Christine Caine - It's Not Too Late
Hey! Hi, everyone. I am so excited to be with you today. I am so glad that you have tuned in. You have tune in at the right time. I know that God has a word for you today. We're talking about the fact that God's promises never run out. It is never too late to step up and into the promises of God for your life. You know, there's nothing worse than waking up in the morning wanting your breakfast cereal, and you go down and for those of us that eat really healthy breakfast like cheerios and you get the milk and you pour the milk on and get this sense that there's a smell, and you then you look at the carton, and the date is expired. I hate seeing that expiration date, especially if I was really looking forward to the milk.
Well, recently I was driving, and of course I was sticking to the speed limit and I was right on the speed limit as I'm driving along, and then I thought I noticed in my rear vision mirror these lights that were flashing in a blue and red kind of configuration. And I had to pull over, and I wasn't speeding, but the police officer wanted to check something, and he asked me for my registration papers, so I opened up my glove box, I pulled out the registration papers, and then he started looking, and he said, Mrs. Caine, do you know that your registration has expired? These are old papers. I felt sick, and what happened was I had to rummage through a whole lot of stuff and then I found the ones that were actually current, so he checked it and there had been actually some confusion about the car, and he said, you can go, Mrs. Caine. Everything is fine.
So I wasn't a criminal. Anyway I want you all to know that. I really wasn't one. But the deal was I remember that moment where he said, your papers have expired. There's this feeling of just deflation and defeat when you think this is expired, I'm in trouble, this is too late. Well, there was nothing worse than, you know, we travel all the time for our ministry. Well, we went to the airport to go on an international trip, and nick pulled out his passport and had forgot to get his passport updated and his passport had expired. How many of you know you can't go on an airplane to go overseas when your passport has expired? Now, thankfully he's got to 2 passports so he was able to use his other one, but when something has expired, it means it's over. It's finished. You're not getting on that airplane, you're not getting through security. You're not able to get to the destination that you thought you were going to get to.
Well, for some of us that's what it's like when it comes to the promises of God. We think it's too late, that promise has expired. I'm too old. I've messed up too much. I'm not connected to the right person. I'm not in the right environment. There is no way this can happen. I don't have the right education. I don't have the right look, and so we think that maybe God spoke something into our hearts. He spoke something to us through his word, but we think that promise has expired, and we feel a bit like nick did initially when he went up to the check-in counter, and they said, Mr. Caine, your passport has expired. You're not going to be able to get to your destination.
And a lot of us think that God's promise has expired because of something we've done or somehow we forgot to renew it, and we think I'm never going to get to that destination because the promise of God has been expired, but I'm here to tell you today that with God, nothing is impossible, that what is impossible with man is possible with God. With God, nothing is impossible, and all the promises of God are in Christ Jesus yes, and amen. I want to tell you on the other side of the screen if God said it, God will do it. He who promised is faithful. No demon in hell, no person on earth can thwart the plan or the purpose of God for your life. God has an incredible plan, purpose, and destiny for you. And all the promises of God are in Christ Jesus yes and amen.
And so we're going to go to the book of Genesis. I figure if I read really quick we can get to revelation by the end of this television show. Don't freak out if you're on the other side of screen if you're thinking, she's going to read the whole 66 books of the Bible? No, but one day I might. So Genesis 18 verse 1 to 15. I want to help you to see today that God comes to us in unexpected places at unexpected times, and he does unexpected things through unexpected people. And it's always been the plan and purpose of God to get a whole lot of glory through people that everybody thinks God could never use. God does things when people think it's too late. God does things when people think it's impossible because impossible is where God starts. Miracles are what God does.
The currency of heaven is faith and miracles, and so today I think that some of you maybe have tuned in today, and there's some unexpected dreams and things you've got in your heart that you think, is this ever going to happen? In fact, you've probably given up that it can ever happen, and today I want to speak life and hope into your spirit, and I want you to know that your God turns up in unexpected places at unexpected times and he does unexpected things through unexpected people, so you are going to get your promise stirred up on the inside of you again. And I'm believing God that you are going to have faith to believe that he who promised is faithful.
So Genesis chapter 18... Only a chick could do that so quickly. It's like, hurry up. Make that happen. I just want you to know that this is awesome. It means that both men and women can cook. Did you see that? Right there, it's there in scripture. Because that's what chicks do. We eavesdrop. Now, we just say that we're seeking the Lord, but I want you to know this is Bible code for eavesdropping. That's exactly what she was doing. Don't you love how the Bible just says that? It means, honey, her ovaries had dried up. That's what that is saying. I think she wants us to know that this was written pre Viagra days. She just wants us to know that. It's right there.
Someone, you've just tuned in and you're like, what is this? Stick with this series. You're going to love it. It's going to change your life. This always cracks me up because there's no point in lying to God. You laughed. Yes, you did. No, I didn't! Yes, you did. It's like, God knows just in case you were wondering. So here we have God sending three angels of the Lord appear to remind Abraham of a promise God had spoken to him in Genesis 12: 7, 24 years before. 24 years before, God had promised him that he would bless all the nations through his seed, through his own offspring he would bless the nations of the earth. Now, it was already impossible when God had given him the promise. At the time Abraham was already 75 years old, and Sarah was already 60 years old.
Scripture tells us that Sarah was past the age of child bearing. That means, honey, it had all, like it was done. It was done. And I love that scripture reminds us, God wants to put it in there that I want you to know that I know that they were both old and advanced in years. Remember when the text said they were old and advanced in years? So God is saying I know they were old because what happens to us is we feel like we need to tell God as if he didn't know. Like God asks us to do something, and we go but God! I'm a woman! He's like, I had no idea. I had no idea. But God! I'm 50 years old. And God goes, wow! I must have missed a birthday somewhere. I just had no idea. But God, I live here. But God, I only have this level of education.
I mean, we talk to God like he doesn't know. And then we sing worship songs like you're omniscient, you're omnipotent, you're omnipresent, but we don't really believe it because then we go, but God, didn't you know? So out of one side of our mouth we go, you're all knowing, and on the other side of our mouth we say, but God, I can't do this. And we put a whole lot of natural limitations on a supernatural God. So what we do is we measure what we're able to do by what we're able to do when God says I want you to look up at what I'm able to do. So yes Sarah and Abraham, I know that you're old.
I know that you are advanced in years. I know that in the natural your biological clock has stopped ticking. I know that we are a couple of millenniums away before Viagra is invented, so I know that is going to happen. But the fact is that I'm able to do what no one can do. I'm able to do what can't be done scientifically or mathematically or be reasoned intellectually because I'm God, and my ways are so much higher than your ways. My thoughts are so much higher than your thoughts. I don't need your permission to be God. I'm God all by myself. No one voted me out and no one is going to vote me out. I am God, and I create something out of nothing. It's what God does. It's a perk of his divinity. It's why you go, but I don't understand that.
You don't need to understand that because God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above and beyond anything that we could ever ask, hope, or think. We think if I can't see it, taste it, touch it, smell it, feel it or hear it, it doesn't exist. But God says I operate in a whole different realm. I operate in the supernatural. Everything you can see, I made it. Everything you can smell, I made it. Nothing existed until I said it. It wasn't in existence until I spoke. And when I spoke it, it became, so we need to trust a God that can make something out of nothing. And this is what God was saying to Abraham and Sarah. He knew their bodies were old. He knew that they were past the age.
I think God sometimes can't help himself. He waits until it's impossible. He just can't wait. He's like I need to get it all out of the way until you get to a point where you utterly know if it's not God, it's never going to happen. It's got to be God, and faith is the currency of heaven, and God wants us to stir up our faith. There is a fight for our faith on the earth. Paul says to Timothy, fight the good fight of faith. A lot of us we're fighting a lot of unnecessary fights. How about we get off all the unnecessary fights and we fight the one good fight, the eternal fight of faith? The enemy doesn't want your car. He doesn't drive. The enemy doesn't want your house. He couldn't be bothered. What he wants is your faith. And so what we have to do is continue to believe God and fight for faith.
So what happened at this point God says I now know that this promise is impossible in the natural. There is no biological way that you're going to be able to conceive a child. You are way past the age of child bearing. So now that it's past the age, now that, you've come to the counter, Sarah. You've given your passport and you've been told, expired! Can't happen. Like the woman standing behind the desk said to nick, you can't get on that plane, mr. Caine, because your passport has expired. This is how Sarah felt, that her passport to the promise of God had expired. At that point God turns up and he says, I know we're going to do a miracle now. Now is when I'm going to turn up and I'm going to do the miraculous.
So at that point I want you to know that God can do the same thing for you. I don't know, what happens you've gotten a medical report and it says this diagnosis is terminal. It's incurable. There is no hope. I'm here to tell you that our God is a God who still heals today, that where man has said impossible, God can touch your body and bring healing, and I'm going to pray for you right now because I feel someone is on the other side of the screen and you're watching this, and God is stopping this whole broadcast in this moment because he wants to touch your body. I want you to just put your hand on the part of your body where you have had a terminal diagnosis, where you've had a negative report from the doctor.
So Father, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ that you would touch those bodies right now in Jesus name, that you would bring healing, Father. God, I pray for miracles, signs and wonders and miracles in the name of Jesus Christ. I pray that cancer would shrivel up and die in the name of Jesus. I pray that every sinew, every tissue, every muscle, every organ would return to full, flourishing function in the name of Jesus Christ. I thank you that you are the God that still heals us today. By your stripes we are healed, and I speak a healing virtue over everybody in Jesus name.
Maybe you received a report, and some of you don't know whether to clap or not. You can give the Lord a mighty ovation because people are being healed right now in Jesus name. But maybe you received negative academic results and you think I can't get into that course. I'm going to believe that God can make a way where there is no way. God is still the God that parts Red Seas. He still tears down Jericho walls. God specializes in the miraculous. He specializes in making things happen when it seems like it's impossible for those things to happen. Maybe you think, you know what? I don't have the right income, or I just come from a background of addiction and poverty. This thing can never be broken in my life. And I'm here to tell you today that God still does the miraculous, that God can break generational curses and bondages and shackles and chains, and your past does not need to define your future. You can step up and into the purposes of God. I'm believing for miracles in Jesus name.
You know, my life is a testimony to the impossible being made possible in God. Everything about my life. I'm the kid that was left in a hospital unnamed and unwanted. I'm the kid that was sexually abused for 12 years, grew up in the third poorest zip code in my state. You know, girls like me don't normally end up doing what I'm doing. They end up either drug or alcohol dependent or 2 or 3 kids to 2 or 3 different fathers or maybe even confused about their gender identity, so broken, so fragmented, angry, or full of unforgivenness or bitterness or shame or guilt or condemnation. But I am living proof that you can start bad and finish good in and through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
I am living proof that God still does miracles today. I am living proof that your history does not need to define your destiny. I am living proof that God will take impossible situations, turn them around, work all things together for our good and his glory and give you an awesome future despite your past. It would be just like God to take an unnamed, unwanted, abused, adopted chick from the back of Sydney, Australia, redeem her life, turn her life around, open the prison doors for her and then say, I'm now going to use you to rescue a generation of slaves through the work of a21 around the world. This is redemption, life, hope and liberty. That's what our God does.
Impossible is where God starts. Miracles are what God does, and I am living of proof of that. People goes, why are you so pumped up and fired up about this stuff, Christine? I am like that because I am living that dream. I am seeing that I was once the woman standing just like Sarah, full of doubt and fear and insecurity, and maybe even cynicism and shame, at the tent gate listening to the conversation and laughing going, oh, sure! Sure, as if that's going to happen. God, where were you when I was young? God, where were you when I was fertile? God, why didn't this happen when it was possible?
So a lot of us we've become cynical or angry or frustrated, or we've become disappointed or disillusioned with the promise of God because it didn't happen within our timeframe, because it didn't happen the way we thought it should happen. And we've confused the method with the outcome, and a lot of us haven't seen the outcome because we stepped out of the purpose of God because we thought, you know what? It's not going to happen because we tried to reason it. We tried to rationalize it. We tried to fit God's ways in a box, and God says, my ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are so much higher than your ways. My thoughts are so much higher than your thoughts. Don't try to box me in your methodology. Don't trying to box me to do things according to the way you think I should do them because I am God, and I am so much bigger than you can even imagine. I need you to lift your eyes up. I need you to fix your eyes on me.
Your miracle is not going to come through other people or through your own gift or talent or ability. Your miracle is not going to come through your resources. Your miracle is not going to come through your circumstances. Your miracle is going to come from God himself. God alone is going to bring that miracle into your life because he is miracle working God. And so in this text we've got Sarah at the gate, just outside the tent, and I wonder what your posture is as you're leaning into the promises of God.
Are you at the tent, are you at the tent with a spirit of faith or are you at tent with a spirit of doubt, with a spirit of disappointment, with a spirit of disillusionment and discouragement, with a spirit of fear, with a spirit of maybe disappointments somewhere in your life? And you're leaning in and you're listening to the promise of God. Every time you open your Bible for your quiet time, every time you go to church and listen to the word, are you filtering it through the lens of hope and faith? Or are you filtering that word through the lens of discouragement and defeat? How you filter that word of God and how you receive it will determine how potent that word is on the inside of you.
And so as we finish part one of this series, we're left with Sarah at the gate of the tent. Sarah is at the door of the tent full of discouragement and disappointment, mocking the promise of God. But we're going to come back and we're going to find out how that posture is going to change from a posture of mocking to a posture of faith, and if you can change your posture you will change your perspective, and when you change your perspective you'll begin to receive the promises of God. They're all yes and amen in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. Amen? Amen.