Christine Caine - Do Not Drift
Let's do a quick check in. Have you felt a little rudderless? Like life is pulling you along? It's so easy to drift through our days, relationally, spiritually, sometimes we just get off course. We get consumed by the routine tasks, and neglect what our lives really need. But we don't made to be drifters. I'm here to remind you that God's plan is for you to lead a life of purpose, a life anchored to him. I'm Christine Caine, and I have a personal mission, to "Equip & empower" people like you, to connect with your God given purpose and potential. I am so glad you're joining us today. Let's dive right into the message.
Hello everyone! I am so glad that you joined us on the other side of the screen. I don't believe it's an accident that you've tuned in today. I know that God has a word for you. Now, you know, when I was growing up, as you can tell with my accent, my very refined Aussie accent, that I grew up in Sydney, Australia, and we used to go on vacation, about an hour north to a place called Umina. Now, if you've never, ever been to the Central Coast of Australia, on the East Coast, you've got to come, it's worth coming to Australia period, but it's worth coming for our beaches. I mean they are awesome. But my parents would take us up.
Now, of course in Australia, our summer is during December, January, February. So it's kind of reversed to the northern hemisphere. And we would go up for summer holidays. It was school holidays over Christmas. And you know, now I live in America, so no one can believe that we actually have summer. We, you know, we used to have to change the words to bing Crosby's, "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas". It was literally a dream for us in Australia. It wasn't like real at all. But anyway, we'd go up on holidays, and we would always go, I don't know why my parents did this, but we would always go to the same holiday house.
And it was during the week of summer holidays, when there was this thing called, like pelican itch in the water. All the pelicans would migrate to Umina, and so my mother would take us up, knowing we were going to get pelican itch, have the bottle of calamine lotion, and so we'd swim in the day, and like we'd be full of pink calamine lotion all night. And I'm thinking, "Like really, we couldn't have gone another week"? But anyway, we went with the pelicans. But what would happen was there would always be this very strong undertow, when we would go up, and my dad would always go, "Kids, I need you to pay attention. I need you to watch where you're swimming, because the undertow is so strong, it could take you out".
So he would put, now we were Greek, so, you know, wherever we go, if you've seen "My big fat Greek wedding", that is my big fat Greek life. And so we were as loud and as obnoxious as you could actually imagine. And so we would have the most colorful umbrella, like every color of the rainbow, was on this beach umbrella, and all these colorful beach towels. And my dad would put the umbrella on one side, and then he put the towels on the other, and he'd say, "Every few minutes, when you're out in the water, I want you to look up, and I want you to look at these Markers. I want you to look at the bright umbrella. I want you to look at the bright towels, to make sure that you stay between those Markers. If you can't see the umbrella, and if you can't see the towel, then you know that you have drifted out with the current, because the undertow is so strong".
Now being kids, how many think we looked up at the umbrella, or how many think we looked at the... And so we would just do nothing. And before, you know, maybe an hour later, we'd look up and we'd be right up, you know, another hour up the coast, and just having drifted. Now we know the dangers of drifting. You know, you go into the ocean, it says strong currents. And we all have to be very careful, 'cause the wind and the currents can take you out. And really, all you have to do to drift is nothing. Just nothing, you just kind of like, are having fun.
Well, I remember, when we were setting up A21, in Thessaloniki, Greece, a friend of ours had a boat. And I mean, you know, they said, "Do you want to go out on the Mediterranean"? I'm like, "Here I am, Lord send me. I will suffer for the Lord on the Greek Mediterranean". So it was just like a little boat, and it was a fishing boat, but he said, "Let's just go out and go swimming". And so we went out, and Phil, who runs all of our global A21 operations, was with us. And, you know, I love to go on a boat, to do nothing else than just lay in the sun. I believe it is the will of God, in Christ Jesus, that I meditate and focus, with my eyes closed, while I'm on the boat.
So Nick, I heard Nick say to Phil, "Hey Phil, drop the anchor". And you know, I wasn't even thinking about it, because I was praying for the nations, and the world, while I, with my eyes closed. But about half an hour later, we just felt this major like bump, and I nearly fell off, like into the water. And our boat had hit another boat. Like, not in a bad way, but it had just drifted all the way in and just, you know, hit another boat that had been moored there. And I just started laughing, because Phil's like, "I dropped the anchor"! And Nick's like, "Yes Phil, but did you check that the anchor actually got down, into the bottom of the sea bed to hold"? And he goes, "I just threw it overboard, and you know, it just kind of went there".
Now, unless you are firmly anchored, that boat's going to drift, it makes no difference. And so in both of those cases, as kids, I remember drifting. I remember with Phil hitting the boat, and neither of those things were intentional. We didn't intend to drift when we were swimming. We didn't intend to drift on that boat, but because the anchor hadn't gone down, and because we hadn't checked our markers, in both cases, we had drift.
And drifting is kind of the default setting of life. It just is, what do you have to do to drift? Nothing. You know, I'm a woman and I'm Greek, and so I got part of the gene that means we have a lot of facial hair. So the only thing I have to do to have a monobrow is like nothing, like nothing. I don't have to do anything. And you know, you don't pay any attention to your eyebrows, and guess what? Yes, that's right, the monobrow. I am Greek in the midst of all of that. What do you have to do to get unhealthy? Like just nothing, don't pay attention to your health. And your default setting is that you'll be unhealthy. How do you get unfit? It's nothing, you just do nothing. Just sleep a lot, sit on the couch a lot, eat potato chips, and you will not be healthy. In order to basically drift from anything, you just don't have to do anything.
Now you have to pay a lot of attention, if you want to stay healthy, if you want to stay fit, if I want my marriage to flourish, what am I going to do? I'm going to pay attention to my marriage. All I have to do for Nick and I to grow apart is nothing. Nothing, don't talk to him. Don't call him. Don't pay attention. Just go through the routine. All I have to do to have no relationship with my daughters is nothing. It's not hard work to drift out of relationship. I just don't have to pay any attention to them. How do my friendships fall apart? Same thing, by doing nothing. You just have to do nothing, and suddenly, you won't have friends. It's not like you have to do something bad not to have them, you just have to simply do nothing. And it works through life.
How do you get into debt? Well, you know what? You just don't pay attention to your finances. Spend more than you earn. And just like live a life that has no responsibility or accountability. And we could go through every single thing in life, and we know that the way that we drift, in our health, in our finances, in our fitness, in our spiritual life, is by simply doing nothing, by neglecting to do the things that we should do, will result in us drifting away, from being where we should be, in order to flourish in life.
And as you can tell, this, in this series, we're going to be talking a lot about what it takes not to drift in life, because the natural default setting is that we would drift. You might have just turned on the television right now. And you're hearing about boats, and anchors, and swimming in the ocean in Australia, and you're wondering, "What has this got to do with anything"?
Well, we're going to go to the book of Hebrews, where the writer to the Hebrews talks a lot about drifting, and you and I are living in an era where the currents and the winds are very strong, in our society, and in our culture. And if we, as the people of God, do not make a decision, that we're going to pay very careful attention, lest we too drift, we are going to stay focused. We want to follow Jesus Christ. We want to flourish in life. And in order to do that, we have to make sure that we are going to stay focused on the main thing, we're going to keep the main thing the main thing, because if we do not, the storms, the winds, the currents, are going to cause us to drift off track, and not fulfill our purpose.
We put our anchor down deep. We are fully embedded in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in his word, so that we do not drift. We want to be a people of God, that help our world to see that there is a better way, there is a higher way. His name is Jesus, he saves, he delivers, he redeems, he restores, he heals. Jesus is the only way, but we, the people of God, have got to make sure we haven't drifted from the things of God, if we're going to pull other people into the purpose of God, for their lives. So I want you to turn with me to the book of Hebrews chapter 2. I love this book of the Bible.
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 2, therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape, if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord. And it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders, and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will. I mean, we could just keep reading. But I love here, I love the whole book of Hebrews. And I think it's both a timeless, and a timely book. It's a book for our day, and the day in which we live, a time and an era where the world just seems to be spiraling out of control.
Have you just noticed how cray cray the world is? I mean, it's just cray. I don't think it could get cray crayer, but it has got cray crayer. And I'm like, just when I think, like how much crazier can it get? Whoa, there it goes. And you know, a lot of us are waking up every day, going, "Okay, how do we navigate all of this"? How do we navigate the shifting winds, the shifting currents? It seems everything's changing, morality is changing. Everything in every sphere of life is changing. And so the fact is that there is a cost to being a Christian, but the truth is the writer to the Hebrews is saying that cost is worth it, because of Jesus. Let's establish all of this. Jesus is the reason why I'm doing it. I'm not doing this for a lifestyle. I'm not doing this just so I can be popular. I'm not doing this so that I can be cool. I'm doing this because Jesus Christ is worthy. He came from heaven to earth. He died on a cross. He rose again from the dead, and he is worthy of all of my honor. He is worthy of all of my praise. He is worthy of whatever I'm going through.
So the writers of the Hebrew says, let's begin with the unmatched worthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the unsurpassed greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is supreme, he is great, he is above everything, and so because of him, because of him, therefore, in the midst of that, we're going to pay much closer attention. Jesus is worthy, the Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews 6:19, that Jesus is this anchor that we have. He is an anchor. He is this hope we have as an anchor for our soul. Jesus is the hope, that hope anchors us, in times of incredible winds, and currents, and change, and torment and all of the stuff that's happening in our society, all of the shifts, socially, and morally, politically, environmentally, and it seems like, man, if you get on social media, you're almost scared to stick your head in there, because everyone's yelling at everyone.
And I'm like, "Yo, Jesus reads Twitter, be careful". Anyway, so I'm like God is sweet. Some of this is like insane, with what is going on. Insane. So Jesus is this hope we have, because listen, if your hope is in people, they will let you down. If your hope is in things, you can lose things. I mean, I turn on the TV, and you see a different natural disaster, one after the other, people's houses gone, people's assets gone, I mean, overnight, we could lose everything materially. Don't put your hope in material possessions. It's okay to have stuff. Make sure stuff doesn't have you, because stuff can go. Stuff goes.
So, so many of us, our hope is either in our career, or in our accomplishments, or the things that we've accumulated, and our positions and our titles, or maybe the friendships that we have, or where we were educated, or who we know, or how high our bank account is. Can I just tell you that stuffs fleeting, that stuff is just going to fall away. That stuff is not going to last, that's just temporal. It's not eternal. Jesus is this hope we have. Jesus is this hope we have. Everything else can change overnight. People change, you change overnight.
Now, I know you think you're the fourth part of the Trinity, and you are like perfect. But I just need to ask your friends, or your spouse. None of us is perfect, no matter how good we are. Sometimes, you know, I don't even agree with myself by the time I got to bed from what I said in the morning. I'm like, thank God that Jesus is this hope we have. The Bible tells us that he is the same yesterday, today and forever. You know, as I've watched the craziness of the world over the last three years, I've never been more grateful that Jesus is the same. Jesus is the same, because I don't know what else I can trust. Because some people that said they were going to be the same, they weren't, they walked out. Some of you know what that's like.
A spouse that committed at the altar to stay with you forever, and you know what? They walked out, they left. This was going to be the job. These people were in a business agreement with you, and you know what, they just walked away. They cheated on you, they betrayed you. And so a lot of us have lived enough life to be disappointed, or disillusioned, or discouraged with people. And we see that people change, circumstances change, the economy changes, the weather changes. Plans change, our diaries change. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. What a beautiful thing to know that Jesus is the same, that he loves you, that he's got a plan, and a purpose, and a destiny for your life, that he will never leave you, that he will never forsake you.
As you're sitting there in your lounge room right now, someone might've just walked out, and you're wondering what are you going to do? You're sitting there, you've got your kids. You're wondering what is going to happen. I don't believe you're watching this by accident. God wants you to know that he sees you. He's got a plan to turn this situation around. Don't limit God, God is bigger than what you could imagine. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all of your ways acknowledge him, and he will, he will, he will direct your paths, he will direct your path, and give you a way forward in the midst of all of that. But there's something extremely comforting about Jesus not changing. Something extremely, now because Jesus doesn't change doesn't mean we don't change.
I remember I was at a conference in Australia, and I was about to speak, it was a pastors and leaders conference. And I said to one of the pastor's wives, I said, "How are all the churches going? And all of the leaders in this part of Australia"? And I'll never forget it. She looked at me, and she said, "Well, you know what, Christine, the churches and the leaders down here, they're a little bit like God. They are the same yesterday, today and forever". And I thought, it's okay for God to be the same yesterday, today and forever, but not us. We ought to be changing, we ought to be growing. We ought to be becoming more like him. We ought to be being conformed and transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.
But I'll never forget that day, where it was like, okay, church hasn't had a new idea for 30 years. That's not what we're talking about. But in a world of shifting currents, and a world of great, great change, it is so important that we know that Jesus is this anchor. I want to know if you're anchored in Christ today? Or like Phil, have you just sort of thrown the anchor overboard? "Yeah, I go to church. Yeah, I read the Bible. Yeah, you know, I've got some Christian friends. I go to a Christian, I watch Christian TV. I listen to Christian music". But just throw the anchor out, but you go, "Hang on, is this grounded in Jesus though"?
'Cause if this is not grounded in Jesus, you're not going to make it. You're not going to make it. Going to church is not enough, in and of itself. Reading the Bible is not enough, in and of itself. Hanging out with Christian friends, in and of itself is not enough. Jesus didn't come to create a Christian subculture. He came that we would follow him, into a lost and a broken world. And unless we are anchored in him, we will be swept away by the currents, and the winds of this lost and broken world.
Jesus said, "I want you to be in it, not of it". We are of no use to a lost and a broken world, if we become the same as the world. We ought to be different to the world. Now I'm not talking about being spiritual fruit loops, that are just weirdos. I'm not talking about being a spiritual weirdo. But I am saying there's a different spirit about us. There's a spirit of love. There's a spirit of grace. There's a spirit of compassion. There's a spirit of mercy. We are different. We are peacemakers.
I wonder if that's what it's like in your home. I wonder if you're the peacemaker in your home, or you're the peace destroyer in your home. I wonder if you're the one that brings love into your home. I wonder if you're the one that brings grace and mercy, can someone do something wrong, and you forgive them? Are you able to let go of offenses, or do you hold on? Is your spouse paying for something someone else did to you 20 years ago? Are your kids dealing with unresolved issues in your own life, because you've hung onto bitterness, or you've hung on to unforgiveness, or you've hung onto things, and then you're just transferring that down the line.
See, you and I are called to have a different spirit. The Lord said of Caleb, he said, "Because my servant Caleb, had a different spirit in him, I caused him to go in and inherit the land". If you and I are going to inherit the promises of God, in our generation, we've got to have a different spirit in us. If we're going to be in this world, but not of this world, we've got to have a different spirit in us. And we've got to remember that greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world. We do not have to succumb to the current of the age. You know, I don't accept it from my daughters, when they come home from school, "Well mom, everyone did it". I have become my mother.
You know, I grew up in Sydney. So when I would say to my mom, you know, "All the other kids are doing it". She said, "So if all the other kids would jump off the Harbour Bridge, would you jump off the Harbour Bridge"? I've become that mother to my children. "So if all the other kids would run across the 405 Freeway, you would do that"? We don't have to do it just because everybody else is doing it, but it takes tenacity, it takes strength, it takes fortitude, it takes courage. It takes a sense of conviction to go against the flow.
Listen, even a dead fish can swim downstream. It takes people full of the Spirit of God, and the life of God, to go against the current of the age, to bring life and hope and mercy to a lost and a broken generation. God has not called us to go with the flow. He's called us to go against the flow, but not to do it out of judgment, and condemnation and fear, but to do it out of love, and grace, and compassion, and mercy. He wants us to go into the world, and to do amazing, amazing, good works for his glory. He says, "Let your light so shine, that men might see your good works and do what"? Glorify your Father in heaven, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name.
PART 2
Hey, everyone! I am so grateful that you're here. I am so grateful that you've tuned in today. I know that God has a word for you today, and I am just fired up that you've joined us. We're talking in this series about the power of making sure that we stay anchored so we don't drift. Remember I was talking about when I was on holidays in Australia, my dad would put a beach umbrella on one side and a beach towel on the other side, and we would go swimming. And there was this huge under tow.
My dad would get up and say check your markers. Make sure you check your markers because if you don't check your markers you are going to inadvertently drift, and the default setting in life for every single one of us is just that we are going to drift. And people go, what do you have to do to drift? Nothing. That's all you have to do. Nothing. If you do nothing in your marriage, you'll drift apart. Your relationships will drift apart. You won't flourish in your workplace. You'll just drift away from your purpose if you just do nothing. And of course because I'm Greek I have to give the example that if I do nothing to my eyebrows, I'll get a mono brow. Just do nothing. That's all that it takes and you drift.
So we're looking to the writers to the Hebrews and we'll just jump into that text again. Hebrews 2: 1. Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it. The writer to the Hebrews speaking to persecuted Jewish Christians that had converted from Judaism that were being so tormented and persecuted because of their faith in Christ, and they were wanting to go back, go back to Judaism, go back to where it's easy. And some of us feel the same way just thinking it would be easier if I wasn't following Jesus. I would be being less persecuted at work. I wouldn't be as ridiculed at home. I wouldn't have to crucify my flesh and die daily to my wants. I could just live how I want to live. I could just do whatever I want to do. It would be so much easier if I would go back.
And some of you watching this that's exactly how you feel. In fact, you turned on the TV and you said God, you better speak to me because if you don't speak to me right now, I'm just going to go back. And I'm here to say this is God speaking to you. And he's saying to you that you are worth way more than going back. You are worth the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves is i, and I know it's hard right in this moment but he's got a great plan and a great purpose. Don't quit. Stay connected to Jesus. Keep going. The best is yet ahead. You will get through this, and the Spirit of God is with you. You will get through this.
But in the midst of it all here the writer to the Hebrews is saying we've got to pay much closer attention. I want you to hear that word in Greek because I know a little Greek. I'm little and I'm Greek. Okay. So in all of that in Greek he says, pay much closer attention. My mom when we were young she would always say that word in Greek means be careful. Be careful. So if we were going somewhere on our bikes, we'd always be careful crossing the road. Be careful. And then if she wanted us to pay closer attention she'd go pay extra attention. That's a really dangerous intersection or a really dangerous place. And the writer to the Hebrews here that's what they denote of this text. There's a sense of urgency. It's not just pay attention. It's pay extra attention. You've got to make sure you're really really really really really really really really really really focused on paying attention to this great salvation lest we drift.
In the day and the hour in which we live I don't know that I've preached a more prophetic message on television than this one right now. Winds and the currents of the age in which we live in are seeking to take believers off course. Seeking to pull us away from the purposes of God, seeking to pull us away from following Jesus vehemently, and the writer to the Hebrews is saying pay extra attention. Don't just be blindly going with the flow right now. This is not a time to just jump on board with the latest craze, with the latest fad, just doing what everyone else is doing. This is the time to get yourself in that word, to get yourself planted in the house of God.
So get yourself around the people of God, and make sure that you pay very very careful attention to your spiritual life lest you drift. I am astounded at the number of peoples that are just dropping off, just dropping off, just dropping off. And I'm like, what happened? Somewhere they didn't check that they were anchored in Christ. Somewhere someone just threw the anchor overboard not thinking about did it actually take root in the seabed? And what we're seeing is casualties all over the world, just Christians that you're going I can't believe you just said that. I can't believe you did that. I can't believe you walked away from that. I can't believe that you believe that.
And the reason that's all happening is because we haven't been paying very careful attention. When a storm and the winds are coming, when a cyclone comes, when those winds are changing you tie everything down. When we have cyclone warnings, now, thank God I've lived in parts of the world where we haven't had cyclones but I've got friends that live in parts of the world where there are constant cyclone and hurriCaine warnings. What do you do? You tie everything down, and you're paying attention to that weather report. This is a time and a season in the Christian calendar where every single one of us needs to not be ignorant. We need to be watching that spiritual weather report. We need to be tying down certain things so that we do not drift. And it is my heart that you do not drift, that you stay on track.
I don't want you just to run your race. I want you to finish your course. I don't want you not to make it. I want you to make it! I want you to make it. So he says you gotta pay extra extra careful attention. So we're going to look at what are some of the these signs of drifting because if you can drift by doing nothing, what are some of the things that are signs because some of us have drifted and we don't even realize it. You just need to drift a little bit. You don't drift all at once. I just didn't check my markers when we were at the beach with my brothers, and on some of those vacations we kind of ended up a kilometer down the coast because we simply didn't realize we drifted this much.
And I'm hoping and paying that through this series we're going to do a self-evaluation and go Lord, if I've drifted in any area can you get me on track because see, that's the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ is that he's not just going to leave you out there. If you just go help! Okay. My hand is up like this dude. My hand is up, and I want some, Jesus is like you know what? I was just waiting for that. Let me just drop you back into your purpose. Let me drop you back into your destiny. So I'm believing God that a whole bunch of us are going to stick our hand up. Stick our hand up so that we can realize whether we're drifting or not.
Now, the first thing we do if we're recognizing have I drifted, you know you've drifted when, here is our first one, when you stop resting and you start striving. You know that you've drifted when you stop resting and you start striving. You know, the interesting thing is the Bible tells us in Hebrews 4: 11, now I'm so excited about this I'm going to do an entire series on this alone but I'm going to give you a bit of a taste of this now. In Hebrews 4: 1, it says, let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
So the writer to the Hebrews is saying we're going to strive, there is only one thing we should be striving for in the new covenant, and we should be striving to enter into that rest of God because when we strive to enter into the rest, then we can from that place of rest labor to do everything God's put on the earth to do. Now, what happens is you've started to drift. And here the context, the writer to the Hebrews is talking about the fact that when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, instead of being grateful to God for delivering them from 430 years of slavery and taking them into Canaan, they were in the wilderness and they began to murmur, grumble and complain.
And the thing that should have taken 11 days ended up taking 40 years. 40 years because of murmuring, grumbling, and complaining. But the thing that actually took them out, the thing that stopped them from entering into the promises of God it wasn't the giants of Canaan that kept the children of Israel out of the Promised Land. It was the unbelief of the people of God that kept them from entering into the Promised Land. So in this context they had somehow stopped believing God. After they saw Red Seas part, after they saw provision, the provision of manna in the wilderness for 40 years, somewhere the children of Israel stopped believing God, and you know that you've started to drift when you've stopped believing God.
Some of the frustration you're experiencing is you've been trying to take the role of the Holy Spirit of God. And I hate to break this news to you today but you are not the third part of the Trinity. No, you are not. And neither am I. We are not the Holy Spirit. If you're married, have you ever tried to change your spouse? How is that working for you? It just does not work. Only God can change people. I can't change my kids. I can pray for them. I can be the best mum that I can be, but I can't change them. I can't change Nick. There's not that much that needs changing. Let's reverse this. Nick can't change me. There's a lot that needs changing. But the fact of the matter is no matter how much you try to change people you can't. I can't.
So we have to go to God in faith and say you know what? I'm believing for you, God, to change this situation. I'm believing for you to make a way where there is no way. God, I'm going to speak to that mountain and I'm believing that you are going to remove that mountain. God, I am going to stay in faith. I'm not going to live on this earth with a lack of faith. I'm not going to live on this earth just kind of going with the flow. You know, I'm from the days and the era when I said to my kids Doris day, they don't know who she is anymore. I go you know, mom was around with the dinosaurs. But she used to sing "Que Sera, Sera, whatever will be, the future not ours to see, Que Sera, Sera".
I love Doris but she was wrong. That is not the way that life is. It's not Que Sera, Sera, whatever will be will be. We have the Word of God. We have Jesus Christ himself. We are filled with the spirit of Almighty God, and you know what? We can in faith, we can hold this word up and we can declare and decree the truth of the Word of God. We can say what God says and we can see circumstances move. We can see situations move. See, I believe this book is alive. I don't believe this is just some old textbook with a few little self-help principles. This is the living active Word of God. It is alive. It is alive. It brings change. It brings transformation. These words are alive. People say to me, do you believe it? I'm like, yes! Yes! It's changed my life.
I love the Word of God. I love the Word of God. Living, active, sharper than any 2 edged sword. So I'm going to read it in faith and believe for the Holy Spirit to bring transformation. I'm going to declare and decree it in faith and believe that the Spirit of God brings change. That's why we have this television program. I believe that this word spoken across these airwaves can get into your home and your life and your spirit and bring change and bring transformation. We're not just bringing you teaching from some self help motivational book. We're one just bringing you something from some old dead sacred text. We are bringing you the very living words of God that can bring change and transformation to your life. Change and transformation to your life.
So you know that you are no longer anchored when you start striving in your own strength to do what only God can do. And you can tell this because you're feeling anxious, you're feeling depressed. You're feeling overwhelmed. I can tell when it comes to our work helping to rescue the victims of human trafficking with a 21 that if I'm resting in God, people often ask me, Chris, how do you do it? 40 million slaves around the world. How are you not overwhelmed by the enormity of it? We have offices in 15 countries. I've got staff spread all across the world.
You know, this thing outgrew any compacity this time to micro manage it many years ago. If I was stressed about every staff member and I've got different time zones and different offices and what's happening is freedom centers and I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. At some point I had to let go and let God. Put in a structure, put in a system, and then allow the people to actually do their jobs. No one wants to be put in a place and then micro managed specially by me. Ask any of my staff that is. They're like yes, amen. They are the loud amens you can hear right now. But I've had to learn to trust God because if I kept striving to try to make A21 happen in my own strength I would never be sleeping.
I myself would need a lot of help because it is so overwhelming the trauma that these children have to go through. The legal cases that we have to be involved in around the world, helping to restore the victims of human trafficking with so much physical and emotional trauma in their lives. I would be overwhelmed that every time we rescued one, there's still 40 million out there. I would be striving. And you see this in life. Sometimes we try to do what only God can do. So even when it comes to helping others, even when it comes to serving the Lord, you cannot do it in your own strength. You cannot do it relying on your own power or it will burn you out.
You wonder why people burn out. You wonder why people walk away. You wonder why people get discouraged and disillusioned. It's because they're trying to do in their own strength only what God can do. I have learned a long time ago my shoulders are not big enough to bear of weight of the pain and the suffering of the world. Jesus shoulders already did that 2.000 years ago, so I don't need to be doing that again. So when I serve out of a place of grace of rest in the Lord Jesus Christ, allowing the Spirit of God to flow through me going, you know, to the best of my ability I have done everything I can do today. But Jesus is the only one that can do this. Jesus is the only one that can save the world. Jesus is the only one that can change lives. Jesus is the only one that can save souls. Jesus is the only one that can do miracles. Jesus is the only one that can make the ultimate difference.
I don't need to be Jesus junior. I'm not a good Jesus junior. I would never be a good Jesus junior, so take the pressure off yourself. Stop striving. Labor to enter into that place of rest. From that place of rest begin to serve him. You'll find your joy again, you'll find your peace and confidence again. You'll find your strength again. You'll find your zeal again. It will flow out of you rather than you trying to make it happen. You know, you know that you've started to drift when you stop working and you start spectating.
Now, you might go wow, she's just told us to labor, to enter into that place of rest. I thought I was going to sleep for the rest of my life on earth. I thought I was going to go get a villa in the Greek isle of Santorini and just go I'm laboring to rest. Yes, that's right. I've entered into my rest. That is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about where you get your significance and your security and your value from, you've got to find that in Christ. And if you're trying to find that through what you do it's going to exhaust you. But if you start spectating, there is no Christian spectators. There's only Christian participators this side of eternity.
The Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews chapter 12 therefore then since we are surrounded, I had do a little round there, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also run with endurance the race that is set before us. We're surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. The cloud of witnesses are the saints that have gone before us that are in the grand stands of heaven. What am I trying to tell you? I'm trying to tell you there is no grandstand on earth. I know we go to the football and we sit in the grandstand to watch the players. That's okay for a football game. That's okay for a soccer game. That's okay for a baseball game, but that is not how we run our Christian life.
There is no grandstand here on earth for a Christian. There is our world, and we are called to be participators on the Christian journey, not spectators at a Christian event. So we are called to be part of the journey of following Jesus and being salt and light into a lot of and broken world. Now, when you stop working and you just start watching then you know that you've drifted. You know that your heart has drifted, that you're no longer compelled by of mission of God to fulfill the purpose for which you are on the earth.
Now, do you realize that Jesus Christ after 33 years of walking on this earth being separated from the Father in heaven and then being crucified on the cross, buried and rising again on the third day, after all that time away from his Father in heaven wouldn't you think that the first thing you'd want to do as soon as he was resurrected was go straight to the Father? Straight to the Father. But obviously there was something so important that he needed to detour via earth on his way back up to his Father in heaven so that he could give us our Marching orders, so that he could tell us what our purpose was here on the earth.
So Jesus detoured to come to us and say by the way, here's your job profile. If you're wondering what you're doing you're living between the 2 advents of Christ. The first one has happened, the second one, he's coming back. So until I come back, this is what I'll need you to do. I need you to go into all the world and to make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
And so if you're wondering what your job profile is, I'm not asking what your profession is. We've all got our professions. What your education is, whether you're a stay at home mother, whether you're a working woman, whether you're a corporate CEO, whether you're a doctor or a lawyer. That's all secondary. If you are in Christ here is your primary job profile, to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. And it is time for the church of Jesus Christ to make God's last commandment our first priority. When we make the last commandment of Jesus Christ the first priority of the church of Jesus Christ, then we will be about the Father's business and we will bring hope and life and light to a lot of and a broken world in Jesus name. In Jesus name.
Part 3
Hey everyone, I am so glad that you have joined us. Thank you so much for tuning in. You have tuned into an awesome series where we are learning what it is to stay anchored in Christ and not to drift with the current of the world that we're living in. You know, the only thing you have to do to drift in life is nothing. Absolutely nothing, you will just go with the flow. Even a dead fish can swim downstream, it takes no effort, but we are not dead fish. We are men and women of God filled with the Spirit of God. And God has empowered us to go against the flow, against the current, so that we could be his life, his light, his hope, his mercy in a lost and a broken world.
And we are continuing on with different signs of drifting in life. And I love the fact that the writer to the Hebrews, in Hebrews 2 says, "We've got to pay much closer attention lest we drift from so great, a salvation". And I want us to be very focused in this series on examining our own hearts, asking the Holy Spirit, come and have a look on the inside of me. Is there an area that I have drifted? I want to pay much closer attention. My mother would say to me, I love it in Greek. Pay extra close attention in case you have drifted and you don't even realize it. Check your markers.
In a sense, this whole series, we're checking our markers, we're checking our markers. Are we still on track with where Jesus has called us to be? Are we still following Jesus Christ? Or have we inadvertently got caught up a little bit in the cultural current, and just gone with the flow of wherever culture has gone without going, hang on a minute, what does the word say? Hang on a minute, what does Jesus require of me? Hang on a minute. Am I rooted and grounded in orthodox Christianity? Or have I just gone with the flow and you know, just drifted. And so I want to make sure that we don't do that.
So we spoke last week. I loved it. We talked a little bit about the importance of making sure that we know that we've drifted, our signs of drifting, we know that when we stop, when we stop resting and we start striving, we try to make happen in our own strength what only God can make happen. That's gonna exhaust us. And we see unprecedented anxiety and depression and stress in the world today. And I think one of the reasons, and of course there are many reasons, but one of those reasons is when you stop trusting God, you start to get really, really anxious about trying to make things happen yourself.
And I think that when I spoke about that sin of unbelief, that's at the root of a lot of our anxiety is that we don't ultimately trust that our God is good and that our God does good and that he will work all things together for good. And so it is a fight to stay in the word, to keep ourselves encouraged, to believe God is good. I know that life is not always good. Circumstances are not always good. People are not always good, but our God is good. And if we can hang on to a good God, if we can continue to believe that about him, we will trust him, even when we don't understand what's going on. And a lot of times we unravel because we stopped trusting God when we don't understand our circumstances. And so believing God is trusting God, regardless of what's going on around us.
And so we know we've drifted when we're no longer doing that. So we start striving and we start trying to make stuff happen, or we start just basically excusing God from our lives in many ways. And we stopped believing God, we start striving and we stop resting. And that rest is resting in the love of God, resting in the grace of God, resting in the knowledge that God loves me, that God's got a plan. I know my life's not going great. I know somebody might've walked out that I loved. I know one of my children might be battling an addiction. I know that I might've lost my job, but, but you know what? I know, God loves me and I trust God, no matter what is going on. That's what believing God looks like, it's not always I'm believing God for the Red Sea to part.
Now, it could be that. I love a bit of that myself too, but it's also believing God, that when other people haven't been good to me, God still loves me. That God is good to me. That even when I've disappointed myself and I failed, I can't earn my way back to him. I can rest my way back into his love and back into his grace. Do you understand what I mean by believing God? That's what it is. So the enemy wants to undermine that. If he can undermine you believing God and trusting God and resting in God, even when you've blown it or when others have blown it, then he's got you. Because out of that comes this sense of you're trying to do good works to make your way back up to God. And it's just, nothing is ever enough. It is exhausting to live that way. Many people are living that way.
On the other side of the screen, you could be watching this and going Chris, "That's my story, I messed up". I made such a mistake and then I've been trying to work my way back and it just doesn't seem to work. And you know, you're drinking that extra glass of wine. You're popping that extra pill because somewhere you're trying to numb the pain and the anxiety and the stress of feeling like a failure and feeling like God doesn't love you and feeling like you're a huge mistake. But I'm here right now, God has orchestrated this moment for me to drop right here into your screen to tell you that God loves you. God loves you and rest into the unfailing ever lasting love, loving and merciful hands of God. You don't have to do anything more to try to prove to him that you really are sorry for what's happened. Rest in his love for you 'cause he knows you are.
He just wants to embrace you, but you're running so hard trying to prove it. You're running from him instead of just resting in him, just rest back in his love and his grace and his mercy in this moment. And so not only do we know we've drifted when we stop resting and we start striving. But when we stop working and we start watching, remember we mentioned the fact that there are no Christian spectators on earth. This is not a football game, we're not all like, oh man, I've come here to watch a couple of the Christian celebrities and I'm in the grand stand and they're playing the game. That's not in the Bible. There is no spiritual gift of Christian celebrity. It is not one of the fivefold gifts in the book of Ephesians chapter four, there's pastor, prophet, apostle, teacher, and evangelist, not celebrity.
I don't know what kind of world we are living in, but we are all part of the body of Christ and God sets every member in place. And every person that is a Christ follower is a Christian that is on mission. Every one of us is on the playing field. Every one of us has an assignment. Every one of us is called by God. Every one of us is of equal value to God. Every one of us has something to do with advancing the Kingdom of God here on earth, as it is in heaven, there are no spectators and a few participators. We are all participators in the Christian journey following the Lord, Jesus Christ.
I love the fact that some of us in the era in which we live, there are so many of us, we are so busy scrolling through everyone else's life. We're not living our own lives. We're so busy watching, we're the watching generation. We think because we watch other people's life on social media, that somehow we're living a Christian life ourselves. It is amazing to me. How many of us are going to get to heaven and God's going to go, what did you do? Well, I scrolled. I scrolled. I liked. I liked, I haven't commented every now and again. Put some nice emojis, it was awesome. And God's gonna go like, what did you do? What did you do? I gave you one life. What did you do with it? What did you do with the life that I gave you?
You know, it is amazing. I want to read you a couple of scriptures. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:10, that we are God's workmanship. God's workmanship, got worked work man ship, created in Christ Jesus, what for? For good works. That God prepared, where? Beforehand in heaven that we should outwork them, where? Here on earth. Do you know that you and I are saved by grace. Right before that Ephesians 2:8-9 "By grace you've been saved, not works, lest any man should boast".
So let's put that right. We're only saved by grace, never saved through anything that we've done. We are saved by faith, through grace, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's thank God for Jesus, but we are saved by grace for good works. Not for sitting out cute little rusty dusties is in a lounge chair for the rest of our lives, with a remote control, scrolling through everyone else's life. You might've just put that on and go, she's talking to me. I've got the remote control. And my little rusty dusty's on the lounge chair, but I'm here to tell you God's got so much more for you. You're created in his image. You are filled with God given destiny. You are filled with God given purpose. God has a plan and a purpose for your life.
Don't live a life as a Christian spectator. Don't waste this one and only life that you've got on earth living for yourself. Don't waste this one and only life living bound by fear, living bound by a fence, living bound by unforgiveness, Jesus Christ came to set us free, so that we can flourish in life and bear much fruit for his glory and have some internal rewards in the midst of all of that. Let's live the life that he has called us to live by getting about the father's business. Make sure that we're living and not just blogging. Make sure that we're living and not just commenting. Make sure we're living real lives with real people. Make sure that we have interaction with skin and bones and we're seeing change happen.
Just because we're advocating for a cause on social media doesn't mean we're actually doing anything about that cause. We've gotta be willing to be inconvenienced. We've gotta be willing to be interrupted. We've gotta be willing to get out of the grand stand, to get on that playing field, to run our race and to finish our course. That's where the satisfaction is ,that's where the joy is. Yes, you might get a bit bloodied and bruised. Yes, people might attack you. Yes, all that happens to me, but there's nowhere else I'd rather be than on the playing field and going, you know what, I got some bruises. I got battered, but it was for the cause of Christ. There is no greater way to live, there is no greater way to live than to live there for the cause of Christ. Now, you know, you know that you are drifting when you stop pressing and start coasting. We all know we start to drift when we stop pressing and we just start coasting, just kind of riding everybody else's momentum.
Now, I love the book of Philippians, one of my favorite books in the Bible. And, just so you can all see how holy I am. I have like my kids wrappers from their... I'm gonna say lollies, but I don't know if you'll understand what that is. Candies, yes, from their sucker, sucker. How American is that? Sucker, okay. Stop distracting me, okay. So we know that we have started to drift when we stop pressing and we start coasting.
Now, Paul says in the book of Philippians 3:12, "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature, think this way, and if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you only let us hold true to what we have attained".
I love this. I love this. I could run a lap right here, myself. If you've just tuned in, you've just tuned in at the right moment, 'cause this is the most excitable I'm about to get in this whole program. Paul says, you know what I do? There's one thing I do. I'm forgetting the stuff good and bad. That is behind me, because some of us, we get so caught up in the good things. There are some of you, you are still talking about your high school football game and you haven't played football in 30 years. In 30 years. Some of us are talking, man. I was, I was prom queen or homecoming queen. I'm like, yes, honey, that was 35 years ago, 35 years ago. If the last thing that you've done, that's memorable is something that happened a decade ago or two decades ago, you have not been living. You are no longer pressing. If all you're doing is spending all your time, looking at photo albums, thinking about your memories. And you think that your best life is behind you, then you've stopped pressing.
Paul says, "I press". That word press in the Greek is to exert a steady force against. He says, I'm exerting a steady force against anything that would stop me laying hold of all of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. See, as you get older in your walk with the Lord, you could start just coasting. You know man, I'm just going with all my friends. We're just going to church. We're just reading the Bible. We're just doing our little Christian thing, but you're not pressing anymore. You're not pressing against anything that would be stopping you being conformed and transformed to the image of Jesus Christ. You're not pressing anymore against apathy or against indifference. You're not pressing against not being caught up with the drift of the world.
It's just like, yeah, yeah. I used to believe the Bible was really true, but you know, it's, I'm not... I used to believe marriage was between a man and a woman, but I'm not... I used to believe that you know, that maybe a fish did swallow a person, but that's a little bit far-fetched. Like, no to really. You know, I used to kind of really believe that God created it all, but you know, I'm just sort of like more intelligent now. Yeah, it's amazing. Stop pressing, we just kind of like, okay, whatever, whatever the flow is, whatever the culture is, whatever everyone is. So we just kind of go with it. We just go with it. Or we stop pressing to become more sanctified and become more like Christ. We just go, you know, it doesn't matter what I watch. Doesn't matter how I speak. It doesn't really matter who I hang out with or where I go. No, I don't want to be legalistic or judgmental. So nothing matters anymore. So just, it just doesn't matter, it just got very quiet in this studio right now.
On the other side of the screen, you might be thinking, you know, I think it amazes me how some of us we've just called obedience legalism in this generation. It astounds me since when has just doing what Jesus has asked us to do or living with the moral conviction that Jesus has asked us to live with. Since when does that become legalism? I thought that was just obedience. But nowadays, if you're just being obedient, well that's judgmental. That's legalistic. Who are you to say? I'm like, it's not really me. It's like the Bible. It's like, remember, we believe that, we're Christians. We believe it. Apart from the fact that God would, the reason God asks us to obey him is because he knows how we will flourish in life. It astounds me that all this talk about living your best life now, becoming the best version of you.
You do you boo, whatever that means, but anyway, all of that stuff. But you know, if you want it to be ultimately even selfish, you go how do you live your best life now? Actually, if you lived your life, according to the Bible and biblical principles, you would be living your best life now. You would flourish in life in every single way. God made you. God knows how you work, but it's not like God saying, I want you to obey me, because I need to feel better about myself. And I only feel good about myself if you do what I tell you. It's like, what kind of God are you serving? God's like, I made you. I know how you're gonna flourish best.
This is how you will flourish best, this kind of sexual ethic, this kind of integrity in your marriage, this kind of integrity in your relationships, this kind of integrity in your workplace. Don't lie, don't gossip, don't steal. You know what? It's not because, wow, I need you to follow me. God feels very secure about himself. He does not need an ego boost. He's all right. He's God all by himself. Nobody voted him in. He did not need anyone to vote him in. He is just God. He is God, he is secure. He's okay, he's saying, I'm doing this for you. I'm doing this so that you will flourish in life. I'm doing this so you will prosper in life. This is how you, as a society will flourish best. This is how you as a family will flourish best. This is how you as an individual will flourish best.
So it's not a book of rules and regulations to limit us and contain us. But it's actually to cause us to flourish and to thrive in life. But we've made it like, whew, don't be so legalistic because we've made ourselves God. I just want to do whatever I want to do, whenever I want to do it. Who are you to tell me? Well, he's God, he's God. And one day you're gonna find it out one way or another because there will come a day. Whatever, whichever way you want to drift right now. Let me just say, wouldn't be fair of me not to say there will come a day where every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. There is Lord, Jesus Christ is Lord. It's going to happen.
And so at the end of the day, we have to make a decision that you know what, I'm not just gonna just coast and go with the flow. I'm gonna allow God to continue to change me from the inside out. I want to be sanctified through and through. Paul writes, I want to become more like Christ. I don't want to get, I'm 52 right now, I don't want to get to this stage and go, well, my best years were the 30 years behind me. That's when I was most like Jesus. That's when I was pursuing Jesus. I don't want them. What sort of life is that? If my life was over now, I might as well be dead. But listen, here's the deal, if you woke up this morning and there was not a white chalk mark around your body, guess what? You're alive, you're alive. God's still got a plan. God's still got a purpose. God's still got a destiny. It's not over.
Therefore, I've got to press. I have to keep pressing to lay hold of all of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of. I don't want to just coast. Imagine just coasting, oh yeah, Chris started all this stuff and she started a-21 and she started propel, and now in her 50's and 60's, she's just coasting. And maybe you wouldn't know I'm coasting, but Jesus would. You might have all the people, you might be faking it with all the people around you. They don't know. 'Cause you know how to put on the Christian smile. You know how it is, we all do that.
We're so good at our little Christian thing. I mean, we could be having a full on fight on the way to church with our spouse. And I mean, we've said lots of four letter words. None of them are in the Bible. And so we get into, we pull into the church parking lot, that spirit of hypocrisy, it just comes upon us. I mean, we've just nearly killed the kids in the car. We've just yelled at our spouse. But we get to the church park, we come out of the parking lot. We get into the foyer and there's a greeter there with a church bulletin and they give us the bulletin and they're like, "How are you today"? And all of a sudden, you just like, "I'm blessed". I've been redeemed and sanctified and justified by the blood of the lamb, oh. And here is my cherubim and my Seraphim, and they're going into kids' church today, yes they are. It's gonna be fantastic.
And we get into worship and we're just like, "I worship you all mighty God". "If he thinks he's getting any this month, it's not happening". And we just like go through the motions. And then, we get back into the car after church, we've barely shut the car door. Did you hear that sermon? It was for you, every word was for you. I mean, and we just put on a nice sweet little face, 'cause we're all so good at that. We're all so good at doing that. But the deal is I want God to change me from the inside out, so that who I am out here is who I am in here.
So I'm pressing on, I'm pressing on against apathy. I'm pressing against lethargy. I'm pressing against just settling. I'm pressing against just going with the flow. I'm not gonna be one of those dead fish. That's just gonna swim downstream with the current. And what's happening is there's a whole lot of dead Christians at the moment that are just swimming downstream, whatever the current says, whatever is popular, whatever the spirit of the age says. And the writer to the Hebrews says, "Pay careful attention, don't just go with the flow". Stick your hand up and say, "Jesus, I need you. I don't want to drift, I want to thrive in life". I want to thrive in life, in Jesus name, amen.