today one of God's choices vessels is here with us Christine Cain is about to preach the word if we keep bringing in Chris Kane to fill the pulpit when I'm gone y'all are going to send me out on tour 365 because really this is one of the most anointed preachers that God raised up I would say in the last decade and uh of course those of you who have been around here a long time you know that she founded a21 an anti-human Trafficking Organization not just limited to that work but most known for that work
we've been partners with Chris and her husband Nick and 821 for years and years and years and uh today actually Chris and Nick I didn't tell you this yet but on behalf of the generous people of Elevation Church as we get ready for our year-end giving season that we're coming up on soon we want to give a 21 a gift of a hundred thousand dollars to stand with you for the amazing things you're doing in the world yes that's that's because of these amazing people that's because of you church so thank you thank you for
all you do thank you Chris for all you do thank you for being here today get on your feet I think you're on your feet right now but you know jump up even higher stand on your tiptoes and help me welcome Christine Kane as she brings the word we love you Chris let's go what an honor to be here thank you Pastor Stephen and Holly and all of our Ethan on behalf of Nick and I because I do have the single most ravishing pieces of masculine flesh right here on the front row and the whole
crew we've got our a21 Charlotte team here we want to thank your church for your generosity and partnership in the gospel you know the money you have been partnering with us almost from the outset and such a key partner Pastor Stephen and Holly and the whole church so generous and I want you to know that during this season um we have seen an unbelievable amount of rescues and convictions of traffickers and just in the last couple of weeks an entire container load of people were rescued in Cambodia an entire container alone wrap your head around
that so I want you to know that your giving is going to good soil and we so appreciate it people are being reached people are being rescued people are being restored traffickers are going to jail I want to say thank you elevation thank you to our effem and I am so excited that new song yo I'm about to do laps around this building I got like if you've got a a pulse that that would raise the dead that song that's all I'm saying I I um cannot wait for that too Chandra I don't know where
you are and the team probably behind me somewhere but it was it is just like unbelievable we need to get that out in the atmosphere I want to thank you Nick and I so love your passes I am part of efam efam it's nice to be on this side because I am literally on the other side every week because the good thing is I live on the west coast so Pastor Steven's preaching at 9 30 and it's only 6 30 a.m and I'm Not In a Pulpit till 10 a.m so I've got enough time to
get a sermon down and then preach it so it's fantastic to do that but I do actually every single week I I feel like I'm I'm part of our efam I'm your Craig cray Aussie aunt how many know you need a cray-cray Aussie Aunt everyone needs one and so Pastor Holly I mean I'm texting her I've just done like 14 countries in the last um 15 or 16 weeks I think we've just done a lap of the globe and um I'm texting him from every place going give me a book do you know your pastor
she's an obsessive reader like next level reader and so um but I give her a run for her money because I read faster than her so you can all tell her that and So she recommends all the best books in the world to me so I just want you to know that we really are family I believe I've got a word from the Lord um today how many are ready to hear God's word I am you can be seated thank you to the worship team for taking us into the presence of God I have missed
you all and um I have missed you I can't even explain how much I feel so home away from home here we're going to go to Luke chapter 17 to the Gospel of Luke I've been so excited to be with you all I almost can't contain myself Luke 17 verse 20. scripture says being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come he answered that the kingdom of God is not coming with something observable no one will say see here or there for you see the kingdom of God is in your midst then
he told the disciples the days are coming when you were long to see one of the days of the son of man but you won't see it they will say to you see there or see here don't follow or run after them for as the lightning flashes from Horizon to Horizon and lights up the sky so the son of man will be in his day but first everyone say but first I love that just sounds so American but first first for our e-fem I want you to say first mate first everyone say first now you're
learning how to speak like an Aussie it's fantastic but first you it's necessary that he suffer many things and be rejected by this generation just as it was in the days of Noah so it will be in the days of the son of man people went on eating drinking marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah bored the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all it will be the same as it was in the days of lot people went on eating drinking buying selling planting building but on the day lot left Sodom
fire and sulfur reigned from heaven and destroyed them all I bet you are so glad you came to church today I bet everyone's like that where are we going we have got Noah we've got a flood we're now into Sodom and Gomorrah where is she going on this Sunday it will be like that on the day the son of man is revealed on that day a man on the housetop whose belongings are in the house must not come down and get them likewise the man who is in the field must not turn back remember Lot's
wife whoever tries to make his life secure will lose it and whoever loses his life will preserve it I tell you on that night two will be in one bed one will be taken the other will be left and I tell Nick often I am not going to be the one that's going to be left behind just putting it out there just putting it out there two women will be grinding Grain Together one will be taken in the other left where Lord they asked him he said to them where the corpse is they're also the
vultures will be gathered this is the word of the Lord and I bet you are so pumped up you're like Chris we haven't seen you for a little while what do they put in the water over there in the California I am so fired up I'm going to be in San Diego with elevation nights on Wednesday night I mean you are just packing stadiums and Arenas around the country putting praise and worship into the atmosphere stop getting me sidetracked but I cannot wait that's all I'm saying and so I hope anyone that's on the west
coast is going to join us this week it's going to be powerful we're going to be San Diego and LA but anyway I'm getting back to the text right now so hear Jesus is having a discussion about the end times I mean this is a this is a big word eschatological discourse I had to practice that say that three times you'll be speaking in tongues even if you're a cessationist right there and so he is having an end time a discussion about the end times and I mean it's pretty intense he's talking about the kingdom
of God being realized in the fact that Jesus is here Jesus came the kingdom of God came but it's not fully realized yet which of course we're aware of there's war in this famine and there's crime and there's violence and there's pain and there's loss and there's death and there's grief and there's suffering and this heartache and and there is so much going on so we know that the kingdom is not fully realized it will be one day when that Sky splits and Jesus comes back and this text is reminding us that when that Sky
splits and Jesus returned nobody is going to be sitting around wondering going oh did he come you know some people are going to go are we gonna know I'm like sweetheart you'll know and so it's it the sky is gonna light up it's all going to happen and I mean he's talking about the already and not yet that's what it would be called they're already the kingdoms realized in Christ but not yet fully until he comes together and I mean it gets intense he's talking and about Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah and the end times
and here I'm just going to give you a disclaimer up front I basically don't have a clue what he's talking about and anybody that would tell you that they do is lying some of you are freaking out because I'm about to save you a lot of hours down rabbit Trails on Facebook I'm about to set you free right now because right now one would be thinking is this text written for today we've had a since I've seen you last a few things have happened on the earth there has been quite a few things that have
gone on we've gone through a global pandemic together except for if you're in Florida or Dallas but all the rest of the Year fam around the world the rest ability in the whole world have you noticed has lost its mind it's gone cray-cray A lot's happened since I was here last and you could think wow Christine's now turned up is she gonna pull out like some charts like you know when I got saved in the late 80s it was all about we had charts and we you know we're talking about the end times and it
seemed like it was the end and it's kind of like but listen this is what Jesus says this is exactly what he says about it all ultimately he says nobody knows the day or the hour I just got you back four hours in your day of rabbit trails because everyone's trying to predict everything and Jesus said look peace out it's all right nobody knows live like it's gonna happen tomorrow and live and prepare like it's not going to happen for Generations and you can do both things simultaneously it's not it's not that hard but you
would think do you remember like during during the pandemic like there was that season that was like natural disasters and then there was locusts and then I'm like are we in the ten plagues of Egypt like what is going on so it would be easy but I'm not here to talk about that what I'm here to talk about is in the midst of this discourse about the end times in the midst of talking about Sodom and Gomorrah and Noah and all the end and Jesus returning and it sounds so much like 2022 you're like what
is going on everything's going cray-cray Jesus drops three random apparently random words in the middle of this discourse I mean it's just right there in Luke 17 32 as Jesus is talking about all of this great End Time stuff he just drops in like remember that's wife I'm like okay okay remember the second shortest verse in the entire scripture do you know where the shortest verse is you are such a well-taught church aren't you Pastor Stephen takes you deep into the Hebrew and the Greek and the Aramaic the second shortest verse in the scripture you're
going to get that on Bible trivia now is remember Lot's wife what a random thing to throw in the midst of a discourse about the end times to throw in the midst of a discourse about the already but not yet nature of the kingdom of God which most of us have awakened to it a whole new level over the last three or four years he says remember Lot's wife and I'm like okay I've been doing chicks Ministry for like a hundred for well I've been doing chicks Ministry for you know 30 years I've had a
lot of sermons on chicks don't remember ever hearing one about Lot's wife I mean there's 170 women mentioned in some way in scripture 170 and yet there is only one woman in the gospels that Jesus Christ ever tells us to remember only one there's not a lot of real estate in the red letters of Jesus so three words that he gives over to that remember Lot's wife in the midst of an eschatological discourse in the midst of talking about the already but not yet nature of the kingdom of God he drops in three words remember
Lord's wife I would wonder whether in 2022 it would be a good time to remember the one woman that Jesus told us to remember out of 170 women remember Lot's wife now listen if other 170 chicks I'd be a little bit annoyed I mean literally if I was like Eve I'd be going what do you mean remember last wife that's first out of a rib and I've been blamed for all of Humanity's problems ever since I mean if I was imagine if I was Sarah I'd be like I popped out a kid at 90 without
an epidural what do you mean Rebecca Lot's wife if I was like Miriam I'd be like the first chick worship leader ever he comes out of Egypt I mean out of slavery out of bondage the Red Sea Parts she's like hang on a minute hold the Red Sea I gotta grab a tambourine who grabs a tambourine when you're coming out of slavery though and you're gonna have a dance party on the other side of the Red Sea but Miriam be like what do you mean if I was Deborah be like what do you mean Lot's
wife hi Deborah a rose I was the first female judge in all of Israel of course we know it's because no man stood to the I won't go there but anyway so we know by Deborah Rose or Mary be like you out [Music] I don't remember his mother a lot of people would be very annoyed with it he said remember Lots wife so of course that then sent me on a little a little Exposition on okay what is it that we know about this woman that appears on the pages of scripture just quick enough to
disappear a woman that we don't even know her name I mean Lot's wife how Politically Incorrect in 2022 like you're not going to get off very lost wife so we know in Genesis 13 you remember when Abram and lot separated because they're they just had you know there was too many um animals and the herds were too big so in the midst of all that we know in Genesis 13 that they separated in Genesis 13 12-13 Abram settled in the land of Canaan while lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent
as far as Sodom now the men of Sodom were Wicked great Sinners against the Lord so we know that Abram and lot separated Lots set up camp right on the edge there in Sodom and then because of the iniquity the Lord decides by chapter Genesis 18 that that you know what he's going to deal with it he's done with Sodom and Gomorrah now a lot of us especially in the tree if you've been around the church world and then even if you've been just out in the world you kind of go Sodom and Gomorrah and
instantly you start thinking man the sexually moral sins that's why God you know destroyed it all and of course the sexually moral sin that you think is the worst is the one that you're not committing but anyway for everybody else we just choose the one that we're doing is okay with God but that for everybody else this one and so we get so that is true there is an aspect of the sin of Sodom that most of us in the church have forgotten but is very important to God and you see in right there in
Genesis chapter sorry I'm gonna go to Ezekiel 16 49 to 50. I want you to see this now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom this is from the scripture she and her daughters had Pride plenty of food comfortable security but didn't support the poor and the needy in the next verse we'll get to the immorality but I do want you to see what the scripture says in the prophet Ezekiel says this was the sin I I wonder with the Reckoning that's been happening over the last couple of years and we've seen God clean
inside the house and outside the house there's a reckoning happening whether in some places the church just got a little bit too prideful a little bit too comfortable a little bit too plenty this is why I love this house I mean your pastors barely introduced me and said before Christine even comes we're giving to the work of the poor and the needy and the marginalized and those that are enslaved and those that are dispossessed and you do this in love week and you do that with your interview giving every single time because it matters to
God it matters to God do you wonder we don't wander too long why there's such the blessing of God on this house why the Lord is taking you around the world and your your worship to a whole nother level and of course your pastor's preaching probably in the world more people listen to him because you have a holistic faith that honors Jesus honors the word reaches the world cares about the poor and the need he doesn't just get so comfortable understands we are blessed to be a blessing understands that we are called to be soaked
and light in the midst of a broken world but the sin of Sodom was that they had forgotten that and then of course it goes on and says they were haughty and did detestable acts before me and so I removed them when I saw this so then in Genesis 19 the Lord sends the angel of the Lord to come and rescue lot and his wife and their two daughters and so literally an angel comes and takes him by the hand you know the story I mean they were literally Touched by an Angel and so the
angel comes and takes them by the hand and leads them out and this is the only instruction that the Lord gives in verse 17 and as they brought them out Escape for your life one said Escape for your life do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley escape to the hills lest you be slept swept away and this is the only thing we see specifically about Lot's wife in scripture remember in the New Testament Jesus said one woman out of 170 there's only one I want you to remember when the world is burning
when everything seems to be going cray-cray AKA 2022 when it all seems like everything is crazy I need you to remember Lot's wife so we go Jesus what is it about Lot's wife then we're to remember so we go then and the only thing we see in scripture in Genesis 19 about Lot's wife it says in verse 26 but Lot's wife behind him looked back and became a pillar of salt that's all we know Lot's wife looked back and became a pillar of salt so because she was torn between where God was taking her and
what she was leaving she was prioritizing her past over her future she had lost sight of the fact that the promise of God the provision of God the purpose of God was ahead and so she got stuck in a place she was only meant to be passing through she was being pulled back by what she was leaving more than she was pressing on to where God was taking her and she got stuck calcified turned into a pillar of salt and you and I are called to be the salt of the earth and right now on
the earth the Church of Jesus Christ in many places is stuck stuck and the purpose of God is ahead the provision of God is ahead the promise of God is ahead but we are stuck looking back instead of fixing our eyes on Jesus ahead to move into the promise and the purpose and the provision of God it's time for us time for us to remember us wife and to stop looking back because for many people our attachment to the Past outweighs our commitment to the Future and a generation is at stake and it is amazing
as I travel and I've just done 14 Nations and I hear so many people talking about Christine you know if we could just go back if we could just go back I could talk to pastors and leaders and individuals and businesses and and people in relationships and many things could just go back to normal if we could just go back to pre-pandemic I'm like why are we talking about 2019 why are you giving me numbers from 2019 this is not 2019. this is 2022 and Jesus is in 2022 at 2023 and 2024 and 2025 at
2026 the purpose of God is ahead of us all the promises of God are in Christ Jesus yes and amen his promise is still ahead and the same Jesus that brought us here is the same Jesus that's going to take us there but we've got to stop looking back there are people in this room there's a family online and we're stuck absolutely stuck man I I just want things to go back to normal listen I am not denying I am not dismissing I am in no way minimizing the pain the trauma the loss the grief
or the suffering over the last few years in every Realm personally economically relationally politically environmentally sociologically morally there is not one sector of society spiritually that has not been impacted but if you and I are going to do what God has put us on this Earth to do then we've got to stop looking back and we've got to start looking forward and start pressing into the purpose and the promise of God you know people are stuck people are stuck in disappointment stuck in discouragement stuck in a fence stuck in bitterness stuck in unforgiveness stuck in
disillusionment stuck fixated on what went wrong on the past fixated on what we lost in the past fixated on who betrayed us who disappointed us who hurt us what didn't happen fixated on something we're supposed to Face and move on from and when you fixate instead of face you get stuck and so many of us in this hour the word of the Lord would be you need to start remembering Lord's wife because she got stuck and and it's Little Wonder I mean her life was back there she had other family back there she had her
friends back there I mean who not I don't know did she just renovate her kitchen I don't know so would there I mean imagine just one day an angel of the Lord comes and out we go and that's literally what happened to most of us overnight overnight things shut down overnight things changed overnight things blew up and the angel of the Lord the presence of God Jesus said I'll never leave you nor forsake you his presence was with us and the issue is did we let go of the hand of Jesus so that we can
keep facing back and fixate on what was back there and we're in 2022 but everything about us is still back and we are stuck in a place that we were only supposed to be moving through because God's presence is still with us I sometimes wonder how Jesus feels during all of this because he's like I didn't go anywhere you know what I've become during this this last two or three years I've become like what I call a Hallmark Pinterest Christian see I used to like roll my eyes at those pithy little statements you know with
nice little flowers and colors and I used to kind of want something deep in the Hebrew and something deep in the you know nowadays I'm like when I just see you know Jesus is the same yesterday today forever I'm like thank you God because nothing else is the same I'm so glad Jesus is to say oh you know I will never leave you or not forsake I'm like thank you God because everybody else has failed and those little pithy statements suddenly become life and suddenly go that's the stuff that actually really matters that that's the
stuff that sustains you that this that's the stuff that keeps you going and and I wonder so many people Chris you know I just I didn't sign up for this I'm like what did you sign up for last I checked Jesus died for me I didn't die for him last I checked that I was supposed to deny myself take up my cross and follow him I decided that I will follow Jesus no turning back no turning back the cross before me the World Behind Me no turning back I have decided to follow Jesus you see
I'm old school because I'm so old that when I got saved I was mentored and schooled by Christian Martyrs and missionaries not celebrities so when I gave my life to Jesus I thought I was laying down my life so just the last few years has caused us to waver I don't know where we've been because yes we've had a bit of a tribulation but it's not the Great Tribulation what are we going to do when the Great Tribulation comes if that's all it took for us to lose hope so many of us are like you
know in Luke chapter 24 where the two disciples are going back to Emmaus back because Jesus they saw him crucified and buried but they didn't know that he rose again and they thought that he was the Messiah and they were so disappointed they were so discouraged they were so disillusioned and then Jesus came and was physically walking with them God incarnate walking with them but they were so obsessed and they were so downcast and so overwhelmed by their disappointment and their disillusionment that the god of the universe was walking with them and they didn't even
recognize him and they said we had hoped he was the one and so many of us we had hoped that business was going to succeed man we had hoped that person wasn't going to die we had hoped that marriage was going to make it we had hoped that kid was going to start following the Lord we had hoped that that promotion was going to come weird hope that that opportunity and because our hopes didn't come to pass we're sitting here in 2022 going I'm just so disappointed I'm just so offended now we won't add the
last bit but if we were honest and not fake Christians we'd say disappointed with God that he didn't do what I wanted disappointed and offended with God because he didn't come through and Jesus is standing right with us going I'm right here we we had hoped I wonder if the last couple of years has actually served to make us because it hasn't shocked God God's God I wonder if it has helped us to realize where perhaps we had some misplaced hopes in our life I wonder whether if we're stuck in disappointment and stuck in unforgiveness
and stuck in a fence and stuck in disillusionment and stuck in discouragement and stuck in comfort and stuck in apathy and stuck in indifference and stuck in this place is it because we have a misplaced hope because Hebrews 6 says that Jesus is this hope we have as an anchor for our soul both firm and secure yes are we living in a world with war and with trauma and with pandemics and with pain and political instability and suffering yes but my Hope was never meant to be in that Jesus is this hope we have as
an anchor for our soul those verb and secure and then the writer to the Hebrew says do not throw away your confidence in this hope for it has great rewards let us not lose the confession of Our Hope let's hold on to it in fact without wavering I wonder how much wavering there's been over the last couple of years because the minute we lost the thing that we thought we needed we just tapped out it's too hard we had hoped man we had hoped and got stuck you know if Jesus is this anchor and all
that we've seen in this season is is Jesus truly the anchor of your life because then your hope doesn't waver even when everything in the world wavers and everything in the world is wavering everything in the world is wavering but if you're anchored you don't remember my husband loves boating and one of the first times we went out you know I believe the purpose of boats is for sun baking it's the will of God in Christ Jesus for us to sunbake and so I was um out there and Nick was disturbing my son baking because
he parked the boat in the Anchorage and he's like Chris can you throw the anchor out and I'm like how just this is bugging me okay and so I go down yes yes yes honey and so I I threw the anchor out and then I went back to Sun Banking and then about 30 minutes later we kind of hit this other boat in the Anchorage and Nick's like freaking out Christine Christine I told you to throw the anchor out I go I did he says yes but did you make sure we were anchored I mean
you didn't tell me that and I think what some of us have realized over these last couple of years is that our anchor oh because our agar isn't going to fail our anchor doesn't actually go down to the seabed our anchor goes into the other side of Eternity and is secure up there in eternity but some of us have wavered and started drifting I've gotten stuck and you know an anchor when it's attached to a boat it's got little links in a chain some of us have discovered that maybe some of those links are a
bit Rusty or maybe we've been disconnected because the anchor will hold but are we holding the anchor and if you and I are going to go forward and not turn into a pillar of salt and be the salt and light on the earth that we are being called to live because God chooses in the book of Acts that says the times and the seasons and the places that he puts us in so he knew exactly what would be happening in the world in 2022 and 2023 and you know what you and I are not his
plan B where his plan a we are a product of Eternity not a product of time God has plucked us out of Eternity he has positioned Us in time he's given us gifts and talents for the purpose of serving our generation this is not a time for the church to get stuck this is a time to remember Lot's wife and to move on and to press on into the purpose and the promise and the provision of God in the future but you've got to stay connected to the Anchor that will keep us stabilized in a
very unstable world Jesus is this hope we have so how do you know you know in the writer to the Hebrews he wrote this to the Jewish Christians that were facing such persecution like real persecution not like the kind of persecution we think you know we we call here in the western inconvenience of persecution but that's another sermon and so they were like really losing their lives and losing their jobs and their families and their assets everything for being Jesus followers so they were like you know what it would just be easier to go back
to Judaism be much easier because will be accepted by culture we'll have opportunities again it it would just be a lot easier because it's just really really hard so the writer to the Hebrews is writing to Jewish Christians that are that are just drifting that are wavering that are just going back like like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus they were going back because you know what when you start wavering when you get stuck when you lose sight of your hope you'll go back to the thing that you came from and you're wondering
why so many people are going back to Emmaus because if you're not moving forward with Jesus you will go back to what you came for you just go back it's just the way that it is so the writer to the Hebrews is writing to the Jewish Christians in Hebrews chapter 2 and he says for this reason he's just talked about the supremacy of Christ he's just talked about the sufficiency of Christ he's reminding them Jesus is better than the law Jesus is better than the prophets Jesus is better than Moses Jesus is better than the
Angels he's reminding him of the greatness of Jesus and I've come to Elevation to remind you of the greatness of you because he is better than anything that you left because he is better than anything else that you can see touch taste smell or feel on this Earth because he is Supreme Over the Angels over the law over the prophets over Moses he is supreme and says therefore we must pay attention all the more to what we have heard so we will not drift away we must pay extra attention in the Greek that phrases and
what do I know because I know a little greek I'm little and Greek and so it says but my mother used to say that to me when we came to a big freeway that was busy careful and I would say the holy spirit is saying to his church right now hey Betty sorted us extra careful be careful lest we also drift my dad would take us to this beach that had this big undertow in Australia and he'd always put a big beach umbrella on one side and towels on the other side of the sand and
he'd say kids when you go out there swimming I need you to check those markers really often because you're going to be having so much fun out there and you're not going to realize the undertow is going to take you out so regularly check your markers and he would always say because kids never forget the only thing you have to do to drift is nothing foreign [Applause] have got so many misplaced types which is like doing nothing it's too much hard work to pray too much hard work to read my Bible too much hard work
to come to church it's very quiet in this Presbyterian church right now you're you're all in the room [Laughter] it's too much hard work but I'm here to remind you all you have to do to drift is not commit some great sin just do nothing do nothing and all of a sudden you go why am I stuck why is it 2022 and I don't feel anything fresh in my relationship with Jesus why am I stuck and I don't feel like I've gone anywhere and I'm just on a treadmill why am I stuck because inadvertently you're
drifting because you're doing nothing and we got good at doing nothing didn't we we're putting on hard pants nowadays we just like our sweats 2020 changed our fashion for life it's not cool who wants to get up and do something what do you mean do something for the Lord what do you mean fulfill the mission of God what do you mean move forward and we're stuck with stuck spiritually was stuck emotionally was stuck physically was stuck relationally because we do not how do you know well what might be some signs in this day that you
might be drifting I don't know you go like how do I know if I'm stuck if I'm drifting if I've lost sight of My Hope Jesus well well maybe here's just a few things Pretend We're connected to an anchor and we're checking the links in the chain maybe you know that you're you're drifting if a blue check mark matters more to you than a heart checkup oh it's so we're obsessed man if I could just be verified by man it doesn't matter that that God validated Me 2 000 years ago at Calvary oh oh oh
if I'm just verified if it's more important for you to be known than to make Jesus known if it's more important for you to have likes than to become like Jesus if you care more about how many are following you then how many are not following Jesus just maybe you've drifted just maybe and lost our source of Hope when my will becomes more important than God's will when I just am so encouraged and the whole world's like you you wonder why we're stuck we're stuck because we're seeking our own will because we just and then
then we just have all these misplaced hopes because we think God you didn't come through for me and he's like I never really promised you that I said all the promises of God are in Christ Jesus yes and in Christ Jesus amen not all of everything that you want not your selfish ambition but the promises of God are in Christ Jesus yes and in Christ Jesus amen in Luke 22 remember Jesus Remember when he was in Gethsemane even God himself had a moment where he said I don't want to do this but nevertheless is there
any other way would you take this cup from me when was the last time that you thought oh everything in me wants to jump into bed with that person that's not my spouse but nevertheless everything in me wants to watch that but nevertheless and then we wonder why we're stuck it's so amazing to me where we've lost sight of our source of Hope it was never in other things it was always in Jesus and he hasn't got I know we've had a pandemic but Jesus is still here I know we've had political instability but Jesus
is still here I know we've got inflation but Jesus is still on the throne God is still on the throne all the promises of God are in Christ Jesus yes and amen maybe you've drifted when you know you care a whole lot more about everyone else's business than you do about the father's business we got a whole industry on there we're wondering why people are stuck because everyone knows everything about everyone else's business and has an opinion about it it is amazing did you remember that in Luke where Mary lost God for a few days
that when Jesus was a boy and she like lost him for three days for every mother on Ethan watching this every mother in the room that just sets us all free because we've all forgotten our kid sometime at school in the supermarket somewhere but Mary lost God for three days I mean that's awesome and then when she comes to the temple and finds him now I tell my kids never do what Jesus did in this instance you're to follow Jesus in every way but not this because he says to a woman I'm like do not
try this at home because why were you looking for father's business oh we are so distracted and stuck in everybody else's business we've forgotten to be about the father's business on this Earth and to do what God has called us to do you know maybe you've stuck at drifting when you talk about it to everyone else more than you pray about it to God when you post more than you pray your source of Hope is no longer Jesus because man I just hope someone hears my something and I am trying to get from people what
I can only get from God and I wonder why I'm stuck and so we I could go on and on but we're stuck in so many different ways we're stuck in our attitudes we're stuck in where we're looking for affirmation where we're looking for significance where we're looking for security where we're looking for this sense of value where we're looking for this self-actualization I mean they're going to build some dig up a time capsule sometime in the future and go what was the most common phrase in 2022 and I don't have this thing like you
do you boo and they're going to need the interpretation of tongues and then they're going to need to go no don't do you boo I feel like running around going no no no don't do you boo do Jesus boo it doesn't go well do you remember in the Book of Judges when everyone did what was right in their own eyes it never goes well we get stuck stuck remember Lot's wife stuck because we lose sight of our source of Hope he hasn't gone anywhere so what do we need to do as we move forward Church
because see you have to know your source of Hope if you and I are going to keep moving forward and fulfill the will and the purpose of God we will not finished Elevation Church our greatest days are ahead of us and not behind us there are more people to reach there are more people to be saved more people to be delivered more people to be healed more marriages to be restored most in relationships to be reconciled we cannot stop here we cannot look back we've got to press on and lay a hold of all of
that for which Christ Jesus has laid a hold of us but that is entirely counter-cultural in this moment because everyone wants you to stay stuck in your offense stuck in bitterness stuck in unforgiveness and what's at stake is a generation in the future that's what's at stake stay stuck in your mistakes and stuck in your failures as if you can't move on and into the promises of God the whole Narrative of this generation is to stay stuck and yet everything about the kingdom is moving forward towards God's Grant tell us can't get stuck Jesus is
in the middle when the world is burning down and the banker come up while the world's burning Jesus is like could you remember Lord's wife don't look back don't even look back at your great success days we glance back and thank God for them but why some of you are still talking about your trophy from high school football that was 40 years ago and you've been stuck ever since we don't want to become that as a church we don't want to be talking about what God did what we're used to seeing what we're used to
no no no her greatest days are ahead we can't look back we've got to press on we've got to move forward and the only way we're going to do that going into this season is that you and I as followers of Jesus Christ all our e-fam around the world we've got to remember what our source of Hope is so that when Trials come because they will Jesus said When Trials do come you will have in this world trials Peter says do not be surprised by the fiery travel trial I feel like it's all half the
Christians like why were you surprised don't you read the Bible obviously not I think James was considerate pure joy I'm like you consider a joy but anyway that's whatever is that we have to know where our source of Hope is because that hope is Limitless in a world that is hopeless in a world that is gripped with fear in a world that is grouped with animosity with divisiveness with chaos we Christians have to have this sense of hope but it only comes in Christ that's what we've learned it's not going to come in money position
title accolades no no we've seen all of that the last few years anywhere we had misplaced hope Jesus is like how about a hope realignment because I'm about the only one that you could be sure of and so the very first staff meeting we had on Zoom so we're in March 2023 in 2020 I've already prophetically into next year and so we're in March 2020. and knowing you it was like week one of the pandemic so nobody knew so we would meet like everybody else we've got at a 21 19 offices in 15 countries so
we had everyone on zoom and for the last two years I've been calling it The Upper Zoom room and so we've been meeting in the upper Zoom room and um all of us were on lockdown I live in California so again unless you were in you know Texas or Florida the rest of all of our country officers were on lockdown and so I said to them we we're prisoners of sorts right now but we can't we we can't change that we can't change that we're all prisoners we're all on lockdown around the world I said
but although we can't choose the fact of whether we're prisoners or not we can choose the kind of prisoners that we're going to be and in Zechariah Chapter 9 verse 12 the prophet says return to a stronghold you prisoners of Hope today I have declared that I will restore to you double and um and what happened was the children of Israel were in bondage and they were in captivity in Babylon for 70 years and they came back and they thought Jerusalem and the temple they were coming back man things are going to be back to
normal except it wasn't the city was decimated the temple was in Ruins City walls were in Ruins and they were surrounded by enemies and the prophet said to them you were once prisoners in Babylon now you've gone back and there's a big rebuilding project that has to happen in Jerusalem but you need to become prisoners of hope so he says return to your stronghold Jesus you prisoners of hope and I said oh we're making a decision in this ministry we're not going to be prisoners of Despair or prisoners of fear or prisoners of Doubt or
prisoners of negativity or prisoners of unbelief but we are going to be prisoners of Hope why because Jesus is this hope we have as an anchor for our soul both firm and secure and he hasn't gone anywhere he said he'll never leave us nor forsake us he said all of the promises of God are in him in Christ Jesus yesterday am amen yes we've got a pandemic yes we've got political instability yes we've got a lot of problems morally and sociologically and environmentally but Jesus is this hope I have as an anchor for my soul
both firm and secure and then I made them all write down and I said to them the prophet said and I will restore to you double now listen during a pandemic and during this war we had to evacuate our Ukraine office and move them to Warsaw of course just the women and children some of those kids haven't seen their dad for a year they're still over in Kiev and we had to evacuate that office and in the midst of it all we said to them I said I need you to get a pen and paper
of course they were Millennials or my staff so they didn't know what that one was so I had to show them this is a pen and paper and I said I want you to write on that piece of paper the word double I said I don't know how this is going to happen I said but in a sense I'm glad this has happened because you guys are about to realize how much you've been writing in the slipstream of mine and Nick's faith I said you you think I said you're about to learn that it's not
a blue check mark or a cute Instagram post with a nice filter that's got the anointing on it see I said before before there was ever any internet or before there was ever any um you know um social media before there was any marketing plan I said I don't know I see I know what it is to be marked by God and I know what it's like to go into the prayer closet and to lay a hold of God and the promises of God and the purposes of God and the provision of God I said
for some of you you think but you know marketing does all of this I said you're about to discover they're being marked by God is much better than being marketed by man that all the promises are in God I sin so you're gonna go into your rooms and you're going to learn how to pray and you're going to learn how to see God breakthrough and I said and when we come out of this lockdown period I'm believing God that during a lockdown when it would seem impossible to see people women and children and Men rescued
when it would seem impossible to see traffickers prosecuted and sentenced and imprisoned I said I'm believing God that we're gonna see double this is in in March 2020. I said because the same God's with us now that is with us when we're not in a lockdown so I'm believing for double the rescues I'm believing for double the convictions I'm believing for double the partners and as I live and Breathe by the grace of God I'm here in October 2022 by the grace of God during some of the most catastrophic unstable times on the planet we
have never had more victims rescued in the history of a21 never seen more people away or reaching more people in the same way that this ministry has exploded you can be seated and I'm gonna wrap up because we're prisoners of Hope not because we're awesome but because God's awesome because when you know your source and you know what your source of Hope is when all your circumstances don't align you don't crumble and you don't drift because Jesus is this hope we have so let me read this overview elevation Philippians 3 13. it's time elevation to
start forgetting to start straining and to start pressing it's time Brothers I do not consider that I have made it my own but one thing I do for rights forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus so what we need to do is to be a church that says you know what I'm not staying stuck whatever has happened in my life yes I know there have been challenges yes I know there's been trauma yes I know there
has been bitterness and there's been unforgiveness and yes I know there's been offenses and I've been disappointed and I've been discouraged and I've been disillusioned I understand but it's time that I forget that doesn't mean that I pretend it didn't happen I'm not diminishing that at all the blood of Jesus doesn't give you Amnesia but it does give you a life beyond your past it gives you a life you don't your history does not need to Define your destiny you say I'm forgetting those things don't lie behind both the good and the bad and I'm
straining oh I haven't strained for a while because I've been eating my Cheerios in my bed but I'm gonna start to get a little bit uncomfortable now and I'm gonna start to strain I'm gonna start to exert a force and I'm gonna press we're gonna press on to what it is that God has I'm gonna exert a steady Force against apathy against Indian fruits against Comfort against defense or bitterness or disappointment or disillusionment and I determine that I am gonna lay a hold of all of that for which Christ Jesus lay a hold of me
I might be small but my God is big I might be limited but my God is Limitless I might be finite but my God is infinite and I am able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond anything that we could ever ask Hope for things according to that power that works in our salivation church remember lost wipe Don't Look Back press on forward in Jesus tonight amen thank you for watching the Elevation Church YouTube channel don't stop here join the efam our online extended family and join us live every Sunday subscribe to this channel so
you don't miss a single video or live stream and share this with a friend you can also support the ministry by clicking the give Now button to help us continue to reach people around the world for Jesus Christ thank you again for watching God bless you
