Christine Caine - The Best Work - Part 2
What are your dreams? Can you see yourself becoming someone, doing something, perhaps going somewhere? Well, it's God that puts those desires in our hearts. The dreams that we run towards. But did you know that he isn't only interested in your future? He is just as interested in your today, and you're already on assignment. I'm Christine Caine and I have a personal mission to equip and empower people like you to connect with your God-given purpose and potential. I'm so glad you're joining us today. Let's dive right in.
Hey, everyone. I'm so excited to be with you. I'm so glad that you tuned in today. I believe that God's gonna speak to you about your purpose, your potential and your destiny. You and I are invited by God to be co-laborers in his harvest field. We're speaking in this series around the theme that the harvest is plentiful. There's plenty of people in the world. But the workers are few. And we are making the decision that we don't want to be just nice little Christianettes that listen to nice little sermonettes and just do our little pirouettes. No, no, no, no. Well, that's not if you're Baptist, but if you're Pentecostal, okay, so. But what we want to be is we want to be co-laborers with God in his harvest field. There is no higher calling than to be invited by God to labor in his harvest field.
Now remember, I'm not saying in the mission field, because wherever you are, that's the mission field. So I'm talking about your harvest field. I'm talking about your school, your community, your university, your workplace. Sometimes we spend so much time looking over somewhere else that we're missing the harvest in front of us. I don't want you to miss the harvest in front of you. Don't just be thinking if you're in college, one day when. One day when I graduate, I'm gonna become this and I'm gonna do that. And God's saying, what about the harvest right now in your college? What about the people around you right now where you are? What about the people in your supermarket or if you're working in a cafe, in your cafe? What about those clients? There's a harvest right now.
Many of us miss the harvest right now because we keep looking down the track to the future or we're looking behind us to the past. And what the enemy wants to do is get you so consumed with your past or with the future that you miss the harvest in the present. And my intention in this series is to get our eyes to wake up to the fact that there is a harvest around us now. God can take care of your future and you can do nothing to change the past. So ask God for eyes to see the harvest around you right now and that means when you wake up every day, no matter what is happening in your circumstances that you know that you're going to work in God's harvest field. You are God's combine harvesting machine. That's what you are exactly. And you and I were created by God to do good works.
I think it's really important to remember that in Ephesians verse 2, sorry... In Ephesians 2:8-10, the Bible says, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. So I want you to be clear about this. We have been saved by grace. It is as clear as anything in scripture that we are saved by God's grace and there is nothing that you and I could do to earn our salvation. You're watching this on the other side of the screen and perhaps you've grown up in a culture where you have been taught that you have to be good enough and you have to somehow work your way to God, that you have to clean yourself up before you get to God, that there's certain things you have to do before God will accept you or forgive you or love you. But I'm here to tell you today that there is nothing that you have to do. You come as you are. All our salvation comes through Christ alone.
Jesus Christ bore the weight of our sin on the cross of Calvary. He rose again from the dead three days later, so that every single one of us can have forgiveness for our past, a brand new life today and a hope for the future. There is nothing that you could do that could make God love you any more. There is nothing that you can do that can make God love you any less. You don't have to get cleaned up to come to Jesus. While we were yet sinners, scriptures say, Jesus Christ died for us. That's how much he loves you. Right where you are, whatever situation you've just come out of, whatever it is that you have done, friend, if you confess your sin, the Bible says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Right there, right where you're sitting now, you could just open up your heart and your life to the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't have to be better to get saved by God. You just need to be open and offer your heart to him and repent of your sin and Jesus Christ will save you right where you are.
So it is by grace we have been saved. Not works, lest any man should boast. Nobody in this room, nobody on the other side of the screen, not me, nobody's better than anybody else. Every single one of us are sinners saved by the grace of God. God does not love me any more than he loves you and there is no special exemption for anyone else. God loves you and has a plan for you. Now that we've established that we are saved by grace, very clear, nothing we could do to earn us our salvation. Nothing at all. Then it goes on and I think maybe this has been ripped out of some people's Bibles because it's stunning to me how once you have discovered you are saved by grace, that's the good news. I mean that needs to be shared from everywhere. Whosoever will can come. The good news is we cannot save ourselves. There is none righteous, not one. No one is good enough. And then he says, great, now that we've got that established, by grace alone you're saved.
Now I want you to know, very next verse continues and when they wrote the Bible, there was no verses. So it just continues, just so that you know. For, we're now connecting this. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ for good works. Those things need to come back together. By grace, for good works. Saved by grace, for good works. You think, is she gonna keep repeating it? Yes. Saved by grace, for good works. You weren't just saved so that you could just hang on until the rapture. And then go to heaven and play harps to God. You're not that good a harpist. He doesn't want to listen to you for all of eternity, okay, so that's not the deal. We are saved by grace for good works. We are saved and called.
And so if we could put both these things together, you would find a whole lot more Christians living with passion and living with purpose. Some of you have been saved and you've got no idea what you're saved for. You've gotten saved and you're just trying not to sin until you die. And what a boring life. You were saved by grace for good works. Saved by grace, for good works. God has good works that he prepared beforehand in eternity for you to do here on earth. There is a plan, there is a purpose, there is a destiny in your life. It is woven into your very DNA to do good works for the Kingdom of God. I'm not talking about being a workaholic. I'm not talking and at all am I saying that you are saved by good works but I am saying you're saved by grace for good works and we're gonna raise up a generation of Christians that are gonna get on track with a God-given purpose and a God-given destiny. Saved by grace. We were not saved by grace for just a life of comfort and ease.
See, some of us think, it's all about my safety, my security, my comfort and my ease. I don't know what Bible you're reading. I really don't. We were saved by grace for good wo... Lord Jesus just loves me, and I'm just gonna sing kum ba yah till the second coming. I'm like, what are you smoking? Yes, we need to have rest and sabbath and replenishment. Yes, God has created us to do that. But rest and sabbath presupposes work. You don't need rest when you're not doing anything. That's called lazy. Aren't you all glad you're not on my staff? Anyway, so here is the issue. But a lot of us, I think there is an emphasis that's very unhealthy when we overcorrect to the wrong way, a lot of us, in reaction to a works-based Christianity have overcorrected to the point that we think all we do is sit at the foot of Jesus and play a harp. And I'm like no no no no. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. That we need to mobilize a generation of Christians to get about the Father's business. We need a generation of Christians to get to work.
You can already be in sync with your eternal purpose when you start doing the good works that God put you here to do. And I'm not talking about one day when, when it's some big spectacular project, but your good work is being nice to the neighbor right next to you now. Of seeing your office, your school as the mission field right where you are now. And understanding that God has created you for good, we've only got today. There's no guarantee about tomorrow. There's no guarantee. We've only got this day. So you're about the Father's business. Acts 10:38 says, you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
Jesus didn't just sit around. He was often really tired. But the Bible said that Jesus of Nazareth was anointed with power and he went about doing good. He went about doing good. If God himself, God incarnate, came into this skin of man as Jesus walked around amongst people. If we were meant to stay asleep all day and do nothing, that's what Jesus would have done. But Jesus went about doing good. And what, you go, what is the job profile for a Christian? Go about doing good. Go about doing good. There's people all around us that have needs and our job is to do good. If Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good and he is who we are supposed to be following, then we ought to going about and doing good. Then that means in our workplaces, in our schools, in our communities, in the marketplace, we should be doing greater works than these, the scripture says.
The Bible says, he set free all of those that were oppressed by the devil and he healed all that were sick. That ought to be basic Christian business. When we turn up, peace turns up. When we turn up, joy turns up. When we turn up, love turns up. When we turn up, people get healed. When we turn up, wisdom turns up because the same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives on the inside of us and he says, go into the harvest field and get to work. Get to work everyday. Don't just do your job. Be about the Father's business. Don't just go through the motions of getting through the day, but in the midst of a lost and a broken world, be God's salt, be God's light and get to work.
1 Corinthians 15:58. People often ask me, Christine, what would be your life scripture? And this scripture would be the foundation, really of my life and ministry. And so the Bible says, therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. And these are two words that have gone right out of vogue because of people's workaholism in the marketplace or because of people's workspace Christianity. We have been so scared to talk about work because everyone's like, I just need a work-life balance, I just need... But I'm talking about being about the Father's business. I'm talking about something that will actually replenish and refuel you. When you get on track with your God-given purpose and your destiny, you are actually replenished. Sometimes your body's tired, but your spirit's alive. Your sense of purpose is alive because you're doing the good works that God prepared. God didn't prepare something in heaven for us to do on earth so that we would be dissatisfied. And so we need Christians to get about the good works that God put you here on the planet to do so that we can get this job done.
So when I started 31 years ago, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. There would almost not be a day that I haven't confessed that scripture. And days when I have felt that what I've done hasn't really mattered. I say, Christine, God has promised that your labor will never be in vain if it's for the Lord. When I have felt unappreciated, I go, Christine, my labor has not been in vain because God has seen it. It is the thing that will get you through disappointment, it is the thing that will get you through discouragement, it is the thing that will get you through feeling maybe betrayed or overlooked or that nobody really notices. You go, be steadfast. And I say it to myself out loud. Christine, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. And know that your labor in the Lord will never ever be in vain.
Some of you, you've given up doing the good works that God's called you to because you didn't see a whole lot of fruit in the natural. And you thought it's wasted. In fact, a missionary, someone that was on the mission field, you're watching this right now. You've just tuned in and you feel like your whole time in the foreign field was a waste of time. You didn't see a whole lot of fruit. The whole thing fell apart. But I believe that God sent me and stopped this message right now to remind you that your labor in him was never in vain. That it will yield fruit and whether you see it in the natural or not, your labor is never in vain.
Some of you've been laboring, trying to win your kids to the Lord, laboring over that relationship, laboring over trying to win a coworker to Christ, laboring over trying to fill a gap at work. When there has been just something that's happened and you've stepped in and you feel like nobody has seen you. You feel like this is going nowhere. You feel like it doesn't matter, but I'm here today to tell you that your labor in the Lord, when it's for the Lord and in the Lord, it is never in vain. God sees it all. It matters to God and God is no man's debtor. God will repay you and you will see a breakthrough in Jesus' name. Colossians 3:23-24 says whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. To everybody that is employed, that is a really good scripture to put above your desk. But my boss this and they, unrealistic, ba ba ba. No, and God's saying that whatever you do, work heartily for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
I think it's very important that we all remember that when it comes to our jobs. We are all serving the Lord Christ. You've gotta turn your workplace into a harvest field. And go, you know what, and I remember, before I came into full-time ministry, I was working for a shipping company and I had a boss. Well, let's just say, he was a piece of work, okay. And the fact is that this scripture, I had it up over my computer on my desk. And go, Christine, remember, you are working as unto the Lord. Just because, and I'm not saying, in any way, anyone needs to be in an abusive situation. I'm not saying that at all. If there's any form of abuse or bullying, you need to get out of that. You need to report that to HR. That's not what I'm talking about. But I am talking about sometimes there are just people at work and there's just people. And they are your sandpaper ministry. They're gonna smooth your rough edges, honey, that's what it's all about. But you've gotta realize that I'm working for the Lord.
See, what we do is we go to Twitter or we get on a blog or we get on Facebook and we like to complain publicly about everything all the time. And God's saying, hang on a minute. I've got you there. And even if you think they don't see what you're doing, I see what you're doing. Even if you don't think that they know that you're taking supplies from the locker room, I see it, because you're working for me. Even if you think they don't know that you're on the phone having personal conversations or working on your own personal stuff on your computer when you should be working, you need to understand that I see it. I'm God and you're working as unto me. And when you're faithful in a few things, God will promote you in many things.
Ultimately whether your boss sees it or doesn't see it, you've gotta understand, God sees it. God really sees it. You either believe this stuff or you don't. And so, we as Christ's co-laborers ought to be the best workers in our workplace. We ought to be delivering the best work. We ought to be the most loyal, the most integrous, the most fruitful. We ought to be the ones that are not gossiping, that we are not slandering. That we are bringing peace into our workplace. We are the ones that ought to be producing work that is so excellent that your boss is like, how did you do that? And you're like, you know, I got a contact. But can you imagine what a witness we would be?
So we are co-laborers in the harvest field, so that doesn't mean that you are trying to give four spiritual laws to your coworker all the time. Sometimes it means you just do your job. And you do your job really well. And you do it with excellence and that you are mindful of the kinds of things in the world in which we live. What kind of pictures are you putting up there? People go, well, it really doesn't matter. Yes, it does. Would you keep your clothes on? That would be nice. Cover up your little bits. That would be awesome. I could really go there but I'll be nice. It's just mama Chris, giving you some tips. But Colossians says, whatever you do. You know what that word, whatever, means? Whatever. It means whatever you do, you're doing it as unto the Lord.
James 2:20, do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless. There are so many talkers in the body of Christ and not many doers. A whole lot of dreamers, not many doers. And so what we need to do at some point is stop dreaming, stop talking and start doing. Faith without works is dead. We've got a plane with two wings. It takes two wings to fly a plane. You need faith and works. There was no point in me just talking about slavery. At some point, I had to do something about it. Faith without works is dead. You've gotta put your faith to work. A whole lot of us have a faith that doesn't work because we're not working our faith. So why don't we start working our faith, putting your faith to work and you will start to soar into the purposes of God. Faith without works is dead. You've gotta have it both together.
Matthew 5:16 says, in the same way, let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. Our good works at a21, guess what that does? It brings glory to God. Good works bring glory to God. You're not saved by good works. But we're called to do good works because God is glorified through our good works. And our last scripture for today, Matthew 25:23, his master said to him, well done, good and faithful... He didn't say well said. Well tweeted. Well blogged. Well Instagrammed, well dreamt. Well done, good and faithful servant. God invites us to be coworkers with him in his harvest field. When all is said and done, will you have said more than done or will you have done more than said? In Jesus' name.