Don't Look Back | Christine Caine

Hey Church! You're awesome! You can be seated. Literally, I think I'm going to have to take Pastor Charlie on the road with me to introduce me everywhere I go, because I'm like, after that introduction I cannot wait to hear myself speak. It's like, at least, I don't know, we've been having church, I don't know what you're feeling about those songs, but there are so many places you could be on a Saturday night, but there is nothing like the house of God, or the presence of God, there is nothing. Nick and I, we so love your pastors, Pastor David and Lisa, truly. You know, Lisa is really, like not joking, one of my best friends in the world. I mean, she knows where all the bodies are buried, that's all I'm saying, so it's like for all of them. And Nick and I, these guys are our friends, and this church, I keep saying it because I love it, it's 15 years, I am not kind of a guest, maybe for the first 10 years you're a guest, but then you just become part of the family. I'm like your cray-cray Aussie Greek aunt, okay? Has anyone seen my Big Fat Greek Wedding? This is my Big Fat Greek life, if you give me a word, any word, the origin of that word is Greek, I'm telling you. And we still have Windex in every room of the house, at our house, so if you come now, that happens. But by year 15, I am just part of the extended teaching team, and I love this house, and I say it everywhere, if you follow me, you would know, you would hear me, I think this is one of the premier churches in North America committed to reaching the last standard, it's just, y'all are in a miracle, that's what I'm saying. So I'm excited, and we're gonna get into God's Word, what I love, I love everything about this house. You got the best looking worship team in America, I'll tell you that much. And I have two single daughters, so I was looking, I don't know, I don't know, but I'm into arranged marriages, so you just have to know that ever since my daughters were in utero, I used to pray over them, I put my hands on my women, I'd say, Catherine Bobby, you are the head, not the tail, you are above only and not beneath, you are a leader and not a follower, you are a woman of God, you are a woman of prayer, you are a holy ghost terrorist, you love the house of God, and you love the presence of God, and you're gonna grow up, now you need to hear this part, get ready, and you're gonna grow up and you're gonna marry a very, very, very wealthy Christian man, it's gone through Dave Ramsey. So why I'm saying that to you is you, if you have a son, a cousin, a brother, a nephew that fits that criteria, please give

their name to Lisa after the service, she's gonna vet them for me, and I am very open, my daughter loves it when I do that. Okay, so, Luke 17, Gospel of Luke, this is the Word of the Lord, verse 20, it says being asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come. He answered them, the Kingdom of God is not coming with something observable. No one will say, see here or there, for you see the Kingdom of God is in your midst. Then he told his disciples the days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you won't see it. They will say to you, see there or see here, don't follow or run after them. For as the lightning flashes from horizon to horizon and lights up the sky, so the Son of Man will be in his day. But first, everyone say but first. You're like the rally people, but first, very American, but first. I don't know if you know that there's a move of God coming out of this house, but for all of us young people that go on Friday night to First Baptist, all of us young ones, we were there. I'm telling you, that church was packed. Dozens of people walked the aisles to receive Jesus. I mean, there was, I went to the after party, and then I drove to my hotel at the debauchery street, and I'm telling you what was happening outside of First Baptist was more fun and more holy than anything else happening in Fort Lauderdale. You ought to thank God that you got a church so committed to the next generation, but first. Come on, I love the Saturday nights. You're the real Christians. You're the first fruit people. You know, with God, there's nothing like a first fruit, so you come here, you sow the seed for the rest of tomorrow, so you are the best right here. He says, but first, it is necessary that he suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man. People went on eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage until the day Noah boarded the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. It will be the same as it was in the days of Lot. People went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building, but on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all, and you are so happy you came to church on Saturday night. You're like, this is awesome. We've got Sodom and Gomorrah, we've got Noah, we've got fire. It will be like that day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, a man on the housetop whose belongings are in the house must not come down and get them. The man who is in the field must not turn back.

Remember Lot's wife. Whoever tries to make his life secure will lose it. And whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you on that night, two will be in one bed. One will be taken and the other will be left. And I tell my husband of 30 years right there, I am not gonna be the one that's left behind. You do you, Booth. I'm telling him all the time. Two women will be grinding grain together. One will be taken and the other left. Where, Lord, they asked him. He said to them, where the corpse is, there also the vultures will be gathered. This is the word of the Lord. And you're like, could you not have picked another word of the Lord on Saturday night in August, 2025? You know, the interesting thing is obviously what this text is called in the Bible. It's called an eschatological text. Very big word. Basically, it's a text about the end times. And you'd be thinking in 2025, as we kick off the fall, you're like, wow, no wonder you're talking about this, Chris, because the world has lost its ever loving mind. Have you noticed that? That you and I are living in times where people are calling evil good and good evil,

where people are calling truth lies and lies truth. And it feels like we've got whiplash. We're like, where has the world gone? And I mean, this is really intense. This is, Jesus is talking about the kingdom. And the term would be the already and not yet. The kingdom has been realised because Jesus Christ, God incarnate, He came already, the kingdom has been realised. But we know it's not yet fully realised. How do we know that? I can do that every time we put a trafficker in jail or we rescue a young woman or child from the horrors of human trafficking. We see the crime, we see the violence, we see the natural disasters, we see the pain and the suffering and the loss and the grief. So we know that it's not already fully realised, but we also do know that one day Jesus will come back and there will be no more pain and no more sickness and no more suffering and no more. That's the hope that we have. That's the hope that we have. And so Jesus is talking about all this. And what I love, He basically says, listen, no one is gonna be wondering. You know, the sky's gonna light up, lightning's gonna fall. No one is gonna be wondering, was that Jesus?

No one is gonna be wondering. So He's saying, don't get caught up going down rabbit trails because what happens when the world has lost its ever loving mind, like it has now, what happens is people get into all this wacko stuff and they go online and they start going down rabbit trails. And listen, I did my master's at Wheaton and I studied all the different theories of the end times. I mean, they were fascinating. Because when I got saved, so way back in the 1980s, who was not even on planet earth in the 90s? That's right, I'm in that kind of church. Just so that you know, dinosaurs still roamed the earth, very similar to those iguana things you've got down here. Like I'm telling you, but you wonder why I live in California. I mean, you are the home, you've got a beautiful state here, but I've got to tell you those iguanas, I'm like, Lord Jesus. Anyway, so I have to tell Lisa to do like a sweep before we go anywhere. I'm like, they're like, Christine, they're everywhere. They're everywhere. But the deal is back in those days, it was hilarious because people would come through the churches in Australia. And I mean, it was the most fascinating stuff. I don't know if you have this in America, but they would put these big charts up and they would talk about like the end of times and who was the end.

I mean, it was fascinating, but it was like all wrong because we're still here. But it was fascinating. It's a bit like now. It's like, man, fascinating. But after four years of grad school and studying it inside out, back to front, this, I'm gonna save you a lot of money and time. This is my entire theology on the end times, ready? No one knows. That's it. So what do we do? We live like it might happen tomorrow. We should do. And we prepare like it's not gonna happen for generations. That's why we've got rally. That's why we're doing the kind of things that we do. We're thinking generationally. But can I just say every Christian ought to be living a life that gives glory to God so that if it happens tomorrow, you're not like shocked. And you're like, oh my gosh, if I knew Jesus was coming back tomorrow, I'd just change this, this, and this. Here's my suggestion, change it. That's what I'm saying. If you're thinking that. So that's not here what I'm talking. So this text is all about that. And man, in 2025, people have lost their mind

going online, checking out all of this stuff and what's the end and is it, you just live ready and you prepare like it's not gonna happen for generations. That's not what I'm here to talk about. It's while Jesus was giving this great conversation about the end times. It's a context, it's a text about the end times. In the middle of that is the second shortest verse in the entire scripture. It appears a bit random. He's talking about Noah, the flood, Sodom, Gomorrah, fire, sulfur, it is intense. And then it just seems randomly the same, verse 32. Remember Lot's wife. I'm like, that's a bit random. OK. That's interesting. Can I just tell you, because I've done chicks ministry for a long time, there are over 170 women that are either mentioned by name or alluded to in scripture. 170. But there's only one woman that Jesus ever tells us to remember. He tells us of the woman that poured out the perfume, what she has done will be remembered. But in all four Gospels, there's only one woman in the entire canon of scripture that Jesus says, remember. And he tells us to remember her within the context of talking

about the end times, when life as we know it is like changing and ending. I would just wonder, and he wasn't talking at a women's conference. He was talking to a mixed crowd. And in that context, he says, remember Lot's wife. I would think, given the times that we're living in, where the world has lost its mind economically, politically, socially, morally, environmentally, every sphere of life, things have gone out of whack. While things seem to be burning down, Jesus is like, remember Lot's wife. I would wonder whether 2025 would be a very good year to remember the one woman Jesus told us to remember. So that sent me on a little bit of a search. Because I mean, this is what I was thinking. Because I'll just show you how I read the Bible. I'm like, when he says, remember Lot's wife, I'd be thinking, if I was Eve, I would be ticked off. Because I'm like, what do you mean, remember Lot's wife? I was first. And I've been blamed for all the problems of humanity for all of time. I mean, if I was like Sarah, I'd be like, what do you mean, Lot's wife? I popped out a kid at 90 without an epidural. I'm like, are you for real? If I was like Mary, I'd be like, I'm your mother. What do you mean? But he says, remember Lot's wife.

So that sends me back to the book of Genesis and one of the most deeply challenging and problematic texts in the whole Bible. You start reading Genesis 19, you see what happens. You see, what happened in Genesis 13 was Abram and Lot had separated. Abram had set up camp right on the end of Sodom. I don't know, is that where he met his wife? I mean, we don't even know her name. She appears on the pages of scripture only quickly enough She appears on the pages of scripture only quickly enough to disappear. Her name's like Mrs. Lot's wife. I'm like, what's your name? Mrs. Lot's wife. I'm like, honey, that's not gonna cut it in 2025. That is not. Lot's wife, did he meet her right there on the edge? Did he meet her in Sodom and Gomorrah? I don't know, but we know that they separated. He set up camp and we know that there had been so much sin and iniquity and idolatry and turning away from God and God had tried everything. And by the end of it, he's like, you know what? I'm done with it. Now, normally when we say Sodom and Gomorrah, even if this is your first time in church, most of us, of course, you know, the first thing we associate with Sodom and Gomorrah, most often than not is like sexual immorality.

And normally the sexual sin we associate with it is whichever one we're not committing that day. But what I wanna say to you is in Ezekiel, this is what the prophet tells us in Ezekiel 16, verse 49, this is when God said, I'm done. I want you to see the fullness of what happened. And in Ezekiel 16, verse 49, it says, now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters, I want you to catch this, had pride, plenty of food, and comfortable security but didn't support the poor and the needy. I want you to see this. They were haughty, so of course, here comes the immorality and iniquity, that's true. They were haughty and did detestable acts before me. So I removed them when I saw them. So has there been a shaking on the earth, especially in the last decade? Absolutely. And this is why I love our church here. Because what we care for is so much is those that are not within the four walls of the church because the church was never called to be prideful or arrogant or comfortable, or it's just about me. And the Lord's like, I'm done with that. I want you to care for the poor and the marginalized and the disenfranchised and the lost and those that don't know me. And he says, when you're done with that, as well as I want you to live righteously.

But he says, I'm done. So what happened was the Lord sent two angels of the Lord into Sodom, so it's burning down, man. And he sends two angels in to pull out Lot, Lot's wife, and their two daughters. I mean, literally, and I want you to see. In Genesis 19, 17, this is the only instruction they were given. It says, as soon as the angels got them outside, one of them said, run for your lives, don't look back. And don't stop anywhere on the plane, run to the mountains or you'll be slipped away. Can I just say, if two angels of the Lord came and. pulled me out of something that was burning down. I would possibly think about doing the one thing they told me to do. And remember Luke 17 verse 32, Jesus tells us, remember Lot's wife, this is what I'm about to read you, is the single only thing we know about Lot's wife. So in Genesis 19, 17, it goes on, it says, in 1926, I'm sorry, it says, but Lot's wife looked back and became a pillar of salt. So Jesus, in the context of talking about the world burning down as we know it, he says, what I need you to do is remember Lot's wife. What is it that we remember about Lot's wife in Genesis 19, 26, is that she looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. What happened to Lot's wife is that she wanted

what she was leaving more than what God had for her in her future. She was wanting what was burning more than the future that God had for her. God had sent someone to rescue her so that her purpose was in her future. God's provision was in the future. God's purpose for her entire life was in the future. But she wanted what was burning down more than what God had for her in the future. So she became stuck and calcified in a place she was meant to only be passing through. And can I say so many of us are stuck in a place God only ever meant us to pass through. Things change, things shifted, things burnt down. But many of us have got stuck in a place of unforgiveness we were only meant to be passing through on the way to forgiveness. We got stuck in a place of offence that we were only meant to be passing through as we got through to the other side. We got stuck in a place of disappointment that we were only meant to be passing through. We got stuck in a place of discouragement, stuck in a place of disillusionment, stuck in a place of addiction, stuck in a place of lust, stuck in a place of greed and we were only meant to be passing through into the fullness of the purpose

and the power and the provision that God had for us. You know that phrase in the Hebrew, don't look back and when she looked back, the inference is she looked back with longing, wanting to go back. And I don't know, I mean it's easy to throw shade but we would have been, I don't know, all her friends were back there or her extended family was back there. But I don't know, she might have renovated a kitchen, I don't know, like whatever. And so many of us, you know, I've been travelling so much and as I travel around the world, I hear variations of this. Different ways I hear different things, whether I'm talking to business people, whether I'm talking to people in the church, whether I'm talking people moving through some form of trauma that has happened in their life and I will hear a version of, yes, the world's just crazy. I just wish things would go back to normal. It's so interesting, there ain't no normal to go back to. Or people would say, I would say to them, how are you doing? And often the answer will be, you know, I might be asking about numbers or a business plan or something, how am I doing? Well, before COVID, I'm like, wow,

that's like five years ago. See what some of us have done is we've just put our life on hold. I've got to say, like some of you, you have not even put on hard pants for five years. You're still in your sweats. You like put on your jacket for your Zoom calls. But apart from that, you're still, we've just got back into this comfortable ease and we're just like, oh man, when things go back to normal, then I'll get back into the game. Then I'll start going to church every week. Then I'll start tithing again. Then I'll start serving again. Then I'll start getting back into it again. And we're just kind of stuck, stuck. You know, I could have easily have gotten stuck in my life. I come from a background that, you know, I was born in Sydney, Australia to the daughter of Greek immigrants, but I was grew up in the poorest zip code in my state when I was growing up. The third poorest in all of Australia in government assisted housing, because that's, you know, we'll put out in all the immigrant communities. So marginalized because of my ethnicity and my gender. I was the victim of childhood sexual abuse for over 10 years. Can I just tell you how that messes with you?

I was a young woman so full of bitterness and so full of unforgiveness and so full of shame and so full of guilt. And there was so much brokenness and so much trauma in my life that could have defined me. And then two weeks before my 33rd birthday, I got a phone call from my brother, George, because when you're Greek, your brothers are like George, Nico, Spiro, Con, you know how it is. George called me and he said, Christine, I just got a letter from the government, the Department of Community Services in Australia. And that letter says that I've been adopted. And when he first told me that church, I started laughing. Because you know, when you're growing up, you always say. to your siblings, we're not related, like you're adopted, your mother's from Mars. But this time I said, George, don't be stupid. They've sent this letter to the wrong person. Call them and tell them. So he calls me back about 10 minutes later, Church, this time he is sobbing. And he said, Christine, it's true, they told me the name of my biological mother, my biological father, when I was born, when I was immunized, they have a whole file on my life. He goes, I'm gonna go home and tell mum. Now I don't know if you know anything about Greeks,

but Greeks are crazy. In that we act first and we think later. And so the fact is, I'm thinking, my dad died when I was 19, my brother's gonna go to my mother, this is gonna be one big fat Greek drama. So I get in my car so that I can go to my mum's house. I walk into my mum's house. At the minute that my brother is giving my mother this piece of paper from the government, and I see the blood drain from my mum's face. And my mum starts crying, she said, George, I am so sorry. All of the adoption laws in Australia, back then 35 years ago in the 1960s, they were all closed adoptions. And we never thought that you would find out. And I promised your father before he died, one of the last things I promised him was that I would never tell you. And I tore up all of the paperwork, I threw it away and just left. And George, you could imagine, I'm standing in my mother's living room, and my mother's crying, and my brother's crying, and the dog's crying, and snot's flying. It's happening. So I'm going, I'm a Greek daughter, so food is the answer to life, the universe and everything. So I think I'm gonna go into the kitchen and make some baklava or moussaka or something.

So I go, and then my mother comes in about maybe a quarter of an hour later. And she says to me in Greek, Christina, since we're telling the truth today, let's see the six o'clock, so you're smart. I said, since we're telling the truth today, do you wanna know the whole truth? And with that, I turned around, and I said, I've been adopted too. And my mom just was bawling. And well, I didn't say anything for a few minutes, which in and of itself is a miracle greater than the resurrection of Jesus, okay? So I didn't say, but the actual very first thing I said to her I went, am I still Greek? And I said that because I had been called so many names at school, and I wanted to know if there was a reason for all of that persecution when I was growing up. But anyway, but the very next thing that came out of my mouth, standing there in my mother's kitchen, I went, oh, well, mom, before I was formed in my mother's womb, whose ever womb that was, God knew me. He knitted together my innermost parts. He fashioned all of my days before, as yet there was one of them. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. And church, that day, every fact that I thought to be true

about my life changed. What my past was, what my name was, every fact. And tonight, I don't know the facts surrounding my conception. I don't know if I was the result of a one night stand or some ongoing adulterous affair or the product of a rape. I don't know. But although I don't know the facts, there is a force on the planet much higher than the facts, and it's called the truth of the Word of God. And God's Word in Ephesians 2, verse 10, does not say that I am the workmanship of a rape or an affair. It says that I am God's workmanship, recreated in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand that I should walk in them. So why am I telling you this? Because imagine if I got stuck in the trauma of the abuse or the trauma of the abandonment. See, you and I are living in 2025 in a victim culture where people are telling you that your history has to define your destiny. But I am here tonight to testify to you that your history does not need to define your destiny. All you have to do is make what Jesus did for you bigger than what anyone has done to you. Because of Jesus's redemptive work on the cross, you do not need to be defined by what someone's done to you,

what someone has said about you, or even your own mistakes. There is a force on the planet that is much higher than any of your mistakes or anything that anyone has done to you. It is the blood of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It sets us free. There's freedom in the blood. But we have a generation stuck. Man, you don't know what it's like. In my family, we've always had this addiction. In my family, we've always had poverty. In my family, we've never owned a house. In my family, man, my dad, we've always, parents break up, there's always divorce. So what is it? Where did you get stuck because someone said something to you? And Jesus is like, no, no, no. You don't have to get stuck because of what I. I did for you. Your promise is in the future. My purpose for you is in the future. Wouldn't it be just like God? So today by the grace of God, Nick and I, we've got 15, 820, we actually deliver services in 22 countries around the world where we rescue the victims of human trafficking. Who would have thought, and wouldn't it be just like God, to say when I got my documents about a year after I found out I was adopted, I received my documents. It's weird to get a birth certificate by that time I was 34, when you thought you always

had one. You've got a passport, you've got marriage, you've got everything, and then suddenly you get a birth certificate. And in that birth certificate, it had child's name and then typed in is the word unnamed, number 2508 of 1966. Not even a name on my birth certificate, just a number. And numbers are numbing. Numbers are dehumanizing. Numbers are desensitized. It is so easy to ignore suffering when it's nameless and faceless. If I said to you 2508 of 1966, that would mean nothing to you, but the minute I say Christine Kane. So when people say to me there's still 50 million people trapped in slavery, they're not just numbers. God doesn't make numbers. He makes human beings created in His image that He calls for us to go and to reach. But imagine if I got stuck and I just said, well you know what, I'm just a victim of my past. There is no way that I could do it. It's not my fault that I'm never getting better. It's not my fault that I'm not moving forward. You don't know what happened to me. You don't know what they did to me. I was left abandoned when I was born. I don't even know who my mother is. I was abused. And so many of us, we are stuck and we're making what people did to us bigger than what Jesus did for us. And we've built an entire subculture around that. And the fact of the matter is, I am not minimizing, dismissing, diminishing the pain or the suffering

or the trauma, but I'm not making a God unto trauma. I have a God and His name is Jesus and He shed His blood at Calvary so you can have a life beyond your past. You don't need to get stuck. Can I just tell you every time we put a trafficker in jail or we rescue a young woman or child, I think devil, you could stick that in your pipe and smoke it. I bet you wish you left me alone. And I, can I just say, I feel like Joseph in Genesis chapter 50, verse 20, he looked at his brothers and he said, you meant this for evil against me, but God meant it for this very purpose to save many people alive. Can I just say, it would be just like God to take an unnamed, unwanted, abused, adopted chick from the back of Sydney, Australia and say, I'm not only just going to rescue you, but I'm going to so redeem your story. You can now open up the prison doors for those that are still bound. What's on the other side of your obedience? Because if you got stuck, I know they might've hurt you. I know maybe your parents weren't everything you had hoped they'd be. Maybe your own failure. So many of us, we get stuck, but on the other side of getting unstuck and our obedience is people's lives that will be transformed. We have a generation all across the earth, stuck, scrolling, swiping, staying stuck. And the Lord's like, you know what? How about you remember Lot's wife? Because you've got a purpose. So what does the apostle Paul say? He gets to the end of his life in Philippians chapter three, and he says this, he goes, he goes, this one thing I do brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. One thing I do, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead. I pursue as my goal, the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus, I have

such a burden to remind the church around the world that there is a heavenly call. And we have got so caught up in the last decade, but especially five years of looking down and looking back and just rehearsing and regurgitating all the pain, all the suffering, all the things that were disappointed or all the hopes that are shattered, that we've lost sight of the purpose for which we're on the earth. And Paul says, this is what I do, forgetting. Now listen, I don't want you to hear what I'm not saying. I was abused. I was left in a hospital, unnamed, unwanted, that nothing's going to change that. The blood of Jesus does not give you amnesia, but what it does is it gives you a life beyond your past. That's the power of the blood. So Paul says, this one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining. Listen, the church has forgotten how to strain. We're like, man, I've just been in my Lululemons for five years. It's like, I don't want to serve, that's inconvenient. I don't want to tide, that's inconvenient. I don't want to pray for the lost, that's inconvenient. And we're like, as long as I'm comfortable. Church, it's time to strain. And if we've got to pick up some heavier weights, it's time, it's time for getting those things that lie behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on. And that word in the Greek, press, in the original language in Scripture, press is to exert a steady force against. And I wonder what you might need to exert a steady force against today. Maybe you need to exert a steady force against complacency,

apathy, comfort, indifference, ease. Because the longer you walk with Jesus, the easier it is just to cruise. And stop really pressing, and stop really sowing. You know, as we were coming down the elevator to come to church, there's a dude standing on, you know, in front of the elevators. And like, he's very unhappy. And he's saying a lot of four letter words at the elevator. None of them are in the Bible. And so he was very frustrated. And what I could see was he was frustrated because the elevator's not coming. But I could see there was no light on the button. So I kind of reached through this very disgruntled gentleman, and I pushed the button. And what do I come here to say to you tonight? I think some of you, you're frustrated. God has let me down. God hasn't come through. This whole Christian thing's not real. God hasn't done this, and I'm disappointed. I'm discouraged. And you're standing there going, hurry up, God. And God's like, you know what, press the button. It's time to press on into the fullness of what it is that you are. It's time to wake up. It's time to forget those things that lie behind. Strain towards the things that are ahead

and press in to the purpose, the promise, and the provision of God. Church, we have a job to do. We are to go into all the world and to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's time to remember, I mean, sorry, it's time, yes, to remember Lot's wife and to move on into the promise that God has. If you're asking me, is this a wake up call? Yes. Yes. The Lord's like, you know what, I'm done with how it was. We've had five years in like urgent care. And He's like, okay, church, let's start pressing again. Let's start pursuing purpose again. Let's start pursuing the promise of God again. And we've all got a part to play. I wonder where we got stuck and it's time to get unstuck. Some of you got unstuck by coming Saturday night or Sunday night. But where might we need to be serving again? Where might we need to begin to tithe again? And get into the mission of God again? Rearrange our Friday nights once a month again? What might we start need to do on a small scale to get unstuck from where we are and step into the purpose of God? Friend, I wonder if you know this Jesus

that I'm talking about. Not do you know about Him, but do you know Him? And if you don't know Him, just right where you're standing, right here, right now, I just wanna give you the opportunity to address the spiritual condition of your heart, the opportunity to put Jesus Christ first in your life. I just want every head bowed and every eye closed, wherever you are, from the front to the back, from the left to the right, friend, in this moment, I am not talking to the person next to you, I'm talking to you. And if you say to me, Chris, I need a fresh start with Jesus tonight, friend, only Jesus Christ can give you forgiveness for your past, a brand new start and a hope for the future, the same Jesus that stepped into the life of this unnamed, unwanted, abused, adopted girl and gave me forgiveness for all of my past and a brand new start here on earth and a hope for the future, that same Jesus is in this room right here, right now, and He can do the same for you. There's nothing that you've done that can separate you from the love of God, that's in Christ Jesus. And if you say, Chris, I need what you're talking about today, I need a fresh start with Jesus, either for the very first time, or I've been away from God, cold in my heart,

maybe even backslidden. Today, I wanna invite you to stop running from God, come home to God, put Jesus Christ first in your life. If you say to me today, Chris, that's me, I wanna fresh start with Jesus, then just so I know who you are, I wanna pray for you right where you're standing. If you say, that's me, would you just raise your hand and say, Chris, pray with me, I wanna fresh start with Jesus. There are just dozens and dozens of hands, keep them up high. I'm gonna pray a prayer. All of you with your hands raised, Jesus sees that hand, the rest of us are gonna join you and we're gonna pray this prayer out loud after me. Believers, we're adding our faith to the faith of the dozens of people with their hands raised that are saying yes to Jesus. So church, let's pray this together. Dear Jesus, I've raised my hand today because I recognize my need for you. I ask that you would forgive me for all of my sins, that you would give me a fresh start. Start today and I hope for the future. I want to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ every single day for the rest of my life. Jesus, I receive your forgiveness. I receive your love. I receive your grace. Thank you. Amen.