Christine Caine | First Conference 2016

I love you guys so much.

You can't sit down.

Yeah, hang on, stay standing.

I have missed you all.

I just need to look at you for a second.

Um, you had a Latina last night, and you've and you've got a Greek tonight, and you've got an Indian tomorrow night.

So it is the United Nations here at Gateway, that's for sure.

I love that.

Nick and I so love your part.

You ought to thank God that you are planted in such an incredible church here under the great leadership of Pastor Robert and Debbie Morris.

Honestly, we honour you.

We love you.

We thank God for you.

I mean that.

I love you too.

You can be seated now, that's okay.

Turn the person next to you and say, You're the best-looking thing I've seen all day.

All right.

Now turn to your second choice and say you're actually better looking than the other person.

I just I want to welcome all of our um campuses and everyone on Daystar.

I love our Daystar family.

I love uh Marcus and Joni so much.

So it's so awesome to have all of our Daystar crew here.

North uh Richland Hills, North Fort Worth, Frisco campuses.

I'm telling you, we're a little bit like God here, just omnipresent.

Everywhere I come, it's like there's another Gateway campus.

Okay, so it's it's I've been coming for so many years.

Uh this house has been partners with us in A21 really from day one.

This it's because of you all.

Because the Spirit of the Lord moved at one of the pink conferences when I come back with this vision from Thessaloniki, and God moved so powerfully.

Um Pastor Debbie just stood up, compelled all of a sudden to receive an offering, which was the very first offering.

And um, and then you guys were so generous we had to do something.

So it's your fault, is what I'm saying.

That's what happened.

In many ways, it was birthed here, and um, by the grace of God, now there's 12 officers in 11 countries around the world, hundreds of girls rescued, dubbed dozens and dozens of traffickers in jail, and it started right here, which is pretty incredible.

I'm I'm gonna jump right into the text.

What an honor to be here.

What an honor to have a conference right here at the first, and I hope you're doing uh the devotional.

I also just want to echo what Pastor Robert said.

You do want to get here early.

Wherever Ravi Zacharias goes, there is no room at the inn.

And so you want to make sure um he has shaped and moulded so much of my theology.

I'm an evangelist first and foremost.

He's probably the greatest apologist in our generation, and um you would not want to miss uh the man is unbelievable.

So make sure the people in the house have room in the house that be here early.

Why don't we turn to 1 Kings 17?

I believe the Holy Spirit's gonna continue speaking with us, the general of the faith, Pastor Jack Hayford, on on Sunday night.

I don't know that it gets much better.

I I got all the notes ahead of time.

I um was just at another conference, otherwise I would have been here.

I I love to be part of what the Lord's doing, and so he spoke a powerful word on um the baptism of the Holy Spirit and prayer, and then I got all of um Pastor Samuel's notes from last night, and he must have spoken really fast to get all of that out.

That's all I can say.

And so um, and I'm both Greek and a woman, so I only speak three ways hard, fast, and continuously.

So strap yourself in because um this is gonna be a Tuesday night.

And we're gonna jump into 1 Kings 17.

I love the word of God.

The Bible says, now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe in Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve.

It's so important today that you know whom you serve.

He comes right up front and says, This is the God that I serve.

So many are serving so many different gods.

It's really important that you know the one that you're serving.

He says, The God whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah, leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith ravine east of the Jordan.

You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.

So he did what the Lord told him.

It's always very helpful.

I could probably not preach anything else.

I think all of us would be out of a job if simply the church did what the Lord told them.

But we'll move on.

That's another sermon.

So he did what the Lord told him.

He went to the Kerith ravine east of the Jordan and stayed there.

The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

A lot of people already almost switch off at this point.

It's like, what do you mean?

The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening.

It's like they've gone, they would just sort of slip over this, like we're into fairy tale land.

But you know, I'm a great believer that God can do whatever he wants to do.

If he wants to get food to you in a time of famine, he can speak to the birds and he can get the birds to bring you bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening.

This is God.

He woke up one day, got earth?

Oops, look what I did.

That's that's God.

So if he wants to get a bird to fear, I don't need a God.

People go, well, Christine, that that's not possible.

How is that?

How can you prove that empirically?

Is that you know, does that make any rational sense?

That's not even possible.

I don't need a God that can do the possible, I can do the possible.

I don't need a God created in my image.

I need a God that can do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond anything that I could ever ask, hope, or think.

I need a God that can do the impossible, not the possible.

So this to me is far more plausible that God would come up with a very unorthodox method to get food to you in a time of famine.

You don't have to panic about what's happening around you.

If God wants to get it to you, he'll use a bird if he needs to to get it to you.

Scripture goes on, it says, sometime later the brook dried up.

Because there had been no rain in the land, then the word of the Lord came to him.

Some of you are wondering why the Lord you feel the word of the Lord hasn't come to you yet.

The brook's not dried up yet.

God says, keep doing the last thing I told you to do.

The brook's not dried up yet.

You might not be happy with where you are, but the word of the Lord will come for the next direction when the brook dries up.

It says, then the word of the Lord came to him, go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there.

I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.

If you thought the ravens were crazy, it gets worse.

It goes on.

It says, When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks.

He called to her and asked, Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?

As she was going to get it, because that was obviously the doable.

As she was going to get it, he called, and bring me, please, a piece of bread.

As surely as the Lord your God lives.

We get a hint right there that this isn't her God, it's his God.

So not only is she a widow, she's a Gentile widow, she doesn't even believe in the same God.

She replied, I don't have any bread, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug.

I'm gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son that we might eat it and die.

I don't know about you, but I would not be feeling particularly encouraged at this point.

Like, God, is there like a plan B?

This is awesome.

Elijah said to her, don't be afraid.

Go home and do as you have said, but first.

Everyone say butt first.

But first.

This I love how you Americans say butt first.

It just hit me.

Day star.

I know we have an international audience, but this room right now, it's butt first.

Everyone say butt first.

Sounds very cultural.

That's how the Australians speak.

We say awesome.

Everyone say awesome.

You sound very dignified, very dignified, Gateway.

Say it again, awesome.

Okay, now sound like an American.

Sila.

Just I'm just gonna keep reading the Bible.

Some of you may need an interpretation of tongue as I do, but this is the Queen's English from the colonies.

This is how the convicts speak, just putting it out there.

That's it.

You can tell I'm home.

Okay, and I'm being well behaved now.

You girls better come to pink because there I'm naughty.

Okay, so we jump in.

And he says, um, Elijah said to don't be afraid, go home.

But first, but first, we're at the first conference.

See how I did that?

But first, first, okay, just say.

But first, make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.

For this is what the Lord the God of Israel says the jar of flour will not be used up, and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.

She went away and she did as Elijah had told her.

So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.

For the jar of flour was not used up, and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

What a great miracle.

The scripture goes on and says, sometime later, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill.

He grew worse and worse and finally stopped breathing.

She said to Elijah, What do you have against me, man of God?

Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?

Give me your son, Elijah replied.

He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and he laid him on his bed.

Then he cried out to the Lord, Lord my God, you have brought tragedy even on this widow.

I am sta even on this widow, I am staying with, causing her son to die.

Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, Lord my God, let this boy's life return to him.

The Lord heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived.

Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house.

He gave him to his mother and he said, Look, your son is alive.

Then the woman said to Elijah, Now I know you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.

It's a lot of scripture for a Tuesday night, I know.

It's a whole chapter, and if you've fallen behind on your Bible reading plan already this year, I just caught you up till the rest of the month.

It's you could be you'll do the Bible in a year.

But the scripture starts under the reign of King Ahab in 1 Kings 16 33.

Scripture says Ahab did more evil in the sight of the Lord than any other king before him.

Could you imagine being recorded in eternal record biblical history as the king that did more evil in the sight of God than any other king?

This was a very dark time in Israel's history.

This was a time of great injustice, immorality.

They worshipped false gods.

There was just so much darkness, not unlike the world we live in today.

A world of idolatry, a world of greed.

There was a time of child sacrifice during this king's reign.

It was immoral.

There was great iniquity, very similar to this world we live in in 2016 across the globe.

Just hideous crime and violence and genocide and child sacrifice.

Hideous.

And as if that's not as bad as it could get, we have the king that did more evil in the sight of the Lord than any other king.

He was married to a very interesting chick.

And so his wife was Queen Jezebel.

So just when you think it can't get worse, it just got worse.

So in the midst of all of this, which is very much like the world we live in today, I just want you to know evil is not a new thing.

Injustice is not a new thing.

Famine is not a new thing, lack is not a new thing, great, horrific immorality and iniquity and idolatry is not a new thing.

The Bible's got a lot to say about this.

This is why this conference is so crucial, right at the beginning, because it is so important.

The people of God, we who were not a people but who have been made a people, know how the people of God should act amongst a people that don't know how they should act because they're not yet a people of God.

There's got to be something different about us in the midst of all of this.

The prophet goes to King Ahab and goes, I've got to tell you, there comes a time when God just says, Enough is enough.

Enough is enough.

He says, There's not going to be any more rain in the land until I say so.

He goes and then he goes by the brook at the Kerith ravine and then he's fed, and then the brook dries up.

So the Lord says, I'm going to provide for you, and he sends him to a place.

He sends him to Zaraph.

Now, Zarephath might not mean much to us, but in case you don't know, Zarephath is actually the birthplace of Jezebel.

So the Lord sends him into the epicenter of darkness.

Now you would be thinking he would send him to his people, he would be sending him to a place that is prosperous, a place that is fruitful, a place that is safe, a place that is but he doesn't send him to that kind of place.

He sends him to a very dark place.

He sends him to a very highly unlikely place, a place that is full of immorality and iniquity.

Not only does he send him to a highly unlikely place, he sends him to a widow, the least of the least.

A woman in these days had no rights, she was a the property of her husband.

If her husband died, she was a nobody and she had nothing.

She had no property, no rights, no assets, she had nothing.

So the Lord not only sent him to a highly unlikely place, he sent him to a highly unlikely person.

And then not only that, he gave her a very highly unlikely strategy.

She had nothing, and the Lord said, and the prophet said to her, I want you to give me the little bit of bread that you're gonna make.

She goes, I haven't got it, I've just got enough for me and my son to die.

He says, That's fine, but first, could you imagine what CNN would do with that?

Prophet comes to town, finds the poorest widow.

She's about to take the last bite of her bread, and he says, Give it to me first, and God will bless you.

Oh, they would go to town on that.

I'm glad this was written before the internet.

So he gives her a highly unlikely strategy, and then what happens?

It doesn't run out.

There's enough food for the prophet, for the woman, for her son.

It doesn't run dry.

So they end up with a highly unlikely result.

But you know the thing that I've discovered, church and scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, God has always used highly unlikely people in highly unlikely places, He's given them highly unlikely strategies, and we've ended up with highly unlikely results.

He's always done it.

And you know where I find the most highly unlikely place is the place where you are right now.

Right now.

See, because most Christians live in Christian fantasy land.

We've begun the beginning of 2016, and we're like, you know, God, I would do something awesome when I get that promotion, when I get that pay rise, when I get married, and then for others, when my spouse dies, no, but when I are, you know, it just when I have children, when I don't have children, when I get that degree, when I don't have that degree, when I have time, when I have less time.

It's always sometime in the future that is a different time to now.

We're waiting for some perfect little place, and I'm gonna arrive there.

The only problem is there is no there.

Because when you get there, guess where you are?

Here people got to be manifest.

I could just get to where Chris Kane is.

If when I get there, I'm like, I'm here.

I I I don't know where there is.

Where's there?

Because I'm here, you're there.

You're like, no, Chris, I'm not there, I'm here, and I'm like, you're there.

You're like, no, you're there.

I'm like, no, I'm here, you're there.

You're like, no, I'm here.

See what I mean?

We're all waiting for one day when I when I when I just get there, man, when I just get a little bit richer, when I just get a little bit smarter, when I just get a little bit fitter, when I just get it it's always just uh, but but then when we get er, we go, but I'm not the richest, I'm not the smartest, I'm not the fittest.

So most Christians spend their whole life waiting to be Urrah or Esther.

And God says, I'm not waiting for you to be more Ur of anything.

I I want you right here, right now, in this place.

This is where you begin.

The miracle begins here.

There is no there.

It begins with what you have, not with what you don't have.

It begins in this highly unlikely place, in a place of challenge and a place how how am I here?

And almost this year I turned 50.

This is a brilliant year for me.

50 years old, 25 years of full-time ministry, 20 years marriage, it doesn't get better.

2016 is an epic year for me.

I'm loving this year, it is absolutely awesome.

But the fact is, you know how long it took me to get to 25 years of full-time ministry?

25 years.

Do you know how long it took me to get to 50?

50 years.

Do you know how long it took us to get to 20 years of marriage?

20 years.

I I know you're so glad you came out tonight and you're so glad you tuned in to Daystar just for this.

Because it's not rocket science, it's where you are now.

When I sense this thing, God, I want to do so, people go, man, 12 A21 officers around the world.

Do you know where that started?

27 years ago, when I was in a youth group meeting at church, and the youth pastor said, next Tuesday, we're gonna have a cleanup, we're gonna clean one of the storerooms in the church.

And I that Tuesday, I just skipped a few lectures at university, all of them, and um and I went to the cleanup day.

Do you know how many people were at that cleanup day?

Me.

I I just want to tell you how the big call to ministry happened.

Me, I had Windex because I'm Greek.

I had Windex, and I I just thought of that.

I really did have Windex, and well, there you go.

And so I had some Windex, and I had a cloth that I began to wipe clean, and the assistant youth pastor said, Hi, you're Chris Cariophilis, aren't you?

Because that's who I was before I was married, Cariophilus, because all Greeks are sula, rula, kula, doula, agrapi.

Anyway, my big fat Greek wedding's coming back out.

I can't wait.

But anyway, so number two.

And he he says, Can you help us with a youth center?

I said, What's a youth center?

He said, I don't know, but I'm going on a missions trip with Pastor Brian.

And when I come back, I want you to be part of the youth center.

So he threw me a pager.

And it was one of this, my call to ministry, it was a lie.

Because it was one of the some of you don't even know what a pager is, but for those of us that were born with the dinosaurs, let me just tell you, they threw me a pager, and it was one of those where you page and you know, someone answers the pager and says, Hi, this is the you know, with the organization name, and um they say is Christine Cariophilos there, and you go, No, I'm sorry, she's not in the office, only there's no office, but they don't know that.

And so then they page me, and I run to a phone and I go, Oh, hi, I just got back in the office, which I really didn't.

And so the whole premise of it, as you can see, the Lord's very graceful.

And so that was the call right there.

How did that happen?

Because I was the most gifted, I was the most talented.

No, I was just the one that turned up.

Where did I turn up?

Here, not one day when, but here.

And you know what I kept doing?

Turning up where here, turning up where here, turning up where here, and all of a sudden you look and go, Wow, when I was back there, but when I was back there, it was here.

This here's not gonna come back around again.

What you do now, most of us we just wait for one day when I don't know what you're waiting for.

I don't know what you're waiting for.

When I get there, where is this there?

Most of us are dead before we die, and the thing that kills us is all of this unused God-given destiny that we carry around.

We're just waiting, we want everything nice and safe, and I'm just waiting as if somehow the goal of our Christianity is safety.

Jesus Christ did not come from heaven to earth to die on a cross and and rise again from the dead so that we could be safe.

He came to make us dangerous to the kingdom of darkness that we would advance the cause of Christ, that we would move forward.

So you've got to begin to move.

When now?

Where here?

There is no fantasy one day when.

Most Christians are just waiting for all the planets to line up, and I'm like, Jesus already has.

If I can just make this fit and this fit and this fit, listen, we're not in Kansas anymore.

We're not in Kansas anymore.

The world's not going back to how it was.

The hour is urgent, the clock is ticking, and time is on our side.

It's not ticking down, it's ticking up.

We're getting closer to Christ's coming.

It's not like I'm not feeling like I'm losing time.

I'm not losing time, I'm gaining time.

I'm getting closer to that.

You and I are living between the two advents of Christ.

We're not here to.

Freak out.

We are here to look to the east and go, come on, world, he is coming back.

Let us take as many as we can with us.

Now is the time.

Now, now, not one day when we keep taking people back, and I'm like, can we move forward?

We're living between the two adverts.

This is our job as the church in this hour.

So stop trying to get it all perfect here on when it all lines up.

You start now.

I remember, you know, many of you know my Joyce Myers, my spiritual mother.

I was um an as uh uh uh assistant youth pastor at church.

See, everything that has happened to me in ministry throughout my life has come from being planted in the local church 28 years next Sunday.

It was the first time I walked into Hillsong Church in two Sundays, I'm sorry, the Sunday after next, on a Sunday night, I found home, 28 years, still planted.

I'm a great believer, is God blesses those that are planted in the house of the Lord.

And people go, well, you know, 28 years, Christine, isn't there?

You know what, there's dysfunction in every family.

Better the dysfunction that I know than any other dysfunction.

So I love it.

I'm I'm staying there.

It's awesome.

I love it.

And a great reason why Nick and I are so blessed, and the Lord's doing what he's doing with our ministry is because we have been planted in the house of God, and the Lord has done amazing things.

But I remember that she came into Australia to do a conference 20 years ago, a faith conference, and you know, she needed a driver, and there were not that again for me, everything is default.

I got called to youth ministry because there was no one else there.

It was me.

God goes, well, at least I'll look good if that's it.

And so he gave that.

And then they needed a female pastor to to drive her around.

Well, there was just there was not many options, so it was just well, it was Chris.

And so they said, you know, I need you to be there at eight o'clock to pick her up.

Well, I didn't want to be late, so I went at 5 30 a.m.

And um, yes, and and I stopped this zealous youth leader younger than you, and I and I stood outside her door like two doors down.

You know, nowadays we don't do that to speakers because like don't do that, okay?

But uh I did, and and I didn't realize, and so at 6 30 she opens the door to get her breakfast, and I'm standing there like in my suit that I borrowed from someone else because she was like into St.

John then.

Anyway, so I was like into my suit and she opens a door, I look the other way, like somehow that's gonna make me invisible.

And so then at 7:30, she opens the door again, so so that the tray can come back out, and nerd is still standing there.

I didn't know what to do, so she like looks at me and goes, Are you here for me?

And now honestly, I wanted to lie, I wanted to say, like, no, but then I thought I'm gonna drive her, so she's gonna know that I've lied.

So I I mean, it was I was under pressure.

So I went, yes.

And so she goes, Oh, Christine, come in.

Then my heart's really beating because I'm going, my pastor's gonna kill me, my pastor's gonna kill me.

I'm walking into Joyce Mo's hotel room, I'm thinking she's gonna kill me.

And then she's showing me all her sparkly tops and goes, Christine, the more it sparkles, the more I like it.

Anyway, so I'm like going, and I'm really not a sparkle chick, just in case you're wondering.

Okay, so we're going to that.

We're driving, I'm driving, driving.

Hadn't ever held a microphone on the platform yet.

I spoke in schools and youth rallies, but not at church.

Driving.

Out of that unbelievable, unbelievable thing.

20 years later, by the grace of God.

I get to travel by God's grace and speak with Joyce and speak at multiple conferences.

Christine, how'd you get there?

Driving.

Driving?

Chris, how how how did you do A21?

Um, cleaning the youth center?

Cleaning the youth center, that that's how that happened.

How you been married for 20 years?

Just keep turning up.

When I felt like it when I didn't, just keep going to the same home, same bed, same man.

Makes it's awesome.

It's not rocket science.

Not rocket science, just putting it out there.

And then you go, woo, 20 years, that's how it happens.

So my deal is where do you start here?

When do you start?

Now.

2016.

What are you waiting for?

And if you've lived long enough, what are you waiting for?

The good news is it's not too late.

But you've got to start because you only ever have here, and you only ever have now.

And so we've got to make some decisions that you know what, where I am right now looks incredibly unlikely, but it is in that place that God's gonna use me.

When we started in Thessaloniki, Greece, 821, seven years ago, it seemed so unlikely.

In fact, the consultant said to us, you shouldn't do it there.

Only God could do this.

We've been there seven and a half years now.

Well, with the Syrian refugee crisis, 85% of all of those refugees across the border, one hour away from where our office is in Thessaloniki.

Get this.

20 NGOs from that Macedonian region got asked to leave because they are only accepting NGOs that have been in the region for more than seven years, so that there's not a risk of people setting up in order that are going to do damage and terrorist groups are gonna set up and take people as they come through the border.

And so there's a lot of wisdom for why they've made people not be able to be there.

But only God would have known seven and a half years ago.

And because we've been there and because of the favor by God's grace of A21, and because of the famine in Greece, and A-21 has been basically running human trafficking and not running human trafficking, you know, like the the opposite of all of that.

I'm clarifying, my husband's hyperventilating in the front seat right there.

So that the fact that we have been helping all of this has given us such favor.

So UNHCR, which is the refugee arm of the UN, has not only um allowed us to be there non-stop right at the border, but has ordered 50 more of those shipping containers that have got water for for all of the refugees from us.

They're going to go into every refugee camp that exists all over that whole region in the world.

Why?

Because when we were back there, but back there it was here.

When we were here, we started to do what we could do here.

And then I look back and I go, whoa, I'm glad we did that there, because now that we did that there, we can put containers into every refugee camp here.

You will only ever do something here because you have no other moment but this moment here.

That's all you have.

And then you talk about the great faithful miracles of God because you bothered to turn up here.

So he goes to a highly unlikely place, he goes to Zarephath, and you think, what the epicenter of the famine, and there is a woman, a widowed woman.

I mean, I would be thinking seriously, Lord, could you send me to Gates?

Bill Gates.

Could you send Richard Branson?

I mean, something that is obvious, because that's how we think our provision's gonna come.

It's gonna come from the big, big person.

I'm just waiting for that.

That person's gonna bring me the breakthrough, that person's gonna bring me the open the door, that person.

And God says, No, I'm actually gonna take you to the least person so that you can remember it's actually me that does that.

It's actually me that opens doors, it's actually me that provides.

Some of you at 2016 are looking for the big provision for and God says it's in the highly unlikely place, and you haven't started looking in the unlikely place yet.

And it's gonna come through an unlikely person.

It's gonna come through the widow because see, I've commanded the widow.

Once I bring the command, it's really got a lot less to do with her and a whole lot more to do with my provision.

But what you're doing is you're looking for the provision to come from a person when it only comes from God, and so you're looking at what's obvious, what's rational, where's that breakthrough gonna come, where's that business deal gonna come, where's that connection gonna come?

And God says, I've got a widow waiting that I've commanded to bless you, but you're too busy looking for all the rich, all the famous, all the trendy, all the cool, and you're gonna miss the provision through the widow because you're looking in the wrong place.

You've got to look at the highly unlikely place.

He says, I've commanded a widow there to provide for you.

And so at the end of the day, we preach and we say that we believe that God uses the foolish things that confound the wise, and then we're offended when he does.

But surely that's not going to give God a good image.

We prefer something cool and something celebrity and something great.

And God says, I'm not sharing my glory with anybody.

I'm not.

Even in our little, you know, secularized, privatized, pluralized 21st century.

I I don't care that you have social media and I don't care that you have a celebrity Christianity.

I did not sign up for that and I'm God.

I don't follow you on Instagram.

Most of us are more obsessed about how many are following us.

We don't care how many are not following Jesus.

Jesus goes, you know, would it be enough that you knew my presence was with you?

It doesn't matter who follows you, it doesn't matter who likes you.

Do you not know that I'm with you?

And if I'm with you, I'm your source, I'm your provision, and you don't have to go looking for the most likely because God's provision is often in highly unlikely places.

And it'll come through highly unlikely people.

And you know who the most highly unlikely person is?

You.

Not only is the most highly unlikely place where you are, but the most highly unlikely person is you because you're looking for someone else to come, but I have decided that most of us are the answer to our own prayers.

Oh God, send revival, send revival to my university, send revival to my workplace.

He says, I did.

I put the Holy Spirit in you and I sent you.

You're the revival you're praying for.

Many of us we pray theologically inaccurate prayers.

We say, send revival, and God's like, I did.

It's I put the Holy Ghost in you.

I'm trying to get it out of you into a lost and a broken world.

If you would carry the fruit of the spirit, the power of the spirit, you would transform the world around you.

Stop expecting me to drop stuff out of the sky like fairy dust and begin to go into that world that I've called you to penetrate assault and light, filled with my spirit, filled with my power, filled with my anointing, filled with my gifts, transforming the world around you.

You're that person.

But most of us were waiting for the big guns, the navy seals of the Christian church, the elite troops, and God says, My spirit is the elite troop, and I've put him in you so that he can work through you to transform the world around you.

I can't reach your workplace.

You can.

You are God's plan A.

You and I are not a product of time, we are a product of eternity.

God has plucked us out of eternity, He has positioned us in time, He has given us gifts and talents for the purpose of serving our generation.

Most of us prefer to come and spectate at a Christian event rather than participate in the Christian journey and make a difference in our generation.

He says, I put it in you.

I put my spirit in you.

The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives on the inside of you.

The most tender promise, the greatest promise in the Bible to us as believers is God says, I am with you.

The God of the universe is with us.

And we're intimidated by the giants around us and the immorality in our workplaces and the iniquity.

And God says, Oh, it's dark because the light hasn't turned up.

This room cannot get dark unless we switch the lights off.

So whenever you turn up, revival's turned up because sultan light has just turned up in your world, it's in you.

We are catalytic agents of change wherever we go.

We are gods, maybe seals.

But many of us we don't understand this.

Jesus said in John 17, he said, Listen, I do not pray that you take them out of the world.

He was praying to the Father in John 17, 15 to 18.

I think that many people have taken those scriptures out of the Bible.

When Jesus is praying to the Father and He's telling us what He's not praying, I would listen.

He says, Father, I do not pray that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them by thy word, for your word is truth.

As you sent me, I send them.

Highly unlikely people, I send them.

Not the elite troops of the Christian church, I send them.

But most of us we're like, Jesus said we're not of the world, even though Jesus said they're not of the world, but I'm sending them in the world.

We can so I'm gonna come out from amongst them and be yeast separatist.

In King James Englishest, of course.

Because that's how Jesus is the spokest.

I'm gonna be yeast separ.

So I I I don't drink and I I don't smoke and I I don't cuss and and and I don't wear pants or I do wear pants or I don't wear makeup or I do wear makeup, just depends which dream of the church you're but you know I don't you know just put yeah I don't so so that's what I don't do.

I'm a Christian because I don't now I haven't got any clue what I should be doing, but I know what I don't do because I'm a Christian, I don't do this, but I really would like to do it, so hurry up, Jesus.

We need the rapture because I would love to do it.

That's another sermon, but we'll just move over here.

I define my Christianity by what I no longer do, but I haven't got a clue what I should be doing.

But I'm separate because I've come out from amongst them and I'm separate, and I don't drink, and I don't smoke, and I haven't got tats, and I don't, don't, don't, don't.

Now, it's interesting because when Jesus says, be in the world but not of the world, if you read your Bible, which is a novelty I know for most Christians, but if you actually read that and it goes through, you would find worldliness has got very little to do with that and a whole lot more to do with things like gossip and slander and guile and envy and lust and greed and jealousy, chauvinism, sexism, racism.

So, I know I just got quiet in this Presbyterian church.

That's okay, I'll move on in a minute.

Okay, so so Jesus says, I want you to be in this world but not of it, but we come separate, and I'm here, and you know, I don't drink and I don't smoke and I don't cast but gossip.

Not you, the church down the road.

Slander, envy, guile, greed, lust, jealousy.

So this is the problem instead of being over here and being in the world and not of it, we're over here, and we are of the world but not in it.

Very hard to change a world you're not in.

It's even harder to change a world that you are the same substance as.

But what happens is every now and again we get the evangelist in, they turn to Matthew 28, we're like, oh no, the great suggestion.

It's the guilt trip.

They are suggesting if you've got nothing better to do today, you know, so so that's the great suggestion.

Oh no, we're gonna go into that big bad okay book a bunch of world and tell them that Jesus lives, but that's not my gifting, that's not my calling, that's not my love language, that's not my strength finder, that's not where I fit on the disc profile.

I'm a lover, we write Christian books to excuse Christians from being Christians, but anyway, there is only one love language, it's called Die to Self, but that's okay.

And so over here we go, man, that's for the Navy SEALs, that's for the weird ones, that's for the okay, that that's for like Rabbi Zacharias, and that's like for Chris Kane, and that's for for Pastor Samuel, and that's for Dr.

Hayford, and that's for Pastor Robert, that's for the elite Navy seal who get all those Fruit Loops, those Christian Fruit Loops together.

And they've got their little four spiritual flaws track, and they're gonna get together Friday night, it's our evangelism night, and they've got out their defense, and they start to shun the hunter Kawasaki Suzuki, and they're all prayed up and they're ready, and we're gonna put the drawbridge or deep introspective reflective prayer wherever you lay on there.

Okay, so and then the the drawbridge, I got my four spiritual laws.

I run out into the world.

There's this poor man, he just wants to take his girlfriend out tonight in Dallas.

But no, this is my evangelism night.

This is my night.

So I shut this thing down.

He's right, did you know Jesus Christ died for your sins?

If you don't repent right now, you're gonna die and go to everlasting hell.

Oh my gosh, it's 10 o'clock, I'm a Christian, I turn into a pumpkin.

If you want to look like me, talk like me, sing like me, dance like me.

Next Sunday, 10 o'clock, come to church.

And we run back over here and we put up the drawbridge and we go, Praise God, hallelujah! I've just done my evangelism for the week, and it's something that somebody else does.

That's not me because I'm a highly unlikely person.

I'm not the Navy SEAL of the Christian church.

I don't know enough Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic.

I don't even know the books of the Bible.

Is there an Old Testament?

Whoo, no one told me.

Anyway, so that's what we think.

I am not skilled enough.

And Jesus says, Well, I'm using highly unlikely people filled with my spirit, and I'm putting them in the world, and I'm asking them to be not be of the world.

You can come up and I want you to be in the world but not of it.

So can you be at work and not lie, not cheat, not steal, not download porn?

Stop human trafficking by maybe not buying another magazine that objectifies women, that keeps the trade going.

Could we do that maybe?

Could we maybe not be jealous?

Could we maybe deal with our anger and our addictions?

Could we be in this world but not of it?

See, it's a lot easier to be of the world but not in it.

Because you don't even have to be a Christian to be of the world but not in it, you just have to act like one.

But you see, over here you've got to be the real deal.

So God says, I've always used highly unlikely people.

You don't need a celebrity Christian to win your workplace to the Lord.

You just need to be one.

You don't need, I I I've always got my provision in every place of famine, and our earth is in a great, great famine.

Spiritually, politically, morally, economically.

And God says, you don't have to freak out in the midst of all of that because for 2,000 years I've been doing the same thing.

I said in Matthew that I'm going to build my church, and the gates of hell will not, cannot, shall not prevail against the church of the living God.

You don't have to freak out.

We're on the winning side.

You don't have to come here like you're depressed.

We've already read the end of the book, no matter how bad it gets.

Oh no, the problem is not a political problem, moral problem, so don't freak yourself out.

We've read the end of the book.

We win.

It's okay.

We're on the winning side.

It's all right.

It's already done.

Jesus is not sitting there freaking out.

Oh my gosh, what's gonna happen?

I'm freaking out, all three of me.

I'm having a crisis.

What are we going to do?

Wall Street just went down two points.

Mr.

Dow Jones just had a schizophrenic attack, went down three points, four points.

What am I gonna do?

Am I gonna have to give a little bit of the gold from the streets of heaven to just help out Earth?

No, he's not freaking out.

It's okay.

Do you wonder where the Jesus says OMG?

OM me.

Anyway, so that's just sometimes the church acts like Jesus is freaking out what's happening politically, morally, socially, economically.

Problem in America, it's not a political problem, it's not a social problem, it's not a moral problem, it's not an ethical problem, it's a faith problem.

We've got too many unbelieving believers.

We need some believers that believe.

We need some highly unlikely people that actually just really believe the Bible enough to live the Bible wherever we are.

We would transform the world around us.

I've been off my notes for ages, so I don't need to look at them anyway, so it's got nothing to do with anything.

Let me land this plane.

God uses highly unlikely people in highly unlikely places.

He gives them a highly unlikely strategy.

I could have camped there, but this is the key, this church that God has used across the earth.

It's the it's this strategy.

But first.

But first, from what you have, not from what you don't have.

She had the ingredients for a miracle.

How do you make bread?

A little bit of oil, a little bit of flour, a little bit of water.

She had the ingredients.

The ingredients for a miracle are always in our midst.

But God cannot multiply what you do not recognize.

And so if you don't recognize that it's in your midst, you won't give it to him first.

You out of fear will try to hoard it because the devil wants to cripple and paralyze us through fear so that we don't give God the first.

God says in 2016, would you give me first?

Stop looking at what you don't have.

I never ask you for what you don't have, I only ask from what you have.

From what you have.

But I've only got what do you have?

But we talk about what we don't have.

That's what the woman said.

I don't have any bread, but you've got the ingredients for a miracle that that's us.

I don't have any time, Pastor.

I can't serve.

I don't have any more to give.

And so we hoard our treasure, our time, our talent, the only currency we have this side of eternity with which to show our devotion to the Lord, and we die with it because we won't give him the first.

Because we rationalize it away, because it doesn't fit into our economic plan, it doesn't fit into our time plan he says but first you can you can watch it my heart's to bless you but you but first this is how you start this principle operating this house has brought this to the world to the world I don't even know if you realize it touched the ends of the earth we've got to continue this principle but first that's how we live the blessed life that's how you can be a widow with a little bit of flour a little bit of oil I'm gonna give you a highly unlikely strategy but first and then you're gonna end up with a highly unlikely result it didn't run out and I read the second part and in this moment of ministry I'm fast forwarding and I won't land there for this reason because the woman gave it and the miracle happened and then what happened the Bible says but sometime later the little boy died.

Now now this is the same little boy that was miraculously kept alive in the first part of the text the same little boy that the Lord sent the prophet to come to town to build the faith within the woman so that first she would give to the Lord and out of that there was a never ending supply with which the boy stayed alive it was a miracle but then a short time later the boy died what happens when your miracle dies you know it was a miracle we're starting 2016 God gave you that child you know it was miraculous you couldn't conceive you had prayer something happened and you then got pregnant and raised a child and now you're standing here going God that was a miracle child you promised so many words over that child's life and they're out there tonight strung out on drugs God what happened to my miracle father you you gave me this marriage I know you gave it to me and and now it seems like it's almost fallen apart God it was a miracle I know you gave what happens when it looks like your miracles died Lord you gave me that business deal I I thought it was gonna happen and it was for your glory and I was going to fund your kingdom and it seems like everything's now fallen apart what happens when it looks like the miracle and it was a bona fide miracle Lord you healed me from that disease and now all the symptoms and it looks like it's God what what happens when your miracle needs a miracle that's where we are right now I believe the Lord sent me here because there are people in the house and your miracle needs a miracle your miracle needs a miracle right here at the beginning of 2016 and in the same way see this is the the wisdom of giving first to the house of God see she gave to the prophet not knowing she was going to need the prophet to bring her son back to life.

When you sow seed into the house of God every week our tithes our offerings our time our gifts our talents you don't know when you're gonna need it I thank God for my 28 years of sewing in because I've got daughters now and my miracles need miracles and the first place I'm gonna go is the house of God.

What you're keeping alive is going to one day keep you alive so there are people in this house today and you know what yes you know what it is to be a highly unlikely person in a highly unlikely place and God's given you highly unlikely strategies and you've had highly unlikely results and right now you're standing there going I don't even understand this I don't understand what's happened to my miracle but I do know that at the outset of 2016 my miracle needs a miracle relationally financially in the marketplace in your job internally an addiction that's just started all over again a disease a sickness that's trying to claim your body again and you're like God my miracle needs a miracle and I believe not by might nor by power but by his spirit his holy spirit is here he's here and I believe he's gonna breathe life some of you at the outset of the year have just thought this miracle's dead and you've almost been prepared in your heart to let it die and I believe the Spirit of God wants to breathe life because there are miracles that need miracles in the house and if that's you whatever realm that might be physically emotionally spiritually financially relationally I want you to stand to your feet we're gonna sing in faith wow no wonder I couldn't do my message and we got there for the Lord to do this and on the other side of the television screen I'm believing that if you need a miracle tonight your miracle needs a miracle that God God still does the miraculous impossible is where God starts.

If it was possible you don't need God you could do it you could fix it but miracles are what God does impossible is where God starts.

So today I'm believing for faith to rise up for you to believe God to do what only He can do He is the God that still parts Red Seas.

He's still the God that tears down Jericho's wall He's still a God that makes a way where there is no way He's still a God that reconciles that redeems that restores that heals He is the God that does miracles and signs and wonders in our days.

Come on raise your hands to heaven I want you to pray as we sing.