 So, tonight, are you prepared to be prepared for what God is calling you to do? Are you ready for your life's calling? And maybe some of you are thinking, oh, I still haven't found that yet. Maybe some of you are like, I'm pretty sure I've slotted into my life's calling. Are you ready to be the woman or that man that God has created you to be? Because I really believe that the Lord is going to use even this evening to prepare you for what lies ahead. Now, remember I asked you that question at the beginning, you know, do you know somebody that's in need or somebody that is needing your help and you're in that place where you're the only person available to help them at this moment? Or maybe you wonder, why am I going through these certain things that I'm struggling with right now and you don't understand what that's going to do in the future for you? Well, I need you guys to understand tonight that there is no one on the face of this earth that can do better than you what God's created you to do. You're not replaceable, no one else can do your job, no one else can fulfill your calling. So are you prepared to be prepared for what God has called you to do? I think that you are because I don't think you would have shown up here tonight unless you had a little bit of a desire to receive from the Lord, to open up your Word, the Bible, and have your mind washed and your spirit renewed and to be strengthened for what lies ahead. Now a lot of times we'll look at other people and say, how come I can't do what he's doing? Or how come I don't get to do what she gets to do? Well, let me just tell you, it's not about their calling, it's about your calling. And the greatest enemy of contentment in your calling from the Lord is comparison where you start comparing yourself to other people and it's really easy to do actually. We do it all the time on social media, we'll get on, you know, Instagram or whatever and there's the highlight reel of that person that we know and we wonder how can my life can't be like that. Maybe it'd be a good idea to stop looking at other people and what other people are called to do and start focusing on the Lord and say, Lord, what are you calling me to do? Because it's a very special calling. Now in verse one, Acts chapter three in this message entitled Be Prepared, point number one is men of prayer, men of prayer. In verse one it says, now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And you can write this in your Bible if you like or if you're taking notes, according to Jewish customs, all the devout men of Israel would stop what they were doing three times a day at 9 a.m. at 12 p.m. and at 3 p.m. to stop and pray to the Lord. And this hour of prayer consisted of 15 minutes of meditation where they would be focusing on the things of the Lord. And this is, according to Jewish custom, 30 minutes of petition where this is the time where you ask the Lord for things, Lord would you please help me or Lord would you please provide for this or Lord would you please heal this person. And then the last 15 minutes were adoration which was a time of praise where we're saying thank you Lord for always taking care of me. Thank you Lord for always supplying my needs. And you can see how the joy of the Lord starts to strengthen you when you start to thank him for all the things that he has done. And so I would recommend that in your prayer time that you would take however you would like to fraction it out that time of focusing on the Lord and who he is, then making your requests known to the Lord and then praising him at the end of your prayer time. See this has been going on for thousands and thousands of years. Even back in Daniel, I'll read this to you, you don't have to turn there in chapter six. It says, all the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and sat traps and counselors and advisors had consulted together to establish a royal statue and to make a firm decree that whoever petitions any God or man for 30 days except for the king, who we know as King Darius should be cast into the den of lions. And so King Darius signs this written decree, but then it says that when Daniel having heard knowing that this writing was signed, he went home and in his upper room with his windows open toward Jerusalem. He knelt down on his knees three times that day, 9am, 12 noon, 3pm and gave thanks before his God as was his custom since early days. How cool is that? I mean, we usually pray real quick before we eat in and out. Lord bless this food and nourish it to my body in Jesus' name, amen. Lord, thank you for this day. We ask you to give us a good night's sleep in Jesus' name, amen. Peter and John, Peter and John, though they were believers in Christ, they still took time to go to the house of worship. They still went to the temple to pray. See, God uses prayer, God uses prayer to prepare us to be used by him. I think we need to understand that very, very simply tonight because if you have a desire to be used by God, the Bible is going to clearly define for us tonight that God uses prayer to prepare you for your calling. So from this day forward, we'll call it pre-prayer instead of pre-pair. And you're going to remember that probably for the rest of your life, hopefully. Instead of pre-pair, it's pre-prayer. The Christian gets pre-prayed. In Colossians chapter four, verse two, it says, continuing earnestly in prayer and being vigilant in it with thanks, giving, these disciples were praying. They were earnest in it, and they were vigilant, and they rejoiced. And in Philippians four, verses six through seven, it says, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And again, if you're taking notes, James five, verse 15, it says in the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. See, the disciples' time in prayer was the very thing that they needed for what lied ahead. It was preparing them for the very thing that we're going to read about in this story that was just ahead of them. Now, is there anybody here that has played sports at all? Anybody play sports? Okay, let's use a sports analogy. It's the night of the big game. Man, this is such an important game tonight. And so you don't say on the day of the big game that, man, I better start training, I better go run some laps out on the track, I better start doing some weight training and get my cardio up because I got a game tonight. I played college basketball. I remember what preseason was like. I still remember throwing up all the time thinking my coach hated me because he ran us and ran us and ran us and ran us and ran us in the preseason over summer into preseason before season because we needed to be ready before the game came. And so often as Christians, we get thrust into the middle of what would be quote-unquote the big game and we're not ready. We're not prepared. We throw up these last ditch, you know, Hail Mary so to speak kind of prayers where it's like, oh, Lord, please, I'm in a big, big, big struggle right now, Lord, I need you, but we don't understand that you get prepared for the game. You get pre-prepared for what the Lord has ahead of you through prayer. You need to be pre-prepared up before you actually find yourself in the situation. See, prayer fuels your faith. It puts gas in the tank of your spiritual vehicle, if you will, and it readies us for the journey ahead. See, we store up prayers in advance, just like the athlete trains in the preseason to get ready for season. It's not like, oh, man, I'm right here on the, the precipice and I better pray. No, it's like for months I've been praying. Every day I get up, Lord, please strengthen me. I open the word, Lord, please speak to me. I'm ready for whatever it is that lies ahead of me because I have been prayed up. These guys were prepared because they were pre-prepared. For lo and behold, look at verse two, it says, in a certain man, lame from his mother's womb was carried, this is Acts 3 verse 2, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple. This man was paralyzed, as it says. He was born that way. Maybe he had friends or family that would carry him to the entrance of that gate where he could beg and maybe support himself. Do you think maybe the sight of this lame man being carried by his friends sparked the memory for Peter? Think about it, New Testament, the Gospels. How about the men that carried their buddy up on top of the roof and started taking the roof apart and then lowered the man down? Do you think maybe seeing this man carried possibly sparked that memory in Peter's mind? Maybe Peter waited for this man to be sat down. I can tell you right now that Peter and John didn't scurry off in the opposite direction or try to slide by real quick to avoid him. In verse 3 it says, who seeing Peter and John about, this is the paralyzed man, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms and fixing his eyes on him with John. Peter said, what a scam this guy's running. No, he didn't say that. It says in fixing his eyes on him with John, Peter said, look at us. And so he gave them his attention expecting to receive something from them. Man, oh, did he ever expect to receive something from them? Think he had no idea what he was even asking. So often if we're really honest with ourselves and I've fallen into this too and so it has to be the same for Christians generally speaking is that our prayer life is nowhere close to where it should be. I think what we need to start doing is being disciplined in our prayer life so we set aside that time to pray so that when the circumstance arises we're ready for it. That we've already invested that time in prayer. We've already invested that time in the reading and study of God's word that we're ready when season hits, so to speak. So they were men of prayer. Point number one and point number two in verse six, they were men of faith. And Peter said, silver and gold I do not have but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. Now we read this in our Bibles and we're like, oh that's cool but this is insane. This is insane. Do you understand how crazy this is? I mean we read the story 15,000 times in the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk. Hey silver and gold I don't have and a lot of them we can relate to that but I know what I do have and in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. Oh have you ever thought about saying something like that? Have you ever prayed for somebody like oh right now what if I just said you know in the name of Jesus? Rise up and walk or in the name of Jesus be healed but then you have you know saint in your ear you know he's not going to get up if you say that right? You're going to look so stupid. Hey maybe just kind of mumble it under your breath and nobody will hear it and then that way there's no harm no foul. Your God's not going to look real. What if you go out there and you say in the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk I'm just just kind of putting myself in Peter's shoes here and think to myself what happens if he doesn't get up? What happens if all the people that are there now think that Jesus isn't powerful? I mean no no doubt being a normal human being there is a barrage of discouraging thoughts in his mind. You know Peter and John didn't have money but they were loaded with a spiritual currency called faith. They were loaded with it. That spiritual currency called faith. Furthermore there's power in the name of Jesus. In Philippians chapter 2 verses 9 through 11 and I know I'm throwing a lot of cross references out here for you but you can read them on your own and jot them down. This will give you a well-rounded picture. It says therefore God is also highly exalted Jesus and given him the name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. There's power in the name of Jesus. You know in the world that we live in there are so many people with foul mouths like nowadays there's not even common courtesy for like women and children to not curse in front of them. Now it's just you know people don't care and it's just the the society that we live in. But it's gotten to the point now where people don't even bat an eye when they hear swear words. Like we become so numb to those things but I'll tell you you go in a public place and you say the name Jesus and everyone's like what did he just say and then their ears turn up you say the name Jesus. You might as well be like having a live grenade and be like firing the hole. You know like you just say the name Jesus and people stop and they're almost shocked and they're taken back by it. There's power in the name of Jesus and that is who has made you alive spiritually and who has given you the Holy Spirit as that guarantee that seal that you're his son and that you're his daughter that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord. That's who we serve. This isn't like hey let me go play church man like I know God and I know him personally because I have faith in Jesus. Furthermore these men that were men of prayer and men of faith they heard what Jesus said in John 15 verse 5 where he said I am the vine you're the branches he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit and this is the key phrase for without me you can do nothing. Nothing. Are you relying on the strength of your flesh to not fulfill the lust of your flesh? I can handle this. You know I think I got this. You know I was listening to this this study by Warren Wearsby today it was to pastors man what a great speaker he is and it's really cool because I was on I was on the treadmill this morning and I really dislike treadmills like a lot like walking nowhere for a long time is really frustrating to me but if I put my earbuds in you know and I'm listening to the study and he said strength that knows itself as strength is weakness but weakness that knows itself as weakness is strength and it really stuck with me today because you might think I'm strong and I know I'm strong and you're weak but you might say hey I'm weak and I realize that weakness and there I find God's strength is made perfect in me because without Jesus we can do nothing and we might want we might say all that I mean we could say all that we want I mean I want to be used by the Lord I want to be used by God but we don't pray we don't step out in faith and I'm not talking about you know raising people from the dead even I'm just saying taking those little steps of faith and this isn't you know the the night that you come to church and get a verbal shellacking you know you don't pray listen we all can pray more we all can but I think we need to understand the concept of being pre-prayed and being prepared for what the Lord has for us comes through our time in the word and time in prayer ahead of time before the scenario hits right because most of the time it's reactionary I get hit in the face with something oh Jesus please save me and that's okay too whoever calls in the name of the Lord will be saved right Romans 10 but we can be prepared for our calling through our time in prayer and through stepping out in faith and it says in verse seven and he took him by the right hand so Peter takes this man that's paralyzed after he says in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk he takes him by the right hand and lifted him up and it says and immediately his feet and ankle bones receive strength and so he leaping up stood up and walked and entered entered the temple with them walking and leaping and praising God wow he went walking and leaping and doing the running man and praising God and it says all the people who saw it in verse nine there it says they they praise God they saw it and they said hallelujah what great things God has done because weakness that knows itself as weakness is strength and then who gets all the credit when the weak vessel is used by God in a mighty way who God you're not going to be like yeah yeah you know I am pretty good I mean God definitely exercised wisdom when he called me to to be a servant you know or whatever it might be no the the the point is is that we are prepared we didn't see it coming either and most often that is the case we don't see it coming God knows what's going to happen ahead of time but he prepares us in advance and so the people saw him walking and praising God and they praise God and then they knew that it was he who sat begging arms at the beautiful gate of the temple and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what happened to him now you don't need to share out loud you don't need to raise your hand or anything but when was the last time you saw God do something amazing in your life or in someone else's life around you I think we forget about those things all too easily because do you remember that time where you were at the end of your rope and somehow God came through and you praise God and you thought how miraculous this is and how much you were praising the Lord only to forget about that the next time something came around I've been like that I don't know if you've ever been like that where how quickly we forget how God takes care of everything that we need well Lord I know you did it last time but what about this time this is a little bit different Lord I know you provided for me back then but what about right now you know one of my my good friends and you know I would even say a mentor that had helped me through a lot of things in my early years of ministry and still does even to this day he's in his 70s and him and his wife had just found themselves where their landlord basically said you're out here's your notice and he's on disability she she teaches you know part-time tutoring and these kind of things and so they were having a really hard time finding a place to live they got all the way down to where they packed up all their stuff and moved out and now they were in a motel six and they're like Lord I don't know what you're gonna do and I don't know how you're gonna provide Lord Lord you always have but Lord look at where we're at now and they they were I mean their backs are up against the ropes and if you think about it if you're in your you know 70s and you have some physical disabilities and you're thinking how I can't even really provide for myself where am I gonna find a place in Orange County that I can actually afford with my my income that's you know that stable income but it's low what am I gonna do and they're having a really hard time we're praying for them we're praying with them and it just so happened that one of the the students that she tutors that student's parent said hey we have this house with a granny flat and we're gonna move you in it and not only we're gonna move you in it we're gonna give you a new car because their car about bit the dust and we were just tripping out like it was unbelievable but Lord I'm in a motel six now Lord where are you and then we had this epiphany when we're talking do you realize that two years ago when you started tutoring that student that God knew that that student's parent was going to be the one that would help you when you were out and living in a motel six and then from hindsight you're just blown away the Lord actually gave you that job tutoring that particular student so that a couple years later down the road when you're in a motel six they would say we want to move you into our granny flat and give you this car how amazing is that pastor chuck said and I quote the secret to great faith is being fully and totally persuaded that God is both willing and able to intercede in your situation end of quote so we see that there are men of prayer and that there were men of faith and thirdly our point number three from verse 11 now is men of humility now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called soloments greatly amazed so when Peter saw it he responded to the people men of Israel why do you marvel at this or why look so intently at us as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk I mean could you imagine the crowds thronging you saying how amazing you are I mean wouldn't there be just the little temptation to be like oh thanks you're welcome you know I'm glad to be here I'll be here all day you know or whatever it might be see the temptation is this whenever the Lord is working there is always some sort of opposition that Satan throws our way in back just the chapter over and acts chapter two and you guys probably remember this when the Holy Spirit fell upon the church and people were speaking in tongues that were not their own heavenly tongues and they were worshiping and then all the people that were there from different parts of the of the world heard praises to God in their native tongue do you remember what happened at that point when the Holy Spirit fell there were mockers they said oh these guys are a bunch of widows they're full of wine the discouraging words against the work of the Holy Spirit but here in chapter three so you you you'll see two kinds of temptation from saying where you know this testing that will come to discourage you testing that will come to mock you but in chapter three we see a completely different form of the spiritual attack used by Satan to counteract this this really really was a miraculous occurrence and it's glory glory see the crowd is tempted to glorify the man and the man is tempted to receive it crowds tempted to glorify the man and then the man's tempted to receive it the glory should only be given to God and should only be received by him alone in Revelation to this effect verse 11 of chapter four it says is there praising God it says to it says you are worthy oh Lord to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created God you're worthy man I might have a big problem but I serve a big God there might be a great knee but I have a great God and I see these things in light of how great God is and when I see my weakness and understand my weakness to be weakness and my need for the Lord there is strength in James four verse ten it says humble yourself in the side of the Lord and he'll lift you up you don't need to promote yourself I mean nowadays it's self promotion all over the place I mean everywhere self promotion self promotion and you're just thinking man is this the most stuck up conceited person I've ever known in my life but you have to do that to get ahead you got to do that now right promote yourself know the Lord says humble yourself he'll lift you up because Proverbs sixteen eighteen says pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall Proverbs three verse thirty four says surely he scorns the scornful but he gives grace to the humble grace to the humble that's what we want that's what we need remember I asked you at the beginning I said are you prepared to be prepared for what God's calling you to do are you ready for it some of you are like I don't know man I don't know if I deposited enough prayers in that in that bank yet you always can start now Lord I'm going to be consistent in praying I'm going to commit this day to you I'm going to pray for my wife I'm going to pray for my husband I'm praying for my kids I'm going to pray for my work but I haven't met my husband yet you can still pray for him because God knows who he is and that's not going to change once you get married either you better be praying for him humble yourself in the side of the Lord and he'll lift you up. I remember a story of of two young pastors that were pastoring and they were asked to to empty all the trash at the church and there they were in there it was it was a pretty formal church and they were in their suits and ties and all this kind of thing and the trash was overflowing you know you get the picture you know like the big you know big crowd size trash and somebody had thrown some coffee in it with a full coffee and it's leaking everywhere and maybe somebody had tossed a diaper in there or whatever it might have been you just didn't want it it was Sunday morning and obviously the two young guys had you to go empty the trash and they're picking the trash out and their suits are getting soiled and they're like ah what is this you know and the story goes on and I'll just paraphrase it for you but that basically that the pastors were like you know what nothing should ever be below us and they came to that point where they they thought nothing should ever be below us like if the Lord called us to do this then suits or no suits or dress shoes or no dress shoes we're going to handle this and then the story goes on that that one of those pastors ended up starting a church that had thousands and thousands of people come and the other pastor ended up just shortly thereafter I guess spoke at this event where there was 10,000 people in the stadium and it was all these two young obscure guys let nothing be below you and then also know that something that's beyond you you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength so be a man or a woman of prayer be a man or a woman of faith and be a man or a woman of humility it's by God's grace that we're ever even able to to participate in the things that God is going to allow us to participate in because if it were up to us we'd be done if it were up to us and our own righteousness our own righteousness we would not meet the standard we would be disqualified so be humble before the Lord no one does this to me no one you know I remember this usher who was on an Easter this is I know personally because I was there there was an usher at our good Friday service or was yeah I think it was actually Easter Sunday service at the Verizon wireless amphitheater there was an usher up in the nose bleed section like it was way way out and I just happened to be walking through and saying hi to people and he just looked really upset and I said hey man what's wrong he's like oh man they stuck me up here in the nose bleed section and he was all upset about it and and he goes on to say you know my my services could best be used up in the front and I just looked at him and I was like well you're and I thought to myself well you're actually in the exact spot that you should be and you think about that my services should be up in the front where people can see me or don't you know how important this is or I am or whatever no humble yourself in the side of the Lord let the Lord lift you up you don't need to promote yourself let the Lord bring the increase be that man or woman of prayer and of faith and of humility and then fourthly be that man or woman of the word that's point number four it says in verse thirteen is now Peter starts to draw on his knowledge of the Old Testament he says the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the god of our fathers glorified his servant Jesus whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go but you he says to them to the crowd to those Jews you denied the holy one and the just and you asked for a murderer whom we remember is Brabus to be granted to you verse fifteen and you killed the prince of life whom God raised from the dead of which we are witnesses verse sixteen and his name through faith in his name has made this man strong whom you see and no yes the faith which comes through him has given him this soundness in the presence of you all these men pointed to God these men understood what the bible had to say about the messiah they understood exactly what it meant to be a servant of the Lord because it's in Jesus name and it's through faith in Jesus name and all glory to Jesus name and Peter continues on in verse seventeen yet now brethren I know that you did it in ignorance talking about crucifying Jesus as did also your rulers but those things which God foretold by the mouth of all of his prophets that the Christ would suffer he has thus fulfilled saying in your ignorance meaning I know you really were unaware of what was really happening and you were swept away by what the other people were saying or doing that is contrary to the plan and purpose of God so he says in verse nineteen repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord right there the good thing that he did was used as a platform to tell people about Jesus now humanitarian aid is a great thing bring clean water bringing a pair of toms building a schoolhouse all that stuff is fantastic but humanitarian aid is not a replacement for a personal relationship with Jesus in our world that is caught up with social justice and all of these things it's infiltrated the church now we think that it's actually more important to do these good deeds then to tell people about who Jesus is because if you think about it I could build a roof over their head I could give them clean water to drink nice clothes to wear shoes on their feet I could fix all the cavities in their teeth and they'll still die in their sins unless I tell them who Jesus is and what he's done for them these things that we do that are good should be used as a platform for proclaiming the gospel even as Peter did here this miracle that was brought a they he used it to point people to Jesus he used it to share the gospel with them so let me ask you the question again that I asked at the beginning are you prepared to be prepared what is going on in your life that would drastically affect the rest of this year drastically affect how the Lord uses you other hidden sins are you addicted are you prideful are we lacking faith because without faith it's impossible to please God because I don't think any of us just want to be churchgoers I think we want to see the Lord do great and mighty things I think furthermore we don't just want to see it we want to be involved with it we don't just want to be involved with it we want to facilitate it we want to be those men and women that are vessels of righteousness that can be used in a powerful way as a conduit of the Holy Spirit ministering to the people around us we want that I know you do I know there's just even that little spark of a desire maybe your faith's even being increased this very moment and you're thinking maybe I could be like that maybe God could use me I guarantee you he can he desires to but the first thing that Peter says here he says is repent it's the act of turning from your sin stop pursuing your sin stop going in the direction that you're that you're going in you know if somebody were to say you know repent or or or turn from your sin logically we could we could deduce that that person's in sin if somebody say if someone's saying turn from sin turn from your sin it would be like if somebody was was caught up in alcohol turn from your alcoholism or you know if i'm at this podium turn from your podium or you know if you have a mullet turn from your mullet like that kind of a thing now just as a beside note mullets aren't sinful I understand you have to be like Paul where he said I need to be all things to all men that I might win the more right and that can mean hairstyles as well but he says repent turn from your sin Ezekiel 33 verse 11 it says as I live says the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked that the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live so turn turn from your evil ways for why should you die and we know as we're wrapping up here and I know we're hitting the timeline or just past it the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord because sin takes a toll please you don't need to raise your hand but you know what it's like giving in to sin and the emptiness it brings and then the discouragement and the oppression sin takes a toll physically emotionally mentally and of course spiritually because we're all interconnected that's why when you sin it affects your whole being even things that are private it affects who you are that's why you know you see in you know social media can be a great thing or not so great thing you know you get connected you know with people from your past and and that can be good or not good but you see that those who continue just partying on and drinking and doing drugs and even living in sexual sin it appears you know you see these photos of people and even come in contact with them personally that they're not only unhappy but they've aged immensely immensely they literally look like they've taken a beating from from life and you see these people and then you understand where that term ugliest sin came from like they hit every branch on the way down you know i mean there's nothing like being asked if you want the senior citizen men you had denies and you're only 27 you know it's bad but that's what happens like sin takes a toll and not only we take a beating in this life because of sin your sin leads you to god's judgment so that's why peter says hey you guys may have done this ignorantly whatever the case may be you need to turn from that see you're here at church tonight to get ready you know like an m a a fighter or a boxer how you get challenged and you get pushed and you get conditioned and every single day for the christian there's an opportunity for spiritual growth so repent be converted some people might say you know i i've tried to get clean i've tried to change my life i've tried to get myself together you know i've i've tried all those things you need to change your your whole way of thinking maybe it's a belief system maybe it's just your way of living and you're stuck in this rut of doing things that are destructive that's why it says in romance 12 verse 2 do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of god you get to prove it you you you get to what a great privilege have your sins blotted out and then the thing that we're going to close with tonight it's just that time of refreshment isaia 118 the lord says come now and let us reason together though your sins are like scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they are red like crimson they shall be as wool so he says repent therefore be converted turn your way that your sins may be blotted out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the lord that's what we want that's what we want times of refreshing of refreshing and refreshment from the lord because we work all day we're in the world all day we get beat down we need refreshment we need to be refilled that's why i applaud you for being here tonight and being at church when you're tired being committed to being at church for a pastor to show up and to see people in the audience it's just so much better because it'd be a lot different if you weren't here for the people that came and they see you across the aisle oh hey so-and-so's here it's way better for them because they see you here than to look over with a tear in their eye you know so your presence here even you sitting by yourself right there in your seat is good for everybody else around you so are you prepared to be prepared for what god's called you to do i think you're on the right track but you need to be a man or woman of prayer you need to be you need to be a man or woman of faith a man or a woman of humility and a man or a woman of the word so maybe you're going through pre-season conditioning right now hold on lord what do you want me to learn through this time lord prepare me for what lies ahead it's going to come through your time of prayer so be prepared what the lord has ahead