Christine Caine - Nothing To Lose
The Bible says that faith without works is dead. To get to the place God has for us sometimes we have to take a risk. We have the power to move from fear to faith, from unbelief to trust. The gate that seems to be blocking your path just might be a doorway to your future. So let's trust God and get moving. We have nothing to lose. 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 am so glad you're joining us today. Let's get into the message.
Hi everyone! I am so grateful that you all have joined us today. Thank you so much for tuning in for a word from God. You know, I am thrilled about this series that we're about to start and you've ever been in situation where you think you know what, I'm just going to have a go because I've got nothing to lose and so why not do it? I feel like that is the whole story of my life, that I'm always jumping into situations that are just so much bigger than me but I think you know what, what have I got to lose? I may as well just have a go. Now my kids get really embarrassed and they're like, "Mom, you know what, you've got your dignity to lose", and especially when it comes to posting certain things, you know, I'll post things because I don't care.
I'm out, you know, no make up in the back of nowhere and then I'll post something and my daughter who is supposed to be in school, like half a second later, Katherine texts, "Mom, get that down right now, that is so embarrassing, you are embarrassing me". I'm like, "I'm not embarrassing me". She goes, "Yes, but I'm related to you and so please take it down". And I just think you know what, we got nothing to lose. Just put it out there, it really doesn't matter now I've done stuff like that. You know, I've been skiing where I thought I had nothing to lose, but I did lose my knee and my ACL and my MCL as I snapped it because I thought, let's just go down this mountain, I got nothing to lose. And I do realize I potentially have my life to lose.
So anyway, there's times when it works really well for you and there are other times where you probably need to stop and ponder. Well, in this whole series, we are going to assess what it is to actually take some risks, to step out of your comfort zone and say, "You know, what, what have I got to lose, if I stay where I am, nothing is ever going to change". But I'm here to say that God can visit you in that broken place. God can visit you in that place that seems so far away from his purpose and he can pick you up out of that place and he can set you in a pleasant place. If you trust him, if you continue to reach out to him, if you don't walk away from him, I want you to know that there is a way out of the place you are into the pleasant place that God has for your life and we're going to a place in the scripture.
In 2 Kings chapter seven. And I love this text because I just to give you a little bit of context. This whole story happens during the reign of king Joram J-O-R-A-M I haven't heard anyone named their child that but king Joram and this was during the divided kingdom in Israel and it's happening up in Samaria, which was the capital of northern Israel and Samaria was at war with Aram and what happens often when there's a war and especially in these times, the attacking force would come in and they would lay siege around a city. And what that meant was that basically they would make sure that no goods and services came in or out so their goal was to starve the people in the city so that they would be weakened and when they attacked, there would be no resistance because they would either be dead or they would be weakened.
So at this point Samaria the city is under siege. Now, the kings of Israel at this time, were very, very evil. There was a lot of idolatry, there was just walking away from God and not servicing and not serving God. So king Joram was not a good king and a lot of evil things were happening during this time. Famine started to set in the land. People were eating donkeys heads. People were eating children. There is one case where two women came to see the king. And we're going to get there in just a moment, just so that you can see how barbaric the situation was.
They came to see the king, because they had agreed together that they would boil one son one day and eat him and then boil to death, another son the other day and eat him and what they had done was boil the one son and eaten him and then the next day the mother hid her child so that he wouldn't be eaten. I mean, when you're turning to cannibalism, you know that things are barbaric. People will do crazy things when they're hungry. People will do crazy things when they're starving.
I have never been in that situation where I've been so desperate, where I've felt like I've got no other choice to make but that's what I imagine that these women were in this kind of situation. Where there was so much hunger and we're going to pick it up there because the king was so angry with what he saw and so this is during the time that Elisha the prophet was on the planet. And so the king in anger at these women when they're coming to him and saying, you know, "What should we do? We ate one child and then she hid her other child", he ripped his robe, which in those days was a sign of great distress and anger. So he came to face Elisha and he wanted to chop Elisha's head off.
Now if you're going, this is like really gory, you might have just tuned in right now and you're like, "Whoa, we've got cannibalism. We've got donkeys heads. We've got other heads coming". I mean, welcome to the Bible. It is not boring, that's all I'm going to tell you. And so during this time, he goes to see Elijah and he's ready to take off the Elisha's head. And this is when Elisha says to him that this famine, this drought, it's about to end. But I want to pick up a little bit about what happened. It says, the Bible says, "Afterward Ben-Hadad king of Syria, mustered his entire army and went up and besieged Samaria".
Remember we said that Samaria was under siege, "And there was a great famine in Samaria as they besieged it until a donkey's head was sold for 80 shekels of silver, and the fourth part of Kab of dove's dung, for five shekels of silver". Now, I know this is, like, complicated but when people are paying to buy a donkey's head to eat it, you know times are very desperate.
Now as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him saying, "Help my Lord, oh king", and he said, "If the Lord will not help you, how can I help you"? From the threshing floor or from the wine press and the king asked her, "What is your trouble"? She answered, "This woman said to me give your son that we may eat him today and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, give your son that we may eat him. But she has hidden her son". When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes.
Now he was passing by on the wall, and the people looked and behold, he had sackcloth beneath on his body and he said, "May God, do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today". So we get the picture. This is like very, very serious. There's extreme famine, there's extreme hunger. I mean, we've resorted to cannibalism. We've resorted to eating donkeys heads and it just gets better.
So now the king is going to go to Elisha. Elisha was sitting in his house and the elders with him. Now the king had dispatched a man from his presence, but before the messenger arrived, Elisha said, "Do you see how this murderer has sent to take off my head? Look, when the messenger comes shut the door, hold the door fast against him is not the sound of his master's feet behind him". And while he was still speaking with him, the messenger came down to him and said, "This trouble is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer"? But Elisha said, "Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord tomorrow, about this time, a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria".
Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, "If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be"? He's basically saying this is impossible, because Elisha says, "Look, I'm telling you within 24 hours, a miracle is going to happen. We are going to have goods and services back in the market, this drought, this famine is going to end, people are going to be able to buy food". I mean, it would just sound ludicrous. And this man is going "there is no way this can happen".
There is, because in the natural, it looked impossible. I mean, if there was an absolute famine in the land, you think now, in certain regions, perhaps in Africa where there's absolute famine, you don't think within 24 hours, we're going to suddenly have a market economy functioning and everything is going to exist normally, it's impossible. And this man says, "This is impossible". And so I love this, the captain, he just said, "This cannot happen". "This cannot happen". And he was right in the natural, this could not happen. But he goes on.
And then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, "If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be"? But he said, "You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it". I don't know that there would be anything more frustrating to see a miracle of God and not be able to partake of that miracle. To see God do something amazing and be such a cynic that you never ever grasp what God has done.
So many people miss out on what God has for their life because of cynicism and because of unbelief. Cynicism keeps more people out of the presence and purpose and promise of God than almost anything else that says that it can't happen. It's not possible, as if God is only limited to what is possible in the natural, we have to understand that what is impossible with man is possible with God. With God, all things are possible and nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is impossible with God.
All things are possible with God. It goes on, it says, "Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate, and they said to one another, 'Why are we sitting here until we die? Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say let us enter the city, the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also'". I love this. This is the best philosophers I have ever heard of. So here we go four lepers that are not only lepers, they double as philosophers, they go, look, if we sit here, hundred percent, we're going to die. If we go in there, worst case scenario, we're going to die. Here we die, there we die every way we die, die. It's okay, that's what's going to happen. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians.
This being interpreted, says, "Hey, what do we got to lose"? What do we have to lose? If we stay here, we're going to die. If we go in there, maybe we're going to die, best case scenario, worst case scenario. So we've got nothing to lose. Let's take a risk. Let's have a go. Let's step out of our comfort zone. What do we got to lose? If they spare our lives we shall live and if they kill us we shall but die. I mean, these guys are just geniuses.
So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there, for the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and horses, the sound of a great army. It was four lepers. Four lepers! Four. I don't even know if they had all their limbs. They were four lepers. But they sounded like a great army. So they said to one another, behold, the king of Israel has hired against us, the kings of the Hittites, the kings of Egypt to come against us. So they fled away into the twilight and abandoned their tents, their horses, their donkeys leaving the camp as it was, they fled for their lives.
Four lepers, I don't even know if their fingers were falling off, I don't know what was happening. But they left everything and they fled for the lives and when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and they ate and they drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent, and they carried off the things from it and went and hid them. Then they said to one another, we are not doing right. This is the day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come, let us go and tell the king's household.
You cannot make this stuff up. Only the Bible can have this, I love this story. So a great time of famine, a great time of injustice. King Joram who is another evil king. A time of just great, great pain and hunger. And then you got four guys, four lepers just sitting at the gate. They're just sitting there, this whole land has been under siege. And they're just sitting there and they're just like the most brilliant people, because they're like, "You know what, why are we sitting here? Until we die? Like, you know, we're lepers".
Now lepers are the lowest of the low. They're the least of the least in this time in history lepers had no rights, no privileges. In fact, if you're walking down the street, and there was a leper coming, a leper had to yell, "Leper coming! Leper coming"! So that you would cross the road and walk on the other side of the road. So you think of the most marginalized people groups in our society today, that's what lepers were. So they're sitting there, they've got no rights. They've got no privileges. They've got no assets. They got nothing to lose.
And they're just sitting there while everything is happening, Elisha just goes, "You know what? This whole thing is going to end. This entire famine is going to end, and a miracle is going to happen". But these guys don't know that. These guys have got no clue that this is going to happen. They don't know that the famine's going to end. They don't know that there's going to be provision for goods so they're just sitting there with what they do know. What they do know is that we are four of the most oppressed, marginalized, dispossessed disenfranchised people in our society. In fact, we're not even really considered human beings. That's how marginalized we are.
And those four lepers could have just sat there and said, "There's a famine in the land. The conditions are really bad". Man, the economy is really bad. Man, the education system is really bad. Society is really bad. The moral condition of our world is really bad. And we're just sitting here. In fact, I'm just going to sit here and it's so bad.
I think I'm just going to tweet about it. I think I'm just going to sit at the gate, and I'm just going to tweet about how bad it, actually no, I'm going to put a Facebook post. I think that's even better. Oh, I'm just going to sit at this gate and I'm just going to Facebook post about and in fact, I know I'm going to do an Insta story. Oh, I'm going to do an Insta story, please look at my gate. I'm just sitting at the gate. Can you please look at my gate? Look at the color of my gate? Could you just look at the texture of my gate? That's right, that's this is my gate. This is my prison. This is it, it's not my fault that I'm at this gate. I just get it but you know what, I'm just.
Until you get a sense that says, "I'm going to ask myself a question, why am I sitting here? Why am I sitting here until I die? I might be a leper but it doesn't mean that I can't get up and change my condition. Why am I allowing my condition to define me? Why am I gaining my identity from what happened to me? At what point am I going to make what Jesus did for me bigger than what they did to me? At what point am I going to make what Jesus did for me bigger than what they said about me? At what point am I going to believe that Jesus Christ came from heaven to earth, died on a cross and rose again from the dead so that I don't have to sit at the gate for the rest of my life, but that I can get up and move on beyond what God has for me and I can move into the future that he has for me. Why am I sitting here until I die? Why am I sitting here"?
Until we get to that place where we think I've got nothing to lose. I've got nothing to lose. So the king came to Elisha ready to kill him. And Elisha says, "I'm going to turn this whole thing around, I'm going to prophesy to you that the famine is going to be over, 24 hours from now, everything is going to change". But the deal is that the captain did not believe that that was going to happen, he was just like, "No, no, this cannot happen", in verse two. Then the captain, on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, "If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be"?
Cynicism will stop you from getting up and taking a risk. Cynicism will keep you at the gate, blogging about your problem, tweeting about your problem, talking about your problem, blaming the system for your problem, blaming everyone else for your problem. Cynicism will not allow you to get up and take responsibility for your future. See, the truth is none of us can change the past. Many of us cannot change the circumstances that got us sitting at the gate. The lepers couldn't change the fact that they were lepers.
That's what happened. But they did make a decision that their leprosy was not going to define them or limit them or limit their options for the future. They made a decision that I'm going to arise and I'm going to move into the future. I'm going to move into the city. I'm not going to allow this disposition to define my position, which is going to limit the future and the destiny that I have got.
Jesus Christ came from heaven to earth so you wouldn't have to sit at those gates of your life for the rest of your life. He came from heaven to earth so that you can get up and make a decision, "I'm not going to sit here anymore". But you've got to get to a place where you go, "You know what, I've got nothing to lose, I don't care".
Cause for some of us getting up is going to cost us friends. For some of us getting up is going to cost us our families. For some of us getting up is going to cost us certain of our support structures. For some of us getting up is going to mean that we're going to have to get healed from the inside out. For some of us getting up is going to cost us our comfort zones, it's going to cost us what we know best, it's going to cost us but until we get up, nothing changes, and nothing will change until you decide to change and until you decide to say I have got nothing to lose.
If I sit here in this place in life, nothing is ever going to change but I want things to change and Jesus came to bring change so I'm going to lay a hold of him and I'm going to move into the future that he has got from me. You do not have to be a product of your past. You do not have to be defined by what was done to you. You do not have to believe a limited and a contained and a small life. You can rise up and be who God's called you to be. You can rise up and do what God has called you to do. God has not called you to a small life. He's called you to a wide, expansive, open life full of blessings. Full of abundance.
God is an abundant God. Jesus came that we might have life and life more abundant. So many of us are not experiencing life 'cause we're sitting at the gate and we're just going through the motion, we are just existing. Jesus Christ did not come for you to exist. So the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy and that's often what gets us sitting at the gate. That's what his job profile is. But Jesus Christ came that we might have life and life more abundant. It's the will of God for you to get up and step into the purpose that he has for you. In Jesus name. In Jesus name. Hallelujah.
PART 2
Hey everyone, I'm so fired-up you are here. Thank you so much for joining us today. You know we're speaking about what it is to live a life where you think, what have I got to lose? So many of us, we live lives that are so far beneath all that God has for us. We live lives of containment. We live lives that are much, much smaller than what God wants because we try to control our life and we think, you know what? If I take a risk, I've got too much to lose.
I think of Nick and I we run the A21 Campaign around the world where we help to rescue the victims of human trafficking, and we're involved in every phase of that from reaching victims to rescuing victims, to restoring victims and so all around the world, 15 different countries, we're doing that. Now I started that ministry when I was 40-years-old. I had just popped out my second child, didn't quite pop out, but you know what I'm saying? Popped out my second child. I was not looking for something else to do in my life.
I mean, let me just tell you, when you have a child at 40 you deserve like a purple heart. You're not looking to start another ministry. But I really sense that it's what God wanted us to do. Well, you know, when I first started it, all the what-ifs were going through my head, I'm like, "Lord, I'm 40-years-old and I don't know anything about human trafficking. I don't know anything. I'm not educated in this. And Lord, this is like the Russian mafia and they kill people. And so this is over in Greece and I live in Australia and that's a really, really long way away".
I didn't know if God was good with his geography, you know? Did he understand how far this was? This was when Greece was on the verge of economic collapse. I'm like, "God, I don't even know how this is going to happen". This was in 2008 since then, Greece has personally bankrupted the planet and you're welcome. But you know, so, but back then though, it was like, how is this going to happen financially? Lord, how is this going to happen it's so far away. I don't have the knowledge to be able to do this. I don't have the skill to be able to do this.
But Nick and I had to come to a place where we thought, you know what? I might be 40-years-old, have two children, have a ministry already going around the world and teaching and preaching. But I didn't just sign up to be just a nice, comfortable, you know, Christian Bible teacher. I signed up to be a follower of Jesus and to go wherever he wanted me to go, to do whatever he wanted me to do. And I had to get to a place all over again at 40 and at that point, almost 20 years of following Jesus where I went, you know what? What have I got to lose?
What have I got, I'm going to step out of the boat and do this 'cause whatever I lose in the natural is nothing compared to what I'm going to gain spiritually, worse case scenario, I die. Well that's okay, I already died. I died to self and became alive to Christ. And so you cannot kill a dead person. If I'm already dead, then nothing, nothing could take me out. So we got to a place where Nick and I said, "okay, here we go. Let's jump and again, what have I got to lose"?
I remember when we started propel, it didn't make any sense by then. I'm in my late 40s I was already doing things all around the world, but just felt this conviction from the Lord, that it was time to start something to help women and help activate women to fulfill their leadership potential, and to fulfill their passion and their purpose in life. Well, here we are four or five years later, and we're in 80 countries and over 4.000 chapters and women.
But, you know, I had to get to a place all over again going, "well, what have I got to lose"? I could either stay comfortable now, I could either ride out the rest of my ministry life or I could keep taking risks. And until you get to that place where you go, you know what? If I stay here, nothing's going to change, if I stay. So it doesn't have to be a bad place that you stay in. Sometimes it's easier to step out of a bad place because everything looks good. What is harder is to step out of a comfortably good place in order to step into what it is that God has for us.
So many of us have stopped short of what God has because we have just bowed down to the idol of comfort and ease. It's like "this place is comfortable and God wants to bless me", and this is nice. And yes, God does want to bless you, but he wants to bless you so that you can be a blessing, so that you can help other people, so that you can reach out beyond yourself. What we are still on the earth God still has so much more for us.
If you woke up this morning and there was not a white Chalk Mark around your body, it means you're alive. It means heaven's not ready for you yet because you've still got an assignment here on earth, and therefore we have a responsibility to and to not think, "you know what? I've got too much to lose and so I'm not going to step out. I'm not going to advocate. I'm not going to help anyone because what about, what about my reputation? What if my friends leave me? What if my family doesn't talk to me anymore"?
We need to be people of faith that take risks of faith, that step up and into the purpose of God so we can fulfill the promise of God in our generation and establish the Kingdom of God here on earth. We got to be a people that decide, you know what? What have I got to lose? The minute that you start to get too comfortable, too complacent in our Christian walk, you will stop taking risks for Jesus and this side of eternity. Dare I say this is not the place to stop taking risks. When we get to heaven, honey, you can sleep for the first thousand years. It's okay. You can catch up on all your sleep, but a lot of us, our job is to bring heaven to earth, not like act like we're in heaven on earth.
I want you to hear that again. Our job is to bring heaven to earth, not act like we're in heaven on earth because we're not there yet. We're not there yet. We've got an assignment to do here so we cannot afford to get stuck here in a particular place. We've got to keep moving ahead with God.
Now this series, we're looking at the story of the four lepers in 2nd Kings chapter seven. How many know that you can learn lessons from everyone? And we can learn lessons from four lepers. Now, this time in history, lepers is with the most marginalized, the most disenfranchised group of any group. In fact, if you were walking down the street and you were a leper, you had to yell out leper coming, lepers coming so that people would cross and walk on other side of the street. You had no rights, no privileges.
And we are here now in Samaria, the capital of Northern Israel during a time of famine, and we are in the most potent time of this famine and there are four lepers that are sitting at the gate of Samaria. Now Samaria had been blocked off. It was under siege. There were at war with Aram, and what happened was the whole city was blocked off so that food supplies wouldn't go in or any other supplies wouldn't go in. So you could stop the people on the inside and then take them out.
And there were sitting at the gate to Samaria, four lepers. And in the text in 2nd Kings chapter seven verse three, it says, "Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, let us enter the city, the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also".
"So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live. And if they kill us, we shall but die. So they arose at twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there. For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so they said to one another. Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the Kings of the Hittites and the Kings of Egypt to come against us. So they fled away into the twilight and they abandoned everything".
I just love the way God shows up. I just loved the fact that there are four lepers that made a decision and they asked a question, why are we sitting here? And our big question in this series is where is it that you are sitting that you are stuck, that you need to ask a question? Because until you asked that question, nothing's ever going to change. You're going to continue to sit right where you are. You're going to sit in that dysfunction. You're going to sit in that addiction. You're going to sit in that pain. You're just going to continue to sit until you make a decision to say, why am I sitting here?
But at what point are you going to start to say, you know what? I can't change what brought me here, but I can ask the question. Why am I sitting here? Why am I sitting here until I die? I'm going to arise. Something happens when your posture changes because when you get up you see different possibilities. When you get up, you see a different landscape. See, when you're down here, all you see is the prison doors of the gate, and some of you, you've been sitting down for so long you haven't seen any kind of vision, any kind of hope, any kind of life. This has become your prison. This is how you see it.
Some of you, you've painted your prison doors, but you're still at the same doors. Some of you, you've stuck nice little pictures over your walls, but it's still the same prison doors, remodeling the prison doors isn't what Jesus came to do. He didn't come to remodel the prison door. He came to set the captive free. He came to bust open those prison doors so you can step into the fullness that he has got for you. So why are you sitting here? Why? Why, when Jesus has such a better path for you, such a better purpose for you, such a greater hope for you.
You don't have to sit here until you die. You don't have to let what they did to you define you. You don't have to let what mistakes you have made define you. You don't have to let this thing become a prison. There is a whole destiny and there is a whole future on the other side. But you've got to change your posture so that you can change your perspective. And Jesus came to give us the power to change our posture. You and I cannot get up on our own. You and I are not able to do this on our own. We need a God that is greater than us, but some of you, you've been sitting at the gate.
Look at these different kinds of gate, the gate of unbelief, you've sat there and that has kept you crippled and paralyzed. The gate of procrastination. How many of us are just thinking one day when, one day when. The gate of resignation. This is just how it's always going to be. It's always going to be like this. This is our different gate that we sit at the gate of indifference. You know what? I don't really care and I don't care about the rest of the world. I don't care about humanities. I'm just going to see, I'm comfortable. My life is good. I've got enough for me and I wonder whether that's one of the most selfish gates to sit at. I've just got enough for me and my family.
The gate of offense. Somewhere, someone did something that you got offended, you got offended and it has paralyzed you. It has crippled you. You're sitting at the gate. This is a big one for so many of us. The gate of shame, the gate where we are just bound. I lived at that gate for decades of my life, decades of my life. You know, in Genesis 2:25 the scripture says "Adam and Eve were naked and they knew no shame". God created us to not know what shame was. He created us to not know what shame was, and the enemy because he hates us heaps shame upon us so that we will live limited and contained and small lives.
It's a huge one, the gate of disappointment, for so many of us we live at that gate. We stay at that gate. We once trusted God. We once believed God, but we were disappointed. And what we've actually done is we've confused what other people did to us and we blamed God for what other people did to us. So God said, "He would never leave us nor forsake us". And we've confused what God said with the person that left us or forsook us. And our disappointment in people, or our disappointment in systems, or our disappointment in things, we have transferred that disappointment onto God and we have just sat at the gate of disappointment and we haven't dared to trust God again.
We haven't dared to take that risk of faith again. We haven't dared to say, you know what? What if I got to lose, I'm going to have a go somewhere along the line. And for some of us, it was a disappointment from 20 years ago, and that disappointment from 20 years ago has kept us sitting at this gate, paralyzed and crippled when God has all this future for us, but we're sitting at the gate limited, contained, imprisoned by disappointment or maybe a big one for so many of us failure.
The gate of failure, somewhere along the line we failed. We said, I do at the altar and we actually didn't stay faithful. Well, maybe we tried to do something in a business deal, but it went bad and we failed. Maybe somewhere we stepped out in a business enterprise and somewhere along the line it just collapsed. Or we just let ourselves down we said we were going to come through for someone and we didn't and we just failed, and somewhere along the line we've allowed that one failure or those 10 failures to define us, and we've just sat at the gate and go, well, I'm just a loser. I'm just a failure. I tried that once it didn't work. I stepped out once, but that didn't work. Man, I did that and I made a mistake and man, you should've seen what happened.
And just that one fail we sit at the gate for our entire life because of a mistake we made, when scripture tells us that "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us, that if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". I've come to your television screen today to remind you there is nothing that you have done that is too big for God to forgive, that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all. And that would all in the Greek, in the Hebrew and the Aramaic means all. He cleanse us from all sin. There is nothing that you have done, that God cannot forgive.
And we sit at that gate or perhaps the gate of our own limitations. Wow, man, we've got a list of those don't we? We know what we can't do? We feel that God has asked us to do something but we're like, God, you don't know what I can't do. I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. God, I'm not educated enough. God, I don't know the right people and it's like God's never got, oh, I had no idea. I'm so glad you told me. I had no idea and we allow limitations rather than trusting that our God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above and beyond anything that we could ever ask, hope or think. We just sit at the gate of our limitation.
Man, if I did that, there would be no way A21. I didn't know anything I was doing. I had no idea what I was doing with A21 when I first started. I have grown to where I needed to go. I took one risk and it led to another risk and it led to another risk. And off we went. And now here we are in 15 countries and thousands of people rescued, and dozens of traffickers in jail, and people being set free. But you know what? If I just rested on my limitation, there would be no A21 today.
If I just kept listing my limitations, there would be no propel. If I knew my natural limitations, I am not the most likely. Do you know when I started in Bible school and I gave my first message in our chapel, the dean of the Bible school, said Christine Caryofyllis 'cause that was my name before it was Caine. Christine Caryofyllis, after that effort, nobody will ever have you go and preach for them. That was so bad. I know, I know. But you know, here I am today. But the point is, if I was looking at my own limitations, I would never be doing that.
Fear, how many of us never step out because of fear? I mean, we could start with our list of what ifs. What if, what if, what if, what if? We have to get to a place where we make what we know about God bigger than what we don't know about the future. Some of us are like, what is it going to cost? What's going to happen? Some of us we sit at the gate of our addiction forever. Jesus Christ came to set us free. I want you to know if you're watching this and you're struggling with an addiction, I want you to get some help because there are great, great organizations that can help you in the natural and Jesus Christ in the spiritual can come and help break the chain of addiction.
Just because there's always been addiction in your family doesn't mean there has to be forever. Jesus Christ came to set us free and he whom the son sets free is free indeed. You don't have to live bound for the rest of your life. You can arise, and I encourage you to get great help. There are wonderful Christian counseling organizations that can help you, and I believe in a holistic approach to freedom. Jesus Christ can set us free spiritually. We can have medical help to help us get free emotionally and psychologically, and I'm like, use it all. Thank God for it all. God can use it all, but you don't have to sit at this gate for the rest of your life.
The gate of anger. Whoa, this is a big one in our society today. How many of us are just venting and so angry? There's so much chaos. There's so much divisiveness in our world today, and there comes a point where we have to say, I'm not going to sit at this gate of anger. I'm going to go and deal and get help with my anger issues, and I'm going to allow the Spirit of God to come and bring healing and wholeness in those places in my life. So many of us are crippled at this gate because of anger, anger, unresolved issues from our past that we have never dealt with, and that anger is keeping us locked at that gate. Perhaps negativity, that spirit of negativity that says nothing.
It's just like the captain in the army. Oh, that can't happen. And a whole lot of us we have put limits on God, not because God can't do it, but because we don't for God to do it. And so that negativity is keeping us locked at the gate. Bitterness is a huge one. Some of us have drunk of that cup of bitterness, and the Bible says that root of bitterness will not only defile you, but it defiles many. And when I look at what's happening across the landscape of the world, there is a root of bitterness that is defiling many around the planet and it's keeping us locked at this gate.
And strong cousin to bitterness is unforgiveness, and that unforgiveness is keeping us locked at the gate and friend, whether it's unbelief or procrastination or resignation or indifference or offense or shame or disappointment or failure or limitations or fear. Addictions, anger, negativity, bitterness, or unforgiveness. I'm here to tell you, you don't have to sit at that gate when you make a decision that says, why should I sit here? You've sat at that gate long enough. It's time to get up, to believe God, to be set free and stepping into the fullness of what God has for you, in Jesus name. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
PART 3
Hey everyone, I am so glad that you have joined us today. Thank you so much for tuning in. You have picked the right program to tune into. We are talking about what it is to take risks, to rise up and not just settle for where you are in life. I want to remind you right at the outset of this program that Jesus Christ loves you, that he's got a great plan, purpose and destiny for your life. I don't know where you find yourself right now in life, but I want you to know that wherever you are, you don't have to stay there. In and through a relationship with Jesus Christ, you can step into the abundant, passionate, purpose-driven life, that you were created to live.
God did not call you to sit in the gates of life a victim of your circumstances, but you can rise up into the promise that he has for your life. We've been talking in this series, and we're summing up today on what it is to not sit at the gate that keeps us limited, contained, like a prison cell in our life. We've looked at the life of four lepers that we have found in the book of 2 Kings. I'm just going to go there in 2 Kings chapter seven. The Bible says in verse three, now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance of the gate.
This was the entrance to the gate of Samaria, lepers in this time in history were the most marginalized, the most oppressed, the most disenfranchised people group of any people group. And so they were lying at the gate and there was a siege in Samaria, there was a great famine in the land. Elisha, the prophet, had just prophesied, "You know what, this famine is about to end", but these guys did not know that yet. And, I mean, this place was full of injustice and famine.
In fact, we read it just the chapter before this, that people were buying and eating donkey's heads, and two mothers were, you know, one child was boiled alive and then was eaten. They had reverted to cannibalism. I mean, things were very dark and despondent. So in the midst of this scenario, there are four lepers that are the most marginalized people group sitting at the gate, and the Bible goes on and they said to one another, "Why are we sitting here until we die"? It's such an important question, it's the question of this whole series, "Why am I sitting here until I die? Why am I just accepting this as my lot in life"?
If we say let us enter the city, the famine is in the city and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we'll live, and if they kill us, we shall but die. So these dudes were incredible philosophers as well as everything else. So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. And the Bible says when they came to the camp, the Syrian army, the Syrians had fled. They had left everything. God had made it sound like there was a huge army and chariots, I mean, we're talking four lepers, they were kind of limping, limbless into this place. But God intervened. When they arose, God turned up. And God created a miracle, literally. And so then these Syrians, these lepers then went into the camp and they were able to get food and drink and a whole lot of different assets. I mean, God had created a miracle.
So here is the deal, for all of us, God has a spiritual Promised Land. God has more for us to partake of. If we're still alive on the earth, if we woke up this morning and we're still alive, it means life has not ended. So many of us are just living kind of a very mediocre life, like we're just existing. Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go. I get up, and I go to work, and I come home, and I have dinner, and I watch TV, and I go to sleep, and repeat the next day, and repeat the next day. We just exist rather than live.
In fact, you've tuned in today, and that's exactly how you've been feeling, like your life is just an existence. Friends, you were created for more than existing. Jesus said I came that you might have life and life more abundant. You didn't come just to exist, you came to earth to know God and you know God in and through a relationship with Jesus Christ, it's Jesus that connects us to God. It's Jesus that connects us to the grace of God and Jesus that connects us to the purpose of God.
Friend, when you find Jesus, you find life, you find hope, you find purpose, you find destiny. You were not created just to exist, and go through the motions of life. Where we found these four lepers, they were sitting there. And you know what, we can find ourselves in life just sitting at the gate. And we have a list of so many different gates, the gate of unbelief, so many people sit there, not believing God. You're a Christian, you're in church your whole life. You go to church every Sunday, you can recite our father, you know what the apostle's creed is, you even know the 66 books of the Bible that you learned in VBS. And you can go from Genesis to Revelation.
Some of us still have to look at the index, but you know it all, and you're awesome. But you haven't believed God, ever. You don't believe that he is who he says he is, or that he can do what he says he can do. You go, "Yes I do, Chris". You might intellectually affirm certain doctrines about God, but when was the last time you stepped out to believe God? When was the last time you stepped out to believe him? We are not going to convince an unsaved world that our God is real if we dare not believe God ourselves. Why would they believe God? We want them to believe in God and God says, "I want you to do more than just believe in me, I want you to believe me".
There is a very big difference between believing in God and believing God. Even the devil believes in God. Oh, he knows there's a God. There is no issue. It's no big deal if you go, "Well, you know, I believe there's a God". Well so does Satan. That's awesome, that's not going to get us very far. We need people that believe God, that have surrendered our hearts and our lives to him, heart, mind, soul. Where we go, "You know what, I am trusting you, I have no plan B. What have I got to lose"? Nothing, why am I sitting here until I die? I'm going to get up and into the purpose that God has for me.
A lot of us fall into the category of the gate of procrastination. Oh yeah, I'm going to get to that tomorrow. And I know that God's dealing with me with this issue, but I'm going to get to it tomorrow. Do you know how many destinies have been sacrificed on the altar of tomorrow? Because when you wake up tomorrow, guess what day it is, today, there is no other day, there's just today. Because tomorrow is today. So unless you do it today, there'll never do it tomorrow for you to do something else tomorrow today, because you've only got today. Literally. "I'll get to that".
When I get married, I'm going to do that for God, or, you know, when I get a better a job or when I get more money, or when I get, when I, when I, when I, when I, when I, and then you come to die and you discover that you never lived. And that's where a whole lot of people are going to be. Most of us are dead before we die, and the thing that kills us is all of this unused life that we carry around. All of this unused potential that we carry around. Because we're just procrastinating.
One day when, God. Or we just resign ourself, "This is just how it's always going to be. This is just how it is". It's the Doris day philosophy "Que sera sera", whatever will be will be. The future's not ours to see, que sera. I'm like, "Doris, I loved you, but you're wrong". You don't have to resign yourself. This is how it's always going to be. I could've been that person, the kid that was left in a hospital, unnamed and unwanted, the kid that was sexually abused for 12 years, the kid that grew up in government housing in the poorest zip code. I could've been, "Well, you know what, this is just my lot in life".
But somewhere along the line, 30 years ago, I encountered Jesus Christ, I had a radical encounter with the living resurrected God, and he rose again. And because he rose again, I found resurrection life in him. And because of that resurrection life, my past did not need to define my future. My history did not need to define my destiny. This might have been where I was at that point, but Jesus Christ came to take me beyond that point into the future and the destiny that he has for me. Same Jesus that did it for me is able to do it for you. You do not have to stay where you are. You can move into the future that Jesus Christ has for you.
What is worth all of this? What is worth this kind of imprisonment in your life when Jesus came for freedom? Galatians chapter five, verse one. It is for freedom that Christ set us free, not for us to sit at the gate. But here's the deal, the lepers, the Bible says then the lepers arose. Getting up is painful. Man, when you've been in this posture, sitting at the gate, you sit for enough years, the muscles required to get up, ow, is very painful. Anybody that's gone to a gym, when you get down from a squat to get up, ouch, 'cause it's a whole lot of different muscles.
Standing up is really uncomfortable when you've been sitting down all your life. It's really painful when you've been sitting down, 'cause it's a whole lot of different muscles. I never use these. To hold my back up straight, to hold my head up high, now that's not the posture I assumed when I was sitting. When I was sitting my muscles went into atrophy, and so many Christians, our muscles are in atrophy that we actually don't know how to use our spiritual muscles because we haven't been using them, we have just relented to the prison of all of these issues. Rather than going, "In Christ, I can be free". That means I have to arise out of it, to use different muscles, to assume a different posture which gives me a different perspective.
And some of us, the reason we're not seeing anything different is 'cause we're still sitting here. We're still sitting here looking at things from the same perspective, the same view, and we are crippled and paralyzed. And instead of this thing being a gateway to our destiny, it becomes a prison to our past. And so many of us are imprisoned in our gates to our past, rather than seeing these as a doorway to our future.
You know, when I snapped my ACL and tore my MCL and meniscus when I went on a ski trip and I tried, you know, the scripture that says, in the Proverbs that pride comes before a fall, well I lived that, that's what I did. I was very prideful, and I fell and damaged everything. Well here is the deal that my leg had developed a lot of scar tissue. And so the PT had to work on my knee to break that scar tissue.
Now that scar tissue was to protect me, that's how it forms. And that's what happens in our hearts, when we sit at this gate with all of these issues in our life, scar tissue begins to develop around our spiritual hearts, and it becomes hard. And when it becomes hard, you can't move, you don't feel any more. You don't have compassion any more, you don't have love any more, you don't have faith any more. You don't believe God any more, because your spiritual arteries have gone hard.
That's what happened to my knee. That's exactly what, I had the scar tissue. And so the PT had the come in and begin to break the scar tissue, do you know how painful that is? It was so painful. Ask anybody that's ever had to have rehab, after a surgery where scar tissue has developed, and the whole goal of the PT is to break the scar tissue, that's what it's like. And it is agony. In fact, breaking the scar tissue was more painful than the injury that I had in the first place. It was more painful than falling over on the ski slopes in the first place, was dealing with the scar tissue.
And why a lot of us are content with sitting at the gate is because we don't want to deal with the scar tissue in our life. When the Holy Spirit comes in like a surgeon and says, "I'm going to deal with that bitterness, and that shame and that guilt and that offense and that hurt, we're going to deal with it". We'd rather go, "You know what, I think I'll just sit at the gate till I go to heaven. I'm just going to sit here, I'm saved. Praise God, I'm in Christ". But the fact is, your whole purpose and destiny is on the other side of the gate. The miracles you're believing God for, they're on the other side of the gate.
Now, the lepers would never have seen the miracle of God making it sound like there was chariots and horses and a whole army. They could have 10 prophetic words about it, but it would never have happened if they didn't get up. Some of you are waiting for prophecies to come to pass over your life, but while you're sitting at the gate, it's never going to come to pass. You got to get up so that God will show up. And then when God shows up, God does what only God can do. And so the issue is so many of us, what we want in our life is we pray, oh, we pray, God, I want signs, I want wonders, I want to see miracles. And then we just avoid any kind of context that would need a sign or a wonder or a miracle.
We're like, "Oh no, I don't want to take a risk". And God's like, "How do you expect me to show up if you don't get up and take a risk? If you don't get up and step into the promise that I have for you"? And you know what, if you're not going to get up for yourself, I wonder if you would get up for the generations that are going to come after you. So, yes, changing our posture, it's painful. Yes, getting the scar tissue dealt with is painful.
But remember when the guys, the four lepers went into the camp and the scripture tells us, very powerfully, that in 2 kings 7:8 to 11 when these diseased men came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent to eat and drink. Then they picked up the silver, gold and clothing and went off and hid them. They came back and entered another tent, picked up things, and hid them. Then they said to each other, "What we are doing is not right. Today is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until morning, our punishment will catch up with us. So let's go tell the king's household".
Here is the deal, that what we're doing is not right, keeping just this just for us is not right, this is good news, we've got to go and tell everybody else. I wonder, friend, if you found freedom in Christ, if you have gotten up, I wonder, you know what, have you gone and shared that with other people or are you just keeping it to yourself? Our Christianity was never meant to be kept in a holy huddle all to ourselves. Our Christianity isn't all about us and for ourselves, we are here to proclaim good news to a lost and a broken world. While you're sitting at a gate, there is no way that you can bring good news to everyone else.
If you're not being good news, how can you bring good news? If you are still bound by these things, how is the world going to see that Jesus Christ sets us free. The greatest testimony you can be is a free you, so that you can free others to be who God's called them to be. The testimony isn't just that God delivered and healed me from my abuse. But not only that, he now uses me to help other victims of abuse and sex trafficking around the world. So not only did God set me free, but now he allows me to open up the prison doors for those that are still bound behind me, and that is the great news of the Gospel. It's not just about me, and it's not just about you. Will you do it for the generations that are to come after you? I challenge you today to get up, not just for you, but there are other people on the other side of your obedience, waiting for you to get up.
You know, I was speaking at a conference in England, and I went into a genealogy store, because my husband, my husband is number 14 of 15 children. And there was like no television in that part of Australia, obviously. They weren't watching it, and so what happened was his last name's Caine, he came from British stock, and I was so excited, because this was at the time of the royal wedding, and I thought, "Unreal, if, maybe I'm going to find out that Nick is related to royalty, and maybe I'll get an invitation to the royal wedding. Or, you know, maybe I can become the godmother to the royal baby, or maybe we've got our own Downton Abbey somewhere that's ours. You know, maybe Nick is a Lord or a baron or a knight", and I was like so pumped up. Thinking, "This is going to be awesome".
So I go in and I type in the name Caine. Now, well I'm waiting for Lord, baron, knight, you know, something awesome, it spits out the name Caine and then it's got the whole history. And the whole history is like pirates, convicts, criminals, murderers, okay? So it's like, you know, they came out on the first fleet, that's how we got to Australia, they were like convicts. And I just started laughing, because I was imagining the family tree. And I'm looking at it on one side, and on Nick's side, there is the family tree and, you know, there's convicts. And nothing's going to ever change that. That's exactly, it's always going to be that, that's what it is.
And then I was thinking on my side, where there is abuse and there is abandonment, and adoption and, you know, just pain and addiction and divorce, and all of these negative things, and I thought, "Nothing is going to change that either, that's exactly how it's always going to be". And then I started to smile, because I started to think, "Imagine when my daughters and my grandchildren, they going to go in and they going to type in in some genealogy shop the name Caine".
Now, what it's going to spit out, initially, the history, nothing's going to be able to change that. On this side they're going to see, you know, pirates and convicts and criminals. And on this side, they're going to see, you know, abuse and adultery and fornication and addiction and divorce. Then, then they're going to see on the 30th of March, 1996, Nicholas Joseph Caine marries Holy Ghost terrorist, Christine Caine. And then what they're going to see is that at that point everything changed.
Before that, it's all the same. Crime and violence and convicts and abuse and adultery and fornication, and addiction and divorce, but then all of a sudden, 30th of March 1996, they're going to see everything shifted, because Nick and I, we drew a bloodline in the sand and we said, "Guess what, with us it stops. With us addiction stops, with us abuse stops, with us adultery stops, with us divorce stops, with us it stops". Because we made a decision to get up and step into the future that Jesus Christ has for us.
I couldn't change what got me to the gate, but in and through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, I could get up from the gate and move into the future that Jesus Christ has for me. The same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives on the inside of you and on the inside of me. Therefore, the question for every single one of us is why am I sitting here until I die, when Jesus Christ has given me a hope and a future and a purpose? Don't let our gates become our prison. Let them become our doorway into the future that Jesus Christ has for us. Amen? Amen. Amen. You all are awesome.