God's Prepared You For This

can't figure them out. Now, anytime life gives you a situation where you can't figure it out, that's an opportunity for you to learn to pray your way through what you can't figure out. And that does not mean that you will have to spend every waking minute of your life reciting prayers and reading scriptures, but it does mean that you will have to learn how to prepare yourself for what God has prepared for you. I see Peter here praying on the roof and my question is, what is he praying about? And he has a lot to pray about. There's a lot of pressure on Peter. He got a lot of pressure on you, you're embarrassed to say yes to that because you're like, when I compared to Peter, he's like taking the gospel to the world. Well, I mean, you're taking the gospel to somebody. You're responsible for somebody. You're fighting through something that doesn't seem to want to let you go. If nothing else, you have the pressure of struggling against that old nature in you that keeps making you want to act like you don't know God even though you do. If nothing else, you have the pressure of waking up another day and feeling like you have more agenda than you have energy. And so we pray our way through pressure or the pressure pushes us, pushes us over the edge and pushes us into places of hiding that are dangerous. I don't want to get sidetracked by this because honestly, I'm not just so interested that Peter was praying or that he was praying at noon, which by the way, was not even a required time to pray. This was like a bonus prayer for Peter. Let's take a moment in the church because we beat up on Peter a lot, how he went to walk on water and he slipped and fell, how he cut off somebody's ear in the garden when they were coming to get Jesus, how he was cussing in the nine Christ when he went to the cross. Let's give Peter like five seconds of attaboy hand clapping ovation that he's up there praying when he doesn't have to be praying. I think we should do that.

I think we need to humanize these Bible characters. I think you ought to keep those hands going because you're in church right now and you will have to be. And just like you clapped for Peter, I want you to clap for yourself for a minute. I want you to clap for yourself for a minute that you made it to church today. I know you're not praising yourself, but praise God that he got you here today. Praise God that he brought you back to church another day. I didn't say you prayed an hour before you came, but you came. I thank God you're here. Wonder what he was praying about, don't you? I mean, like Pastor Holly shared last week, he just raised somebody from the dead and he never did that before. Now he's staying in the city and certainly the paparazzi are looking for him, trying to find Peter in Japa. And so now in order to get a little bit of perspective, he has to go up on the roof to pray. Maybe if you're a new mom, you have to go in the bathroom sometimes and pray. Maybe your prayer closet is your bathroom for a little while, but they will find you in that bathroom. There is no safe place for you to go and pray. And I think it's interesting that he went up on a roof because I think that's a high place. And I think sometimes while we're just around all the stuff of our life and just around the surroundings and just around the demands and just that's why I think anytime you can get to church physically, get to church physically, especially if the church is called "Elevation." Because we've tried to get you higher for a few minutes. And he's up there praying and as he's praying, we don't know what he's praying. I imagine he is praying about his purpose. God, how do you want me, little old me, Simon Peter, the disciple who cursed while the rooster was crowing, how do you want me to keep this going?

I mean it's amazing how you used me to heal that man at the gate called "Beautiful." It's amazing how you used me to preach and convert all these people. It's amazing how you were there with me in the prison. It's amazing how you used me to get Anneus off of his mat. It's amazing how you used me to get Tabitha up, that woman who had made all of those things for all of these people. But now I'm in Japa now. He's still in Japa, but he doesn't really know what he's doing in Japa, but he's in Japa and he's stopping somewhere and he doesn't know where he's going, but he has stopped somewhere sleepy while he's praying, and he sees something in his vision that completely freaks him out. A blanket comes down from heaven, and this is where everybody who really thinks while I read the Bible is like, "So, Pastor, when you say that Peter got high, are you just talking about the roof he went up on? Did they have mushrooms back then, Pastor? What's going on that he would see this blanket?" Oh, you just see blankets with birds and stuff on them every day, the stuff that happens in the Bible. That's the way we like it, though. We like the Bible stuff can be weird, supernatural, freaky, crazy, but we're just trying to pay our bills. And what I am suggesting to you is that the God who showed Peter this wants to show you something, too. Somebody shout, "God, show me something." Be more specific. Holy Spirit? Show me something. That's been my biggest prayer of the last year. You can rip it off and use it. I just pray. God, show me something. What did I not see about that conversation that I should have seen? God, what did I miss while I went through my day that you want me to incorporate into my tomorrow? God, what was the thing that I missed today that if I don't pick up on it and adjust it, I will multiply the mistakes of today into tomorrow? God, what is the thing that I have thought I was right about all my life that I'm really wrong about right now? What are the answers that I knew yesterday that have become irrelevant in this season of my life that I am still clinging to that are keeping me from being who I need to be? Peter was praying. I wonder was he praying for an opportunity to take the gospel to the Gentiles. Now, the Gentiles, just to catch you up a little bit, they were not bad people, but they were not God's covenant people. God's covenant people were the Jews, and God always had a plan to bless the Gentiles through the Jews. He told Abraham, I will bless you, and you will be a blessing, and all of the peoples of the earth will be blessed

through you. And so now Peter is standing in the continuation of something that God spoke centuries before he was ever born. This thing did not start with you, it's bigger than you. Everything you're going through is connected to something bigger than you. One of the greatest gifts the Holy Spirit can give us is a wide lens on our life to realize that there will come somebody after you that is dependent on your example, that there has come somebody before you who has given you an example to follow, and that those who came before you might have had chains on them that you have the power to break because God called you and assigned you to break them. That's a wide lens. When you worship, it gives your wide lens. When you worry, it narrows the scope of what you're going through. When you don't pray, you feel nothing but pressure. But I came to tell you if you will pray your way through this pressure. Doesn't have to be a long prayer. Doesn't even have to be a focused prayer. Peter was half asleep in God spoke to him. So as long as you will set your heart in the direction of God, he wants to speak to you more than you want to hear him. He wants to show you more than you want to see it. Stop talking to God like you have to negotiate a hostage out of the situation. He wants to give you wisdom, wants to give you opportunity, wants to show you open doors, wants to tell you who to call, wants to tell you who to talk to, wants to bring people in your path. He just wants to know, "Will you be prepared?" Peter was preparing because I don't know what's next, but I've got to get ready for it. So I've got to pray my way through this thing. I've got to pray my way so I can prepare. I almost brought my screen out today because I wanted to show you something. I wanted to write the word prepare on the screen and spell it the way that you would think was wrong, but the way that would actually be right. I was just going to write God is preparing you, but I was going to spell it. P-R-E-P-A-I-R, prepare. And I was going to let it sit there for about 15 minutes till all of the OCD grammar police started. You like Stephen in Acts chapter seven, just up here taking the stones. And just before I died and went unconscious, throwing your elevation pins at me and stuff, I spelled it wrong, I was gonna say, "No, no, no, no." God is preparing you for what He has prepared you for. I believe while Holly was growing up in Miami, Florida, and I was growing up in Monks Corner, South Carolina,

that the experiences and gifts that God was given me in Monks Corner, and the experiences and gifts that God was giving her in Miami were two ingredients that were meant to go together to make the ministry that God has privileged us to serve within today. (audience applauding) So I believe, that we were pre-paired. You still don't get it. My second illustration is this. Before I preach, I always take out of my pocket this thing. It just seems unnecessary weight to be up here preaching. So I'd always take it out of my pocket. I went to take it out, do you know what this is? I'm not gonna do a product endorsement, but this is the thing. Yeah, okay. The thing that drives you crazy when you see somebody walking around, like they are such a baller, that they can't take that out there for five minutes to check out in the grocery store line. And I do it too, but I'm usually just listening to something. I'm just not talking to anybody. And sometimes if I wanna get somewhere quick, I'll put it in and pretend like I'm talking to somebody just like I walk through. Yeah, yeah, we'll get back to you on that. That'll be great. Funny 'cause I can't hear your phone through this Bluetooth air pod,

but I can hear mine because my phone is paired. So you don't know, I might be listening to Fred Hammond or Drake up here right now. (audience laughing) But it's my phone. And I wouldn't have to make this work with this because I'm not waiting 'til I get up here to pair it. It's prepared, prepared, prepared. And so the voice that I would hear in my ear would be relative to the device that this instrument was paired to. (audience applauding) The Bible says walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Is the problem with the voices that are going through your mind that are sabotaging your strength, sucking you dry of your joy and causing you to lose your confidence in what you know good and well God called you to do? Is it possible that you have been prepared to the wrong device? (audience applauding) Is there something that's going on in your mind today? I'm just asking 'cause when I read the passage, you're like, this is a weird one, Pastor. Is it really, or is it a picture that Peter, even though he wasn't prepared to raise a dead girl, he wasn't prepared to go to Cornelius' house,

he wasn't prepared to speak to a centurion and that's chapter 10, that he was pre-paired. I think it's possible, I think it's possible, I think it's possible that although you don't feel ready for this season of your life, that although you feel alone in this season of your life, that although you feel you don't have the skills that it takes for this step of faith that God has given you, that although you feel like you're the wrong one for the job, I think it's possible that God has been preparing you for the exact assignment that you are designed to accomplish, I will fulfill it, say it out loud, I will fulfill it. If it's for me, it will be. It will be. And that's why I want you to disconnect from every device that is not a part of your destiny. Every voice, every website, every social media app, everything you play on your head in a loop and you call it your truth, it's not your truth. You are in a trance, baby. You are in a trance of thinking, this is the way I have to be, this is who I've always been, this is how the world is, this is how every teenager is, not every teenager, baby, you hadn't met me yet. I'm full of the Holy Ghost and fire and I'm baptized And I'm prepared. All right, I'll do it. The Lord said, I got to tell you about David.

He saw Goliath. What could prepare you for Goliath? Oh, I killed a lion. Oh, I killed a bear. Oh, I got a slingshot. Now, when I hook up this instrument to this device, when I hook up this experience with this challenge, sometimes you forget what you've got. [APPLAUSE] Yeah, and sometimes you remember where you've been, and sometimes that's a good thing. But sometimes you have memorized a menu that is no longer available to you. Can I preach this thing, y'all? I got to get you ready for the summer. Yeah, I got to get you ready for the summer. Everybody's trying to get a beach body. I'm trying to get you a beach spirit. Biceps won't help you when every all hell breaks loose in your family. None of that going to matter a bit. But what matters because we're talking about food. But God is using the food. If you thought this passage was actually about food, you need to read it again through the lens of the Holy Spirit. Peter did. He's up there hungry. And whenever you're hungry, everything looks good. And that's the truth. Ask Esau how good Ebola beans will look when you're hungry.

And that's why some people date the wrong people. OK. Verstyn, he became hungry, eating stuff you never would have ate. Well, he became hungry, and he wanted something. And while the meat-- OK, Verstyn, this is so good. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Verstyn. And while the meal was being prepared, what was being prepared? Put it in the comments. What was being prepared? The meal wasn't the only thing being prepared. Peter was being prepared. And part of that preparation process was in unparing, and unparing with this past. The Spirit of God confirmed to me so many times through our worship experience today when we were singing. And I'm sorry for all of you who didn't get to hear all the songs. Everything we sang today was a confirmation of what he gave me to preach. It was like it was paired together. And one of the things that you may not have seen on the surface was, there was a video from my wife's birthday, and people were saying, thank you, Pastor Holly. Thank you, Pastor Holly. Thank you, Pastor Holly. For the words you've spoken, and I thought it was appropriate, and although we do not praise men, we praise God who gives us men and women as gifts.

And so it was right that they celebrated you. But it wasn't that they celebrated you that touched me. It was what they called you, Pastor Holly. Because it took me back to the memory of the time that you said, I will never marry a pastor. She said that. [LAUGHTER] Now, you is one. [LAUGHTER] Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. [CHEERING] Simon would have never seen himself as a shepherd. But Jesus called him Peter and said, feed my sheep. God was preparing, preparing Jews and Gentiles. It was prepared. And God needed somebody who was an official apostle to knock down that barrier officially and get the gospel to the Gentiles. And I'm glad he did, because I am a Gentile. And I'm glad that the gospel didn't stop with what Peter thought about it. He's preparing me. He's not just preparing a meal. He's preparing me. Are you so focused on the meal that you don't even see the mission?

Are you so focused on this day's needs, this day's inconvenience, this season's hunger, miss something that could have been a miracle because of something as small as an irritation. I thought it's significant on our last week of the Ghost Rider series to talk about how sometimes the greatest things that God brings into our life are off-menu. They are not things when I say menu I'm talking about how you expected him to use you. I'll never be a pastor's wife. Cool. I'll just make you a pastor, and then you'll have to be a pastor's wife. I'll never be free. You say, "Well, God says, 'Good, I'll just give you the blood of Jesus, and I'll declare you righteous, and I'll set you free, and if the sun sets you free, you'll be free indeed. I'll just do what I want to do.'" (audience applauds)