Desperate for Hope | Christine Caine

I don't know about you but these are the most exciting times to be alive as a follower of Jesus on the earth there is more opportunity to see people sa because the world has lost its ever loving mind so people are desperate for Hope and people are desperate for answers and how many know that there is an answer and his name is Jesus and he continues to give us life and hope I want you to turn with me to the Gospel of Luke chapter 17 verse 20 if you're wondering about my accent this is how

King Charles wishes he could speak English this is what happens they put us on a ship as convict sent us down into the colonies and we refine the language this is exactly how it happens so we are in Luke 17:20 it says being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come he answered them 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 you

will 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 but first that sounded very American on every campus but first say it with an Australian accent but first it is 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 boarded the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all it would 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 rained from heaven and destroyed them all I bet you are so glad you've come to church today you are like this is awesome I'm

so glad I brought my aunt Gertrude to church on this day this is just getting better 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 to 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 and the other will be left and I tell my husband regularly I am not the one that's going to be left behind you do you but I'm not being left behind two women will be grinding Grain Together one will be taken and the other left where Lord they asked him he said to them where the corpse is there also the vultures will be gathered this is the word of the Lord and you're wishing I had another word of the Lord today I can see that you know here we have a text and you know

it is called an eschatological text big word just meaning a text about the end times and you're like Christine of course you're going to pull that out we are living in such crazy times and I mean it has just been a very crazy last really four years we've we've had pandemics and we've had natural disasters and we've had wars and rumors of wars and more Wars and there seems to be so much economic instability and social instability and environmental instability and moral instability and the world seems to be T tipped upside down and then you're

looking at this text and you're thinking is this what it's talking about are got Noah and we've got the flood and we've got Sodom and we've got gamorra and there's fire and sulfur and floods and it just seems like we could be speaking about today I love the fact that in there it says hey hey make sure that you just don't go following everything because what happens in days like today is people like to go on on social media or down on Facebook and they go down rabbit trails and you know basically predicting when the

end of the times will be because the world is in such a mess I'm about to save you a lot of hours going down rabbit Trails you can actually now binge watch that Netflix series that you wanted to binge watch because I'm going to save you a lot of time I just finished my Master's Degree at weaton and I studied all the different theories about the end times and I'm going to save you a lot of money and a lot of time after four years of study this is my entire end time theology get ready

this is it hold on to your seats this is it no one knows that's it I saved you a lot of money don't buy the books don't go down the rabbit Trails this is how we should be living we live as if it's going to happen tomorrow and we prepare as if it's not going to happen for Generations every follower of Jesus should be living like that all the time I know we are in the midst of so much instability there is so much fear and heartache and pain and so much instability all over the

world but you and I as followers of Jesus do not need to lose our mind just because everyone around us is so in this text Jesus is talking about really the two-fold nature of the kingdom of God the fact that what theologians would call the already and not yet that Jesus when he came here on Earth in the flesh the kingdom had come but it is not yet fully realized how do I know it's not yet fully realized because there's still human trafficking in the world there's still Injustice the people still die there is still

sickness there is war there is famine there is disease but a day is coming where he will return and all things will be made new and there will be no more pain and no more suffering and no more sickness and no more disease and no more Injustice and we long for that day but that's not really what I'm here to talk to you about in book club today in this text about the end times Jesus drops these three seemingly insignificant random words I mean he's talking about Sodom and Gomorrah and Noah and the flood and

then the second shortest verse in the Bible he just drops it in there just randomly all of a sudden while he's talking about all this stuff he just goes remember Lot's wife I'm like okay that's random I've been doing chicks Ministry for decades there's 170 women that are either alluded to or mentioned in Scripture 170 and yet there is only one woman that Jesus ever tells us to remember he tells us the woman that poured the perfume her deed will be remembered but there's only one woman he ever tells us to remember and that's Lot's

wife and he tells us to remember Lot's wife within the context of speaking about the end times I wonder whether 2024 would be really good year to remember the one woman that Jesus told us to remember I wonder in the context of a world that is unraveling whether perhaps now might be a moment for the Church of Jesus Christ to go maybe we'll remember that one woman that Jesus talked about now listen if I was Eve I would be ticked off cuz I'm like what do you mean remember Lot's wife I was first I came

out of a rib and I've been blamed for all the problems of humanity ever since it all started I mean if I was Sarah I'd be listen I popped out a kid at 90 without an epidural come on why not remember me I mean if I was married I'd be like what do you mean remember Lot's wife I birthed you why did you not remember me but Jesus says remember Lot's wife this nameless woman that appears on the pages of scripture only quick enough to disappear we don't even know her name we don't even know

her name I mean imagine what's your name Lot's wife honey that ain't going to cut it in 2024 that's not going to go well so she doesn't even have a name and of course I start going back and start thinking what is it that we know about this woman so of course in Genesis 13: 12-15 we read the text 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 and great Sinners against the Lord so

all we know is that lot set up camp at Sodom when him and Abraham separated I don't know is that where he met his wife I don't know or did he meet her in Sodom and then of course it says Sodom was very very Wicked the men of Sodom were really really wicked and in Genesis 18 we see that God had given them so much mercy so many opportunities to repent and and basically because of their sin and iniquity the Lord was like okay I'm done with that now most of us whether we're churchgoers or

not today when we hear kind of the words Sodom and Gomorrah we we normally associate immorality with that and and we normally think of immorality and iniquity and sexual sin and of course the sexual sin we most focused on is whichever one we're not committing that day that's the one we love to highlight as the greatest one but I do want you to see from scripture what the prophet Ezekiel says is the greatest sin of Sodom because sometimes we miss this in the church it says in Ezekiel 16:49 to 50 now this was the iniquity

of your sister Sodom she and her daughters had Pride plenty of food and comfortable security but didn't support the poor and the needy they were hay and here we go with what we normally know and do detestable acts before me so I remove them you see when God says I'm about done normally you can understand that Pride arrogance comfortable security where when you have a church that kind of just thinks well you know we're all that we're the only ones that are right and there's this arrogance of like well I'm just the one that God

likes and nobody else and this sense of security that we no longer care about a lost world we no longer care about about Injustice we no longer care about the poor and the needy it's just us four and no more and we're great the Lord's like you know what I'm about done with it that that's really not not my design for church which is why I think he loves live church so much because you are obsessed not by how many come here but how many are still out there waiting to hear the good news of

the Lord Jesus Christ obsessed with that not how many are following you but how many are not following Jesus that's what gets us out of bed every day and so God cares about the poor and the needy God cares about us living a life on Mission and he cares about our personal Holiness and righteousness as well it all matters to God but the Lord was like you know what I I'm done with that and then what he decides to do is although he was done with Sodom and Gomorrah he wasn't done with lot or his

wife or their two daughters he still had a plan for them but the plan was in the future he still had a purpose for them the purpose for them was still in the future he still had a promise for them and a promise for them was still in the future see there are times when certain things in our life are over when they're finished but the purpose of God is never over the promise of God is never over the provision of God is never over it's always in the future so he sends in Genesis 19:17

he sends two angels of the Lord and they grab them by the hand they pull them out of everything life as they knew it is now burning down and it says and as they brought them out once said Escape for your life do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley escape to the hills lest you be swept away listen if life as I knew it was burning down and I was literally being Touched by an Angel and being taken out of what was burning up to go into the promise of God in the

future I would do the one thing thing that I was told to do but this is the only thing we know remember Luke 17:32 Jesus in the context of talking about the end time says I need you to remember Lot's wife this is the only thing we know about Lot's wife and we see it in Genesis 19:26 it says but Lot's wife behind him looked back and became a pillar of salt and that always looked back in the original languages she looked back with longing lingering it wasn't just what she was looking back at with

her eyes her heart wanted to go back to the thing that God was done with and what happened was she got calcif calcified she got calcified and stuck in a place she was only meant to be passing through she prioritized her past over her future she wanted what she was leaving more than what God had for her in the future and she ended up getting stuck she ended up stopping she ended up not only destroying her life but if you go on and read this chapter it's deeply disturbing because what happened to her daughters with

their father because their mother got stuck can I just tell you when you get stuck has implications for the generations that are to come after you it does not just affect your life and right now on the earth we have a generation of Jesus followers that are feeling stuck because life has changed so much and we're looking back going I I want what was I I've just come back from doing another lap of the globe ministering on every continent and everywhere I go I hear some version of the same thing and that same thing would

be this Christine I just wish things would go back to normal and I would have conversations with people and all the conversations and especially if you're talking maybe around Church Life or talking about their businesses or talking even about family or schooling the phrase often starts the whole sentence and conversation often starts with well before Co do you know Church there was a time when BC stood for before Christ there was a time when we thought Jesus is what split time and we've given over that power to something that happened years ago and we have

a before and after well before Co and many of us have been stuck because of all of the instability the political the social the emotional the moral the ethical confusion that is happening on the earth we all feel like we've got whiplash things have changed Tech techology has changed morality has changed and so many of us are paralyzed and stuck yet the scripture says that Jesus is this hope we have as an anchor for our soul both firm and secure that Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever and although everything around us has changed

I'm not minimizing it I'm not denying it I'm not dismissing it but what I am saying saying is although Everything's changed ultimately for us as Jesus followers nothing's changed because our hope is in Jesus and all the promises of God are in Christ Jesus yes and amen and Jesus is our hope things come and things go Empires rise and Empires fall things change but Jesus is this hope we have and yet so many of us are just stuck stuck in the trauma of of the last 8 years stuck in the economic instability stuck in so

many of the divisiveness and Chaos that's happening all over the world stuck in our offenses stuck in our unforgiveness stuck in our bitterness stuck in our disappointment stuck in our discouragement stuck in our disillusionment and we're stuck in a place we were only meant to pass through the reality of the world and the shifts and the changes it's real but what is more true than real is that Jesus is this hope we have we were born for this moment in history God chooses the times and the places and the seasons that he puts us in

you and I are not a product of time we are a product of Eternity God has plucked us out of Eternity positioned Us in time filled us with his Holy Spirit and said go to all the world and Make Disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit that is our job profile you mean with so much political instability yes you mean with so much economic instability yes you mean Christine with Wars and chaos and Division and changing morality and changing ethical systems our

job profile hasn't changed the same power that raised Jesus Christ from from the dead lives on the inside of you and me therefore we can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us we have that same power we don't have to get stuck looking back how much are we looking back with a longing man I wish things would go back to the good old days I wish we could just have church how we used to have it I wish our our family would just go back to what it was I I just wish you

know what I think the last few years have revealed to us church do you remember the two disciples going back to emus they were so disappointed because they thought Jesus was the one and remember that after Jesus was crucified and buried they didn't know that he was resurrected and so what happened was they were going back to Emmas because what happens is often when you're disappointed with God you'll go back to the thing that he rescued you from they're going back and there's a lot of people on the Earth right now going back a lot

of Christians thinking you know what this thing's just and they're going back a lot of people just walking away and going back Jesus turns up on the road to emus with them and they're walking with him and they don't even recognize them because what happens is when you are disappointed or offended or disillusioned or discouraged you will lose sight of the fact that God is with you because he will never leave us and never forsake us that he is with us at all times but so many of us have lost sight of God in the

last few years because we're just so focused on what's happening in the media or in social media or what our friends are saying or what we are saying to ourselves and we've lost sight of the fact that Jesus is with us and I think remember when they said in Luke 24:21 they said but we had hoped that he was the one I wonder over the last few years if those words have come out of your mouth but but I had hoped that business was going to make it I'd hoped that marriage was going to make

it I'd hoped those kids were going to be living for the Lord by now I I had hoped that Ministry opportunity was going to open up I had hoped that God was going to give me this opportunity and I think what's been revealed in the last few years and the Lord's allowed some of that to happen is to reveal to us where our misplaced hopes were because that person and those things could never give you what only God can give you we've been trying to get from people and things what we can only get from

God and then we get disappointed when they don't deliver but Idols never deliver and Idols will always disappoint so there's been a shaking but the scripture says only those things that can be shaken will be shaken so that those things that cannot be shaken will remain and what has remained is that Jesus Christ is Sovereign that Jesus Jesus Christ is the way the truth the life that there is no other way but through the way of Jesus Christ that he is kind he is gracious he is compassionate he is loving and Jesus is like am

I enough for you Church stop looking back at what you wish it was and start fixing your eyes on Jesus faith is always future focused the promise of God still prevails the provision of God still prevails the purpose of God still prevails but we are to fix our eyes on Jesus he is the author and he is the finisher and if you are hearing church today and there is not a white chalk Mark around your body honey it means you're alive it means God's still got a plan God's still got a purpose God's still got

a destiny fix your eyes forward if you've still got a pulse it's not over I am not minimizing the pain or the heartache or the suffering of the last few years but Church I implore you don't buy Into The Narrative of this age that says that you are a victim of your past what we have to learn to do is to make what Jesus did for us bigger than what anyone has done to us we have to make what Jesus did for us bigger than what anyone else has said about us yes it's been difficult

but I'm the kid that was left in a hospital unnamed and unwanted I'm the kid that was sexually abused for years grew up in the poorest zip code in my state if I believ The Narrative of this age I would not be doing anything that I'm doing today but in and through a relationship with Jesus Christ I have discovered your history does not define your destiny what happened at Calvary was greater than what anybody else has done to me so you may have hoped you had a better start you may have hoped you had a

different education you may have hoped that those things that happened to you didn't happen and I am not in any way minimizing the trauma of it I am just saying that there is still a force on the planet that is greater than any of that can I just say to you the most powerful force on the planet always was and always will be the blood of Jesus Christ it sets people free Jesus still frees he still delivers he still heals today I don't know what you had hoped but I am here to say to you

today in zechar 9:12 the children of Israel had been in Babylonian captivity for 70 years and they came back to Israel and they had hoped that Jerusalem was going to be just thriving but in fact it was decimated it was decimated Jerusalem was in a mess the temple was in ruins the city walls were just all fragmented and they were surrounded by enemies and the prophet said to them you were physical Exiles in Babylon you were physical prisoners now you've gone back home you need to be prisoners of Hope and what we the church need

to be in this hour we need to chain ourselves to Jesus and say oh we are becoming of our own valtion with our own agency prisoners I'm handcuffing myself to Jesus I'm putting myself it doesn't matter ultimately what happens politically or economically or socially or morally or ethically or environmentally uh ultimately that is not going to affect my disposition my faith my hope the way I parent the way I'm a wife the way I lead my organizations no no no because I am a prisoner of hope I'm not a prisoner of the economy I'm not

a prisoner of any political system I'm not a prisoner of any moral system or ethical system I am a Prisoner of Hope and Jesus is this hope I have as an anchor for my soul both firm and secure he is my hope that's why you and I don't need to look back but we fix our eyes on Jesus we know our tell us this is the great message of the Gospel we basically live here from there not from back there God is drawing us into a future I tell you in this day and now Christians

ought to be the weirdest people on the Earth not not super fro Loops just super weird there ought to be a glint in our eye a little spring in our step we ought to be a little bit naughty not illegal not immoral not heretical just naughty there ought to be something about us that says you know what people look at us and go what are you on what have you been smoking how can you be full of Hope and we go because of Jesus I know what the world is like but Jesus is this hope

I have in this day and in this hour so let me finish cuz you're all too excited this church is too excitable You' think you believe in Jesus or something we're not denying the reality listen I rescue the victims of human trafficking in the last 24 hours we had a three-year-old brought into our care you don't even want to know what they did to that child so I will tell you I not ignorant of evil and Injustice on this Earth I'm not ignorant of the reality of pain and suffering on this Earth but there's a

longing inside of me not for what was but for what will be that all things will be made new that sky is going to split he is going to come back all things will be made new and all wrong things will be made right say what does Paul say from a prison cell as he writes to his beloved Philippian church when the world isn't necessarily going to get any better but his revelation of Jesus is just getting greater it's what I pray for the church in this hour Paul says Brothers I do not consider that

I've made it my own but one thing I do everyone say one thing one thing forgetting what lies behind don't get stuck Church forgetting what lies behind both good and bad because sometimes we can get so stuck in our own success that we miss what God has for us in the future he says forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus that is what we are doing right now Paul says forgetting for some of you

today this is going to be a defining moment for you you've been stuck for years when I say forgetting Paul's not saying that the blood of Jesus gives you Amnesia my past happened it's a reality I don't have amnesia I was abandoned I was abused I was adopted it's a reality but what the blood of Jesus does is it gives me a life beyond my past you don't have to be defined by your greatest failure your greatest mistake or what was done to you Paul says my history doesn't Define my destiny this one thing I

do forgetting for some of you today that's the most powerful thing you got to let some things go you're hanging on to that offense that unforgiveness that bitterness that disappointment it's not ever going to come round and it's not you can't go back but what God's got for you ahead is so much greater and you're going to miss it if you stay calcified in a moment you should only be passing through true and so what happened was he say forgetting and straining I think the church has forgotten to strain that's exerting a steady Force you've

got to exert force of course your pastor is the greatest in the world for knowing how to lift heavier weights you got to strain but what we did was we all got lazy some of you it's 2024 and you have still not worn hard pants you're still in your sweatpants from 2020 church it's time to strain it's going to hurt a bit it's time to exercise those Faith muscles again we've been just sitting paralyzed for too long it's time to get moving it's going to take some straining and finally he says I press on and

that word in the Greek is to exert a steady Force against and some of you it's time to get up and get some backbone again you've been sitting out in the bleaches for too long stuck in that moment and I'm not minimizing what was done to you or said about you but I am saying what Jesus did for you is bigger than anything that happened to you and so we can move Beyond it into the future that God has and it's just time to press on exert a steady Force against complacency or apathy or lethargy

or indifference exert a steady Force against entitlement exert a steady Force against offense of bitterness or unforgiveness or rage or anger exert a steady Force against lust or greed or end eny or gossip or slander exert a steady Force it's time for us to start pressing Nick and I were coming down from our hotel to come to church and there was someone standing in you know at the elevator ready to to go down from the sixth floor to to the lobby and um this person was having a very loud unsanctified conversation with the elevator and

they were using many four-letter words none of them were love and um they were obviously very frustrated because the elevator was not coming down quickly enough and then I kind of looked and I thought there's no light and I just sort of stepped around the person very politely and pressed the button let me leave you with this today Life Church it's time for some of you to press the button and get moving into the purpose and the promise that God has for you in jesus' name in Jesus name amen and amen and amen all right

Church all right somebody say press the button uh Christine thank you for an amazing word one more time all of our live church locations be tell Chris thank you Nick we love you Chris we love you hey um some of you this is a defining moment let's just keep our heads up eyes open right now some of you might be a little bit stuck and you realize it's time to move forward I want to tell you the way is through not out if there's something holding you back something holding you down you've been discouraged you've

been stuck for a long time discouraged maybe it's time to let go into to forgive maybe it's time to believe that you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength today at all of our churches if there's a weit if there's something holding you back if you've lost hope if you feel stuck if you feel disgrace en if you know there is something that is holding you away from what God is calling you to let's just be bold right now as an Act of Faith in front of everybody let's say he's not going

to hold me back anymore by the power of God I'm moving forward would you lift lift up your hands right now all over the place lift lift them up man praise God for breakthroughs even now at this place online type in the comment section with God's help I'm moving forward with God's help I'm moving forward and so father right now we believe that this was a prophetic word to build our faith that what someone did to us pales in comparison to what Jesus did for us God that what happened in our past would never Rob

us from the future the plans that you've created and called us to live out so by faith Jesus be our strength by faith Jesus be our hope God when we're when we're weak would you be strong in us give us the power the faith to let go to step forward believe that you are with us that you are for us that you have spoken to us and because of your word your presence your power We're Not Looking Back by faith we're stepping forward as you keep praying today at all of our churches there are those

of you that if if we sat down and just had a conversation and I ask you where you stand with God you might kind of hesitate you might not know where where you are um spiritually you might kind of be stuck you have some questions you be might be like I was years ago and there were things in your life that you were really ashamed of and you think after what I did um how would God ever love me and I want to be very very clear right now and tell you that there are those

of you that God brought here for this moment it's time to get spiritually unstuck in a way that you were not expecting and I want to tell you our God loves you he's here with you right now and he loves you so much that he sent his one and only son Jesus Jesus the sin Son of God who died in our place he paid the price for our sins and the good news is by the power of the Holy Spirit God raised him from the dead defeating death hell sin and the grave if there is

anything holding you back today we're giving it to Jesus we're stepping away from our sin we're we're repenting from any sin and we're grabbing a hold of Jesus we're believing that he is enough that he is the Son of God that he will be our savior scripture says when you call on his name God will hear your prayer forgive all of your sins if you confess your sins to God he is faithful and just to forgive all of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness there are those of you God brought here for this

moment today to step away from your past to let go of your sin to cling to Jesus all of our churches those who say that's me I want his forgiveness I want his grace I need his power I'm stepping away from my sin I'm surrendering my life to Jesus that's your prayer would you lift your hands high right now all over the place say yes that's my prayer lift up your hands as we have people today at all of our churches calling on the name of Jesus lift up your hands and say yes Jesus I

Surrender online type in the comment section I am surrendering my life to Jesus and as we have people all over the world trusting Jesus to save them would you pray aloud with those around you pray Heavenly Father forgive me of my sins Save Me Jesus be my Lord Jesus my Lord first in my life life fill me with your spirit so I could know you and serve you and follow you my life is no longer my own I give it all to you thank you for new life now I'm kind of weird I'm full of

joy I belong to Jesus you're my savior you're my Lord in Jesus name I pray could somebody celebrate welcome those Born Into the family of God come on church are you enjoying book club we've got even more messages from this series ready for you right now so tap here to keep watching [Music]