you today. I'm so glad that you tuned in. I know that God has got a powerful word for you today. You know we moved to the United States several years ago and one of my friends joined the us marine corps. And it was awesome because he turned up in this t-shirt. And the t-shirt said, and you could see it right now, it said, no one ever drowned in sweat. And I remember when I saw it, I burst out laughing. Because I thought, you know what, that's pretty true. I don't know anyone that ever drowned in a pool of their own sweat. And I thought what a great ethic. What a great work ethic that it means, you know what you're gonna sweat, it's gonna hurt, but it's worthwhile. No one ever died from hard work.
Now I'm Greek, and so Greeks by and large, have not yet had this revelation that no one ever drowned in sweat. Let me explain this to you. You know, Greeks love their siesta. They love a few hours of sleep in the afternoon. And I remember going over there and of course we have our A21 headquarters in Thessaloníki, Greece. And there is a reason why the country was in economic bankruptcy. And I love Greece, you all know that. And I know the Greek people watching this, you know I love you and feta cheese and taramosalata. So that's not the issue. But truth is truth. I remember having conversations with my relatives and friends and they'd be, "Oh, Christine, you know we don't wanna work as hard as you do in Australia or in America. We like to have several hours off to have a sleep in the afternoon and the we like to go out really late". And I'm like, so would we.
So there's no issue. Who wouldn't like to not have to work a whole lot? But I said, there is a general rule in the Bible it's called, if you don't work, you don't eat. And that's right. And they're like, "No, no, no. We want everyone else to provide for us". Well there is a reason why the economic crisis happened in that country. And a lot of people want the benefits of work without doing the work. But there is no way that you can have that, and not only that, we as humans were designed to work. We were designed to flourish. We were designed to do good works. I'm gonna show you that from scripture. By the end of this series, I want you to be excited to do the thing that God has called you to do.
People go, "You know Christine, how do so much with propel or with A21? Or the books and all the traveling". I go, well it takes a lot of work. You know, I would love to tell you that the angels just come and do all the washing on my behalf, but it just doesn't happen like that. And you cannot have the benefits of work without doing the input of work. And so I think it is so important. I want to challenge us to step up and into all it is that God has for us. And you know at every season of my life, when I started and I was the director of a youth center, then I became the director of a youth movement, then I started traveling and teaching. And then we started A21. And then at 48 I started propel. And then at 50, I started doing TV.
Well, all of it is awesome and it's the will of God and the purpose of God. And God planned it for my life, but it would never have happened if I didn't commit to work. And so I wanna encourage some of us today that there is so much that God wants to do in and through your life. But if you're gonna do it, it's important that we all get to work. Now apparently, it's not just the Greeks that do not want to rise up and go to work. I would go in the middle of Athens and I frequently obviously, go to Greece so much for our work with A21 and because I love feta cheese and the Mediterranean. Okay, it's all true. And so, and I see so many building projects or businesses that are not finished. And the main reason is because people just don't wanna work. I mean there is a football game happening. You could be standing at the counter waiting for your coffee for like an hour, and he's just looking at you going, "After the football game". And I'm like, okay, this is apparently how we do business over here.
And so in the midst of all of that, I think Jesus had the same problem as many many people did, many people do in Europe. If you go with me today to the book of Matthew chapter nine in verses 35. The Bible says, "And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction". I mean that's pretty awesome. Did you see that that Jesus healed every disease and every affliction? I want you to know today, that it is the will of God to bring healing into your life.
In fact even right now, as the word is gone forth on the other side of the screen. Whatever part of your body is feeling like has an infirmity, perhaps you've been diagnosed with a sickness, perhaps you've been struggling with pneumonia, perhaps there's something going on in your throat, I want you to just put your hand on that part of your body because in the same way I just believe right now that there's an anointing on this program, in this moment for healing, for physical healing in your body in Jesus name. And the Bible says that Jesus walked through the towns and the villages, and the synagogues and he healed every infirmity and every affliction. Scripture says that by his stripes we are healed. And it's not by might nor by power but it's by my spirit says the Lord.
So I want you to know that Jesus still heals today. And it's the will of God to bring healing into your body in Jesus name. So it says he healed every disease and every affliction and then it goes on. And it says, "When he saw the crowds he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like a sheep without a shepherd". Jesus was always moved by compassion. Wherever you see a miracle in the Bible and Jesus performing a miracle, you see that it's preceded or followed by compassion. And we as Christians oughta have compassion on the world around us. The pain and the suffering and the infirmities. And yes it's important that in the day in which we live that we hold a lot of convictions. But our convictions need to be fueled by our compassion. And compassion is the language that the world understands. Compassion opens doors, compassion opens hearts.
Jesus was moved with compassion, and we the people of Jesus, the followers of Jesus need to be moved with compassion. But then it goes on and it says, "Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest". I mean what a powerful scripture. This scripture is the foundation of propel women. I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me from this text in the Bible. And he said, hey look out the fields are ripe for the harvest. The harvest is plentiful. There is plenty of harvest. There's more than seven and a half billion people on the earth today. Make no mistake, there is lots of harvest. The problem is not with the harvest. The problem is that the laborers are few. Other versions say, the workers are few. It seems like Jesus in his day obviously found that there was an aversion to doing the work of the ministry.
And so Jesus himself was a worker. The Bible says he went from town to town, from village to village. A lot of times we wanna only focus on the times that Jesus got out to be alone. Well, he got up early before everyone else more often than not in scripture and prayed and then went about working. He went from village to village. He healed, he taught, he worked. He was a carpenter by trade. Jesus himself worked. I don't know where we as Christians think that we don't need to work. That work is part of what we do to advance the Kingdom of God here on the earth. Work is sacred, work is holy. We were created to work and we need to be about the Father's business. The work of the ministry is not just for one or two, there's not this sort of clergy and laity. Sort of full-time Christians and part-time Christians. Real Christians and fake Christians. Let me just say, in the Kingdom of God we are part of a royal priesthood. Every single one of us is called to advance the Kingdom of God and to get to work.
I know there's often a lot of people, they have great dreams and great plans and great purposes. And I say to some young people, how do you think this is gonna happen? Oh, I don't know God's just gonna make it happen. I'm like, it is not gonna fall out of the sky. You've gotta go to work. A lot of people, well you know, I just want to discover what I really wanna do. I'm going, go work in a coffee shop while you're discovering. Like you know, pay your bills. Girls, if that guy does not have a J-O-B, forget him okay. So what happens is, I'm like, what is your job? No matter what, we have got to go to work. Jesus did not just sit down in the basement in his mother's basement and send out blogs about social justice. Jesus did not just tweet out about healing. Jesus did not just sit down and have intellectual dialogues about theology. Jesus got up and went to work amongst the people. He went about doing good. He was about the Father's business.
We cannot be lulled into thinking because I've liked something on social media I have done something. Liking it and doing it are two different things. We have to get about the Father's business. You know, Jesus identified in this text exactly the issue that was at hand. He said, there's plenty of harvest. That word in the Greek, therizo, to reap together, to collect. All around us there is plenty of harvest. In your workplace there's harvest. In your school, there's harvest. In your community, there's harvest. You don't have to go to the foreign mission field to find a harvest. People are all around us, the problem is there's not enough of us that want to go to work amongst the harvest. And that word, ergatis. It's a Greek word, but it comes from the word to work. Ergatis, a worker.
The Bible calls us workers. That's what we are. We are workers in the Kingdom of God. We are workers in the field of God. It is so important that in light of eternity we remember what we are here for. We are going to work in God's field. You're not just turning up to go to work in your office every day. You're not just turning up to go to college every day. You're not just going to the superMarket, it's God's field. It's his harvest field and we are workers. Ergatis in the Greek, we are workers. And the fact is that he said, I need you to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers. To send forth workers. When the last time you prayed that prayer? It's not often in the Bible that God tells us what to pray. If we are followers of Jesus Christ, if he is the Lord of the harvest and he says to us this is what I want you to pray, ask yourself when you last prayed what Jesus asked you to pray. Then ask yourself when you last prayed for your own needs to be met.
And I'll put myself in all of this as well, I'm not just pointing a finger here. But I'm putting the challenge ahead to say if we can begin to pray this prayer then I guarantee you, we're gonna find that we are the answer to our own prayer. We are gonna find so much more fruitfulness in the world around us. We're gonna begin to go to work on mission. We're gonna turn up at college on mission. And the conversations we have with our friends suddenly they're going to be very intentional. The conversations we have on the phone, they're gonna be very intentional. We're gonna think once or twice or maybe 10 times before we send that tweet out 'cause we're going, is this actually advancing the Kingdom of God or is this adding to all the fear, doubt and negativity? We're gonna think twice before words come out of our mouth. It's gonna change our whole life if we look at our life on earth like we're going to work.
It's possible to be a Christian that is not working. I'm not talking about a job in terms of getting money for time. I'm talking about the work in the ministry. Because what we think is the work of the ministry's for professionals but every Christian is called to be a Christian. I know that's rocket science. I bet you're glad you tuned in today. Right there, but some people are like, you know Christine, and I'm like, look just because I do this I mean I have a, of course in the Bible says, not many of you desire to be teachers because there's a judgment that's even more severe that's gonna come to us. But all of us are called to be Christians. All of us are called to advance the Kingdom of God. All of us are called to be workers in the harvest field. Now I'm gonna just show you from first Corinthians chapter three verse nine.
Paul writes, what then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one. And each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. Fellow workers. 1 Thessalonians 3:2, therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind in Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother, and God's coworker in the Gospel of Christ to establish and exhort you in your faith. So he says we are co-laborers, we are coworkers. Can you believe that the God of the universe invites you and me to be a coworker with him in his harvest field. That is the ultimate ultimate job profile ever.
Now I'm not talking about being a missionary in a foreign mission field because that's who we think God's workers are. You can be a doctor, you can be a lawyer, you can be a computer scientist, you can be an entrepreneur you can be a full-time homeschooling mother. It doesn't matter what your job title is here on earth. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ then we are co-workers with God. We are invited into Kingdom work with God. It would change your whole day and your entire attitude if you got up every day knowing I am a co-laborer with God. You know where I work there is, where I live there is this little area and there's a lot of day laborers that offer up their services for the day.
So in the morning, there's a couple of hundred of them that are waiting for different contractors to come and pick them up. And a day laborer is just kind of waiting. They don't know what job they're gonna do that day. They don't know, they're like a jack of all trades and they just jump in the back of the truck and they're gonna be a day laborer, they're a day worker, and they're just up for what ever so that they could work. Well I think that needs to be the attitude of Christians. See what we do, is we go no, what's gonna be my job? And does that fit in with my gift mix? And is that my personality profile? And how many days off am I gonna get? And I need to have balance, and I need to be.
Have you ever seen those day laborers? They're not asking for any of that, they just jump in on the truck going, awesome, I got a job, I'm so excited. And we need to be a group of Christians that get up every day and go, Father I wanna be about your business today. I'm turning up and I'm a day laborer for you, I'm a day worker for you. I wanna be about the Father's business. It would change so much if we started to see ourselves as coworkers and that we understood that God could've saved this world anyway he wanted. God could reach humanity any way he wanted. And God himself said I'm going to put my spirit on the inside of you and how I'm gonna getting get to the world around you is through you. I love you that much that I don't wanna do this on my own, I'm gonna do it with you. And you get to be a coworker. You get to be a co-laborer with Christ.
It would change the way you absolutely spend every single day. You'd hold your head up high, you put your chest out a bit. I'm a coworker with Christ. It doesn't matter what job you're doing but here is the problem I think. I think most of us, it's not enough to be a coworker with Christ because if it was, we would be doing it. I think most of us want to be costars. And that's the problem. See when you wanna be a costar, you want equal billing. Oh no, your name's not gonna be at the front. I want my name to be right there alongside. I want to be a costar with Jesus. You know hashtag humble brag, to God be the glory. But it's all about me. And God says, you know how much work I've got for you to do every day? I've got so much I could do in and through you if you were willing not to be a costar, but you are willing to be a coworker.
There is so much work that God has for us to do in anonymity and obscurity. There's so much that's not an Instagrammable that is Kingdom work. There is so much that you don't have to Snapchat, that you can help people, you can have conversations with people. You could be praying for people. I think the fact that we've all learned to live our lives online under the spotlight, we think it doesn't matter if someone doesn't see it. But what we forget is that God's spotlight is always on us. I say to people they go, you know Christine how did you become either an accomplished speaker or how do you? I go look, the fact is I did not just start preaching the Gospel when someone put a microphone in my hand. Anybody that knows me personally, you could ask my husband, my staff, any of my friends. Me up here is the same me as sitting in a living room or across a kitchen table with someone. I mean, I am this intense all the time. I am speaking about this stuff all the time.
People go, why don't you look at your notes? It's because I just talk, this is what I do all the time. And now I'm just doing it to you on the other side of the screen. So basically you just jumped into my lounge room. And so at the end of the day people go like, do you ever have another gear? I'm like, no, I'm sorry. It just is the way that it is, it's because I'm constantly thinking about the Father's business. And so, yeah so right now, there might be a spotlight on me. Or yes there may be a microphone that magnifies my voice further and further. But I am like this when there is no spotlight and there is no microphone in my hand because I'm always about the Father's business because I can't believe that God lets me co-labor with him.
I remember when I first started serving the Lord and I was invited to come and help start a youth center that I eventually became the director of. But in that first year, when I was like a volunteer with everybody else, I remember we were painting the walls. I mean it was this youth center that was a dive and so dirty. We were scrubbing the walls. And I remember it was pink paint. I mean it was the 90s everyone, I'm sorry. It was a pale pink paint and I can remember to this day that we were painting that toilet wall. And I was crying, and I was saying to Jesus I can't believe you're letting me do this after my past, after all the things that I have done that were just so ungodly and so sinful that you are giving me a chance to work for you. That you are giving me a chance, and you know what, can I just say to you, nowadays by the grace of God, I have the opportunity to travel the world and preach and teach and write books and run a21 and propel, can I tell you I feel the same way every day.
Every single day I'm like Jesus, I can't believe this. I cannot believe that I get to proclaim your Gospel. I cannot believe that you allow me, someone with my past, someone that has done what I've done that you would invite me into your Kingdom purpose and you would allow me to be a co-worker with God. A co-laborer with God. If we as Christians cannot see what a privilege and an honor that invitation is then we need to get our hearts right before God. We need to lose the attitude that says, well you know what, I don't wanna get burnt out there. I just don't wanna do too much for God. And we need to turn around and go, I must be about the Father's business. Thank you Jesus, that you didn't just leave me. You didn't only just save me, you saved me and you called me to be a co-laborer with you in your harvest field. There is no higher privilege, in Jesus name. No higher privilege, in Jesus name.