https://youtu.be/SeK5HkmcCxw

Read Acts 13:1-5

They prepared in advance to be sent out.

– “The separation is in the preparation.” Russell Wilson said during the Seahawks championship run. They weren’t surprised to win the Superbowl, even if everyone else was. They said, “Why NOT us?!”

– Paul and Barnabas positioned themselves to be selected and sent out. (Read verses 2 and 3 again) They were preparing in advance for the work that they have been called.

– Because they had already prepared, they didn’t have to decide. Their decision was already made.

– The bible doesn’t describe them saying, “I need to pray about it.” Or “Let me see if I can afford it.” Or “Maybe after I get out of debt I will be ready to answer the call…”

– They were prepared, and were separated and sent out.

– FF example: I never liked training on low frequency stuff. Tech rescue, etc… but you have to be prepared if it ever happens… 2 perspectives on being ready:

FF said, “I guess I’m just confident that we will figure out something. We always have.” LT used to come up with outlandish scenarios and spend an hour coming up with a plan…

– But then… plane crash onto a soccer field during a tourney, train derailed over rush hour traffic, 3 houses on fire at once, “Snowmagedon” so only 2 P/M make it to CPR call…

– You can’t wait until the “call comes out” to try to figure out what you will do!

– Proverbs 20:4, The lazy man will not plow because of winter; He will beg during harvest and have nothing. (Don’t make excuses for not getting to work now, or you will starve later.)

– Read 1 Peter 5:6-10, because this is excellent instructions for being spiritually prepared.

– The enemy will attack you. Do you know his schemes, and how to resist them?

– You will need encouragement. Do you know where to find it in the scriptures?

– Example: Sheryl, floor of hallway needing a verse and I couldn’t think of even one!

– You must be prepared in advance, because you know these things will come!

You should expect hardship.

– Up until this point the followers of Christ had been beaten, disowned, and even killed. Peter had been imprisoned, and James was just murdered by King Herod. They all knew the cost.

– Practice fasting, denying your fleshly desires, praying for those who persecute you, forgiving immediately… these kinds of things will prepare you to endure the hardship to come.

– “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” – C.S. Lewis

– God will allow fiery trials to refine you like gold. You must learn from them, or they are wasted.

– 2 Cor. 12:10, (Paul’s words) Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

– Example: Missionaries I met in India… 50 years of ministry to the spiritually dark territories. Just jungle and forests back then, 8 years before the first native convert, miracle of the cup of water…

– Right out of the Bible Institute in 1966, he headed straight to northern India, “in search of that land where the name of Jesus was unknown.”

– A hostile country full of black magic and superstition, fear and idolatry. Very hard soil!

– “On a cold Saturday evening, two men twisting my arms behind my back and another on trashing me, shouting, abusing and warning me never to come back to the remote village where we had gone to conduct an evening service with a few brethren who had recently accepted the Lord, I was reminded of Paul saying, “and again I say rejoice”.

– Now training native people to be sent out to minister to their own people groups!

– No funding or support, threatened with death, 8 years before the first fruits… but constantly encouraged by the words of the Apostle Paul, because Paul knew what it was like to struggle.

– 2 Tim 4:5, But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions,