WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.399 Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast. 00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:06.959 Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message. 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:12.400 Well, good morning, Church. 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:13.759 How y'all doing? 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:18.719 It is so awesome to be back home. 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:20.000 You can be seated. 00:00:20.399 --> 00:00:23.519 I am I am just thrilled to be here. 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:28.719 As you're sitting down, turn to your neighbor and say, you are the best looking human being I've seen this morning. 00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:36.479 Now turn to your neighbor on the other side and say, actually, I lied, you're better looking than the other one. 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:39.920 That's this could be a moment. 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:43.600 Nick and I so love your pastors. 00:00:43.759 --> 00:00:45.520 I do want to clarify one thing. 00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:47.520 Pastor Daniel said when he stood up. 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:54.880 Um, A21 is not a human trafficking organization, it is a counter human trafficking organization. 00:00:55.600 --> 00:01:01.039 Please, for all of our locations in the live stream, I do want you to hear that this morning from my mouth. 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:05.680 We actually rescue the victims of human trafficking. 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:12.079 I was hyperventilating as he's saying, and A21 is a human trafficking organization. 00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:24.640 I'm thinking, but my joy here, and of course being in this house, is that when I came back from Greece in 2006, it was the first time I had ever seen the posters. 00:01:24.799 --> 00:01:27.439 I had just had my second child, Sophia. 00:01:27.599 --> 00:01:32.640 I was 40 years old, and I'd gone to speak at a women's conference in in Thessaloniki, Greece. 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:37.840 Now, you have to know when you are 40 and you pop out a child, I was not asking the Lord for a new ministry. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:40.959 I was like, here I am, Lord, send everyone else. 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:47.599 And I was thinking, maybe a vacation on Santorini or Mykonos is what the Lord would want to bless me with. 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:55.439 Um, but no, as I was standing there, I was seeing uh the it's the first time I ever saw posters of missing women and children. 00:01:55.519 --> 00:01:56.799 It was almost midnight. 00:01:56.959 --> 00:02:00.719 There was a one-bag carousel at Thessaloniki Airport at the time. 00:02:00.959 --> 00:02:07.840 And uh, because I can read and write Greek, I could see just said missing, missing, missing, and all these beautiful faces of young women and children. 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:13.120 And I was like stunned, thinking, uh, how could there be so many missing people? 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:17.840 I didn't even know human trafficking existed on the earth still then in 2006. 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:27.439 And um, I thought, you know, we've had the Emancipation Proclamation Act, we've had the Freedom from Slavery Act, there was no way that I thought that that was still happening on the earth. 00:02:27.759 --> 00:02:32.879 And of course, I've got my newborn with me, and uh her name's Sophia. 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:52.080 I looked in at one of the photos of one of the little children, and at that moment I saw that little girl, her name was Sophia, and I can tell you that's where the seed for A21 obviously was birthed in my heart, because I went from looking at someone else's missing child to seeing my own daughter. 00:02:52.319 --> 00:02:58.879 And the truth is, when you look, you can look away, but when you see, you can never unsee. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:00.319 And it changed everything. 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:03.840 And I went back and I was uh speaking at the women's conference. 00:03:03.919 --> 00:03:06.159 I'd already, you know, planned my message. 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:08.800 I was gonna be speaking on the parable of the good Samaritan. 00:03:09.199 --> 00:03:22.319 And as I was in my hotel room in Thessaloniki prepping my message, I was, you know, going through my notes and I felt the Holy Spirit say to me, Christine, you think you're the Samaritan in this parable, don't you? 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:27.039 To which I thought, like, yes, this is how I was talking to the Lord. 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:29.280 I'm 40, I popped out a kid. 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:31.759 Um, and I think that's awesome. 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:36.000 I mean, I know I'm not Sarah, that was like 90, no epijural, but you know, it's close. 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:38.400 And so I thought, oh, I'm doing good. 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:45.439 And Nick and I at that time, you know, we still do, we're 60 this year, but we did 310 hotel nights last year. 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:48.800 We've never done under 280 in our 30 years of marriage. 00:03:48.960 --> 00:03:57.759 So we've always been very living on mission with what we're doing, just traveling the world, preaching the gospel, you know, helping to serve the poor and the marginalized. 00:03:57.840 --> 00:03:58.800 We've been doing it all. 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:01.280 So I'm thinking the Lord's gonna give me a gold star. 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:09.360 All our church planting, all our missions, traveling from Sydney, Australia to Greece, like with two kids, you know, a four-year-old and a newborn. 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:13.199 But no, no, it's not the Holy Spirit might be gentle with you, but uh not with me. 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:19.519 And so he says, No, Christine, actually, you are more like the Levite and the priest of this story. 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:25.279 Uh, you know, you uh the the Levite, the priest of the Samaritan, they were all on their way somewhere else. 00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:26.240 All of them. 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:27.680 They're all busy people. 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:38.160 But the Levite and the priest were so busy going to speak at the next Christian conference that they saw the man on the side of the road as an interruption to their ministry rather than the object of their ministry. 00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:44.160 And the Samaritan was as busy as then, but he was uh he crossed the street. 00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:46.879 The scripture says he had compassion on him, and he crossed the street. 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:49.680 I was telling you this because this was the deal breaker for me. 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:54.240 And then there were four words, and so he, or probably five, and so he went to him. 00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:58.720 And I felt the Holy Spirit say, Christine, my church is confused, sympathy and compassion. 00:04:58.959 --> 00:05:11.279 We cry at a sad video over something that's going on, and we think that we've been compassionate, but compassion is never compassion until you roll up your sleeves, you cross the street, and you give up your own time, your own talent, and your own treasure. 00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:13.600 And at that moment, it is compassion. 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:15.360 So, I mean, what could I do? 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:20.560 And so, you know, nobody wants to like have the Holy Spirit tell them that you're like the Levite and the priest. 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:22.000 So I didn't know what to do. 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:30.639 And this, I'm going long-winded because I came back from that trip, and I had barely spoken to anyone about it but Nick. 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:35.680 I still didn't even know really uh much about trafficking at all. 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:47.439 But this I'd had this massive encounter, and I came to your women's conference, and I was just sharing what happened, and Carrie Joe was leading worship, and the Holy Spirit fell. 00:05:47.600 --> 00:06:00.160 It was in the other building, and I mean it was one of those that you wish uh that this happened every week, but it was one of those where the presence of God, well, we were all prostate, it was like unbelievable what God did. 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:13.920 And out of that meeting, you took the very first offering before it was even A21, and then I remembered like you handed me a check for$50,000, and I'm like, oh my gosh, we have to do something now because someone gave us money. 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:15.519 That's your fault. 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:16.720 It's your fault. 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:27.680 And 20 years later, thousands of men, women, and children have been rescued, hundreds of millions have been found out about human trafficking. 00:06:27.839 --> 00:06:41.759 And in Greece, where we started, this past week, just this past week, in the last few days, there were almost 60 victims in one raid that have been rescued and come through and that we've been at just this last week. 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:45.120 So I want to say thank you. 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:48.000 You you made it, you forced me to have to do something. 00:06:48.079 --> 00:06:51.040 It's your fault, that's what I'm saying, ever since then. 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:52.879 I want you to turn with me in the scripture. 00:06:52.959 --> 00:06:57.519 I am here with the most ravishing piece of masculine flesh on planet Earth. 00:06:57.680 --> 00:06:58.160 Yes. 00:06:58.319 --> 00:07:01.040 And my husband of 30 years, in case you're wondering. 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:07.519 In the first service, Pastor Daniel thought I was talking about him, but it was actually Nick that I am talking about. 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:10.720 And um, we just celebrated 30 years of marriage. 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:11.199 How is that? 00:07:11.279 --> 00:07:13.279 Hey, that is pretty awesome. 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:23.360 And it does get better if you stick it in, if you stick in it that he thinks he's just trained me now just to do what I want. 00:07:23.439 --> 00:07:24.879 I'm looking for the book of Numbers. 00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:30.000 And sometimes when you use a different Bible, do you notice that they move all the books of the Bible around? 00:07:30.079 --> 00:07:31.839 It is so frustrating. 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:38.319 So you could talk quietly amongst yourselves while I try to find it, you know, somewhere between Genesis and Revelation. 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:42.800 And uh so I do turn 60. 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:51.040 Uh uh in just a few weeks from now, I've been celebrating all year because I said when I get to my 60th year, there is no way I'm just celebrating one day. 00:07:51.199 --> 00:07:56.560 And so I'm celebrating all 365 days of 60. 00:07:56.639 --> 00:07:59.360 Some people freak out, they're like, man, you talk about your age. 00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:01.279 Uh you know, aren't you scared of people finding out? 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:02.560 I'm like, what's the alternative? 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:03.680 Like, I could be dead. 00:08:03.839 --> 00:08:05.680 And so it's just like fantastic. 00:08:05.839 --> 00:08:07.759 I'm every day above ground's a good day. 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:11.120 And so I am so excited about that. 00:08:11.199 --> 00:08:14.879 And I kind of figure that it gets better when you get to 60. 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:18.800 I mean, by now, by the grace of God, I've been serving the Lord for almost four decades. 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:21.439 So imagine fixing your eyes on Jesus for four decades. 00:08:21.680 --> 00:08:22.319 One would hope. 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:26.959 Four decades in, you're full of more love, more joy, more peace, more kindness, more goodness. 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:32.080 I don't understand these people that say, well, I've been in the way following Jesus for like 50 years. 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:34.240 And they look like they've been sucking lemons. 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:39.600 And I'm like, I don't, I don't know what Jesus you've been fixing your eyes on, but it's not the same one as me. 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:41.360 And they're like, no, I've been in the way. 00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:42.559 I'm like, get out of the way. 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:43.759 I don't even understand. 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:45.360 Like, you need a spiritual enema. 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:46.480 Take a chill pill. 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:52.799 So anyway, I just have decided that the older I get, I'm gonna be like super granny for Jesus. 00:08:53.039 --> 00:08:56.559 I want my children and my children's children, God willing. 00:08:56.720 --> 00:08:58.000 That's a prophetic word. 00:08:58.080 --> 00:09:03.200 I need my daughter to get married, so she's 24 because I want to be a grandmother before I'm 158. 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:06.559 And she's a real woman of God, and my other one's 21, and she's not here now. 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:08.559 That's why I'm talking about her, so you can tell. 00:09:08.720 --> 00:09:10.799 Um I'll still be a mother when I go home. 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:16.159 And I'm not gonna tell, I'm gonna deny I ever had this conversation, even though it's on the live stream and 10 locations, but that's fine. 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:17.279 It's just between us. 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:21.840 If you have a son, a brother, a cousin, a nephew that is a man of God. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:27.200 I do want to tell you the prayer I've been praying over her since she was in utero was Catherine Bobby and Sophia. 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:28.960 Okay, you are the head and not the tail. 00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:30.399 You're above only and not beneath. 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:45.759 You are a leader and not a follower, you're a woman of God, you are a woman of prayer, you are a Holy Ghost terrorist, and you love the house of God, and you love to worship God, and I would always finish and say, and you are gonna grow up and marry a very, very, very, very wealthy Christian man. 00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:47.120 So I told her that. 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:54.480 So if you have a son, a cousin, a brother, an uncle fits that criteria, just slip their name to Pastor Tammy. 00:09:54.559 --> 00:09:55.360 She's gonna vet them. 00:09:55.440 --> 00:09:57.279 If they're not a psycho, we're in business. 00:09:57.440 --> 00:10:01.360 That's all I'm saying, and it's going to happen in all of that. 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:04.639 My husband loves Texas, so he wouldn't mind a Texan son-in-law. 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:05.840 I'm just saying that. 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:11.519 But I just want to warn you, we do put human traffickers in jail for a living, so you better look after my daughter. 00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:16.080 Okay, so I just but Texas is the kind of state you can say that. 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:17.679 I'm from California, they get nervous. 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:19.039 You guys, so you're fine. 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:20.320 Okay, that's all I'm saying. 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:23.600 I'm gonna just preach the word right now, stay out of trouble. 00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:24.879 That's what I'm gonna do. 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:27.039 You can tell I'm home with family. 00:10:27.120 --> 00:10:27.840 It's just fun. 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:29.120 It's so nice to be back. 00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:32.559 So, Numbers 13, this is the word of the Lord. 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:39.759 The Lord spoke to Moses, send men to scout out the land of Canaan, I am giving to the Israelites. 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:44.720 Send one man who is a leader among them from each of their ancestral tribes. 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:48.879 Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the Lord's command. 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:52.320 All the men were leaders in Israel. 00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:53.360 I just want to pause here. 00:10:53.440 --> 00:10:55.679 We'll just unpack this verse by verse. 00:10:55.919 --> 00:11:02.240 The children of Israel had come out of 430 years of slavery, of captivity, of bondage. 00:11:02.559 --> 00:11:06.480 So imagine at this point, we're only two weeks out. 00:11:06.559 --> 00:11:10.799 We've just picked up the text, two weeks out of coming out of slavery. 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:21.440 So there is a generational pattern of thinking, the way that someone that has been victimized and traumatized and has been, you know, held in captivity. 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:24.159 Uh, yeah, we spent so much of our life right here in Dallas. 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:25.600 I've got some of my Dallas team here. 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:30.799 We have a large freedom center here and our sort of US operations. 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:34.159 We have a large center in Charlotte and one right here in Dallas. 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:47.200 So working with survivors of human trafficking, that there is a process, like we they they are rescued often out of slavery, but it does take a journey to get the impact of the trauma of slavery out of them. 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:49.200 That's what happened with the children of Israel. 00:11:49.360 --> 00:11:53.679 They had come out of Egypt, but there's a process where Egypt still has to come out of them. 00:11:53.919 --> 00:11:55.360 That happens for all of us. 00:11:55.600 --> 00:12:00.399 When we are saved, we are rescued from the power of sin and death. 00:12:00.559 --> 00:12:02.399 And God saves us. 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:08.960 And the issue is though, we often get delivered out of certain situations when we're saved. 00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:13.679 And perhaps we we we might get delivered out of the bondage of whatever it might be. 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:19.600 Maybe you're in an addiction or in sexual immorality or lying or gossiping or so. 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:27.600 There's a it could be the list is endless of the things that when we're saved, then God often delivers us out of a situation. 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:33.039 But just because you've been delivered does not yet mean that you're walking in freedom. 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:41.200 So the children of Israel were delivered out of slavery, out of Egypt, but freedom was in the promised land, freedom was in Canaan. 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:43.919 So there was still a journey between deliverance and freedom. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:45.039 That's called the wilderness. 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:50.399 Every Christian has to walk through that, and that's where you come out of it, but it's still got to come out of you. 00:12:50.559 --> 00:12:55.759 Because the person that goes into the promised land has to be a different person than the person that came out of slavery. 00:12:55.919 --> 00:13:04.480 And so a lot of times we want to inherit the promises of God, but the same person that came out of one thing cannot be the person that's gonna go in to inherit the promise. 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:05.840 God's got to transform us. 00:13:05.919 --> 00:13:12.159 That's the sanctification process, that's why we're changed so that we can become who we need to be to do what God has called us to do. 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:19.759 Well, the children of Israel came out of slavery, they still had to go into the promised land, and now we are just on the verge of it. 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:25.200 Two weeks they've been wondering, they've been coming through the wilderness and they've been getting to Canaan. 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:31.039 And at this point, God says to Moses, Okay, I've promised you this promised land. 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:37.360 It's full of milk and honey, it's full of abundance, it's full of blessing, it's full of prosperity, it's all there in the future. 00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:42.399 So now that you've come out of slavery, you've been in the wilderness for a couple of weeks. 00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:45.279 I've been super you've seen me do signs, wonders, and miracles. 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:46.879 I've parted a Red Sea for you. 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:52.879 You've been following, you know, a pillar of fire and a cloud by day, and and I'm giving you manna from heaven. 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:54.720 So you know I'm the God that can provide. 00:13:54.799 --> 00:13:56.799 You know I am the God that is faithful. 00:13:56.960 --> 00:14:08.159 You are the first generation that have touched, tasted, seen incredible signs and wonders and miracles for you to two weeks ago, you were building bricks, two weeks ago, you were in slavery. 00:14:08.320 --> 00:14:15.120 Now you're about to go into the promised land, and of course, of course, you would think I would give it to you because look what I've done to get you out. 00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:22.639 It was a miracle, and you didn't just come out, you came out with the wealth of the Egyptians, and you're gonna go into the promised land. 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:30.720 So he says, I want you to pick 12 leaders because these are the guys that should know best, these are the guys that should trust me the most. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:36.320 They've seen my faithfulness, they've seen my supernatural power, they've seen my ability. 00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:50.399 So I need the ones that know how I operate the best to go in and view the promised land so they can come back with a report and keep all the people of God inspired, ready to go in and possess their promise. 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:52.240 So that's where we are right now. 00:14:52.399 --> 00:15:02.399 So these are the leaders, these are the ones that you you know you follow on social media that we scroll and swipe, these ones have got the most followers, these are the most known, these are the leaders. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:04.240 So these were their names. 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:07.360 Shemu, I'm just gonna read you their names for the sake of time. 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:09.200 So we go from five to fifteen. 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:16.320 Shemua, Shafit, Caleb, Egal, Hoshea, Palti, Gadio, Gaddy, Amiel, Suthua, Nahibi, Ghoul. 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:18.080 Awesome names. 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:24.559 If you're pregnant in the room tonight, go today, Ghoul is a great name for a boy, I'm sure. 00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:32.240 Who here has ever called their kid, known a kid, ever heard of a kid called Ghoul? 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:38.399 Nabi, Sathhua, Amiel, no? 00:15:38.639 --> 00:15:43.039 Gaddy, Gaddy El Palti, Egal, Shavat. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.799 I prayed about saying that word today before I got here. 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:48.720 And Shemua. 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:49.600 No one. 00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:51.039 No one. 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:55.600 And I'm sure in all of our locations, no hands went up there either. 00:15:55.759 --> 00:15:56.159 No one. 00:15:56.399 --> 00:16:00.960 I I Chris, I don't know any kid named that name, and it's not on my baby name list. 00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:08.159 But if I said to you, do you know anybody, or have you ever heard the names, or is your name Joshua or Caleb? 00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:12.320 Put up your hand if you have ever heard those names ever in the history of your life. 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:13.840 That's right, 100%. 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:18.720 And I guarantee you, at every location, it's a hundred percent. 00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:30.320 But the interesting thing on this August morning in 2026 in Texas, we should, I should be talking about every one of these leaders. 00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:38.720 There is no reason other than what I'm about to unpack that we should only know Joshua and Caleb. 00:16:38.799 --> 00:16:51.440 Nowhere in the text does it say, and the Lord said to Moses, Joshua and Caleb are extra anointed, they're extra gifted, they're extra talented, they're extra child. 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:53.519 It doesn't say anything about that. 00:16:53.840 --> 00:17:00.720 It simply says, Go and pick one man, a leader from each of the tribes, because I am giving you the land. 00:17:00.879 --> 00:17:03.279 This was like not up for negotiation. 00:17:04.079 --> 00:17:12.160 It was, I'm I'm doing it, I'm declaring it, I'm I'm decreeing it, I'm telling you, I've given you this land, I've given you these promises. 00:17:12.319 --> 00:17:27.759 So I want you to pick one person from each tribe that is a leader that should know that I'm faithful, so that they can go in and they can spy out the land and they can determine how they're gonna take what I've given. 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:29.279 We're about to see this. 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:38.799 The Lord was not sending them in to see if God had the power to give them the land, it wasn't an issue of if. 00:17:39.279 --> 00:17:46.720 He was sending them in to determine how they were gonna take what God had already given them. 00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:50.960 You need to understand this spiritual principle in every area of our life. 00:17:51.279 --> 00:17:56.559 You see, in the new as New Covenant believers, Paul writes in Corinthians that all the promises of God are what? 00:17:56.720 --> 00:18:00.799 In Christ Jesus, yes, and amen in Christ. 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:06.880 So why do some believers live according to the fullness of the promise of God, but others don't? 00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:08.240 Does God have favorites? 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:26.400 Where when you come from a background like mine, a lot of people would say, Well, many of you, you know my story, that I was left in a hospital unnamed and unwanted when I was born, that my birth certificate doesn't have a name on it, it says child's name, unnamed, literally typed in the word, number 2508 of 1966. 00:18:27.119 --> 00:18:36.400 The fact that I was the victim of childhood sexual abuse for many, many years in my childhood, which just messes you up in every way. 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:54.000 Grew up in the poorest zip code in my state in New South Wales, the third poorest zip code in all of Australia when I was growing up, daughter of Greek immigrants, so marginalized because of my ethnicity, and in a culture that certainly did not esteem women. 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:59.519 So if you want to tick every box of trauma, of victimhood, tick them all. 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:11.839 Gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, abuse, pain, and I'm not diminishing or dismissing the impact of any of that, not one bit. 00:19:13.119 --> 00:19:20.400 But the fact is that I, on the 29th of January 1989, I walked into a meeting just like this. 00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:25.599 I'm a local church girl to my bone because this is where I encounter Christ. 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:31.119 And the fact is that I walked into a meeting just like this and I encountered the resurrected king. 00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:33.200 I was still broken though. 00:19:33.440 --> 00:19:37.279 So I was born again the moment I received Jesus, heaven-bound. 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:42.799 If I was gonna be hit by a bus on the way home that day, I was heaven-bound because I was saved. 00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:52.640 But along with that, I still had a whole lot of baggage of shame and guilt and brokenness because of the trauma that I had been through. 00:19:52.799 --> 00:20:06.640 Now, if it was 2026 and I was just scrolling and swiping and not planted in church, then I would have been listening to a narrative that said my identity was in what happened to me, that my identity was in the trauma. 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:19.279 And I would have been looking for all the different things online and all of this of going, okay, you know, trying to make some sense of what was going on, and then eventually I would have found my value in my trauma or my value in my history. 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:34.559 But thank God that I was planted in a strong local church with great discipleship that said, Hey, you don't need to be defined by what happened to you, you can be defined by what Jesus did for you at Calvary, and the blood of Jesus can cleanse you and wash away your past. 00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:39.039 And if I didn't understand that, there would be no A21 today. 00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:41.039 We wouldn't be married for 30 years. 00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:44.720 I wouldn't have two girls by the grace of God who are serving Jesus. 00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:53.440 It impacted every aspect of my life because I not only got delivered from my sin, I learned to walk free from my past. 00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:55.680 There's a difference. 00:20:56.880 --> 00:21:04.240 And I didn't just have a story to tell, because we think if I just go online and tell my story, people are saved by what? 00:21:04.400 --> 00:21:07.359 The blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony. 00:21:07.519 --> 00:21:10.240 And a story doesn't become a testimony until it's been tested. 00:21:10.319 --> 00:21:23.359 So standing here at 60 saying, by the grace of God, I'm not just telling a story, I'm giving you a testimony of the faithfulness and the goodness and the grace and the power of a resurrected king to transform your life. 00:21:23.759 --> 00:21:26.720 And that's what we need in the body that's a witness to the world. 00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:29.039 More testimonies, not just more stories. 00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:31.440 Be really careful, there's a difference. 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:42.400 And so, in the midst of all of that, thank God I listened to the right voices because they were telling me that the promises of God are in Christ Jesus yesterday. 00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:44.480 Men said, Christine, you can walk in freedom. 00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:54.720 Christine, you can be whole, your history doesn't have to define your destiny, and then accordingly, I would walk in obedience to the best of my ability to the word of God. 00:21:55.440 --> 00:22:02.640 And God, over the years, has brought freedom and healing into my life and My purpose and my destiny is being outworked. 00:22:02.960 --> 00:22:05.039 It didn't happen overnight. 00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:09.119 But thank God I listened to the right voices, is what I'm trying to say. 00:22:09.359 --> 00:22:19.519 And you and I are in a world where we are just scrolling and swiping the most popular voices, not even discerning whether they're going to lead us to our destiny or away from our destiny. 00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:24.000 What we're about to discover today is it could be even good people. 00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:25.200 Like, look at this. 00:22:25.359 --> 00:22:27.119 These were leaders from the tribe. 00:22:27.359 --> 00:22:30.640 But ten of these leaders kept an entire generation out of their destiny. 00:22:30.960 --> 00:22:33.359 And I'm believing we're in that moment on the earth right now. 00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:40.079 People are scrolling and swiping, and literally the voice you're listening to is determined whether you're going to go into your spiritual promised land or not. 00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:58.400 And the only thing that determines it is not the condition of the economy or the environment or politics or whatever else is happening in the world or where you've come from or what your status is or what your situation is, it's whether your perspective is such that you believe that all the promises of God are in Christ Jesus. 00:22:58.559 --> 00:22:59.440 Yes and amen. 00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:08.079 And whether you can trust God enough to obey Him even when you can't trace Him necessarily, even when it seems countercultural. 00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:10.799 Because faith is predicated on trust, not understanding. 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:19.519 Most of us don't go into our spiritual promised land because we want to understand everything before we trust God to do what he said he's gonna do. 00:23:19.680 --> 00:23:21.839 But faith is not predicated on understanding. 00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:26.799 That's why we are to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and lean not on your own understanding. 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:29.839 In all of your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your path. 00:23:29.920 --> 00:23:32.799 But it's predicated on trust and not understanding. 00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:38.160 But we're living in a world where we want to understand everything before we trust. 00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:43.200 And so then we don't obey and then we never walk free and we never possess what God has for us. 00:23:43.279 --> 00:23:50.079 In Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 16, I think it says, Go in, the Lord says, go in and possess that you might inherit. 00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:53.279 This is how faith and possessing the promises of God work. 00:23:53.920 --> 00:23:59.440 God has given us an inheritance, but it's up to us to possess what he's given us. 00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:01.680 That's how we work together with God. 00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:06.799 God doesn't just drop it out of the sky like fairy dust, he's not like a cosmic genie. 00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:09.279 God has given us an inheritance. 00:24:09.519 --> 00:24:11.680 We have to possess what he's given us. 00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:14.960 In this context, it was obviously a physical land. 00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:17.279 In our context, there's a spiritual promised land. 00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:24.000 And what's happened over the last decade is so many Christians have just lived so far short of the promise that God has given us. 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:33.680 And so we just think, well, Christine, you know, I don't know, maybe in Texas it's not as crazy as California, but if you notice that everyone has lost their ever-loving mind, everybody. 00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:45.680 We're living in a time where people are calling evil good and good evil, where people are calling right wrong and wrong right and truth lies and lies truth, and you just feel like, are we living in a parallel universe? 00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:49.039 Have you ever been in those conversations going, are we actually on the same planet? 00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:51.200 Are we actually like, what is going on? 00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:52.799 Is this the same oxygen? 00:24:52.960 --> 00:25:00.720 Because I don't know what well, I'm in California, you know what they put in it, but you know, I the fact is that you go, What is going on in the world? 00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:04.240 And we it's in my lifetime, it's never been quite like it is now. 00:25:04.319 --> 00:25:07.200 You're like, well, it's always been crazy, but this has gone to new levels. 00:25:07.440 --> 00:25:10.480 And you're like, all right, this is like really weird. 00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:14.079 But the issue is what while the world has gone crazy. 00:25:14.160 --> 00:25:36.720 A lot of us have thought, well, maybe God's promises really aren't going to come to pass because I mean, I just look what's happening, you know, on Wall Street, or look what's happening in politics, or look what's happening in the environment, or look what's happening in my family, or and we just think somehow the promises of God are dependent on our external circumstances. 00:25:36.880 --> 00:25:51.680 And so we succumb to the spirit of the age and whatever, it's like, well, you know, this this can't happen because you don't you don't know what happened to me in my past, and and you don't know what I've done, and you don't know what was done to me, and you don't know that, and we just we just think the promises of God are predicated on some external conditions. 00:25:51.839 --> 00:25:54.480 But last I checked, all the promises of God are what? 00:25:54.880 --> 00:25:57.920 In Christ Jesus, yes and amen. 00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:03.200 And here's the deal I know the world has gone crazy, but last I checked, Jesus is the same when? 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:06.000 Yesterday, today, and forever. 00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:17.119 So the fact is, if Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and the Romanity of the Hebrews tells us that Jesus is this hope we have as an anchor for our soul, both firm and secure. 00:26:17.359 --> 00:26:22.640 Just because the whole world's crazy around us doesn't mean that we have to buy into that. 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:32.240 Jesus is the same, the promises are the same, they always were about Jesus, they always were for Jesus, and they were always given to us by Jesus. 00:26:32.559 --> 00:26:33.920 So it hasn't changed. 00:26:34.079 --> 00:26:39.279 I go around the world and I'm lost people, they could be in business, it could be in church, and I'll say, you know, how you doing? 00:26:39.359 --> 00:26:48.319 And truly, the preface things like, well, you know, before COVID, our numbers before COVID, our budgets before COVID, our business before COVID. 00:26:48.480 --> 00:26:50.960 I'm going, honey, COVID was like six years ago. 00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:55.440 No, you don't even know what that is in Texas, but I'm from California, so I'll just go over here. 00:26:55.519 --> 00:26:58.559 So it's like it was it was like six years ago. 00:26:59.200 --> 00:27:04.799 And there was a time on the earth when BC stood for before Christ. 00:27:06.640 --> 00:27:10.640 Last I checked, he is the one that split time, nothing else. 00:27:10.880 --> 00:27:14.400 He is the one that determines all of eternity, nothing else. 00:27:14.559 --> 00:27:23.839 So the church has got to remember who we are in Christ again, and that the word of God is full of the promise of God, and all the promises of God are in Christ Jesus. 00:27:24.079 --> 00:27:25.359 Yes, and amen. 00:27:25.599 --> 00:27:34.799 It's time to wake up and remember who we are, and what we have, and what we're called to do on this earth for the glory of God. 00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:38.720 It's for the sake of the earth that we have to possess our spiritual inheritance. 00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:41.839 We won't be the salt and light that we are called to be. 00:27:42.319 --> 00:27:58.319 We are a royal priesthood, we are a chosen nation, we have a job to do, and so we've got to wake up and possess so that we can fulfill the purpose that God has for us and impact our sphere of influence around us in our generation. 00:27:58.640 --> 00:28:01.440 Because we don't get a second shot at this thing called life. 00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:04.079 I love what George Bernard Shaw said. 00:28:04.160 --> 00:28:07.039 He did say, he said death is the ultimate statistic, one out of one will die. 00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:09.359 I bet you're so encouraged you came to church today. 00:28:09.519 --> 00:28:17.119 You know, the fact is that sometimes we forget that we're actually here on assignment for a purpose. 00:28:18.400 --> 00:28:21.920 And when you rediscover that, let me just tell you, or discover that. 00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:24.880 You could be 60 and you're on fire. 00:28:25.119 --> 00:28:30.559 You could be 60 because you know I'm living on purpose for the glory of God on this earth. 00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:33.519 And I didn't just get here to only come. 00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:35.599 I didn't come this far to only come this far. 00:28:35.839 --> 00:28:41.519 It's not like the Lord said, Well, Christine, when you turn 60, you can indulge in the sin of selfishness and do whatever you want. 00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:44.400 Very quiet, this Presbyterian church. 00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:45.839 I'm gonna move over here. 00:28:47.759 --> 00:28:56.000 You you you can stop laying down your life, denying yourself and following me because you've earned it, because the world says now you can just chill and you can retire. 00:28:56.720 --> 00:28:58.480 Can someone give me a scripture and verse? 00:28:59.039 --> 00:29:04.559 You can now indulge in the sin of selfishness, you can now indulge in the sin of comfort and ease. 00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:07.680 You no longer have to possess your spiritual promised land. 00:29:07.839 --> 00:29:09.680 Where is that in the Bible? 00:29:10.240 --> 00:29:13.920 Now I don't need to do what I was doing at 20, thank God, nor do I want to. 00:29:14.559 --> 00:29:19.519 But I do need to wake up and live on purpose for God's glory every day of my life. 00:29:19.839 --> 00:29:22.079 No one gets a pass from that. 00:29:22.319 --> 00:29:24.000 This side of eternity. 00:29:24.319 --> 00:29:27.680 I want to bear fruit that remains until the day I die. 00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:29.519 Until the day I die. 00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:33.920 That's why I'm talking about entering our spiritual promised land. 00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:38.559 So many of us we have just stopped short for a number of reasons. 00:29:39.039 --> 00:29:53.680 Some because we believe the lie that we can't, some because we have preferred comfort and ease over pursuing the promise of God, some of us because we've encountered disappointment or discouragement or disillusionment along the way, and somehow we think it gives us a pass. 00:29:54.480 --> 00:29:59.359 But you are on the edge of something not just for you, but for the generations that are to come after you. 00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:03.599 Ten of these names we never hear again after chapter 14, ever. 00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:08.319 And there's no reason for that other than they decided not to go in. 00:30:08.559 --> 00:30:12.799 But because they decided not to go in, it affected the generations after their birth. 00:30:13.279 --> 00:30:21.039 So the fact is that I and Nick, when we married on the 30th of March 1996, we we we can't change anything about the past. 00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:31.599 I my past is if you look at my family tree, my past is my past, and Nick's past is, you know, he's number 14 or 15, so there's every kind of crazy in there. 00:30:31.759 --> 00:30:54.960 And so there is like, I I went into a uh uh sh a store when I was in England, um, because Nick is from an English-Irish background, and I was excited because I was really into Downton Abbey at the time, and I thought maybe he's related to royalty, and maybe he's got like his own downtown Abbey that he's been hiding from me, and maybe I'm gonna go like get an invite to King Charlie's wedding, you know. 00:30:55.039 --> 00:31:08.559 So it was like, so I went in, because his name's Kane, into this like genealogy where they've got all these crests and English-British names, and I thought it was gonna say Lord, Baron, Knight, you know, something. 00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:09.839 So I put in the name Kane. 00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:22.000 No, no, this is what it spits out pirates, criminals, murderers, no joke, thieves, and I'm laughing, going, I'm married into a good bloodline, didn't I? 00:31:22.160 --> 00:31:22.559 Right there. 00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:25.519 That's how they ended up in Australia on the convict ships. 00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:42.960 And then I thought, here you're gonna have that with next pirates, convicts, criminals, and on this side, you know, you've got all of mine, there's like, you know, adultery and there's uh, you know, immorality, and there's abuse, and there's rape, and there's um addiction. 00:31:43.519 --> 00:31:45.039 And you're not gonna change that. 00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:50.000 Uh but I was as I was walking down the streets, I thought of my daughters, they're gonna get that family tree. 00:31:50.079 --> 00:31:52.079 They can't change nothing, it's gonna be the same. 00:31:52.160 --> 00:32:04.319 It's gonna be like pirates and convicts and and thieves, and over here, adultery and fornication and addiction, nothing's gonna change, but then all of a sudden, they're gonna see 30th of March 1996. 00:32:04.480 --> 00:32:11.519 Nicholas Joseph Cain marries Holy Ghost terrorist Christine Cain, and from that day forward everything changes. 00:32:11.680 --> 00:32:22.079 The bloodline was drawn in the sand, and we said, with us it stops, with us it stops, and henceforth, by the grace of God, there is blessing and abundance. 00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:26.960 You can't change a past, and we're all obsessed with living in the past in 2026. 00:32:27.759 --> 00:32:32.720 But the choice you make will determine whether you go into your spiritual promised land and change the future. 00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:37.759 Jesus always calls us from the future to the future, he's already in the future, pulling us. 00:32:37.839 --> 00:32:38.880 That's our telos. 00:32:39.440 --> 00:32:46.319 Pulling us from the future to the future, and yet the enemy has gotten us so obsessed with our past. 00:32:47.200 --> 00:32:51.279 The Christian gospel is a story of redemption, new life. 00:32:51.599 --> 00:33:00.000 Oh, Jesus loves new things, we makes us a new creation, He's coming back to restore all things and make them new. 00:33:00.720 --> 00:33:03.279 We are born again and we are new. 00:33:04.319 --> 00:33:10.960 So you don't have to get your identity from where you've come from, but we get it from who we're going towards Him. 00:33:11.440 --> 00:33:20.559 So there is a spiritual promised land, and it's time for the church to wake up and want to possess the promises of God for them and the generations again. 00:33:20.880 --> 00:33:23.039 So the Lord sends them in. 00:33:23.119 --> 00:33:24.240 He says, I want you to go in. 00:33:24.400 --> 00:33:27.519 Next few verses and check out are there giants in the land? 00:33:27.599 --> 00:33:29.200 Is there a lot of people or a few? 00:33:29.359 --> 00:33:32.160 Is the soil fertile or or is it barren? 00:33:32.319 --> 00:33:35.440 Is there, you know, are the walls tall or short? 00:33:35.759 --> 00:33:41.680 God wasn't saying, because if the walls are uh are high, I won't be able to get over them. 00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:45.759 I mean, if the soil's not fertile, I mean, I am God. 00:33:45.839 --> 00:33:48.400 I woke up one day, burped went, earth, oops, look what I did. 00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:51.680 Like, I'd I maybe I could make that soil fertile. 00:33:52.400 --> 00:34:03.759 If there's a lot of people that I'm not gonna be able to cover, he wasn't sending them in to say, go and check it out, because if there's a lot and it's high and it's hard, you're never, I'm never gonna be able to come good on my promise. 00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:05.680 I'm gonna have to retract it. 00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:09.360 No promised land for you because there's giants in the land. 00:34:10.320 --> 00:34:15.119 He was saying, Go in and see how you're going to take what I've already given you. 00:34:15.760 --> 00:34:19.920 And some of you, because you've encountered a couple of giants, you're like, no. 00:34:21.199 --> 00:34:25.679 There's no possession of new land without a giant. 00:34:26.239 --> 00:34:28.159 There's always giants that need to be displaced. 00:34:28.239 --> 00:34:29.840