Embrace Your Place

Christine Caine
Jun 4, 2022
26 min read

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_HrL4ng3vU

Embrace Your Place

Series: In His House

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

Hey, everybody, two weeks from now we’re launching our big new series for the Fall;

it’s called Love Song. On that weekend, we’re going to baptize, at all our locations. If

you need to be baptized, this is the time to do it, and you’re going to want to bring friends

like crazy to see you declare your faith in Christ.

Also, there are few subjects in the world I love to talk about more than how to have a

great relationship, a great marriage. We’re going to look at the Book of Song of

Solomon, talk to single adults about, how do we prepare for marriage, talk to married

adults about how we grow in our relationship with one another. That starts in two weeks.

Today, though, I want to introduce to you one of my favorite people in the whole

world, for part one of a two-part message series called In His House. This weekend, we

have Christine Caine, one of the greatest communicators on Planet Earth. She just got

through overcoming cancer surgery. By the glory of God, she is cancer free. She leads

A21 Ministry, rescuing women out of human trafficking all over the world. She’s a very,

very dear friend. Amy and I love Chris and Nick with all of our hearts. She is from

Hillsong Church, based out of Sydney, Australia, but now every major city in the world

has a Hillsong Church. Would you show honor today by welcoming my very, very good

friend, Christine Caine?

Christine Caine

Thank you, Pastor. Thank you so much. Hey! Hi, church! I am so excited to be

here, and … One of my greatest honors is always coming to Life Church. Nick and I

desperately love Pastor Craig and Amy. And I love this church, because I always kind of

feel like this church is a little bit like God – you’re just omnipresent. And I’m standing

here, talking to twenty locations, a hundred and twenty-odd churches around the world,

including Zoe Church in Thessaloniki, Warsaw, and in Sofia, Bulgaria. I’m giving them

a shout out, because Nick and I oversee them, and they download all the time. So, I’m so

grateful to have this opportunity to be here, all over the world.

So, I’m loving that, and I’m talking about my favorite subject. Well, it was my

favorite subject, until Pastor Craig did tell us what he’s talking about in a couple of

weeks, and anything to do out of Song of Solomon, I am going to be listening. You are

going to want to be there, because – My husband’s eyes just really lit up at that moment,

and he’s like, “Christine, he’s talking about … marriage.” Anyway, so, thank you for

having us. I’m loving it, and there’s such a lot of faith in here.

You know, I’ve got lots of quirks in my life – there is no doubt about that – and one of

my greatest quirks is that I love everything in order, and everything in place. And that’s

because we travel so much. And so, I like everything ordered. And we have a little

mantra in our home. We say, “There’s a place for everything, and everything is in its

place” – in all of our locations, I hope, that you just said that – everything in its place.

And in fact, I’m so obsessive-compulsive, if my kids – Christmas presents and

everything – if it’s not in its place, like, within five minutes, they’ve been known to be in

the little wheelie bin, and I’ve been known, at 11:00 at night, to be hanging in the wheelie

bin because my eight-year-old’s traumatized that her new doll was thrown out because it

wasn’t in place. Okay, so, my kids are going to need therapy when they grow up; we’re

all aware of that.

But I am married – God, in His infinite wisdom, tends to do this. I’m sure Pastor

Craig will talk about this in a couple of weeks. He tends to match you up with somebody

that has a real different philosophy of life, when it comes to some of these ordered things.

And so, as much as I believe there’s a place for everything, I am married to a man who

believes that one shouldn’t limit a thing to only one place, that there are many, many

potential places for something.

And so, there is no doubt, at least three mornings out of five, if not more, that Nick

and I end up in incredibly intense fellowship, as we discuss, yet again, in which one of

the many potential places his car keys might be. And, inevitably, it would end up with

me saying, at the end of it all, “Babe, if you’d just put the keys in their place, everything

would be nice and peaceful.”

Now, for a chick, for a chick communicator, there is nothing that is more fulfilling in

life than when God actually agrees with you, and when you actually go to the Word of

God, and you know that He and you are on the same page. So, today I want you to turn

with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and we’re just going to show how the apostle Paul

and myself are in full agreement under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In holy

[unintelligible, 04:57] right here, God Himself says that there’s a place for everything,

and everything in its place. I hope my husband just turned the dial up on this right now.

And so, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 12 … Scripture says:

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one

body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we [are] all baptized by one Spirit so as to form

one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one

Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but … many.

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the

body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear

should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not

for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye,

where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would

the sense of smell be?

And here we go. This is where God and Christine are in agreement: “18 But in fact God

has placed” – everyone say “placed.”

18 … God has placed the parts [of] the body, every one of them, just as He wanted

them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is,

there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say

to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that

seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less

honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are

treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special

treatment.

Tuck that away in your mind.

24 … But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that

lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts

should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers

with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

I love this text. I love it so powerfully. And as we’re reading through, and we got to

the second last verse, where it says, “If one part [of the body] suffers, [then] every part

suffers with it,” I did not really realize the extent of just that verse alone, in this whole

text that says every single one of us is part of the body of Christ, until I was skiing a

couple of years ago, in Colorado. It was with Nick, our whole family, and there were

four other families that were all from America. We were the only Australian family. It

was actually during the Vancouver Olympic Games.

Now, I’m from Australia, so we surf; we don’t really ski. There’s not that much

snow. But I thought that surfing and skiing were very similar sports, and so it wouldn’t

really be a problem, because our American friends said, “Come on, why don’t we go to

Colorado and ski?” And I thought, Awesome! And so, what I did was, I would watch the

Olympic games, at night, and I would watch the downhill skiing, and I’d think, This can’t

be that hard. I surf, so this has got to be okay.

And then, I felt very patriotic, and I felt a moral responsibility to represent Australia.

And so, we would get to the top of the chair lift, and I would go, “I am representing

Australia! This is it!” And the fact that I didn’t know how to ski was incidental.

And so, this one day, we go off, and all the guys are on this black double-diamond run

that’s, like, this suicide run, and Nick came with me. And I was on my green, flat slope,

and I thought I was all that, and I was going for it. And so, I turned around to Nick, at

one point, and I go, “Hey, babe, if you were with the guys right now, you wouldn’t be

having a better time, would you?”

Now, of course – and if you don’t know, in a couple of weeks Pastor Craig’s going to

be teaching you this, but if you’re married, and your wife ever asks you a loaded question

like that, and you want to remain married, or you want to have any action that night, the

right answer to that question is always, “Babe, there is nothing I would rather be doing

than being here on this flat, green slope with you. This is the pinnacle of my skiing

experience.” That’s exactly what you would say. But my husband, being a man of

integrity, and always telling the truth, he goes, “Yeah, babe, if I was with the guys, I’d be

having so much more fun.”

Now, that is like putting a red rag in front of a bull, when it comes to me. So, these

are my famous last words. I look over my shoulder, and I went, “Well, sweetheart, eat

my snow.” And with that, I looked down the hill, and down I went.

Now, I knew I was in really serious trouble about 20 seconds later, on my second

somersault that was not intentional, as my skis went in the sky. And I heard, in that

moment, the loudest pop, pop, pop, that you have ever heard in your life. And with that, I

fell down, and I had, in one fell swoop – I’d snapped my ACL, tore my MCL, tore my

meniscus, and fractured my knee. And I couldn’t move. And Nick had to call the ski

patrol. They come, they put you in that little coffin. You assume death posture; they take

you down the mountain. And they were putting me into the ambulance.

Now, in that moment, as I was being put into the ambulance – up until that point – I

come from a very staunch, kind of, Greek family. Greeks are fatalists. It doesn’t matter

how bad things are; they can always get worse. And so, I would always leave my home,

and my mother would say to me – my Greek mother – to this day, “Christina, are you

wearing good, new, clean underwear?” To which I would always say, “Why, Mom?”

“Christine, if you ever have an accident, and you end up in the back of an ambulance, you

want to make sure that you’ve got really good underwear,” to which I would always say

to my mother, “Mom, if I ended up in the kind of accident where I would be in the back

of an ambulance, the last thing I would care less about is the condition of my

undergarments!”

Now, I’m just here to tell you, at 48 years old, church, that I have lived yet another

year to utter the words, “My mother was right.” As they were putting me into that

ambulance, the only thing I could think about … And if I wasn’t talking to the whole

church today, and this was just the women, I would give you the finer details, actually, of

what was going on. But all you men out there, you’re going to have to listen to Pastor

Craig and Song of Solomon – that’s here – to get the rest. So, anyway …

So, in that moment, I snapped my ACL, totally. Do you know that before that

accident, I didn’t even know I had an ACL? I didn’t even know what an ACL – I didn’t

even know if I had an ABC, XYZ, EFG, in my knee. I had no idea! But in that moment,

a ligament, smaller than my little finger, tucked in behind my knee, a ligament that I

never knew was there, a ligament that I had never seen – it becoming displaced instantly

crippled and immobilized my entire body.

And everything that you can see me doing right now, I could do none of it. The pain

was so excruciating, I could not even hold myself up. I couldn’t walk; I couldn’t move. I

couldn’t think, because a tiny ligament that I never knew was there, that nobody ever

saw, was tucked away, and had become displaced – in a moment.

You see, the Church is full of those kind of ligaments. I don’t know what campus

you’re at this morning – one of our twenty locations, or any one of the churches that are

listening to this today, this weekend – but the fact of the matter is, Scripture tells us, in

verse 21, that those parts of the body that seem weaker are indispensable. There’s a

whole lot of unseen parts.

Oftentimes, we think that it’s who you see here on the platform, for a 40-minute

period on a Sunday – that’s the only important part of the body. But the fact of the matter

is, a part that I thought was not important had the capacity to entirely immobilize me, and

to make me not be able to do what I could do – a part smaller than my little finger!

You see, every time you think, It doesn’t matter if I go to church on Sunday. No one

is going to miss me! I mean, I sit at the very ba – I mean, my campus isn’t really even

important. You know what? It really doesn’t matter if I tune in. My tithe is so

incidental, it really doesn’t matter if I put it in the offering bucket this week. It doesn’t

really matter. No one’s going to notice. I mean, it’s not the full leg. I mean, it’s not the

arm. Why would anyone notice if I put – You know, if I serve in the nursery, if I turn up – what does it really matter? I mean, who sees the nursery? It’s really only Pastor

Craig that everyone sees, or the worship team. That’s what’s really important. And

since I can’t sing, and since I can’t preach, it really doesn’t matter if I come and just

work in the parking lot, or if I help to hold an umbrella to help a single mom walk into

church during the rain. What does it really matter?

Well, I’m here to tell you, everything matters. Because the fact of the matter is, it all

matters. It all matters. Because you simply not turning up, and embracing your place –

because Scripture tells us that God sets every member in place.

So, my ACL came out of place! That one little ligament, out of place, crippled my

whole body. If we, the body of Christ, would understand the power and the magnitude of

this, we would never devalue every phone call that we’re prompted to bring that maybe is

to give encouragement to somebody else, perhaps to go and take a meal to somebody else

in the church that, for that week, has had some kind of problem, or challenge, or accident,

or sickness.

We end up devaluing ligaments that God has set in place, simply because they’re not

prominent, and simply because they’re not acknowledged, and simply because they are

unapplauded, or unrecognized. And God says, “How dare you diminish My body? I

have set you in place – every sinew, every muscle, and every ligament.”

You see, because we have such a celebrity-oriented culture, where we are obsessed

with who is in the limelight, and who is in the spotlight, we’ve ended up putting certain

parts of the body in the limelight and the spotlight, as if that is the whole body. And God

says, “My whole body is walking around, crippled and immobilized, because there are so

many displaced ligaments, and sinews, and muscles.”

And they’re all important to God. They’re important enough that the Creator of the

universe would choose to create them, and put them in place.

And yet, we devalue it because it’s not sensational, and it’s not celebrity, and it’s not

cool. And God says, man, could you imagine the potential of Life Church, if every one

of us embraced our place? Could you imagine what this church could do on the earth, if

we all embraced our place? Could you imagine – God has planted us in this house, and

we’re in the middle of a two-week series about the house. You’re in the house!

And Scripture tells us, in Psalm 92, that those that are planted in the house of the

Lord, their lives will flourish – not those that occasionally attend, those that every now

and again bless the house with their presence. It’s those that are planted, whose roots are

deep, who have embraced their place, who say, “I am there.” Well, our lives, then, will

flourish.

Already, this church is of international influence and impact. But there are seven

billion people on the planet. I don’t know that we’ve ever had the opportunity, in this

nation of a church, to grow so large, so effective, have so many spheres of influence, and

be such a potent force!

But if you could see it in the spirit, we’re really just kind of limping around, compared

to our potential to be running and soaring, simply because so many members have

devalued the place in which God has set them, and think it really doesn’t matter. My

service, my contribution, my attendance in a small group, my signing up to help serve in

the kids ministry, or the youth ministry, or perhaps in some community-based service –

we just think it doesn’t really matter. My tithe is not really important, my offering’s not

really important – and we just end up devaluing our contribution. And God says, “Do

you realize how much you’re crippling and immobilizing the body?”

I had a leg brace – and I just grabbed this. My husband’s going to give this to me. I

had to walk around – and you’re going to see, this leg brace is positively awesome,

compared to the one I was wearing. I’m going to try to awkwardly put it on here, and

hopefully not kill myself, because then I don’t want to end up in another one and displace

more of my body. But this – I had to walk around, and I had to preach, for weeks, and

this is how I moved. I just had to move – I couldn’t even do – And if we could get a

picture of the Church …

Because what happens is, one part of the body has to compensate for the other part of

the body. That’s what happened to me. I had displaced my ACL. I had snapped it. So,

this other side of my body had to end up carrying all the weight, and all the effort, to

carry this part of the body. And we think we’re soaring here, because some people are

carrying a lot of the load!

And what ends up is, half the body is ending up burnt out, tired, and weary, not

because they’re doing, necessarily, too much, but what is happening is, they’re carrying

the load for a part of the body that’s not carrying their load. So, they’re giving more than

they should. They’re serving more than they should. Because they’re trying to carry the

whole rest of the body.

Whereas, if we just all simply embraced our place, if we all just embraced the place

that God had for us, we would all flourish. Nobody would be getting burnt out. Nobody

would be falling apart. Everybody would be flourishing, and the body itself would have

so much momentum, so much strength, that the gates of hell would not prevail against the

Church of the living God, and we would continue to move forward, if we just

understood!

But we’ve got so many under the burden! It’s so hard, and we’re just barely making it

because they’re trying to carry the other side of the body that just says, “I don’t want to

be an ACL.” “I don’t want to be an MCL.” “I don’t want to be a meniscus.” “I don’t

want to be hidden behind the little knee.”

Well, when I went back to Australia for my surgery, I had to have a hamstring graft.

There are times when there are transplants in the body. The challenge is, we treat the

body of Christ like an NFL football team. We think there are free agents. But there are

no free agents in the body of Christ! God sets us in place. God sets us in place. If we

would understand that …

I’ve been part of one house for 25 years, under one senior leader. It has not hindered

my growth. It has not hindered my potential. It has not stopped my destiny. But destiny

is attached to a place.

If we would understand that, we would stop trying to chase a career, we would

embrace our place in our calling, and then we would allow God to open doors that no

man can shut, and we would understand that promotion doesn’t come from the north,

south, east, or west, it comes from God. All I have to do is get in place, and God will

catapult me to my destiny. That’s what would happen!

And so, I had a hamstring graft, because there are times that transplants happen. Now,

imagine, when the surgeon went in to do a hamstring graft, imagine if, the week before

my surgery, my hamstring decided to say, “I don’t want to be a hamstring anymore! I

don’t like being a hamstring! I’m never recognized! No one ever sees me. I mean, I

hold Christine’s leg up. When she speaks across that platform and does aerobics, I’m the

one that always holds her up. But no, I don’t get any recognition. No, no, no, it’s always

her mouth – mouth, mouth, mouth, mouth, mouth. The mouth, mouth, mouth gets all the

glory. I don’t get any recognition or glory, just the mouth does, but I do all the work!”

So, imagine, then, if the hamstring thought, You know, I don’t want to be a hamstring.

I want to be an elbow. No, no, I think I might be a liver. No, I think I’d like to be a foot.

We would all think that’s ridiculous. We would think that’s absurd.

But if you could look, spiritually speaking, at the body of Christ, we’ve got a whole

lot of hamstrings that are trying to be elbows, or they’re trying to be mouths, or they’re

trying to be eyes, or they’re trying to be noses, because they simply won’t embrace their

place as the hamstring that God called them to be.

In all of our locations, just imagine if we all just simply embraced the place that God

had for us, and we would understand, there is grace for the place that we’re in. And with

that grace comes an enablement, and comes a flourishing, and comes a prosperity –

relationally, emotionally, physically, financially. So many of the stresses that we

encounter in life are because we will not embrace our place! And so, if we did that, and

then we trusted that God would put us where He wants to put us, then we would, very

simply, take the place that He has placed us in.

You see, what we’ve done in the body, so often, is, we’ve disconnected a ligament, or

a sinew, or a muscle, and what we’ve done then, is, we’ve said, “Oh, no, no, let’s just

pretend this is an ACL” – this is not an ACL, but let’s just pretend that it is right here,

and we go, “Awesome! The ACL wants all the recognition! And so, let’s take a

musician out of the worship team where God placed them, and let’s just stick them there.

And then, what we will do is, we will all just applaud that gift, and we will all applaud

that part of the body. And isn’t that part awesome? And don’t they have a wonderful

gi –”

I want everyone to recognize my gift. I mean, when I’m serving in the nursery, no one

can hear me, the way that I speak to those kids. So, I’m just going to go out on my own,

and I’m just going to start my own thing. And then, everyone can clap my gift, and

everyone can applaud my gift. And all that that does is, it takes the attention away from

the Head.

And then, what we do is – how can an ACL do anything on its own? It can’t! The

only place an ACL can actually be effective is tucked in behind my knee, holding up the

rest of the body. And then, when my body is held up, and all of my body’s able to

function effectively, then my body’s able to give glory to the Head, who is Jesus, if we all

understood that. And so, if we all stop trying to disconnect from the place, because we

want someone to recognize the gift ...

The gift that is on you will destroy you, if the character that is in you can’t sustain

you. And our gift only has value in relation to the body in which you have been placed.

If we understood this – it’s not about maximizing the potential of my gift, so that

everybody else applauds it. I don’t need to go out there chasing and building a platform,

if God has placed you in this house.

As someone from the other side of the world, hear me. God has placed you in modern

Christendom. There hasn’t been a church this size in North America, possibly the most

influential nation on the earth. So, God has already set you in a very significant place,

and a very prominent place.

But if you don’t embrace the place that He’s set you in, in this house, you will be

forever frustrated, looking for some kind of affirmation. And God says, “I’ve already

given it to you, because I’ve put you in place.”

Now, if you took your place in this body, this body would have more power, more

strength, more fortitude. You would advance the Kingdom even further, and the glory

would go to our Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, in a mighty way, in a mighty way! The goal

is not us. The goal is Jesus.

And what we often do is, we confuse a position with a place, and many people have

sacrificed their destiny on the altar of a position they wanted, because they would not

embrace the place that Christ had for them. See, sometimes you’ve got to go to a place

you don’t want to go, to end up in the place that God’s ultimately going to take you.

I don’t know what your place is right now. You might think, Is this of any value?

I’ve got three or four kids at home, and I’m just changing diapers, and everything in you

wants to jump ship to accelerate something. But God says, “I’ve got you in place right

now.” You could be working in a job where you just think there’s so much potential on

the inside of you, but God says, “I’ve got you in place.”

And in that place, God is preparing you for the thing that He’s already prepared for

you! He’s actually doing something within you, so that He can do something through

you. You might be serving in an area of ministry, and in your heart there’s such a greater

area that you think, I want to do something awesome!

You know, when I was serving in our youth ministry, with six kids in the youth group,

God was preparing me for this place! But if I never embraced that place, I would be

never standing in this place today! So, don’t devalue the place that He’s put you in.

Don’t devalue it. But if you don’t embrace it, you’re never going to be in position to go

to the next place.

And so many of us are out there, and we displace ourselves because we’re chasing a

position we want, rather than embracing the place that God has. When God turns up to

assign you, then He’s going to go to the place that He assigned you. If God’s assigned

you, He will find you.

When Samuel came, the prophet, to anoint the next king, Jesse paraded all his sons in

position in front of Samuel. And Samuel said, “No, the Lord has not chosen them. Do

you have another?” He goes, “Oh, I’ve got this kid out on the mountain, and he’s looking

after some sheep.” But David was in his place, in the backside of the desert, looking after

sheep. God had assigned him, and God knew where to find him.

He said to Jesse’s sons, “You don’t have to be marketed, because I’ve marked him.”

And it’s better to be marked by God, than marketed by man. And if God has assigned

you to be working in the nursery, or to be serving in the parking lot, it’s fine! He’ll come

and find you when it’s time for your promotion.

You don’t need to be displaced. You don’t need to rip your kids out of a church

where they are flourishing, out of a youth ministry where they are flourishing, your wife

and your family is flourishing. And just because you get a better offer in another state,

for $50,000 more a year as a youth leader for 15 years –

I can’t tell you how many families just rip their kids out. They didn’t even ask

whether this is what God wanted, simply because there was an offer of a promotion, or

there was offer of more money. They would rip their kids out of a thriving church, where

they were flourishing and loved Jesus, and then 10 years later, they wonder why their

kids aren’t even following God – because they never got planted in another great house,

because they’d never brought God into consideration in the whole equation. And I’m

telling you, the rehab bills are a lot greater than the increase in income for going across

the state.

Don’t chase a position. Stay in place. If God’s planted you, stay in place! God will

find you! You can never be displaced when you embrace your place. That’s the joy of it

all. You don’t have to be looking over your shoulder going, “Who’s going to come and

take my place?” No one will, because if God’s placed you, no demon in hell and no

person on earth can misplace you, or displace you.

I’m never up here thinking, Oh, no, what am I going to do? I’ve got to be better than

so – I’m just thinking, Later on this week, I’m going to be at Women Thou Art Loosed.

Now, I don’t even have the lung capacity of half the people that are going to be preaching

at that conference. They are so –

But you know what? I just love – I go, Well, I didn’t put myself there, so I don’t have

to keep myself there. If God put me there, God will keep me there. I don’t need to be

anyone else. I just need to be me. There’s enough grace for me, in my place, and all I

have to do is embrace the place that God set me, and it is fine. It takes all the stress out

of everything!

Some of you, the inner frustration you’re feeling right now is because you haven’t

embraced your place. You’re looking everywhere else, thinking, God, when are You

going to open a door? God, what are You going to do? And if you simply step into the

place He’s opened up for you, right in this place, you’ll be stunned, five years from now,

where God will take you. You’ll be astounded.

But many of us, we are not faithful with what God has placed in our hand right now.

And, therefore, God can’t give us what’s in our heart, down the track. Because the place

where you ultimately end up … You’ve got to embrace the place right now.

Jesus, in Gethsemane, had to embrace a place that He did not want to, in order to have

what He ultimately wanted. He went to the cross for the joy set before Him. What did

He do? He endured. He was in Gethsemane – and I think these are the missing words in

the Church today. In Gethsemane, He said, “Father, if there’s any other way, would You

take this cup from Me?” Let me give you the Christine version: “I don’t want to do this!”

“I don’t want to keep fighting for this marriage.” “I don’t want to keep looking after

these kids.” “I don’t want to stay in this job and submit to that boss.” “I don’t want to

keep serving in that ministry.”

See, the culture you and I are from, we’re like, Well, I don’t want to, so, therefore, I’m

going to go and find what I want to do. I don’t like – they offended me, my leader did.

I’m going to go somewhere else. I don’t like how my husband treated me today. I’m out

of here.

What about if we, the body of Christ, would choose to model to a world, “I’m going to

stay in place. It’s tough. I don’t want to do this. But nevertheless, not my will, but

Thine be done”?

I’m asking, the potential of this church to have the impact on the earth that, perhaps,

no church has ever had in this nation today, in modern Christian history, is so huge! And

the only determinant is if all of those unseen, unapplauded, unrecognized people that

have not yet embraced your place, if you would simply say, “I’m going to embrace my

place. I’m going to take my place. I’m going to trust God with the result.”

And my prayer for us, as a body, here, is that all the ACLs, all the MCLs, all the

meniscuses, all the sinews, all the ligaments, and all the muscles that have not yet taken

their place would embrace their place, strengthen the body, and this would become one of

the mightiest forces for the glory of God on the earth today, in Jesus’ name. In Jesus’

name. Let me pray for you.

Father, I thank You for this holy, anointed, unbelievable house that You’ve raised up

in this nation, at this time, to impact the nations of the earth. Father, we stand at such a

pivotal time in history. I don’t know that a church has been so poised to be so effective.

And I pray for every single person under the sound of my voice, in all of our 20

locations, in every church that has downloaded this. Father, I pray, in Jesus’ name, that

every single person would embrace their place, no one would think that they are too

insignificant, that their gift is too minimal, that they’re not enough of anything, but that

they would know that, in You, they are enough, and You are enough. And You’ve

thought enough of them that You have set them in place. Father, may we all be a people

that embrace our place, in Your body, in Your house, for Your glory, in Jesus’ name.

Amen. Amen. Thank you.

Pastor Groeschel

So, so good … For every one of you who, you’re serving, I pray that you feel blessed

today to be in your place. And for those of you who are not yet making a difference for

the glory of God in the house, guess what? You’ve got a great opportunity to embrace a

place to make a difference. All of our churches, let’s pray.

Father, thank You so much for this amazing word that You brought through Christine,

God. I thank You that there will be people who will be planted in the house like never

before, and flourish.

At all of our churches, as you take a moment just to reflect on what God is saying to

you, those of you who are serving, thank you so much. Others of you, you’re going to

recognize right now that you’re not really doing anything; you’re more of a spiritual

consumer than a spiritual contributor. You’re going to church, and you’re realizing, I

don’t go to church; I am the Church. I’m called to be the Church. If you’re not doing

something to make a difference, as the Church, you need to understand there’s something

that God wants to be done that is not being done. You have a gift. God has gifted you.

God wants to use you to make a difference.

At all of our churches, those who would say, “I’m more on the outside, just kind of

looking in. Maybe I go to church, but I’m not planted in the church. I’m not embracing

my place, yet, making a difference” – if that’s you today, would you be real, real honest

and say, “I want to find my place”? Lift up your hands right now, all of our churches,

just network churches, Life Churches around the place.

God, I thank You so much for hands all over the place. I pray, God, that Your Holy

Spirit would lead these people to the right place to make a difference in the lives of kids,

and students, and disciple others, and bring people to Christ, and minister to women, and

minister to the broken, and the hurting. God, I thank You You’ve given them divine gifts

to make a difference. And I pray, God, that today, even before they’d leave the building

that they’re in, or close the computer in front of them, God, that Your Holy Spirit would

bring divine connections, that they could see where You’re calling them to serve to be

planted in Your house, and use their gifts to make a difference for Your glory.

As you keep praying today, at all of our different churches, some of you may say,

“Well, I’m not even, really, spiritually connected to the things of God.” What I want you

to understand is that God has a place for you in His family, that He loves you.

Jesus talked about, if there were a hundred sheep, and one wandered away, He would

leave the ninety and nine to go after the one. What you need to know right now is, for

some of you, you are the one. You’re the one that God is thinking about. You are the

one that He is loving, and reaching out to, because God loved you so much that He sent

His Son, Jesus, to do something for you, you couldn’t do for yourself. He died in your

place, for the forgiveness of sins, so that you could know Him, so you could serve Him,

so you could glorify Him on earth.

At all of our churches, there are those of you who, you recognize you’re not walking

with God, you don’t know Him intimately. What you need to understand is, you are the

one He’s reaching out to, and that’s why you’re here today.

At all of our churches, those who would say, “Yes, I can sense it. I’m ready to turn

toward Jesus. I want to surrender my life to Him. I believe if I were the only one, He

would have given His life for me, so today, by faith, I give my life to Him” – if that’s

you, at all of our churches, would you lift your hands high right now? Just say, “Yes.”

The search for purpose can lead you to some unexpected places. Learn to embrace the moment in time God has placed you in: you’re there for a reason.