 So I don't think I need to ask this, but are you ready to get into God's Word tonight? The Word of God is alive and active and if we're gonna be taking it in God's Word I think we ought to be receiving God's Word in the way that it is alive and active So feel free to say amen or put your hands together engage nod your head. Just don't fall asleep And let's turn in our Bibles and it's my great honor to be able to ask you to open up your Bible and turn with me to Genesis chapter 40 I want to talk to you today about how God will prepare you in the place of secrecy and obscurity Before he can use you in your God-given destiny Pastor Chuck Smith Your pastors pastor Who was also my pastor In his memoir of grace his life story He was asked by his son who was helping him write his life story And he said dad, what is it that characterizes your life? And within an instant pastor chuck responded and said the lord prepares his vessel And god is preparing you personally And god is preparing this ministry For what god has for it moving forward And so I want to talk to you about how god will prepare you Before he can use you In the place that he's created for you I want to share a message with you that i'm calling the dark room Let's pray father as we open up your word Once again, we thank you For the opportunity That we can come to a church That has a bible study A church that teaches god's word Reverence is god's word And hungers for god's word And lord I pray tonight as once again we gather together as your people You would meet us here presently that you would speak to us personally And that you would reveal yourself to us In a way that perhaps we've never seen before Because we are here to see you In jesus name Amen With a show of hands how many of you here tonight are good at taking photos raise your hand You're good at taking photos. You think you haven't maybe even just okay at taking photos Now you think yeah, I can take a pretty god bless you Can I just say the world needs more of you in the world? More people that know how to take photos Have you ever been out with some friends somewhere? And because you're out with a group you want to get your picture taken as a group and so You start eyeing out somebody that's walking by thinking maybe they would be good to take our photo And you try to think of the exact attack moment When you're going to come in and swoop in and interrupt everything that they're doing To ask them to stop and to take your own picture And so you go in and you ask them. Hey, would you take your photo and then you hand them your phone? Have you ever handed your phone to shaky hands? Now what I mean by that is you hand your phone off and they're there and they take some pictures and then you get Your phone back and you start looking at the pictures And every single picture they took Were completely blurry like were you nervous to take my photo or something because Could you not hold the camera still for one second as you took one? I mean you took 3 000 photos. Could you not take one? That was not blurry You ever hand your phone off to the person who takes seven hours to take a photo? You over here scoot in you over there you take your job way too seriously And then you get your phone back after you're smiling and smiling And smiling And then you finally get the phone back and there's one photo And one photo is not nearly enough because you know, you need options Because one photo usually when you get one photo back you're making this weird face in it And you know, you need a photo that you look at it. It doesn't matter how anybody else looks in the photo Everyone else could look horrendous And you would be willingly and happy to post it for the entire world to see online As long as you look good in that photo I remember growing up For some of you this is gonna age me but growing up there was a photography class in high school there was something called film And in photography class you would learn how to develop film And you would have to take the film to a place called the dark room And the dark room was the place of developments Because film would have to go through the process of development So you could take it from the dark room into the light To be able for the whole world to see And there was a long process In the dark room You had to pull the film film out and you had to cut the film You had to lay it in the water For a certain amount of time and then after a certain amount of time you had to take it out and hang it up Anybody remember the dark room anybody? remember film And then eventually after a long process of developments Eventually you could bring it into the light for others to see Today I want to talk to you about how god has a dark room And god will take us to the dark room A place of development for us spiritually In a place of obscurity and secrecy Before he is able to bring us into our god-given destiny A place for the whole world to see And in the dark room here's what god does god will develop your integrity and your character In secrecy and obscurity so that you will be ready And usable In the place that god has for you to be And listen if you try to rush the process when it comes to developing film And if you don't allow the time that needs to go by For the process of development to take place Will the film will be underdeveloped The picture is washed out It's almost useless you ever see an underdeveloped photo. It's the one that's usually thrown out It's not really nice to look at it's not really usable And the same is true for us spiritually That god will take us through the dark room And if you try to rush the process of god developing you And preparing you for what he has for you next You'll be underdeveloped and never ready to step into what god has for you To fulfill your mission And to step into god's plan and purpose for your life Now in our text today in genesis chapter 40 We see a man named joseph Be taken into the dark room by god A dark room literally because this dark room was a prison cell It was a place There was a dark damp dungeon And i want to remind you how joseph got to this prison Because god gave joseph a vision for his life God gave joseph a dream He was 17 years old when god gave him a vision for his life 17 years old and joseph thought this vision was for now This vision would come to pass immediately god you showed me what was going to happen And in the stream he saw his brothers bowing down to him. So, you know what joseph does? Typical little brother He goes and he tells his brothers. Hey, I had this dream. You guys are all going to bow down to me Let me just say his brothers didn't like that very much And that wasn't appropriate culturally because the firstborn would be the leader of the family And following the firstborn to the secondborn of the thirdborn you were in that place of order and precedence in the family Joseph was the youngest brother until benjamin came along. He was way down at the bottom of the totem pole And so his brothers didn't like that very much so much so joseph talking about this dream It caused them to hate joseph and resent him And not only did they hate him because of his dream. They also hated him because he was daddy's favorite You see jacob joseph's dad he loved rachel the only woman he ever loved But rachel died giving birth to benjamin rachel was the mom of joseph and benjamin all the other boys were benjamin and joseph stepbrothers and so jacob took the love that he had for rachel and he put it on to the only thing that he had left of rachel his two boys And the other boys Saw that dad had his favorite And so they resented joseph and so they grabbed him one day. Perhaps you remember the story They threw him in a pit. They were gonna leave him there to die But then they didn't want joseph's death on their conscience So they figured they would just sell him into slavery. He would probably die anyway, but at least it's not their fault so they see some ishmaelite travelers and and slave owners passing by And these traders they they end up selling joseph forced him into slavery and taking some money for him Lying to their dad about it And now joseph is taken as a slave to egypt And now he's taken as a slave to egypt This man a very powerful man in egypt named potifer sees this young man who's strong and handsome And good has a good built to him says that joseph was handsome And in good stature he he had the face and the body He was a good-looking dude and he stood out in the crowd and potifer saw him and and purchased him and brought him into his own home And joseph served in his potifers home as a slave now. I would think if I was joseph I would try to run escape, but joseph doesn't He's faithful where god has him as a slave And so potifer sees that god's hand is upon him god is blessing joseph And so potifer entrusts joseph to be second in command over all of his household But there's a problem potifers wife is a flusie and so She sees this guy who's well built Got a good bod Has a nice face total package And she can't control herself And so potifer's gone at work all the time and joseph's in the home. And so she starts flirting with him Trying to seduce him and tempt him and joseph day after day after day that genesis account says potifers wife is throwing herself at him And day after day after day joseph is refusing that temptation But finally comes to the point where potifers wife can't stand it anymore So she grabs joseph by his jacket and starts trying to rip his clothes off of him You know what joseph does he i'll tell you what he doesn't do he doesn't say well, let's just talk about this joseph runs for his life And he hightails it out of there No compromise and runs out as she's pulling his jacket off of him In that day you would have your cloak and then you had your undergarments basically what we would call her underwear She rips his jacket off of him as he was she's running away from her left in his chonies And he takes off running down the street And he gets out of there But potifers wife she's humiliated Because he denied her again even in the most forceful advancement she's ever done So this woman of iniquity That she was this jezebel She she stands there and she doesn't know what to do She's holding joseph's jacket smelling it Bible doesn't say that that's just a little loose interpretation And then she calls for security Help They walk in joseph he tried to force himself on me Potipher finds out He's angry. He's mad The bible says he's furious It doesn't say at who But he's ticked off that this situation happened Maybe knowing who his wife it really is or what his wife is like Knowing joseph the man who fears god Doesn't really know who to believe so he throws joseph in prison The prison of the palace guard And joseph's held there joseph is now in the dark room joseph is hanging out In prison He had a dream for his life He had a vision but now he's in prison and it looks like he's so far from seeing that vision Ever come to pass Now let me just say Just as god has given joseph a vision for his life god has a vision for your life Acts chapter 2 verse 17 says in the last days God says i will pour out my spirit upon all people and your sons and daughters will prophesy Your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams God has a dream and a vision for your life and it's not up for you To decide what the plan is for your life It's only your responsibility To get to know the one who knows the plans for your life Jeremiah 29 11 god says for i know the plans i have for you God doesn't say you know the plans i have for you No, god says i know the plans i have for you Your role is to get to know the one who knows the plans What kind of plans does god have for your life? They are plans for good and not for evil to give you a future and a hope The pressure is off of you And the pressure is off of your life to come up with something to do with your life You just have to go to god for the vision and the plan he has for your life And joseph saw god's plan for his life But he was thinking this plan was going to happen right away And now year after year after year he is in prison He is hated by his brothers. He's sold into slavery wrongly. He's falsely accused and now he's in prison. He's in the dark room But when these wrong things happen to joseph over and over and over and over again He still does good to others And because of his faithfulness not only in pota first house But now in the prison he's still faithful where god has him He understands a principle that no man can hinder the plans that god has And so if that's where god has him he's going to be faithful there And now we pick up in our stories joseph as a prisoner In genesis chapter 40 verse 1 It says sometime later pharaoh's chief cupbearer and chief baker offended their royal master pharaoh became angry with these two officials and he put them in the prison where joseph was in the palace of the captain of the guard They remained in prison for quite some time and the captain of the guard assigned them to joseph Who looked after them? In the beginning or the end of chapter 39 we see because joseph was faithful in the prison joseph was made second in command as a prisoner overseeing all the other prisoners in prison That's a pretty cool position I mean if you're gonna be in prison you might as well be in charge and run the place and so joseph's running the prison out as second in command under the warden And he puts these two prisoners in joseph's care These two prisoners one is the cupbear the other is the chief baker Who were the supposed to be the two most trusted men in pharaoh's kingdom the reason it was a checks and balance system? The cupbear Was the one who would taste all of pharaoh's food to make sure it wasn't poisoned The chief baker was the one in charge of preparing all of pharaoh's food and making sure he didn't poison it And so the chief baker would prepare the food The cupbearer would eat the food Make sure it was good And if he didn't die they would know it's safe for the pharaoh to eat But something happened between these two perhaps pharaoh's intelligence officials found out there was a plot going on Perhaps there was some poison laced in the food And the cupbearer said i didn't do it must have been the chief baker and the chief baker said no I didn't do it i made it it was free from poison and when i gave it to him He must have poisoned it But somehow they found out there was some funny business going on When pharaoh found out about it he threw them both in prison Now they're both in prison in joseph's care and watch what happens in verse five While they were in prison pharaoh's cupbear and baker each had a dream one night And each dream had its own meaning When joseph saw them the next morning watch this it says he noticed that they both looked upset Why do you look so worried today? He asked them joseph's in prison In a place where he shouldn't be Because he was sold into slavery wrongly After he was thrown into the pit he went from the pit to pot of first house to prison And he shouldn't be there And joseph could have been full of himself and watching and concerned with himself and Whenever you're concerned with yourself you don't notice what's happening around you with other people because your focus is on yourself But joseph He noticed that there's something wrong with these other two guys which shows that joseph wasn't concerned with himself where he was at But while he was in prison he was still caring for others And then it says in verse eight After he asked them why do you look so worried they replied we both had dreams last night But no one can tell us what they mean And joseph responds by saying interpreting dreams is god's business Go ahead and tell me your dreams Now before joseph does ministry and ministering on behalf of god he gives god all the glory for what he's about to do Joseph does not try to take any credit For the gifts and abilities that god has given to him He recognizes this is something only god can do And if god wants to do it he can do it. It's not going to be about me The lord says that he will share his name with no man One of the quickest ways to stop being used by god is to start thinking it's because you had something to do with it This this flourished because well, I was a part of it Or that was really good because I did that I believe that god wants to use each of us to do something that's so beyond ourselves that when people see it They would have to say that must have been god Because they know you And they know there's no way that you could have ever done that's And so joseph gives all the credit and all the glory to god for what he's about to do He says tell me their dreams So the chief cupbearer verse nine told joseph his dream first He says in my dream. He said I saw a grape vine in front of me The vine had three branches that began to bud and blossom and soon it produced clusters of ripe grapes I was holding pharaoh's wine cup in my hand So I took a cluster of grapes and squeezed the juice into a cup Then I placed the cup in pharaoh's hand This is what the dream means joseph said The three branches represent three days Within three days pharaoh will lift you up and restore you to your position as his chief cupbear And please Remember me and do me a favor when things go so well for you Mention me to pharaoh pharaoh's the only one powerful enough to get joseph out of his position Remember me to pharaoh so he might let me out of this place for I was I was kidnapped for my homeland the land of the hebrus and now i'm here in prison But I did nothing to deserve it And when the chief baker saw that joseph had given the first dream such a positive interpretation He said to joseph well, I had a dream too In my dream. There were three baskets of white pastry stacked on my head And the top basket contained all kinds of pastries for pharaoh, but the birds came and ate them from the basket on my head Joseph says this is what the dream means The three baskets also represents three days Three days from now pharaoh will lift you up and impale your body on a pole Then birds will come and peck away at your flesh Pharaoh's birthday came three days later and he prepared a banquet for all his officials and staff He summoned his chief cupbearer and chief baker to join the other officials He then restored the chief cupbearer to his former position So he could again hand pharaoh his cup, but pharaoh impaled the chief baker Just as joseph had predicted and when he interpreted his dream Verse 23 pharaoh's chief cupbear. However forgot all about joseph Never giving him another thought Joseph was given a god given vision for his life A divine destiny god showed him a glimpse in his future of what was going to take place and transpire in his life He was going to be in a place of prominence that that he Would see his brothers bow down to him And when joseph received this dream he was 17 years old This vision wouldn't come to pass for 20 years Until he would be 37 years old Joseph would wait 20 years 13 of those years he would spend either as a slave Or in prison Joseph 13 years in the dark room But what I want us to realize tonight That if you are in that place of waiting, maybe god has given you a vision for your life Maybe god has given you a promise for your family of how god wants to use you But between the promise of god and the performance of that promise almost always there is a period of time And god allows that period of time To develop your character in who you are so that you'll be ready for what god has for you next I think one of the worst things that can ever happen in our lives Is we try to step in prematurely into what god has for us and we're not yet ready for it and we Hinder god From using us in a way that he could because we weren't yet ready for it Joseph for 13 years would either be In potifers house or in prison Between the promise of god and the performance of that promise there's a period of time and listen It's not because god Is slow in fulfilling his promises. It's not that god is too busy to actually, you know see that one through The bible says that god is not slack in fulfilling his promises He's not lazy or slow in accomplishing that It's that you personally aren't yet ready for all that god has for you in your life Not only was joseph hated because he had a vision for his life in joseph went through all of these things But god was using those times to prepare joseph Whether it was moses Or paul Or joseph they all went through periods of time In dark rooms whether it was moses in the wilderness for 40 years or paul in the deserts of arabia for three years or J joseph in the prison For probably about 10 years maybe longer God took them to places Where they would be developed and prepared for what he had for them next Listen god doesn't take you to the dark room to punish you God takes you there to prepare you so that you're ready to step into the god given vision that he has for your life So that you will have the perseverance And character and ability to conduct yourself properly so that you can flourish in a place that god is destined for you to be in And so god will allow you to go through a period of time to develop you and in that period of time There's usually three tests that each one of us will face and i want to leave you with these three tests That you need to be able to pass in your spiritual walk with god in order to step into all that god has for you Write this down the first test Is the test of rejection The test of rejection joseph was rejected over and over and over again I have to tell you this Not everyone's gonna like you Welcome to church Not everyone is gonna like you Jesus said in john chapter 15 verse 20 A servant's not greater than his master They hated me. They're gonna hate you also He says if they persecuted me, they're gonna persecute you also Listen, can I just say if people rejected jesus who is perfect? I can guarantee they're gonna find things in your life that they're not gonna like If they didn't like jesus who is perfect in everything and you're not People aren't gonna like you either And if jesus who is the chief cornerstone Who we model our lives after Was rejected and hated What makes you think that you're going to be accepted by everybody? This is a really important key if you're going to be good And faithful in ministry In serving the lord with your life You have to be able to deal with and accept That rejection is going to be part of it Joseph was rejected by his brothers. He was rejected by potter for and now he's in the dark room He's in prison, but he keeps doing the right thing and he's blessed rejection And it caused him to stop doing What god had for him Man's rejection should not keep you from god's direction for your life And if you care more about what people think than what god has You're never going to be able to step into all that god has for you Man's rejection Cannot keep you From god's direction for your life. The second test Is the test of temptation Potiphar was potiphar's wife was the first Desperate housewives of egypt She came after joe. She grabbed his coat But joseph was able to resist that temptation. Let me tell you how He was more focused on what god had for him Than the temptation that was laid out before him And if that had the potential to keep him from all that god had for him, he wanted nothing to do with it I think this not only applies To this area of temptation, but anything in life So many christians say well i have the liberty to go and drink that i have the liberty to go there and hang out there And i have the liberty i have the ability i'm a mature person i can handle it But let me ask you does it have the potential even a slight potential to keep you from all that god has for you As a man or woman of god If so it's not worth it In my own life personally i've laid aside Anything that has the potential to keep me from all that god has for me Because it's not worth losing what god has called me to do It's not worth losing my family over it's not losing worth losing my wife over it's not worth losing my kids over It's not worth losing the ministry over Because if it has the potential to bring me into bondage i want nothing to do with it I don't want anything to keep me from what god has for me and joseph here He was more focused on what god had for him than the temptation that was laid out before him Joseph would say you can take my cloak, but you cannot take my calling You can jack my jacket, but you're not going to jack my dream joseph Wanted to be used by god and although years went by even a decade and more went by Joseph never let go of the calling and vision that god had for his life Let me tell you this this isn't important if you want to be used by god You have to be faithful in three areas You need to be faithful in the first things You need to be faithful in the little things And you need to be faithful in the things that don't belong to you If you want to be used by god you need to write this down if you want to be used by god You need to be faithful in the first things That is what god is entrusted to you first You need to be faithful in the little things whatever opportunity you have be faithful in that And you need to be faithful with things that don't belong to you So that you learn the importance of stewardship and stewarding something that isn't yours When you don't get a benefit from it, but others do Listen joseph did not compromise his call And nor should we compromise our call On anything because it's never worth it joseph passed the test Of rejection he passed the test of temptation. Here's the third test And for many it's the hardest test It's the test of isolation God gave joseph a vision for his life when he was 17 he kept serving he kept doing the right thing But now in prison it looks like he's further from ever seeing that vision come to pass his brothers live in canaan A long distance away He's taken further away from canaan now He's a slave in potifers house And then he goes even deeper into prison And it seems like now it would be impossible for this vision to ever come to pass in his life And joseph in a lot of ways is alone But this is what i call incubation through isolation joseph is taken alone So he can get to a point where he realizes he has nothing left So that he can realize god is all that he needs Think so many times in our life We think we need somebody To come along come alongside of us to help us To get us to where we believe god's calling us to be I did that early on in ministry. I saw People who had other people in their life come alongside of them and lift them up and come alongside of them and help them And for years i felt alone in ministry just on my own and i wasn't but i felt that way And the lord would come to me and i was always making excuses by saying i don't have A man to help me I don't have a person And the lord showed me i was being a lame man Because i read the story of the man that was at the pool of beth seda. It's the story of the lame man and Jesus walks up to this guy because he would lay it by the side of the pool of beth seda Because when the waters were stirred the first one in the water would be healed of anything that they had So all the sick and jacked up and messed up people would all hang out out around that place And he would never be the first one in because he was lame And had no one to help him get in the water. So jesus sees this man. He walks up to him and he says Do you want to be made whole? And you know what he says to jesus? I have no man to help me jesus walked up to that man and said do you want to be made whole In other words, do you want to see me do something that you could never do for yourself? Do you want to see me move in your life in the miraculous? Do you want to see Your life be impacted in such a way? And he says i don't have anybody to help me And i realized that was me telling god when jesus walks up to me and says Do you want to see me move in your life in a way that you could never imagine? Above and beyond anything that you could ever think or dream Do you want to see me do something that's so beyond you? Do you want to see that and i would say i had no man to help me? And jesus is asking you do you want me to do something in your life miraculous? And sometimes we have to come to a point where we're all alone where we have nothing left We realize all we need is god and god will take you to the place where all you have is him So you realize all you need is him And so we need to be careful though when it comes to the test of isolation that this is itself inflicted isolation You need to know that it's god taking you into a season of isolation That's causing this because you aren't meant to live in isolation Let me just say this for everyone watching online right now. You aren't meant to live in isolation Proverbs 18 verse 1 says a man who isolates himself seeks his own desire and he rages against all wisdom You need to make sure the season of isolation is not by selection But that it's by isolation by divine designation You need to make sure that you aren't isolating yourself But it's just the place that god has for you to be presently Because joseph didn't isolate himself god took him there to develop within him some things that he wouldn't have otherwise And then after joseph was developed at the right time when god said it was time joseph goes from the prison to the palace Because god has a fast forward button And when god says it's time in the right time god can flick a switch in a moment's time He can do with you What you could never do for yourself When you are ready now watch this you have to see this and then we'll go joseph Because he was faithful Where god had him In potifers house He was promoted to second in command In charge of everyone other than potifer himself Joseph then thrown in prison wrongfully But was still faithful there And because he was faithful He was promoted second in command over all of the prison And now joseph In chapter 41 In the next two hours. We're gonna go through it together I'm just kidding usher's locked the doors In genesis chapter 41. We'll see in that moment's time Pharaoh has a dream And then the cut bearer goes. Oh, yeah, I forgot Joseph told me not to forget, but I actually didn't give him a second thought But years later Pharaoh has a dream And because joseph was still in prison they knew where to find him And joseph would have never been in the palace Where pharaoh would make him second in command over all of egypt If joseph wouldn't have still been in prison We think this is a waste of time But the dark room isn't a waste of time God is using that time to develop within you things that you wouldn't have within you Otherwise if you didn't go through the things that you've gone through And because joseph was faithful in potifer's house and he was faithful in the prison Look what god had for him in the palace He was running the kingdom Second in command just like he was in prison and just like he was in potifer's house But he was just doing it in a greater way And a lot of people are willing to serve god in the palace so to speak They're willing to do it in the place of prominence When it's important But they're not willing to serve god In the prison or in potifer's house But if you're not willing to be used by god in potifer's house as a slave or in prison as a prisoner Then god won't ever be able to use you in greater ways in the palace And so we have to be faithful where god has us Luke 16 10 jesus says if you are faithful in little things Then you will be faithful in large ones In potifer's house to prison to the palace God was developing joseph all along in the dark room so that he could bring him one day into the place Where everyone would know who he was But joseph would know that it's not because of him because in the prison He gave all the credit to god And then if you read the story in jenesis 41 in the palace when pharaoh asked him to interpret his dreams. He says i can't And then he gives god the glory again God is the one that he continues to give god the glory He gave god the glory in the prison and he gave god glory in the palace because he knew it wasn't about him God will develop your integrity and your character in secrecy and obscurity So that you can be ready and usable in the place of your god given destiny a lot of people have big plans Because god has created you to accomplish them But because joseph was faithful where god had him those years were preparation for the promise of god So don't view the period of time between the promise of god and the performance of the Promise as a waste of time It's valuable time because god is using those years to prepare you for what he has for you next And what led joseph to that position Was simply what he was faithful in doing in prison No matter whether you're in the pits or you're trapped in a prison Maybe currently today you're in a place of frustration because you don't see god's vision coming to pass You don't see the promise that god gave you for your life or for your family happening Don't ever forget that god is waiting until you are ready And at the right time his promises will come to pass Enjoy the dark room It's hard But it's a place of development Where god is readying you and preparing you for what he has for you next be faithful In the little things be faithful in the first things and be faithful with all things that god is interested to you And god's gonna use you and god's gonna use this church in great ways in the days and weeks and months and years to come Let's pray lord. We thank you so much that you Are faithful to accomplish what you've promised to do That it's not too hard That it's not too difficult for you But lord if we're not seeing it come to pass is because it's not the right time yet But all along you're preparing us for what you have for us next With heads bowed and eyes closed I wonder if there's some here today I would say I want to be used by god But you've given up On god's promise and plan the vision that he's given to you for your life Maybe you've been in the dark room for a while You didn't see it come to pass and so You gave up on god's plan for your life Let me just tell you today that god's not done with you yet But he's preparing you for what he has for you next Maybe some here today through this study Your eyes have been open to understanding The period of time of waiting is a period of preparation For god to be able to accomplish his plan To prepare you for it I pray tonight For each of you that god would free you From the frustration of not seeing that plan come to pass Knowing that god is working behind the scenes To accomplish his plan And god is preparing you for his plan and all that he has for you And so lord tonight We just cast every weight And snare and sin down at your feet Those things that we've allowed into our lives that have kept us from all that you have for us Even the things that have the potential To keep us from all that you have for us I pray lord for us that we would pass the test of rejection That we would pass the test of temptation And that we would pass the test of isolation And that we'd be ready and available to be used by you Lord we just want to see your your plan for our lives come to pass So we wait Knowing that you're readying us When the time comes We'll be ready to do Whatever it is That you have for us next Whatever you want us to do Help us to be faithful god With the first things with the little things Or the things that don't belong to us Help us to be faithful to you With what you've given to us now Knowing that's preparation For whatever it is that you'll give to us next Forgive us father for doubting you Forgive us god for second guessing your plan And even when we don't understand your plan we understand that we don't need to understand your plan We just simply need to obey your command And god we desire just to be obedient to you That you would find us faithful Use our lives With our families With our children Use us in the workplaces And use us In this place that we call our home Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley Use us lord we pray In any capacity we just want to be used by you So fill us afresh To overflowing with your spirits That you would empower us And give us the fruit of your spirit Patience Simply being okay with waiting in the dark room Knowing that you're preparing us for your plans In jesus name we pray Amen