Embracing Your Place in God’s Plan: Finding Purpose Through Christ

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:04] and I am so grateful for every one of you here today at Elevation Church. How grateful am I? And all of our E family. I've got to say I'm so excited this morning. Normally, I'm the one on the other side of the screen because I'll let you in on a little secret. You know, I live on the West Coast and so you're three hours ahead of us. So before I go and preach on the West Coast, I get a dose of Pastor Stephen.
[00:00:35] 30. Before I go and preach every Sunday, so, so grateful for Pastor Stephen and Holly and this church. Turn to your neighbour and say, you are the best looking person I've seen today, wherever you are. Hang on, just before you sit down, turn to your other neighbour that's your
[00:00:54] second choice and say, you're actually better looking than the other person. I was lying.
[00:00:58] I was lying. You can be seated. Elevation Church family today and all our eFamily, I'm excited because I'm normally that person on the other side of the screen and it is like being home away from home
[00:01:18] You know when I first started coming here I am here today with the single most ravishing piece of masculine flesh on planet Earth and In about two weeks Nick and I have been married for 30 years. How is that?
[00:01:32] and so You know, I gotta say my husband is number 12 of 13 children. He yes there was no television in that part of Australia at all my Nick's mother had 15 full term pregnancies in 17 years y'all I just got to say every woman in this room just crossed her legs
[00:01:55] right there that was like another level I'm glad they didn't stop where they were but my mother-in-law she didn't think you were a chick unless you popped out like 10 kids and we've only got two
[00:02:04] so I would take my two daughters Catherine and I'd say to my mother-in-law this is Catherine and and she is my Alpha, and this is Sophia, and she is my Omega, and this is the beginning
[00:02:15] and the end of my childbearing years.
[00:02:18] This is where it all stops, right here.
[00:02:21] And so our daughters, you know, when we started coming to Elevation, they were like in single digits.
[00:02:26] And now Catherine, she graduated from Pepperdine last May.
[00:02:30] I don't know if you know where that is.
[00:02:31] Yes, she was suffering for Jesus at Malibu Beach for the last four years.
[00:02:35] She was like, here I am, Lord, send me.
[00:02:38] And then she went to Argentina and did an internship with a church down there, which was fantastic.
[00:02:43] And now she's back working with us at A21.
[00:02:48] And then Sophia is studying comparative literature in Paris.
[00:02:52] And I know, I called her, she's like, "'Mummy, I can't talk to you right now.
[00:02:56] "'I'm just watching the sunset over Notre Dame "'eating a chocolate croissant.'" To which I replied, "'Sweetheart, if you wanna watch that same sunset "'next semester with your fees paid, you will talk to your mother right now that's actually what you're going to be
[00:03:11] doing there's nothing else don't choke on your croissant but anyway and this is the year that I turn 60 so I am so excited and I have to tell you all that I am celebrating every day there is no way I'm waiting to September I figure if
[00:03:31] if you live this long and you're not dead, you are celebrating for 365 days.
[00:03:38] That's what I'm doing.
[00:03:40] So I'm telling you all because I love gifts, feel free, all year.
[00:03:44] And so I'm also doing 60 things I've never done before.
[00:03:48] Because I wanna make sure we finish strong.
[00:03:50] We need a generation of young people that can see that the longer you walk with Jesus, the better that it gets.
[00:03:55] I'm telling you, I wanna run my race and finish my course.
[00:03:59] I love being 20 and I love being 30 and I love being 40, and I love being in my 50s, but there is nothing like your sixth decade.
[00:04:06] That is the best thing.
[00:04:07] So you just wait, it gets better and better and better.
[00:04:10] That is, I mean, how could you fix your eyes on Jesus for over four decades and not grow more in love, or grace, or peace, or goodness, or kindness?
[00:04:20] You know, some people like, they look like just a whole lot, I don't know, more depressed after 40 years.
[00:04:25] I'm like, honey, you could not have fixed your eyes on Jesus and end up like that.
[00:04:30] Some people, I've been in the way for 50 years.
[00:04:32] I'm like, get out of the way.
[00:04:33] Anyway, so I'm just like, I told my daughters, I'm gonna be super granny for Jesus.
[00:04:39] I'm gonna be like Caleb.
[00:04:40] He said, I'm 85 and I'm as strong now as I was then.
[00:04:44] Now give me this mountain that's my inheritance.
[00:04:47] I'm going in to take it.
[00:04:48] So it just gets better.
[00:04:50] You young ones, you don't even know.
[00:04:52] You don't even know yet.
[00:04:54] What did I tell you all that for?
[00:04:55] Because I'm doing 60 things I've never done.
[00:04:58] And that could be anything.
[00:04:59] It could be like, you know, really big things, really little things.
[00:05:02] And, you know, so I live in California and that is the home of In-N-Out.
[00:05:08] I don't know, do you have In-N-Out?
[00:05:10] Yes, okay.
[00:05:11] And they're gonna be serving that at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in case anybody was not sure.
[00:05:16] And so I thought after like three decades of going to Texas, I thought, okay, this is my 60th year.
[00:05:23] I'm gonna do things I've never done.
[00:05:24] So I tried Whataburger.
[00:05:29] That was a once and done.
[00:05:30] Now I'm moving on to, there was like, and then I'd never seen the Northern Lights.
[00:05:34] So Nick took me to Alaska to see the Northern Lights and stay in an igloo.
[00:05:39] And I thought next time we wanna go to an igloo, you can go by yourself.
[00:05:42] Okay, so it was awesome, but we also did that.
[00:05:45] And I've gotta tell you to give some of you some excitement to keep going.
[00:05:49] I've been almost four decades in full-time vocational ministry and the Lord's allowed us to do lots of things.
[00:05:54] But I did get, I just wanna tell you, cause I did get a first, which for me, I've written 12 books and done a lot of ministry in nearly four decades.
[00:06:02] But last week, The Faith to Flourish came out and it was the first time I got a New York Times bestseller.
[00:06:08] How is that, the first time?
[00:06:10] So I'm telling you that because life does not stop when you're 60.
[00:06:14] There's a whole lot of firsts ahead of you.
[00:06:17] And I just truly believe that it is the will of God that the body of Christ begins to flourish again.
[00:06:24] And we dive deep into the life of the olive tree because I was reading Psalm 52 verse eight and David in the midst of his darkest hour, there was so much adversity.
[00:06:35] He was, Saul was chasing him to kill him.
[00:06:38] Doeg was after him.
[00:06:40] There was so much betrayal and lies and slander and gossip and darkness.
[00:06:46] And he was in fear of his physical life.
[00:06:48] And yet in the midst of it, he said, but I am like a green olive tree flourishing in the house of God.
[00:06:56] And He was speaking of His deliverance and His state regardless of His external circumstances.
[00:07:03] And I was standing, we have an A21 office in Athens, in Greece, and I was taking a team there.
[00:07:09] We went up to the top of the Acropolis to see the Parthenon and it's barren and it's arid and it's dry and everything, it was in the middle of the, there had been great fires in Athens,
[00:07:19] there was a great heat wave and there was no other trees that were alive.
[00:07:24] There was nothing, there was no vegetation.
[00:07:26] And there was this one, and if you go up to the Parthenon, you'll see it, this sacred olive tree.
[00:07:31] And here in the midst of barrenness, here in the midst of a place where nothing else is growing, there is this green olive tree whose root system goes deep, that is flourishing and thriving and producing fruit
[00:07:46] and producing an ecosystem and keeping other things alive and giving them shelter and producing oil.
[00:07:53] And I sat there and I went to eight countries, went to visit olive farms on eight different countries, talked to the owners of olive farms to see.
[00:08:00] I have nerded out so much.
[00:08:02] I know more about olive trees, olive oil, olive branches, and olives than you would ever want, but I'm Greek.
[00:08:07] And so if you've seen my Big Fat Greek Wedding, that is my Big Fat Greek life.
[00:08:10] You had milk in your baby bottle, I had olive oil.
[00:08:13] And so the issue is out of that, that an olive tree grows where nothing else grows and continues to breed life.
[00:08:20] And in Scripture, there are over 200 references to olive trees, olive oil, olive branches.
[00:08:25] And I think in this hour where our world is so chaotic, it's so full of division, it's so full of fear, it's so full of darkness and economic instability and political instability and moral instability
[00:08:36] and sociological instability, we, the Church of Jesus Christ, need to be like a green olive tree, flourishing and producing life.
[00:08:44] And it will be one of the greatest witnesses to our generation if we would dare do that.
[00:08:50] So I was excited about writing that message and I'm believing to equip us to do it.
[00:08:56] And I'm also wanna say thank you to every one of you because Elevation Church is such a key partner church, right from day one of A21.
[00:09:06] And I just wanna testify because so many of you, especially during Love Week, you are involved in packing packages.
[00:09:13] We've got an office here in Charlotte and so much of what you pack goes to survivors.
[00:09:19] Like we go out with law enforcement when there are raids done and when there are operations done and sometimes we're the first port of contact with victims and survivors and because of your giving and because of your generosity,
[00:09:35] we are able to give packs that bring dignity to the women and the children right in those moments of crisis.
[00:09:42] But I do wanna tell you, cause there's a case that we've been working on for nine years, this is how long it takes, nine years.
[00:09:49] And last week, the guy from Charlotte that had trafficked multiple women across 51 cities, 15 states, we put him away for 35 years.
[00:09:59] How is that?
[00:10:00] Right here in Charlotte, North Carolina.
[00:10:03] So that is what your giving is doing.
[00:10:05] And so I am so, so grateful I could keep you here and tell you story after story.
[00:10:12] But I told you we've been married 30 years in March.
[00:10:16] And Nick and I, I mean, he's from an English-Irish background.
[00:10:19] I'm from a Greek background, so I'm demonstrative in every way.
[00:10:24] My inside voice is my outside voice, is my every voice.
[00:10:28] And Nick is like, Christine, I am excited in worship.
[00:10:32] My big toe is moving in my shoe.
[00:10:34] And I'm like in orbit, like, who am I?
[00:10:36] I'm like, I nearly was up there through the sky today.
[00:10:39] And so, but I'm also meticulous.
[00:10:42] He would say borderline OCD.
[00:10:44] Anyway, I'm very meticulous.
[00:10:46] And we have a mantra in our house.
[00:10:48] since my girls were like, came in utero.
[00:10:52] We had a mantra and we would say, and I would say, girls, there is a place for everything and everything has a place.
[00:11:03] See, you're just like me.
[00:11:05] But Nick, Nick is of the opinion that there are many potential places for every one thing.
[00:11:13] And let me just say that over 30 years, there have been some, not many, but frequent, times of intense fellowship over which one of the many places Nick's keys may have been in.
[00:11:28] And if we just put them in the one place, we would have avoided, there would have been much more fruit of the Spirit in our household.
[00:11:35] He believes that the Lord sent Him into my life for sanctification, for an additional layer of sanctification.
[00:11:41] But I always think it's really good if we just put things in their place.
[00:11:47] I mean, it takes as much effort to put it in the right place as the wrong place.
[00:11:51] And anyway, I'm gonna not help a lot of marriages right now.
[00:11:53] So we're not gonna, I'm watching nudging happening and heads moving.
[00:11:59] But I do have to say that after almost four decades of serving Jesus, it is nice when God agrees with you.
[00:12:07] And so in my quiet time, when I came across 1 Corinthians 12, I needed to take it to Nick to show him that God and I were in the same place.
[00:12:19] We were on the same page when it comes to the fact that there is a place for everything.
[00:12:24] And I had to dig into the 1984 NIV version.
[00:12:30] Today, we have come to real church here at Elevation to pull out 1 Corinthians 12, verses 12 to 27.
[00:12:37] I'm gonna read this to you.
[00:12:38] This is the Word of the Lord.
[00:12:49] For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free.
[00:12:57] And we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
[00:13:02] Now, the body is not made up of one part, but of many.
[00:13:07] If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body.
[00:13:12] It would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.
[00:13:16] And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body.
[00:13:21] It would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.
[00:13:26] If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?
[00:13:29] If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
[00:13:34] But in fact, God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them just as He wanted them to be.
[00:13:44] If they were all one part, where would the body be?
[00:13:47] See, as it is, there are many parts but one body.
[00:13:52] The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you.
[00:13:54] And the head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you.
[00:13:58] On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.
[00:14:04] And the parts we think are less honourable, we treat with special honour.
[00:14:08] And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty.
[00:14:13] While our presentable parts need no special treatment.
[00:14:16] But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
[00:14:30] If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.
[00:14:33] If one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.
[00:14:38] Now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it.
[00:14:45] I love this portion of Scripture.
[00:14:47] Paul was writing to the church in Corinth who was incredibly divided, especially in the way that they were ranking the value of spiritual gifts.
[00:14:59] And so the fact is that they were thinking that the more visible gifts and that they were the more important gifts, the more spectacular, especially when it came to the charismatic gifts, oh, they have to be the more important gifts.
[00:15:14] So what that was causing was division and hierarchy.
[00:15:18] And yet God had set every part of the body in place just as He saw fit.
[00:15:25] He has a place for every single part.
[00:15:28] There's no hierarchy.
[00:15:29] It doesn't rank as important because there's only one body, indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.
[00:15:35] And there's only one head on this body and His name is King Jesus.
[00:15:39] He is the head of His body and every other part, Every other part has a very important place to play in the body of Christ.
[00:15:51] Now, what happens is in our culture that so elevates visibility and confuses prominence and visibility with significance, we end up having a problem in the church because culture says, if you have more followers, you're more important.
[00:16:08] If you're a greater celebrity and more people know your name, somehow you are more important or you have greater influence so you are more important.
[00:16:17] That's not how the body works.
[00:16:19] Just because someone, you today, you see me here on this platform in the eyes of God and in the church of God and in the body of Christ, I am no more important than any other part of the body
[00:16:32] because God sets every member in place in His body.
[00:16:38] It's actually His body.
[00:16:40] But we can bring into our commitment to the Lord the same thinking that the world has, i.e. we confuse visibility with significance.
[00:16:54] We confuse reach and being known with significance to God.
[00:17:00] But here in this passage, Paul says, there's not one part that's dispensable.
[00:17:05] There's not one single part of the body of Christ that is not an important part and doesn't have a place in the body.
[00:17:13] Just because you can't see them doesn't mean that they are in any way of any less value.
[00:17:20] Now the fact is, you see me here, you see the worship team here, Pastor Jonathan today.
[00:17:26] But before we even woke up this morning, there was people that were getting up and praying for all of our locations, for our eFam, for all of our services, people that nobody even has ever seen.
[00:17:40] You don't know their names.
[00:17:41] There are people working in the parking lot that are getting ready, that are directing traffic.
[00:17:48] There are people right now with our children, teaching them about the importance of the Word of God.
[00:17:54] People that are teaching our teenagers.
[00:17:57] There are people that are working the sound and the light and people that are working the Scriptures going up on screen or making sure that there is connection for e-fam.
[00:18:08] You can't see any of them, but let me just say, if this microphone went off, we would all suffer.
[00:18:16] If one part suffers, everyone suffers.
[00:18:19] If there was no one to turn the lights on, if there was no one that was praying, if there was no one that was serving our children or our kids or in the parking lot, then we would all suffer.
[00:18:30] But what happens is we've learnt to think that the only thing that matters in the body is the prominent positions and somehow that prominence is more significant to God.
[00:18:39] But God says it's my body and I set every member in place in my body.
[00:18:48] God sets the members in place.
[00:18:51] Now, it's so interesting and I don't think we understand really the value of what it means that if one part suffers, every part suffers.
[00:19:00] A few years ago, really when we moved to America, I went skiing for almost the first time in my life.
[00:19:06] What had happened is I'm from a Greek background And church, you have to understand that Greeks are fatalist.
[00:19:12] By that I mean, it does not matter how bad things are, they can always get worse with a Greek family.
[00:19:18] And so I grew up in a Greek home where my mother would always say, Christina, we speak Greek as my first language and we have Windex in every room of the house.
[00:19:26] And so she'd go, Christina, you can't go skiing because if you go skiing, you will die.
[00:19:35] There was no possibility you could go skiing and ski.
[00:19:38] It was like ski equals death.
[00:19:40] So when we finally moved to America, I felt like I was a 14 hour plane ride away from my Greek mother.
[00:19:46] I know I was 45, but I was still scared of her.
[00:19:48] So it was like, okay, I can now do what I want finally.
[00:19:51] And so these five families from Louisiana invited us to go skiing in Colorado.
[00:19:59] Now this was during the Winter Olympics.
[00:20:01] And I know I'm from Australia, so I could surf.
[00:20:03] I thought surfing and skiing were the same thing.
[00:20:05] They're not, in case you're wondering.
[00:20:07] And so I'm thinking this is gonna be easy.
[00:20:09] So what I would do, church, is I would watch the Winter Olympics at night, like we just have.
[00:20:17] And then I would get up in the morning and think, I am representing Australia.
[00:20:25] The fact that I didn't know what I was doing was incidental.
[00:20:27] So, you know, all the guys would be on these like double black diamond suicide runs and I would have to go to the green slopes with the two-year-olds that were just learning how to ski.
[00:20:37] So there was all the two-year-olds and Christine.
[00:20:40] Well, this one day I said to my husband, I go, Nick, I want you to come with me.
[00:20:44] And the guys had this great run.
[00:20:46] And so, you know, he by then had been married for more than a minute.
[00:20:49] And any man that's been married for more than a minute knows that if your wife ever asks you to do anything, like would you want to go on the black double diamond slopes with your friends or come on the green flat slopes with me
[00:21:00] and the two-year-olds, if you kind of wanted any action that night, you would come to the thing with your wife.
[00:21:06] I'm just putting it out there in the atmosphere.
[00:21:08] So, married, I did say married.
[00:21:12] And so, and so Nick came with me and I go to him, babe, if you were with the guys right now, you wouldn't be having any more fun, would you?
[00:21:25] One would think.
[00:21:27] But my husband, being a man of integrity, not only said, yes, this is what he said, He goes, babe, if I was with the guys right now, I would be having much more, much more fun.
[00:21:40] Okay, now that is like putting a red rag in front of a bull.
[00:21:44] So I went, I looked and there was like this blue run just over there.
[00:21:49] So I turned my skis down, famous last words, I look over my shoulder and I say to him, well, sweetheart, eat my snow.
[00:21:58] And off I go.
[00:22:01] Now church, I knew I was in serious trouble.
[00:22:05] About 20 seconds later on my second somersault that was not planned, that was not planned.
[00:22:11] One ski went flying and then on my right leg, I heard the loudest pop, pop, pop.
[00:22:17] You're there, that I've heard.
[00:22:19] And I snapped my ACL, tore my MCL, tore my meniscus, fractured my knee.
[00:22:24] It was, I was lying there.
[00:22:26] I was like, I couldn't move.
[00:22:28] Nick had to call the ski patrol.
[00:22:29] You know when they put you like in that coffin and take you down the mountain and you go down?
[00:22:34] That was me.
[00:22:35] And I do need to tell you this because I'm Greek.
[00:22:39] I would leave the house all of my years that I lived at home, my mother would go, Christina!
[00:22:48] To which I would say, Mum, why?
[00:22:51] Because Christina, important that you've got good underwear.
[00:23:00] Anyone else's mother?
[00:23:02] Elevation, you are my people.
[00:23:06] And so anyway, for the sake of Sunday morning decorum, I won't go into detail, but all I'm gonna say to you is as they were elevating me and putting me into the ambulance, I'm just gonna say this, my mother was right.
[00:23:21] Anyway, so in the midst of all of that, I ended up having to have a hamstring graft and had to go through major, major rehab.
[00:23:34] And I wanted to relive that this morning, so I've got my friend here who's gonna come and show you how I had to walk around for quite a while.
[00:23:43] Look at this, let's see how you go.
[00:23:47] Oh yes, look at this.
[00:23:50] Come on, is this not just skillful?
[00:23:52] I want you to come and stand over here with me.
[00:23:55] You are so tall and the crutches are the wrong size, but that's okay.
[00:24:01] Look, these crutches are right for me, not a six foot seven giant.
[00:24:05] Okay, there we go.
[00:24:06] But this is what happened.
[00:24:08] in this knee, I have, and you have an ACL.
[00:24:12] Now, before my accident, I didn't even know if I had an A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, I, I didn't even know that I had an ACL or X, Y, Z.
[00:24:26] An ACL is a ligament that is smaller than this little finger tucked in at the back of your knee.
[00:24:32] I think we've got a photo of it that you're gonna see right now.
[00:24:35] See that, I hope you don't get nauseous.
[00:24:38] See that ACL tucked in right there.
[00:24:41] I snapped that thing and when I snapped it, I was in the most excruciating pain.
[00:24:47] I could barely function for weeks.
[00:24:50] I couldn't think straight.
[00:24:51] The pain was so great.
[00:24:53] And then when I had my surgery, I had to walk around and for a long time with a brace because this part of my body could not bear the weight.
[00:25:05] So this part of the body had to overcompensate for one small ligament that had snapped.
[00:25:13] One small ligament that had been displaced.
[00:25:17] A ligament that I did not even know existed in my body.
[00:25:22] Because that did not embrace its place and it became displaced, it crippled and it paralysed the functioning of my entire body.
[00:25:31] Thanks mate.
[00:25:32] And what happens in church, we think, well, it doesn't really matter if I'm not up in front.
[00:25:37] You can even go down the stairs.
[00:25:39] How's that?
[00:25:39] You are a legend.
[00:25:40] He's like, okay, now I'm limping.
[00:25:42] We think, does it really matter?
[00:25:43] And is teaching the kids really important?
[00:25:46] Is parking the cars really important?
[00:25:48] Is working in production really important?
[00:25:50] Well, nobody will ever see me and it doesn't matter.
[00:25:53] The Scripture says it's the unseen parts that often hold the whole thing together.
[00:25:58] And just because you don't know they're there doesn't mean that God doesn't.
[00:26:02] And that ACL, I ended up having to have a hamstring graft because I am so grateful when the doctor went in to find my hamstring, that my hamstring didn't say, my hamstring, I'm glad it was there.
[00:26:19] I'm glad that it didn't decide the week before, I don't wanna be a hamstring anymore.
[00:26:24] I don't like hamstring, I don't get any attention.
[00:26:34] It's all the attention, an overlooked hamstring, just taken for granted as a hamstring.
[00:26:41] Nobody recognised my value as a hamstring.
[00:26:46] Glad the hamstring was in place.
[00:26:51] Because every now and again, a transplant has to happen.
[00:26:54] But when you try to force that transplant because you don't like your place, then sometimes you can be rejected by the body in that part of the transplant.
[00:27:02] And we've got a whole lot of people running around in the body of Christ, just transplanting themselves.
[00:27:06] But just like a physical body doesn't expect, doesn't accept every organ as a transplant or every muscle or every sinew In order to be able to be transplanted properly, there's an order.
[00:27:21] The church is not the NFL.
[00:27:23] It's not like we have free agents.
[00:27:25] God sets every member in place.
[00:27:28] And if God wants to transplant, then the body will take the transplant.
[00:27:35] But I'm so glad that my hamstring was in place, but you and I are living in a culture where we value a position over a place.
[00:27:42] And so many people have sacrificed their destiny on the altar of a position they wanted because they wouldn't embrace the place that God had for them.
[00:27:49] So many of us.
[00:27:52] Because in our culture, visibility and position and title and hierarchy, and the Lord's like, I've got a body, there is nothing more sacred than the Holy Body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:28:02] And we are part of that body and He sets us in place.
[00:28:08] Does that not mean at some point He might transplant us?
[00:28:10] Of course, it's His body.
[00:28:13] But when we start thinking we're like free agents And I could just go, I don't want to be an elbow.
[00:28:20] I don't like an elbow because the knee gets all the attention.
[00:28:25] And Paul goes through the list.
[00:28:26] He goes, how ridiculous that you would compare this part to that part.
[00:28:32] I think we should all just be grateful that God has brought us into His body.
[00:28:35] I wouldn't care if I was an ACL, an MCL, if I was a sinew or a tissue or a muscle with Jesus.
[00:28:48] I'm just grateful to be part of the body.
[00:28:51] I'm just grateful to be any part of the body of Christ.
[00:28:54] When was the last time you thanked God?
[00:29:01] In His body, there's only one head.
[00:29:04] If we understood that, we'd all embrace our place.
[00:29:08] Elevation, you are one of the most potent apostolic churches on the earth right now.
[00:29:12] Imagine how much more powerful you'd be if every single person embraced their place.
[00:29:19] Every single person said, I don't care if I'm an ACL or an MCL, I'm gonna hold up my part of the body.
[00:29:24] I'm gonna take my place in all of our locations, our eFam.
[00:29:28] I'm gonna embrace my place.
[00:29:29] Every time you tithe, every time you give, every time you serve, you are embracing your place.
[00:29:37] And some people go, well, okay, Christina, I've got these dreams in my heart.
[00:29:40] What about all these things?
[00:29:41] Well, this is what I've discovered after almost four decades of serving Jesus.
[00:29:45] When God is looking to promote you to another position, He goes to a place.
[00:29:51] He goes to the place that you're supposed to be to find you.
[00:29:56] You go, Christine, give me Bible.
[00:29:57] I'll give you some Bible.
[00:29:58] David, 1 Samuel 16.
[00:30:01] I want you to see verse one, it says, the Lord said to Samuel, how long are you gonna mourn for Saul since I have rejected him as king over Israel?
[00:30:07] Fill your horn with oil and go.
[00:30:08] I am sending you.
[00:30:10] See, God does the sending.
[00:30:12] You don't have to market to yourself when you've been marked by God.
[00:30:16] You don't have to market yourself.
[00:30:18] If God has assigned you, God will find you.
[00:30:23] You could be not even in this room right now and serving in the nursery and if God's anointed you to be the next Billy Graham to America, He'll find you.
[00:30:33] He says, This is God's deal.
[00:30:42] I've selected for myself a king from his sons.
[00:30:46] Let's go to verse six.
[00:30:48] It says in verse six, Now the reason he thought that is because Eliab looked a lot like Saul, head and shoulders above the rest, good looking.
[00:31:04] He was a warrior.
[00:31:05] And the prophet, I want you to catch this, the prophet, surely this is the Lord's anointed because he saw Eliab and thought, that's what we do.
[00:31:15] We scroll through social media.
[00:31:17] We go, surely that's who God's picked.
[00:31:20] Look at their followers.
[00:31:21] Man, they're blowing up.
[00:31:22] That's awesome.
[00:31:24] Surely that's the Lord's anointed.
[00:31:27] And then I love what the Lord says in verse seven.
[00:31:30] What the Lord said to Samuel and thus he says to most of us, do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have rejected him.
[00:31:38] Honey, it doesn't matter how many likes you get if God has rejected him.
[00:31:43] Humans do not see what the Lord sees.
[00:31:48] For humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.
[00:31:53] He goes on in verse eight, it says, Jesse called Abinadab and presented him to Samuel.
[00:31:59] The Lord hasn't chosen this one either, Samuel said.
[00:32:05] So now the parade's going.
[00:32:06] Let's get out our TikTok and our Instagram and start going through verse nine and we'll just keep going.
[00:32:11] Then Jesse presented Shammah, here's the next one.
[00:32:14] Next little celebrity Christian influencer.
[00:32:17] But Samuel said, the Lord hasn't chosen this one either.
[00:32:21] You keep posting, Lord hasn't chosen.
[00:32:23] After Jesse presented seven of his sons.
[00:32:27] Great marketing campaign.
[00:32:29] Man, I need to be in the right place so that the right person in leadership sees me because that's how I'm gonna get my promotion.
[00:32:35] I mean, if I'm serving down in the kids or I'm out in the parking lot, how's anyone going to see my gift?
[00:32:40] And I mean, I wanna go on tour with the band.
[00:32:42] How are they gonna see my gift if I'm serving over in the kids?
[00:32:45] They're never gonna see it.
[00:32:46] I'm never gonna be discovered.
[00:32:47] God created you.
[00:32:49] He doesn't have to discover you.
[00:32:50] He already knows where you are.
[00:32:52] You don't have to wait to be discovered by God.
[00:32:55] He created you.
[00:32:57] And after Jesse presented seven of his sons to him, just sounds like the world we live in.
[00:33:02] Samuel told Jesse, the Lord hasn't chosen any of these.
[00:33:08] Samuel asked him, are these all the sons you have?
[00:33:13] They're still the youngest.
[00:33:16] I am laughing because this is how King David first appears on the pages of Scripture.
[00:33:23] No name, the youngest.
[00:33:27] You know, yeah, there's a guy working out in the parking lot.
[00:33:32] There's that person that's running the prayer team.
[00:33:34] There's someone that's running an e-group.
[00:33:36] I don't even really know their name.
[00:33:37] Just, there's that, that one.
[00:33:40] I think we got this person that, like man, they come every early on Sunday and they're like sweeping the foyer to make sure that it's clean.
[00:33:48] There's that one.
[00:33:50] Don't really know.
[00:33:50] There's the one down there with the kids in the, in, you know, like the first grade.
[00:33:55] Yes, there's that one.
[00:33:56] not scrolling on TikTok to see who's the most prominent influential one there's just that one whoever that is on any of our campuses there's that that one that's been just tithing for the last 20 years and just been giving I don't know
[00:34:14] I don't really know the name the youngest he answered but right now he's doing the loser job even worth bringing up if he's actually being faithful doing the last thing I told him to do.
[00:34:36] He's just down there with the kids or with the youth or out in the parking lot or somewhere back behind a sound desk that you can't even see that's making this happen.
[00:34:45] Or put the lights on or working the cameras.
[00:34:47] I don't know, that's all they're doing.
[00:34:50] I mean, they're not like prominently on tour or holding the microphone or anything.
[00:34:56] I put those seven in front of you.
[00:34:59] He's like, no, no, no.
[00:35:00] He's just tending the sheep.
[00:35:02] And I love this.
[00:35:03] Samuel told Jesse, send for him.
[00:35:06] Because this is what happens.
[00:35:08] When God says, the prophet can get it wrong.
[00:35:11] Some of you, but what happens if someone comes and they prophesy and I'm gonna be the next person and I'm gonna be the next campus pastor and they don't see me.
[00:35:19] The prophet could actually get it wrong.
[00:35:21] Could point to Eliab and go, surely you're it.
[00:35:24] The father of the house can get it wrong.
[00:35:27] Jesse got it wrong.
[00:35:29] But God never gets it wrong.
[00:35:32] Some of us, well, what if I do that and I start serving and someone overlooks me and what about my gift and what about my talent, and I'm not gonna, and it's like, you got insurance.
[00:35:40] The prophet can get it wrong.
[00:35:41] The father of the house can get it wrong.
[00:35:43] God won't get it wrong.
[00:35:44] And this is what I love.
[00:35:45] Samuel told Jesse, send for him.
[00:35:47] We won't sit down to eat until he gets here.
[00:35:50] It makes me laugh because God will actually send the ones that tried to keep you out to go and get you to put you in position, because that's the kind of thing that God does.
[00:36:00] You don't ever have to worry.
[00:36:03] So Jesse sent for him.
[00:36:04] He had beautiful eyes and a healthy, handsome appearance.
[00:36:07] Then the Lord said, anoint him.
[00:36:09] For he is the one, where was he?
[00:36:11] Oh, he was the one that today was working in the parking lot.
[00:36:14] He was the one that today is working behind the lights that you can't see or the sound that you can't see or is down there with our children right now, teaching them, Jesus is Lord, the Bible is beautiful.
[00:36:23] God loves you.
[00:36:25] That's the one, you can't see them.
[00:36:26] You can see me, but you can't see them.
[00:36:28] But then if the Lord's chosen them, He'll find them.
[00:36:33] Every ACL, every sinew, every muscle, every tissue is so critical.
[00:36:39] 99.99% of the effectiveness of this church, you can't even see the people that are driving it.
[00:36:46] because it's God's body.
[00:36:50] And when we all embrace our place, you saw Him in a brace and crutches.
[00:36:55] If you could see a picture in the spirit of some of the church, it's like just, maybe Sunday to Sunday.
[00:37:03] We're just barely getting by, I know it's so rough.
[00:37:06] The world's rough and the Lord's like, Man, if that ACL snapped back into place and was willing to embrace its place, the stability of the church would be greater, the strength of the church would be greater,
[00:37:17] the rhythm and the pattern and the run, and we could run faster and we could run harder and we could bring God greater glory on the earth if we all embraced our place.
[00:37:28] When I think of my whole life to where by the grace of God, He's brought Nick and I today.
[00:37:35] I got saved when dinosaurs still roamed on the earth, You weren't even born, most of you at Elevation.
[00:37:42] But I didn't know what to do, I just got saved.
[00:37:43] So I started serving in the youth ministry.
[00:37:46] I'd never prayed for youth.
[00:37:47] I'd never even thought I'm called to youth.
[00:37:49] I came from a Greek Orthodox background.
[00:37:50] I did not even know what a Protestant church really was, let alone what a youth group was.
[00:37:55] But it was just like, okay, go to the club and get drunk or go to youth.
[00:37:59] Okay, I'll go to youth, because at least I'll stay straight.
[00:38:02] So I would go.
[00:38:03] And then they said, there's gonna be a church cleanup day.
[00:38:06] Well, I had gotten saved.
[00:38:08] So I didn't pray or I didn't fast.
[00:38:10] It was like, okay, I guess that's what you do.
[00:38:12] Now you're a Christian.
[00:38:13] I said, Jesus, you can have all of me.
[00:38:15] I guess all of me means all of me.
[00:38:17] And so I wasn't thinking, and thank God this was pre-social media.
[00:38:21] So I wasn't scrolling through everybody else's life trying to tell God what I wanted to do with my life.
[00:38:27] This was old school where you got in a prayer closet and got on your knees and actually asked God what He wanted for your life.
[00:38:33] You weren't telling God what you wanted to do with your life.
[00:38:36] You were just glad that you were saved and not going to hell so you would do anything.
[00:38:40] So church clean up day, you were like, thank you God that you would choose me.
[00:38:44] Well, I turned up to the church clean up day and nobody else from the youth ministry turned up.
[00:38:48] I tell everyone this is how I've gotten to where I've gotten.
[00:38:51] God had no other options.
[00:38:53] It's like, well, you're it, cane, tag, have a go.
[00:38:56] I'm gonna get a lot of glory because that's it.
[00:38:57] I've got no other options.
[00:38:59] And when you start getting to 60, there's a lot less hands that go up.
[00:39:02] And the Lord's like, well, I will be glorified because everyone will know it's not you.
[00:39:08] But that's how it started.
[00:39:09] And the assistant youth pastor was at the church cleanup day.
[00:39:11] He said, you're Christine Kariophilus, aren't you?
[00:39:13] That was my pre-marriage name and Nick thinks he saved me.
[00:39:16] And so it's like, you're Christine Kariophilus.
[00:39:19] And he goes, you're doing psychology, aren't you?
[00:39:21] And I was like doing English and economic history.
[00:39:23] So basically I can read golden books and count to 10.
[00:39:26] But my minor was psychology.
[00:39:28] And he said, we've just got a grant for a youth centre.
[00:39:32] This is 1989.
[00:39:33] I said, what's a youth centre?
[00:39:34] He said, I don't know, but I'm going on a missions trip for six weeks with a senior pastor.
[00:39:39] So when I come back, I'd like you to have worked out what we're gonna do with the youth centre.
[00:39:43] That was my call to ministry.
[00:39:44] That was it.
[00:39:46] And I hadn't prayed.
[00:39:47] I hadn't said, where do I want to serve?
[00:39:49] What are my gifts?
[00:39:50] I'm going to do a strength finder test and I'm gonna do a disc profile and I'm gonna look at my love languages and I'm gonna have a look at which is.
[00:39:56] No, no, no, I was dead to self and alive to Christ.
[00:40:00] I thought I was denying myself, taking up my cross and following Jesus.
[00:40:04] I'm in His body, yes sir, what do you want me to do?
[00:40:07] Church cleanup day, okay.
[00:40:09] And then from the church cleanup day, I suddenly am overseeing what became a very, very influential youth centre in Australia, it became a national youth centre.
[00:40:19] I didn't know in 1990 that God was preparing me for the thing He had prepared for me to run a global anti-trafficking organisation down 20 years later in the future.
[00:40:29] See, if I didn't turn up to the church cleanup day, I would never have gotten the job learning how to do government submissions, learning how to talk to law enforcement and government and schools and work everywhere.
[00:40:39] All the skills I learnt in anonymity and obscurity when you didn't even know who I was, was preparing me to lead one of the largest anti-trafficking organisations in the world way back then.
[00:40:52] And then people were like, you should have gone to another church because for seven years, I never stood on a platform with a microphone and preaching would be certainly one of my, a gift that the Lord's given me.
[00:41:02] But the fact was, thank God that I had leaders over me that knew, that understood, that the gift that was on me would have destroyed me because my character could not have sustained me.
[00:41:14] After 10 years of sexual abuse and being abandoned at birth and being adopted out and broken, God had to heal me before He could actually put me at the forefront of anywhere else.
[00:41:28] Church is what did that.
[00:41:31] Because if the light that is on you is greater than the light of Christ that is within you, that light will destroy you.
[00:41:39] And God cared too much about me and my future, my marriage, my children, than to say, it's ridiculous, imagine if I pulled, can you just put that picture of that ACL up there?
[00:41:53] Imagine if we just stood here and applauded that ACL.
[00:41:59] I mean, it looks weird, no, no, no.
[00:42:01] But I mean, if I just put it up, disconnected it from the knee and just put it up because that's what we do.
[00:42:08] Ligament, I'm gonna put a filter on it and crop it and edit it and post it because I need you to applaud my signe, my muscle, my, I mean, you don't think, what are you smoking?
[00:42:22] Down in the body, my gift, look at my muscle or the gift or the talent, truly only in relation to the purpose it serves in the body.
[00:42:34] That is the value of it.
[00:42:39] taught the King.
[00:42:43] When you disconnect and we've got so many people in the body of Christ that are misplaced and displaced because they won't embrace their place.
[00:42:52] And if you just embraced your place, joy in the fulfilment that would come.
[00:42:59] Part of my life, whether it came through, you know, my spiritual mother for three decades, Joyce Meyer, you know, people, man, if I just had that hookup like Chris, I'm like, I was a youth leader.
[00:43:11] And then I was working at the youth centre that was training me for 20 years time in the future, I didn't even know, 821.
[00:43:19] And because I wasn't speaking here, the youth centre work took me to schools all around Australia.
[00:43:27] That's where I learnt to really communicate.
[00:43:30] People go, where did you learn to preach?
[00:43:31] I go, honey, I went where nobody else wanted to go.
[00:43:35] If you can hold the attention of 1500 Australian boys at a private boys' school, church is easy.
[00:43:43] But everyone's like, if people could just see me, if I could just get on the Christian Conference circuit, if I could just do this, and if I could just...
[00:43:47] And I'm like, if you just embraced your place in church and started serving, God will find you and God will elevate your promotion.
[00:43:54] Doesn't come from the north, south, east or west, it comes from God.
[00:43:57] And God opens doors that no man can shut and God will place you where you need to be.
[00:44:04] And when God places you, you never have been replaced.
[00:44:09] Over my shoulder, this is not like Hollywood.
[00:44:13] There's no next Christine Cain, what does that even mean?
[00:44:15] God doesn't do next, He does new.
[00:44:18] There's only one, He only makes one of everyone.
[00:44:20] He says, behold, I do a new thing.
[00:44:22] We're always looking for the next thing, which is a younger version of the same old thing.
[00:44:26] And God says, I'm not doing the same old thing, I'm doing a brand new thing.
[00:44:29] So there's a place for everyone in my body.
[00:44:31] There's a place for everyone in my body.
[00:44:38] Embrace your place, this is the whole thing.
[00:44:42] I went from being teaching in high schools and then my pastor, because he'd watched me for nearly a decade, goes, Christine, now I want you to lead the largest youth movement in Australia.
[00:44:55] I went from like high schools to 20,000 people and people go, where has she come from?
[00:45:00] I was like, David.
[00:45:02] And they're like, what an overnight success.
[00:45:04] I'm going, it was a long night.
[00:45:09] But God was preparing me the whole time for what He prepared for me.
[00:45:12] And then because I was in that position, because God came and found me in anonymity and obscurity at a church cleanup day, in the back of a youth centre with teaching ESL to at-risk young people in a high school,
[00:45:28] teaching and serving in church the whole time.
[00:45:31] And then he's like, okay, I've got a woman coming from America that I didn't even know.
[00:45:36] We didn't even have Christian TV then.
[00:45:38] That's the largest media ministry in the world.
[00:45:41] And because I was a woman and it was like, okay, we need someone to go pick her up.
[00:45:44] So I was her driver.
[00:45:46] I'm a youth leader and there's the largest ministry in the world.
[00:45:49] And I drove her.
[00:45:51] Some people go, well, I'm too good to drive.
[00:45:52] I'm a preacher, I speak to 20,000 people.
[00:45:54] Why would I drive anybody?
[00:45:55] But when you embrace your place, you don't value this any more than you value the driving because God sets you in place.
[00:46:03] Well, who would have known that I would be driving Joyce Meyer and the Commissar.
[00:46:08] I remember they said to me, Christine, remember I'm a youth leader.
[00:46:11] You have to go pick her up at like eight o'clock.
[00:46:13] I was so nervous and I was a youth leader.
[00:46:15] I had no money, so I borrowed a friend's suit.
[00:46:17] And then I went and stood in the hallway outside her room at the hotel at 5.30 in the morning because I didn't wanna be late.
[00:46:24] And then she opens the door at 6.30 because her breakfast came.
[00:46:27] And she looked and I looked the other way, like as if naturally I'm just standing in a hall in a suit borrowed.
[00:46:34] And so then she opens the door again at 7.30 to put the tray back out and Nerd is still standing here.
[00:46:40] And I didn't even know what, she goes, are you here for me?
[00:46:43] Honestly, church, I was borderline thinking, maybe I could lie and say no, but then I thought she's gonna get in my car.
[00:46:49] So she's gonna know.
[00:46:50] So I didn't even know what to do.
[00:46:52] So I went, yeah, I didn't wanna be late.
[00:46:54] And she goes, come in.
[00:46:56] Then I'm dying going, my pastor's gonna kill me because I'm going into the room of the guest speaker.
[00:47:01] And then this was my first conversation.
[00:47:03] She'd tell, when she comes here next time, she'll tell you.
[00:47:06] She, back then she was like so into St. John's.
[00:47:08] And look at me, I'm like as plain as, and she opens the cupboard and she goes, Christine, she has me all her jackets.
[00:47:14] Christine, the more it sparkles, the more I like it.
[00:47:18] Anyway, so that was that.
[00:47:21] And then who would have known that that woman would mother me, that I found out that I was adopted and don't know my biological mother and after all the abuse and her story and all of the rejection and the abandonment.
[00:47:35] And last year we found out Joyce was born the exact same year as my biological mother.
[00:47:40] Wouldn't that just be like God to do things full circle?
[00:47:43] And she's mothered us and because of that, our marriage has been so strong and our kids because of what she went through, She was able to prepare the way for me and a lot of why I'm still here by the grace of God at 60
[00:47:55] is because she's still here at 83 and still honouring God and still serving God.
[00:48:03] Driver!
[00:48:06] Because my pastor asked me to go and pick her up.
[00:48:09] You might think that's a demeaning job, but I think it set me up pretty well.
[00:48:15] So Elevation, what am I saying?
[00:48:16] Your greatest days are ahead of you and not behind you.
[00:48:18] Your strongest days are ahead of you and not behind you.
[00:48:22] Your fastest days are ahead of you and not behind you.
[00:48:26] and Your willingness, every single person, eFamily, all of our locations, every single person that says, I don't care whether I am visible or prominent.
[00:48:37] I don't care if I'm an ACL, a sinew, a muscle, a tissue, all I want to do is embrace my place because ultimately it's not even about my place, it's about the God that sets me in place
[00:48:49] and this is His body in Jesus' Name.
[00:48:52] Come on, if you believe that, give the Lord a mighty ovation in this place today.
[00:48:56] in Jesus' Name, in Jesus' Name.

[00:49:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
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