Christine Caine - The Best Work - Part 3
You are the masterpiece of a magnificent God, and you are called to be just like him on the earth, to be a carrier of his love, his hope and freedom and justice. It sounds awesome, but what does that actually look like on a day to day basis? How do you make that a reality? Well, today we're going to find out. I'm Christine Caine, and I have a personal mission to equip and empower people like you to connect with your God given purpose and potential. I am so glad you're joining us today. Let's get right into the word.
Hey, hi everyone. I am so excited that you are here today, we're talking around the theme that you and I have been invited by the God of the universe to be coworkers with him in his harvest field. I mean out of any job profile that we could have on the planet, there is nothing greater than being a coworker with God, the ultimate Creator and the ultimate worker, he says, I'm going to invite you in to co-work and co-labor with me into the harvest field. And the truth of the matter is that you and I cannot download an app for work. I know we really wish we could like I want to go to work today so I'm going to download an app. Awesome just worked eight hours with the download because that's what we're all used to. But what we are doing is actually then just denying ourselves the privilege of doing the thing for which we were created to do.
You and I have been saved by grace, the Bible says in Ephesians chapter two verse eight for good works, we are God's workmanship. God made us out of the dust. He didn't have to, he could've just gone, there it is, and then we were, but he actually bent down and made us. God worked, we are his workmanship created for good works, and I think this is where many of us have missed it. We haven't known what we were created for and we were created for good works. Christians ought to be doing good works on the earth. That's what we were created to do. We were created for good works. So if you're not about the Father's business doing good works, you're not doing what you were created to do, so you might be rich, but you're not ultimately happy, you might be getting through a day, but you're not ultimately satisfied. You will only ultimately be satisfied when you get in sync with the good works that God has called you to do.
You and I have been called to do good works. And so the fact is, you know, I'm involved in helping to rescue the victims of human trafficking and we cannot stop bad people from doing bad, but I believe the hour is urgent where we've got to start activating good people to do good, because if we are going to see this world change, then good people have got to start doing good things. There is no point just sitting back wishing things were better, hoping things were better, wishing somebody would do something, you are the somebody. That's the whole point. We are who we've been waiting for. There is no cavalry coming, we are the Calvary that's been sent. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send forth workers into the har... We are the answer to our prayer. Not somebody that's more gifted than you, more talented than you, got it more together than you, more accomplished than you, we are it, there is no plan b.
For 2000 years, Jesus has been saying the harvest is plentiful, it's there, but the workers are few. These people that I created to do good works where are they? Where are they? Watching reality tv? Seriously, sweetheart, if you got a real life, you wouldn't have to watch everybody else's lives. So just get a life. There's good works that we are supposed to do. And the fact is that just because an act of good work won't fix the whole problem, doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. Imagine if I thought, well, you know what, just because we rescue one victim, what about the other 30 million? Well, of course you would never devalue the one victim with that. So why would we not think my little bit of good won't make a big difference? A little bit of good does. Just because you can't give everything doesn't mean you don't give something. We can all do something and none of us can do everything.
So God has made it so that all of us will do our little bit. God never asks you to do what you can't do. He only asks you to do what you can do. So what are good works according to God? Micah chapter six verse eight it shows us, he has told you, oh man, what is good. How's that? Micah is like, let me just tell you, God's already told you. What is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, here's the good works. To love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. You know all this stuff that we complicate, it's not complicated. Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. Do you realize how we could change the face of the earth if almost two billion Christians simply did justice, loved kindness, and walked humbly with our God? It is that simple. Do you know how many fights would stop? How much comparison and competition and anger and lust and greed and envy?
So many of the ailments of our society would end if we as Christians did what the prophet Micah said, do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. When we see the beauty of God's grace reflected in Christ, you can't help but want to do justice on the earth. You can't help it. It is a byproduct and it should flow out of the beauty of knowing Jesus Christ. Christians were created to do the work of justice, not just some, but all of us. We were created to do the work of justice. And the truth is it's not easy, it's work. It's not comfortable, it's work. It's not convenient, it's work. But the world would start to pay attention to what we say about Christ if we actually lived what we believed. And there comes a time where you've got to stop just talking about it and you must start doing it. Could you imagine if we Christians love people more than anyone?
If we worked proactively for reconciliation, if we weren't the perpetrators of racism and misogyny and marginalizing people and oppressing people, if we didn't "Other" people, but we understood everyone was an image bearer created in the image of God and is worthy of God given dignity and is worthy of God given value. You can have your own convictions, but we need to be fueled by compassion and to love everyone, to love everyone, and to do the work of justice so that we can stand up for the rights of the poor and the marginalized and the oppressed and the disenfranchised. It's ultimately why I started the work of a21. God loves humanity. For God so loved the world, and so we're called to do justice, we believe that everyone is an image bearer of God, therefore that's a good work. That is a good, we cannot just be silent and indifferent and pretend that the rest of the planet does not exist. It is our job to be about the Father's business and to love humanity, because the truth is the justice reflects the character of God, God is a God of justice, and if we want to reflect the character of God to our generation in our world, then you and I need to be advocates for the poor and the marginalized.
Isaiah 58 verse six and seven says is not this the fast that I chose to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke. Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Is this not the fast that I choose? Deuteronomy 15 verse seven to 11, if among you, one of your brothers should become poor in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need whatever it may be.
Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say the seventh year, the year of release is near and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cried to the Lord against you and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake for there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in your land. There it is right there in scripture that we are called to do justice. So God himself, old testament has told us that we are supposed to do the work of justice. Jesus loves the poor and the marginalized, we see it throughout the Gospels that our job as followers of Jesus Christ is to reflect the work of Jesus Christ on this earth to do the good works that he did, and he loves the poor and the outcast.
When the inauguration of his ministry in Luke chapter four was when he read from the prophet Isaiah. He read from the scroll, he opened the scroll and he says in the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him, he unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. We are that me. Is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty, those who are oppressed. When I started my ministry 31 years ago, this was the verse, I would have it up and I would walk and I would literally say out loud, I would go forward. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Christine, he has anointed you to set the captives free. He has anointed you to speak the good news of the Gospel. There is no plan b, we are the me, we are the me.
It's not just saving our soul and waiting until we die so we can, you know, float in heaven. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about bringing heaven to earth here. That's what good works is. It's awakening to what, I've got a job to do here. That's what I do here on the planet. There is nothing more exhilarating every day than to put my head on the pillow and think we hope to make the world a better place today. We saw someone rescued today, we saw someone empowered today, we saw someone saved today, we saw, we get to do that. Not I have to: I get to. I get to do this. It is so awesome, so many Christians, I'm utterly convinced are bored with their Christianity because they're not doing the good works that God put them on the planet to do. And I want you to understand, I want you to hear me, that God's grace, that same grace that saves us, God's grace enables us to do these good works from a place of rest.
So you couldn't make this up, I couldn't be this pumped up 31 years later if it was hype. It wouldn't be hype, not at this stage. But the fact that I still get up every day with a little glint in my eye, a spring in my step, I just think Christians need to be naughty, not illegal, not immoral, not heretical, just naughty. There ought to be something about us where people are like, I want what you've got. There is a grace, and scripture tells us that you and i, we don't have to get so under the pressure of all this, people go, Christine, how do you not feel the weight of the burden of helping to rescue the victims of human trafficking? And there's no doubt about it.
Some of the stories are just horrific, and there are times like, I don't even know what to say. I don't even know how to breathe, some of those stories are horrific. But the scripture says in Matthew 11 verse 30, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. That's the key for me that you have to understand that God's yoke is easy. The labor that he calls us to, it's not going to kill you and it's not going to crush you. Some of us are so scared, I can't bear the burden of it. I'm not created to, my shoulders are not big enough to carry the weight of fixing the world, but Jesus bought that weight at Calvary 2000 years ago. I don't need to do that.
So I don't go to bed thinking I have to be anybody's Savior. I don't go to bed thinking I've got to fix the world because Jesus is doing that. That's not my weight. But the Bible tells me in the book of Hebrews that I labor to enter that place of rest. So what I do is fight to get into a place of rest in Christ where out of that place of rest in him, I can labor and do supernatural things. So a lot of my life, the fruit that it yields, that is supernatural, where you go, how can you do so much Christine? How do you do a21, and how do you do propel, and how do you do equip and empower? How do you do? Look I don't even know, 'cause if I look at it myself, I get exhausted because none of my days can only have 24, I mean if I program all of my days in my schedule, then I can't fit my day into my day. But I don't want a natural life, I want a supernatural life. And I don't believe God's called us to do good works, and that means that our marriages have to crumble or our families have to crumble or that our health, you know, that we don't look after the temple that God has given us or that our friendships don't flourish. I don't carry the burden of what I don't need to carry. And so I have to keep getting better at streamlining, but his burden is easy and his yoke is light.
So to be honest with you, I mean there are some times I come under extreme pressure, but mostly I don't carry that. I've learned to take it off my shoulders and drop it onto Jesus 'cause his burden is easy. And this is how I know I'm out of balance. When I'm, the burden is heavy and the yoke is heavy and I'm like, there's something off in this. I'm carrying something I'm not supposed to be carrying, I'm worrying about something I'm not supposed to be worrying about, and there is the peace of God. The Bible says that the holy spirit, he brings us a peace, he's our umpire and then sometimes I'm like, if I don't, if there's something off here, and most of the times it's because I've crossed over into people pleasing instead of God pleasing, and I'm trying to do something everyone wants me to do rather than what God wants me to do. I'm thinking this week alone, you know I had a big week of TV taping this week alone, I've had 11 people ask me to endorse their book, and it is awesome and I don't know how many dozens I have because I've done a lot.
But the point is that nowadays, unless I read the book and I know what the content of the book is, I don't want to endorse something that I may or may not agree with even if I love the person, I may not agree with the content, but I don't physically, I did not physically have and I had to have them all read by like next week. I did not physically have the time to be able to prepare these messages, to be able to read 11 books to endorse as well as to study for my own master's degree, as well as finish editing my own book, as well as be remotely nice to my husband and acknowledge that I had children, it's not possible. So I could take a burden on my shoulder or I could say I'm about to disappoint 11 people, which I did. I'm about to disappoint them and if they truly love me, they're going to understand. But some of them won't because they care more about what I can do for them than where I'm at in this point so I have to be willing to be misunderstood, I have to be willing for some people to go, she just thinks she's too big now and they have no idea.
They have no idea what it is. But I'm not willing to take on a burden that is not mine to carry because otherwise it will crush me, and I won't end up doing the thing that God's put me on the earth to do. And so his burden is easy, his yoke is light. And the fact is that his spirit fuels me to do his will, his spirit gives me strength. Any good work I do originates in God. Let me just go on air to say this, 'cause there's a lot of people out there that are just saying, you know, just do good, just do random acts of kind... I need you to know God is good, Psalm 119 says, and God does good, God alone is good. Anything good that I do, honestly it originates from God because there is nothing good on the inside of, I know me, I know me.
I want you to know the goodness is a fruit of the holy spirit of God. Goodness is part of an attribute of God. Goodness does not originate in mankind, goodness does not originate in me, it originates from God, it is a fruit of the spirit of God, so any good works we do on earth will give glory to God because it was originated by him, sustained by him, and it was for his glory, when you know that you get about the Father's business and you go, thank you father. Thank you father that I get to do that. So Galatians 6:9 says, let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap if we faint not. I need you to know the work of doing good is not easy, it's work. 10 years into the fight against human trafficking, it is hard work. Every time we open a new office, every time we see someone, it's hard work. But I'm not giving up because I know that in due season, we will reap if we faint not.
It's hard work to love the unlovely. Have you ever noticed that? It's hard work to forgive the unforgivable? I'm talking about good work now. This is why I'm saying it's not easy. You and I were created by God in eternity to do these good works, but just because they're good doesn't mean they're easy. It's hard work in our society to give instead of take. It's hard work to serve others and not be served. It's hard work to be interrupted by God to do something when you've set your goal. It's hard work to change course. It's hard work to be inconvenienced in a world that lives for convenience. I mean, if I can't microwave it in three minutes and eat it, I think it's all too slow. It's hard work to go, wow, my life is going to be inconvenienced when I start doing good works. It's hard work to be uncomfortable, especially in a world that pursues comfort and ease. It's hard work to be selfless in a very selfish world. It's really hard work. It's hard work to be honest, when you can easily cheat. It's hard work to be moral when immorality is a click away. So hard. It's hard work to not be, to not become hardened or desensitized to need when you're just swamped by it in the media all the time.
But you know what? We can do hard things. We were born to do hard things. We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Might be hard, but we were created to do it. It's in our spiritual DNA, and let me just say, when you are infused with the spirit of God and the power of God to do the good works that God prepared for you to do from before the beginning of time, then you're going to look back at your life and you're going to go, truly Ephesians 3:20 is true. I look at our life and I go now unto him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond anything that we could ever ask, hope or think according to that power that works in us. You can live your life on your level and do what only you can do, but when you get in sync with God and you go, I'm going to be a co-laborer with you in your harvest field, then your life will yield fruit that is exceedingly, abundantly above and beyond anything you could ever ask, hope or think, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name. Amen.