Christine Caine - Grab A Shovel, Part 2
Can you see how throughout church history, we've used these things to divide us and God's saying it's not either/or the new wineskin is both-and. This two sides of the same coin. Can you imagine how much peace we would have in the body of Christ worldwide? If we stopped being contentious over issues that God is not contentious over, he's saying it's two sides of the same coin. Would you understand the new wineskin moving into a new era is not either, or it's both-and. It's both-and. Are you ready for God to do something new and powerful in your life? Well, many wonder what the future holds and how we should live in times of crisis. God's word has the answers. So grab your journal and a pen and take some notes and let's dive right into today's message. There is a way for you to walk in faith and experience the fullness of your purpose. And I just know God has a word he wants to deposit in your heart today.
Hey, everyone. I am so grateful that you've joined us today for week two in our series about picking up a shovel and digging. You might think, what has this got to do with a world in which we live? We've been looking at the life of Isaac. Isaac was the son of Abraham and the father of Jacob. And right there, we learn from the life of Isaac that it is time for us in our generation. I've got my shovel here, to pick up a shovel and start digging some of the old wells and re-digging them so that the source of living water life itself Jesus Christ can flow into a lost and a broken world. And really the thing that's on the table today is I'm asking a generation of us, would we be willing to pick up our shovels and start doing some digging? Would we be willing to get our own hands dirty so that we can see revival come to our land?
Now we've already looked at the scripture in the book of Isaiah 26. And the fact is you think, well, what have wells that Isaac dug back in those days got to do with our life on the earth today? Well, of course, we're just looking at a metaphor right now. And we're saying that this is a matter of imagery that we see in the life of Isaac. And basically I think here we see a picture of what Jesus Christ wants for every single one of us. I want to remind you in John 7:37-38, Jesus said, on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. So Jesus is talking about a spiritual thirst right now, not a physical thirst. And we all have this spiritual thirst, a thirst that will ultimately only ever be quenched in and through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
So I want to invite us all to come to the source of living water himself. That would be Jesus. Any deed you have, Jesus can meet. Jesus is the source of living water. And then not only that out when we go to Jesus, the source of living water, scripture says that, out of us will flow rivers of living water into a lost and a broken world. Do you know that you and I have the revival most of us have been praying for, we are carriers of that revival, we're not actually the revival. Jesus, of course, is the revival, but you and I are called to carry revival to our generation. I believe with all of my heart, that we are on the edge of the greatest revival that history has ever known and you and I are called to carry that revival to a lost and a broken world. That is why we spent all of last week looking at the condition of our hearts because out of our hearts will flow rivers of living water.
So we need to give the Holy Spirit access to our heart to do a deep cleansing work in us so that God's spirit can flow through us and touch our families, touch our friends, touch our neighborhoods, and touch ultimately the nations of the earth. The fact is if our hearts are dry, if our hearts are polluted, if the well of our heart, that's the imagery, that's the metaphor we're drawing from Genesis 26, when we're talking about Isaac digging little wells, were talking about the wells of our heart so that the life of Christ can flow through us. We must allow the Holy Spirit to do a cleansing work in us so that God can do a great work through us. This is what we learned from Isaiah 26. We learned that old dwells can still produce fresh water.
The Bible says in verse 18 of Genesis 26, Isaac dug the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham, his father and named them the names that his father had given them. So the first thing that Isaac did, the very first thing is, he re-dug and renamed the wells that his father Abraham had actually dug out back in the old days. So before he dug anything new, he went to what was already established and he began to re-dig those wells. You know the fact is that in our generation so many of us think, you know what, everything that was in the past is just really bad. Everything the church has ever done is wrong, everything that's gone before, it's just archaic, it's just outdated. But I'm here to say that we don't need to throw the baby out with the bath water. Not everything that has been done in 2000 years of church history has been wrong or has been bad and it's time for some of us to re-dig some of those old wells, not everything is obsolete or irrelevant. Every generation, although we have wells to dig in our generation, we're not there just to throw out everything that was done by the generations before us.
Some of us, we need to reopen some wells. Some of us in our generation we need to pick up a shovel and we need to start digging, and we need to reopen the well of the Word of God. That is not outdated. That is not absolute. The well of prayer, the well of church, the well of fasting, the well of evangelism, the well of justice, the well of holiness, the well of righteousness, of healing, of forgiveness. I'm wondering, will our generation dig up these wells for the next generation? There are some things that never go out of fashion. It doesn't matter how many tattoos you've got, it doesn't matter how skinny your jeans are, prayer is never out of fashion, the Word of God is never out of fashion, going to church is never out of fashion. Fasting, praying, evangelism, justice, holiness, righteousness these things don't go out of fashion. Healing, signs, wonders, miracles, these things are not obsolete, these things do not go out of fashion.
We need a generation that will step up to the plate and say, I am going to re-dig some these wells, instead of just walk away from them, instead of just thinking they're utterly irrelevant and they can't offer anything to our generation. No. I submit that it's time that we pick up a shovel and say I'm going to re-dig that well of prayer. I'm going to re-dig the well of the Word of God. I'm going to re-dig worshiping the King of kings, evangelism, and prayer. They're not outdated, holiness, sanctification. Some of us think, man, Chris that is just so last century. Sanctification is not last century, holiness is not last century, obedience is not last century. It's part of being a follower of Jesus Christ. It is not legalism. Obedience is not legalism, sanctification is not legalism, it's part of being conformed and transformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
Would you pick up a shovel and begin to dig those wells? You see, we've got to re-dig some old wells. Some of us have missing the life and the vibrancy of our life as Christians as Jesus followers because the old wells have been stopped up. And because something happened somewhere along the line, we threw it all away rather than understanding that there are many, many things from church history and church tradition. You and I are not like the first Jesus followers on the planet. We are in line of a 2000 plus year old church. We are part of something that has come before us and something that is going to be on the earth after us. And there are some, there are some practices that we have just discarded and what it's led to is this sense of spiritual dryness and this sense of spiritual weariness, and this sense of spiritual immaturity. And God's saying, would you pick up a shovel and we'll just start to dig again? Would you start to dig against some of the stuff that really, really matters in our generation?
The Word of God, the worship of God, praying to God, evangelism and reaching the lost, justice and seeing that out worked on the earth today, sanctification, holiness, obedience. Would you re-dig some of those wells? And then obviously Isaac he dug new wells for a new thing. In Genesis 26:19-25 we saw that Isaac dug new wells and he found running water. So not only did he dig up Abraham's old well, but he re-dug some new wells. Every generation's got to re-dig new wells for their generation, dig some wells for their own generation. So we don't throw everything away from the generation before us, but we take the things the vital elements of the Christian faith and we bring them into this generation. And then we start to dig. We've got to pick up our own shovels and we've got to start digging wells in our own generation for our generation. My generation can't dig wells for your generation. Your generation has got to pick up a shovel and dig wells for your generation.
I love the book of Isaiah 43:18-21. The scripture says, remember not the form of things, nor consider the things of old behold. I am doing a new thing. Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they may declare my praise. So here were the Israelites living out a 70 year sentence of exile in Babylon, and they felt that they had no future. They felt there was no promise.
A lot of us, we feel like that right now. Like, God, we feel like we're in exile. We feel like there is no future. We feel like there is just so much going on in the world. So many economic challenges and political challenges and racial injustice and environmental challenges everywhere we turn. Relational challenges, emotional challenges, mental challenges. It seems like there is no hope for the future. In the midst of all of this, God reminded them. You know what? I brought you out of slavery in Egypt, I did signs and wonders and miracles to bring you out of Egypt, to part that Red Sea. I did so many miracles to bring you out of slavery. I was faithful in the past, I'll be faithful now.
Somebody needs to remember that today. Your God was faithful to you in the past. When it seemed like you were facing impossible circumstances when it seemed like there was no way forward, when it seemed like there was no way that you could step into all the God had. There were too many obstacles, there were too many challenges, there were too many hurdles. There was too much challenge ahead of you. God made a way where there was no way. God opened a door that no man can shut. God opened an opportunity for you that should not have come. God provided for you in a way that it should never have happened and God's saying I did it before, I've I'm going to be faithful again. Scripture tells us that he who promised is faithful. Scripture tells us that your God will never leave you nor forsake you. I know times are tough, I know there are challenging circumstances, but God is faithful, God is trustworthy, God who came through for you before will come through for you again. The issue is, will we trust God? Will we trust the faithfulness of God?
And so he's saying to them, the new thing I'm going to do behold I doing new thing. The new thing I'm going to do is going to eclipse the old thing. See some of us we keep looking back to the old so that we can see the new that God's going to do. And God's saying, no, no, don't look back to look forward. You re-dig the wells to take with you into the future the practices that you need from the past for the future. But the methods that I used I'm not going to use, the methods that I used in the past, I'm not going to use in the future. Behold I doing new thing, do you not perceive it? God does a new thing in a new way and it's every generation's responsibility to find the new thing that God's doing in a new way and to be able to position yourself so that you can participate in the new thing that God's doing in a new way.
So many of us sit back and man that was the good old days. They weren't that good. You think that they were good, and then you miss God now because you're looking back at what God did then, and God said, behold I did a new thing. And the new thing that I do it's going to eclipse the old thing. I believe the revival that you and I are going to step into, it's going to eclipse anything we've ever seen before. And I've been privileged of God to see amazing things in my lifetime. I've seen the Lord do amazing miracles and signs and wonders. I've been part of a revival movement. I've seen God do amazing things and yet I'm expected in my heart. I'm expected that the greatest days are still ahead and not behind. I'm expected that God is not finished yet, I'm expected that God is doing a new thing and I'm not going to miss the new thing that God's doing because I keep looking back at the old thing that God has done. We learn from the past, but we don't live in it.
Scripture tells us in the book of Matthew, that God's not going to put new wine into old wineskins. So don't be surprised when there's new ways of doing things and God's not going to do it how we did it before and often just because God's not doing it now how we did it back then, we miss the move of God. We miss how God's going to do things because we kept thinking he's going to do it like he once did it. But Isaac had to dig new wells. And it's time for us in this season that we're stepping into to understand that God's not going to do it how he did it before. If you pour new wine into an old wineskin, you compromise the integrity of both things. You're going to burst that wineskin and so, it's unnecessarily going to burst you didn't need to. It's not going to be able to contain the wine that comes.
So God says you take new wine and you pour it into a new wineskin. We're living in days where God's formulating new wineskin so that the new wine into a new generation will be poured into a new wineskin and God's going to do a new thing in a new way. And it is our responsibility to lay a hold of all of that. And I believe the new wineskin and the new wells, they're not going to be either/or but both-and seed. My generation and the generation before me, it was a very polarized, very divided way of looking at things. It was all of this or all of that. And God's saying no in this generation. And as we move forward and as great revival spreads through the lens, it's not going to be either/or, it's not this great polarization, or the right or the left, this is what it's going be. It's going to be a both-and. That's how God operates.
I believe that the new wineskins the both-and is is faith or works? Well, it's not either/or, it's faith and works. We're going to see two sides of the same coin. What we have thought were two different coins. We're discovering it's actually one coin and it's got two sides. And we pitted these two sides against each other and we didn't advance the Kingdom of God because we were too busy fighting each other and God says, no, would you understand, this is two sides of the same coin. It's not faith or works, it's faith and works. Is God going to use males or females? And God's like, it's not male or female, it's male and female. Is it spirit or is it truth? And God says, my worshipers well worship me in spirit and truth.
Things that have been used to divide us. God saying this is two sides of the same coin. This is a new wineskin. It's faith and works, it's male and female, it's spirit and truth, it's young and old. You're going to need skill and zeal. It's going to be both attractional and missional. It's going to have both evangelism and social justice. You're going to use the gifts of the spirit and have the fruits of the spirit. You're going to have grace and obedience. You're going to have preaching and teaching. He uses both discipleship and outreach. He uses both traditional and contemporary services. He uses both liturgical and non-liturgical services. He uses holiness and relevance, prayer and action.
Can you see how throughout church history we've used these things to divide us and God's saying it's not either/or the new wineskins is both-and, this is two sides of the same coin. Can you imagine how much peace we would have in the body of Christ worldwide if we stopped being contentious over the issues that God is not contentious over? He's saying it's two sides of the same coin. Would you understand the new wineskin moving into a new era is not either/or, it's both-and. And it's both-and. I want to repeat this because this is so crucial. Because so many of us we've used these things to keep us on opposite sides. And instead of being a unified force to go forward and to advance the Kingdom of God on the earth and to bring heaven to earth, thy kingdom come, thy will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.
We've been so busy arguing with each other here on earth that we haven't been advancing the Kingdom of God but it's time to understand that the Lord says behold I do a new thing. Do you not perceive it? Would you let the blinkers come off, the scales lift from your eyes and understand the new thing, faith and works, male and female, spirit and truth, young and old, skill and zeal, attractional and missional, evangelism and social justice, gifts of the spirit and Fruit of the Spirit, grace and obedience, preaching and teaching, house church and mega church, theological and practical, heart and head, this earth and the new earth, counseling and deliverance, medicine and divine healing, discipleship and outreach, traditional services and contemporary services, liturgical services and non liturgical services, holiness and relevance, prayer and action.
Would we dare to be a generation that would pick up a shovel and dig new wells that would unify, that would allow rivers of living water to flow out of us instead of using these things to keep us separate, to keep us antagonistic towards one another, to keep us at odds with one another, to keep us from working together to advance the kingdom, would we be a generation that says, I'm willing to pick up a shovel in my generation and I'm willing like Isaac to dig a new well, a new well for my generation. A well that is not either/or, but a well that is both-and, a well that understands that this is two sides of the same coin and that unified together God will command a blessing and we will advance the Kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven.