Christine Caine - Don't Say No When God Says Go
Honestly, I am here with the single most ravishing piece of masculine flesh on planet earth. We've been married for 20 years. How is that? I reckon anyone that can stick at anything for 20 years is a pretty good thing. So we're home. This is home for us, and I'm so happy to be here. So if we would turn together in the Bible to the book of Genesis chapter 18. I always love to start in Genesis because I don't like to leave anything out. We'll be going to revelation tonight. So it shouldn't take us too long just to kind of work through it text by text. So I hope you've come prepared with the pillow and off it would go.
So we're at Genesis chapter 18. If you're taking notes, good luck. And you can put your title between two laughs, between two laughs. A lot of things could happen between two laughs. The Bible says in Genesis chapter 18, the Lord appeared to Abraham near the trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Now that would be like really hot. We'd just been to Qatar and I would not want to be sitting at the entrance of my tent in the heat of the day. It is like hot. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. Now they're thinking they're three angels commentators would say, or maybe one would even be the Son of God.
He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat so you can be refreshed and then go on your way, now that you have come to your servant". "Very well", they answered, "Do as you say". So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. "Quick", he said, "Get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread". Interesting that he told Sarah to do that. I'm just saying. If Nick mentioned that to me, I wouldn't quite know what to do. I'd go down to whole foods and buy it. But anyway, so. Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. Then he brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared and set these before them.
While they ate, he stood near them under a tree. You just got to get that picture. They're eating, he's standing under a tree. "Where's your wife Sarah"? They asked him. "There, in the tent", he said, where all women should be in the tent, no, I just made that up. Just thought I'd let you know that. Okay. Then one of them said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son".
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent 'cause that's what chicks do. We pretend we're cooking, but we're eavesdropping. But anyway, so now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. Now this is in the Bible, black and white ink on paper, inspired by the Holy Spirit. God is wanting us to know that Sarah and Abraham got a promise that said one year from now, I mean, it's even got a due date on it. It's even got a date on it. 365 days or 366 years, depending on whether it's a leap year or not, I've got no idea. From now, there will be a baby. And then he goes on and reminds us immediately that she was very old and that she was past the age of childbearing.
So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my lord is old", and we still got 2000 years until Viagra is invented. That's in the Christine Inspired Version of the Bible in case any of you, for those of you that never even read it, you think that's in the Bible. I'm going to start reading that right now. That's awesome, Viagra is in the Bible. I knew it. "After I'm worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure"? Then the Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'will I really have a child now that I'm old'? Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son". Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, "I did not laugh". "But he said, 'yes, you did laugh'". Can you imagine lying to an angel of the Lord? "I didn't laugh". "Yes you did". "No I didn't". "Yes you did".
So we have a very interesting text and really it is so pivotal. We've got Abraham and Sarah. And at this point, Sarah is 89. She's almost 90. She obviously had her baby Isaac when she was 90. But the scripture tells us that there's a conversation happening. And Sarah gets this promise. She actually had it 25 years before when she was 65, they first got the promise that Abraham would be the father of many nations, that his descendants would be so numerous that you couldn't even count them. If you compare them to the stars, they would be so many. But this was impossible when it was given, when this promise was given, they were already old.
Well, now we are almost a quarter of a century later. So if you think it was impossible at 65, it was no more possible at 90. Sarah's eggs would have dried up. I don't even know if there was really much action happening at home. I have no idea what was going up, but the fact is that biologically, biologically, it was not possible for this to happen. And yet God says that I am going to send the promise now, one year from now, this is going to happen. Now that it is utterly impossible, now that you are 89, almost 90, and it is utterly impossible, that's when this miracle is going to happen.
So Sarah's at the gate and she's at the entrance to the tent. She's listening to this dialogue and she's laughing because she's looking at the natural. She's looking at her body. She's looking at her husband's body. She's looking at what's possible and she's thinking that this is impossible. And God says, yes, awesome. Impossible is where I start. I do not turn up anywhere until it is impossible. You see, while you were able to conceive in the natural, you don't need me. You just need a good virile Abraham, while you are able to do it in your own strength, you don't need God. If you are talented enough, if you are gifted enough, if you are resourced enough, if you are intelligent enough, if you are equipped enough, you don't need God, because what you will do is take the credit for it anyway.
So God waits until it is utterly impossible and then he turns up so that he'll get the glory so that it will be him that gets all of the glory. Church, impossible is where God starts and miracles are what God does. God is in the miracle working business. That's what makes him God and what makes us not. We are finite. He is infinite. You and I do not need a God that is created in our own image. You and I do not need a God that thinks how we think we think. We do not need a God that can only do what we can do. We need a God that can do exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond anything that we could ever ask, hope, or think.
When people marvel that "oh well, that's impossible because it's supernatural". I think "well what do you think God is? What exactly is it that you think God is"? If you can measure him in a test tube, if you can invent a mathematical equation that does not make him God. It makes him something you can measure. So I don't know what impossible circumstance you're standing in your life. I don't know what doctor's report you may have received this week that says this is terminal. This is incurable. You're in fertile. You're just going to have to live with this.
I don't know what may have happened at work or what business may seem to have all fallen apart or what financial challenge you're confronting. What dream may have died, what person may have left you and it seems like it's all over. Some desire that you have, but you think I'm not talented enough. I'm not gifted enough. I'm not eloquent enough. I'm not connected enough. I don't know enough, but I'm here to tell you that when it's impossible, that's where God turns up. That's where God starts because it's never about what you and I are not able to do. And it's not about our limitations.
The world measures everything in terms of our limitations, what we are not. Sorry, you don't get this job. You're not good looking enough. You're not this enough. You're not that enough. This whole world tells us that we are not enough, but it's not about what we are not. We serve the God that is more than enough. It is all about who God is and what God is able to do. It is not about what I am not able to do. So I've come here tonight to stir some faith in the place to tell you that your God is well able. 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.
We live in a cray cray world in case you have not noticed, this world seems like it's spiraling out of control. Politically, economically, emotionally, morally, this world seems like it is crazy. But let me tell you the issue isn't a political issue. It's not a moral issue. It is not an environmental issue. It is not an economic issue. The issue is a faith issue. We have too many unbelieving believers. We need some believers with some faith that will inject some faith and hope and life into the world that will begin to generate faith and believe that God is who he says he is, that God can do what he says he can do. If God said it, God will do it. All of the promises of God are in Christ Jesus. Yes, and in Christ Jesus, amen. If it's in the word, then you can have it.
There are no expiry dates on the promises of God. And that's what this text tells us. But the fact is that we have to get to a place where we truly believe that impossible is where God starts and that unbelief is the enemy of faith. Unbelief is the enemy of faith. Unbelief keeps more people out of their destiny than the devil does. It's our own unbelief. I love the text in Mark 9:24, where he says, help me. I believe, help my unbelief. And there are those of us that we say I believe, help my unbelief 'cause I really don't. And I pray today we transition from that place where we say, Jesus, I believe, help my unbelief. Help me to believe you in this area, to trust you in this area, to believe that you will come through. There is no way I would be doing what I'm doing if I just thought I could do it in the natural, there is no way. I'm the kid that was left in a hospital unnamed and unwanted. I'm the kid that was sexually abused for 12 years. I'm the kid that grew up in the poorest zip-code in my state. I'm the kid that fits every government funding category that exists.
There is no way that I have the ability to run a global anti-trafficking organization. There is no way I have the ability to run an organization that empowers women leaders around the world. I have no way to be able to preach and teach like I do around the world, not in the natural. But you see, at some point I decided that I was not going to allow my past to define my future, that I was going to trust God. And I was going to believe that God was going to work together for good, all of those bad things that happened in my past and instead of allowing my past to define me, I was going to allow Jesus to redeem that past and turn it around and use it for his glory in my future. And so God took everything that the enemy meant for evil, turned it around and worked it together for good. And here's this unnamed, unwanted, abused, adopted chick from the back of Sydney, Australia.
Let me tell you this, every time we put a trafficker in jail, every time we see a girl rescued, I think devil stick that in your pipe and smoke it. Our God is good, our God does good, what you meant for evil, God meant for this very purpose to save many people alive. So I had to get to a place where I had to get God to help my unbelief. Because for years I thought God could not use someone like me, not with my background, not with my mistakes, not with the things that I'd done, not with all of my limitations. And I had to get to a place where I stopped looking at what I couldn't do and I started looking at what Jesus did do. And because of what Jesus did do that meant I could do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthened me.
And some of us need to stop looking through the lens of the failure of our past or the lens of our mistakes or the lens of what other people have done to us and begin to look at the future, through the lens of faith, through what Jesus has done for us, make what Jesus did for you bigger than what anyone else has done to you. That's the place that we have to get to if we're going to do what God has called us to do.
Do you remember when you first got saved how much faith you had? It's amazing we're so full of faith. We see Jesus everywhere, man. And it seems like we're getting a word from everyone, there's opportunities everywhere. We just end up no traffic on the 405 even for about 34 seconds. And we're just like so excited because God just, and then one person lets you down, a prayer doesn't get answered in the way that you thought, something else happens that disappoints you and you start to pull back in your faith. You don't even realize that it's just a subtle little thing. And you come through and you do all the church motions, you go through it all, but you can't even really remember the last time you really believed God for something outrageous.
And then now you go through a few years and you go, it's been a really long time since I've really had faith. Oh, I sing the songs. I go through the motions, but I can pretty much manage God. He fits into my nice box because I don't want to be disappointed, so this is what I can believe God for. But I can't really believe him for a spouse or I can't really believe him to open an opportunity or I can't really believe him to do something great maybe at work. So I just will try to do all that in my own strength, but I'll still goes through the church motions. So I give myself assignments 'cause one of the most challenging things is when you're a preacher, you could think you're in faith, but you're not. Just because you're preaching it doesn't mean you're living it.
And so I will do outrageous things, and I will make sure even with A21 that we continue to believe God and step out like we had nothing when we started it, now we have 11 offices around the world in different countries. And so many things are happening all over the earth, a big global walk for freedom in 40 countries and over 300 walks around the world. Just amazing things happening. But if I'm not careful, then I'm just going to say, "Look, can we really do that? Does it just fit in the budget or is it doable? Is it manageable"? And the minute your whole life is so doable, so manageable, so balanced, you have balanced God right out of it.
And some of us, our life is so perfectly managed and balanced that we haven't needed to believe God for a long time. And God says, I hope you're enjoying your life because there's no real faith in it. You might be enjoying it and it might be great. But boy, if you trusted me "And stepped out of the boat" a bit and got back into that scary zone. Oh some of you, your faith is a little bit stale. Your Christianity seems a little bit dried up and boring. It's simply 'cause you're not in faith. You've reversed faith and you've cashed it in for some kind of religious experience. And it might give you a feel good, nice little experience. You might like singing the songs, clapping your hands, but you're bored stupid by Wednesday because you're not forced by faith to lean into God.
See when you're so far out of the boat, oh, you're leaning into Jesus Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday. And you are hanging on for dear life because you need him every moment of every day, don't manage God out of your life. Don't manage him out of your life. And so I set myself consistently, Nick and I outrageous this morning before we even came here, we're like we believe in God, we need a couple of outrageous goals that we're laughing at, that we laugh at because the life we're living now, I would have laughed at even five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago. When I came to Hillsong church 29 years ago, if you had told me all of this, I would have laughed like Sarah. What do you mean global anti-trafficking? What do you mean? I would have laughed. I'm the kid that was left in the hospital unnamed and unwanted. God, you picked the wrong chick.
Only God could have known, but you've got to keep stepping out of the boat, and so I set myself goals all the time and say, am I giving in faith? Am I stretching or is it all just safe? Am I still serving in faith? Or is it all just safe for now? Am I still running the ministry in faith or is it all so manageable and so perfect now? Because I want to be a woman of faith because without faith, it's impossible to please God. Without faith, the whole deal is just a religious deal and it's boring. That's how people get bored, because it just becomes a religious, boring obligation 'cause there's no faith in it. And eventually even the songs and the lights will get boring to you. It really will. You need faith to keep you on the edge. Faith keeps you in the word. Faith keeps you utterly dependent on God. Faith keeps you going day to day. Faith keeps you pressing on. Faith keeps you enduring.
I'm telling you the devil is not after your gift. The devil's not after your talent. The devil is after your faith. We are fighting a good fight of faith. It is our faith that he wants. Faith is the currency of heaven. We need to be a faith people that are believing God. And here the interesting thing the angel of the Lord said, "At the appointed time, at the appointed time, you're going to have the promise". And here's what happens to a lot of us. We step out of faith because we confuse God's appointed time with the due date that we have set on the promise.
See we've put a due date on what God has an appointed time on. When you buy something at the store, they put a due date on it. And most of us have got pantries full of expired products. It's past the date. It's past the due date. It's expired. You have to throw it out. And a lot of us, we think that with the promises of God. We think it's expired, I've got to throw it out. Can't happen. So we do this, we do this all the time with relationships.
Now we don't say it out loud because it wouldn't sound very Christian. But we say in our hearts, "God, I'm going to go to whatever it might be the singles group, or go to a small group or go, 'cause deep down, I'm giving you three months. I'm going to go to the church for three months, God. And you're going to bring me my life partner in those three months". And then three months goes by and it hasn't happened. So you say, "See God, that's why doing it your way just sucks. That's it, 'cause you don't even know what it's like cause you're like God. And so now God, I'm going to go down to the nightclub and find my own guy". And like God's in heaven going, "I'm so nervous". And so we just think, "No you didn't meet my due date". And God's like "Wow, if you hung in there I had an appointed time. But you're gonna miss your destiny with your appointed time because you ran out on the due date".
So many have missed their destiny because they weren't waiting for the appointed time because they had put a due date on it. Whether it's your profession or your ministry. And what you did was aborted your destiny because you're just like, well God, if it doesn't happen by then. I mean, I've been coming to worship practice for two weeks and I did not get the front row. And don't you know who I am? Don't you know how many things I've started? But I know it's only for the glory of God, but anyway, it's just, I'm a humble servant of the Lord. But here's the deal. The promise was real, God spoke it into your heart, but if you run out you will miss your destiny with the appointed time because you put a due date on what God has an appointed time for.
And let me tell you, just as your older sister a little bit further down the track, most of us that are walking in our destiny are no more gifted or talented than anybody else, it's just that we didn't quit and we met our appointed time. That's what happened. That's all that happened. And so, what she did was she got a little bit impatient. A couple of chapters before in chapter 16 we see what Sarai did, the Bible says in 16 verse one, now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar. I want to show you the stupid things you do when you stop trusting God and you decide to take your destiny into your own hands.
So she said to Abram, "The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave: perhaps I can build a family through her". Abram agreed to what Sarai said. Yes, men. There are sometimes I think you should not listen to women. So after Abram had been living in Canaan 10 years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. Thus we have Ishmael. And none of the tension on the earth today can go right back to that moment, most of it.
See it is amazing when you try to circumvent the purpose of God and you take it into your own hands and think I've got a better idea. I'm gonna do it my way. I'm gonna go find my own person. I'm just gonna cheat a little bit here in my business and no one'll know, God, and that'll get me fast tracked because you don't seem to be opening that door. I'm just gonna compromise here, and I know I said I wouldn't sleep my way to the top, but if it's the only way I'm gonna get that gig, God, it's amazing what we will do. And then we end up birthing Ishmaels left, right, and center. But here's the good news. The God is still the God of the second chance and even if you have birthed an Ishmael, there's still an Isaac to come, and I've come here today for some Isaacs in this place. It's never too late. You haven't wasted it. It's not over. The best is still inside of you. The dream and the destiny is still there. But you've gotta make a decision to trust God.
What is this journey of faith? The journey of faith is actually the journey to trusting God. I want you to see, Hebrews 11:11 in the ESV version. By faith, scripture says, Sarah herself received power to conceive. It's a powerful line. She received power to conceive. Remember, she got the promise when she was past the age of childbearing. It was already past the due date. But God gave her power to conceive even when she was past the age. God can give you power to conceive whatever it is even when you're past the age, since she considered him faithful who promised.
That's the key. The whole faith journey is to get to a place where you consider Jesus faithful. Because what will happen along the journey of life is you start off full of faith, but people will let you down. People hurt you. People betray you. People leave. People disappoint you. People die. Stuff happens. And you end up pulling back and subconsciously you're blaming God for what people have done. And you have confused people's unfaithfulness with God's unfaithfulness. God is not a man that he should lie. God is not unfaithful. He who promised is faithful. And God is using all of the experiences of your life, all of the circumstances of your journey, to build your womb of faith, to trust that he who promised is faithful.
See some of you had God giving you strength to conceive early on. You didn't have the strength. The womb of your faith was not strong enough to carry the seed. You would have aborted the seed or you would have miscarried the seed. You didn't have the strength of faith to carry the promise to full term then the strength to birth the promise and then the strength to raise the promise. I meet people everywhere that go, Chris I wanna do what you're doing. I wanna run a global anti-trafficking organization. Do you know how strong your faith needs to be in order to trust God? Do you know when you're on the edge of such darkness, such demonic evil darkness around the world what strength you need to be able to stay true, to believe that God is faithful, that God's gonna come through, that God is gonna make it happen?
Some of you, you don't even know what you're wishing for, you don't even know what your hoping for. You're believing God, but the weight of what you're believing for is gonna require greater faith. And so if you can't trust him now in the wilderness you are never gonna trust him when the promise comes. So he says I'm building your faith, I'm strengthening your faith, I haven't forgotten you, I haven't forsaken you. We're not in a world system where it has to happen by the time you're this age. And you have to be connected to this person, and it's, no, that's not how God works. I've done everything back to front. I don't even qualify to do what I'm doing 'cause it's not about my qualifications, it's about God's appointed time. It's about God's promise. God is true to his promise. If he said it, he will do it. Nothing can stop if from coming to pass, but the womb of your faith has gotta be strong enough to conceive, to carry, to birth, and to raise the promise that's over your life. So he's strengthening the womb of your faith.
Look at Isaiah 55, I think we've got the scripture, I'm hoping Isaiah 55 verses eight and nine. The Lord says, my ways are not your ways, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord, as the heavens are higher than the earth. That's the difference. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. So can you trust that here's my ways and my thoughts and here's God's ways and God's thoughts, and the vast gap between them are as high as the heaven is from the earth.
So God's saying would you trust me with that gap? I don't do it like the world does it. Will you trust me that where the world might say you're too old, it's over, you're not smart enough, you're not good looking enough, you're not talented enough, you're not eloquent enough, you're not gifted, would you trust me that my way is very different to the world's way? And if he can find you trusting him in that, then God just supernaturally, sovereignly elevates you. It is how it works because promotion does not come from the north, south, east, or west. It comes from God. It actually comes from God.
That's what the scripture says. It's God that opens doors that no man can shut. You can sleep your way to the top, but honey, you'll fall really, really quick because that top does not last because it's not a real top. But when God catapults you to the top, nobody can pull you down from where God has placed you, nobody, nobody. And so do we judge him faithful? Here in Genesis 21 we see the end of the story. I love it. It says, now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said. If he said it, he'll do it. And the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah was never able to do it anyway, that's why the Lord did it for her. God's not asking you to do what only he can do. And then it goes on, Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.
It will always come at the appointed time God's timing and our timing, it's often totally different. That is true. And he always takes much longer than I would ever want. But it is always the right time and it's always on time. Then the next verse says, Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old, that's a little bit out there, when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter". Remember I said we're talking about between two laughs. Here's the second laugh. "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me". And she added, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet, I have borne him a son in his old age".
That name, Isaac, means "Son of Laughter". So we started the text with Sarah in chapter 18 laughing the laugh of unbelief at the gate of the tent. We finished in chapter 21 with the laughter of joy at the faithfulness of God. And my prayer is that we too would change between the two laughs, that we would go from a laughter of doubt, cynicism, unbelief, and we begin to trust that our God is faithful all over again and that we would find a laughter of joy that says who would have believed that this could happen? It is impossible in the natural, but this is a testimony that what is impossible with man is possible with God. With God all things are possible and nothing is impossible with God.
There is not one thing that your God cannot do. There is not one need that God cannot meet. There is not one heart that God cannot mend. There is not one soul that God cannot save. There is not one marriage that God cannot restore. There is not one door that God cannot open. There is not one giant that God cannot defeat. There is not one need that God cannot meet. There is not one mountain that God cannot move. There is nothing that my God cannot do. If God said it, he will do it. If God promised it, he will do it. All of the promises of God are in Christ Jesus, yes. And in Christ Jesus, amen, to God be the glory. No demon in hell, no person on earth, can stop the promises of God because God is faithful. God is faithful in Jesus' name.
He's so faithful. He's faithful. And he loves you, friend. He's got a great plan, purpose, and destiny for your life. There's not one accident in this room today. You're not here on accident. Every person in this room was created by God for a relationship with God. And it's Jesus that connects us to God and it's Jesus that connects us to the grace of God. I just want you to take a seat for a moment. For every person from the front to the back, from the left to the right, I wonder, I wonder today truly if you're in relationship with this Jesus. You see, you cannot possess the promises of God if you're not first and foremost in an authentic relationship with the possessor of those promises. His name is Jesus. His name is Jesus.
There's not one sin that Jesus cannot forgive, not one heart he can't mend. There's not one person in this room that is outside of the grasp and reach of the love and the grace of God. But you've gotta make a decision, for only Jesus Christ can give us forgiveness for our past, a brand new start today, and a hope for the future. Some of you, maybe you've known religion in your life, but you've never truly known an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ.
Some of you, maybe you once walked with God but if you're honest today you've been away from God, cold in your heart, maybe even backslidden. Today, friend, it's time to stop running from God to come back to him to make your peace with him, to say yes to Jesus. Make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. There are many people in this room today, and this is your night for a fresh start with Jesus Christ. I want every head bowed and every eye closed, friend, wherever you are all across this room. And if you say, Chris, you're talking to me tonight, tonight I want a fresh start with Jesus Christ, either for the first time or you've been away from God. And today you say, Chris, I don't want religion, I want a relationship with Jesus, I need a fresh start with Jesus Christ.
Friend, if that's you, wherever you are, I wanna pray with you, just a simple but powerful prayer right where you're sitting. If you say Chris include me in that prayer, I want a fresh start with Jesus Christ tonight, will you just raise your hand wherever you are, all across this room, put 'em up high. I can see dozens and dozens and dozens of hands. I'm seeing you all up in the balconies, that's awesome. Here on my right and left, put your hands up high and say Chris, yep, I see you over there. Keep those hands going up high. I'm gonna give you 10 more seconds.
There are people all over this room, wonderful, with your hands raised high saying yes Chris, I want, can you keep your hand up high? I'm gonna pray a prayer out loud. You're gonna, the whole room is gonna pray this out loud after me. Those of you with your hands raised, you're saying yes to Jesus, we are praying this with you as you say yes tonight to Jesus Christ. So keep your hands up high and I'm gonna pray. Church let's pray this together after me.
Dear Jesus, I've raised my hand tonight because I recognize my need for you. I ask that you would forgive me for all of my sins, that you would give me a fresh start tonight. And a hope for the future. I want to be a Christian. A follower of Jesus Christ every single day for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name. Amen, amen, amen.
Come on, can we thank God for people everywhere saying yes to Jesus Christ, friend. There's nothing greater. And just before we end tonight, there are some of you, you're like that man in Mark 9, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Somewhere some doubt came in, disappointment, discouragement, disillusionment, just weariness, and if you're honest in some areas you just pulled back and haven't really been believing God and believing God to stir up that gift of faith, gift that faith in you tonight because without faith it's impossible to please God. Faith is the currency of heaven. Faith moves mountains. Faith defeats giants. Faith conquers nations. That's what we wanna be, a people of great faith.
And tonight if you say, you know what Chris, the Holy Spirit I believe, I've been preaching, I believe the Holy Spirit's been speaking to you about a specific area, and it's time to stir up faith again and to believe God again, to resurrect some dead dreams again, to resurrect some dead desires again, to get to that place where you're not gonna be like Sarah at the tent laughing, going yeah, sure, me. But going okay God, I don't know how, but I'm gonna start believing you again. And some of you, there's been some Ishmaels along the way, but you're like, God, I'm not gonna do that again, try to make it happen in my own strength. I'm gonna trust you and I'm truly gonna judge you who promised to be faithful. I believe that as we get to that place, God's gonna give you strength to conceive seed so that you can bring forth the promise of God. I'm talking spiritually in this moment.
And so if that's a word for you and you believe that God has spoken to you in a certain area, I've got faith to believe that the womb of your faith is gonna be strengthened and you're gonna be given strength to conceive seed. So we haven't got much time. If that's you just stand to your feet. I'm gonna pray for you wherever you are. You either know or you don't and that's okay. That's okay. So many of you. Man, that's what you gotta know. The devil's after your faith. This is a fight of faith. He wants you to start doubting and pulling back 'cause look at all this. This is whatever, however many people here. Almost all of us standing up. That means all of those promises, the devil would love for you to take to the grave with you rather than God to birth them through you on the earth to do good on the earth.
So that's what you've gotta see. That's what he's trying to steal. Imagine if Sarah did not judge him who promised to be faithful. There'd be no Isaac, we wouldn't all be here. So this doesn't just affect you. It affects what's gonna come and the fruit of that seed. In Jesus' name. So I want you to raise your hands to heaven, and I want you for a moment to do business with God, to bring that thing before the Lord. You know what it is. And it's between you and God.