GET READY ALPHARETTA 2026 — GRACE SERIES — MAKE ROOM

Last week i gave you seven years of my life. One eye done, one eye not. Seven years i did not have to spend half blind. And i gave you a man in Bethsaida, and i told you i had lived in his verse. MARK 8:22–25 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Now stay with that man after the first touch. HE'S BEEN TOUCHED. He can see light. He can see shapes. He can see there's a crowd. He can nearly, nearly make them out. HE JUST CAN'T TELL YOU WHO'S IN IT. Ask him can you see and he'd say yes. And he'd be telling the truth. And he'd still be blind. And i told you last week that was me. I WASN'T SEEING. I WAS COPING. And i told you PARTIAL SIGHT WAS NOT A LESSER HEALING. IT WAS A STAGE. Now here's the bit i want you to see this week. MARK PUTS THAT MAN THERE ON PURPOSE. Because next thing, Peter says you are the Messiah. He sees it. FIRST TOUCH. And then Jesus says i'm going to be killed, and Peter takes him aside and tells him off. He got the person of Jesus and missed the mission of Jesus. HE COULD SEE, AND HE WAS STILL BLIND. Men like trees walking. And it isn't just Peter. Between this blind man and Bartimaeus, Jesus tells the twelve he is going to die. Chapter eight. Chapter nine. Chapter ten. AND THEY MISS IT EVERY TIME. Now ask yourself what happened on the night. Three warnings. And who had a plan. Nobody. Who was ready. Nobody. Everybody ran. And they weren't bad men. They were half-seeing men. YOU CANNOT GET READY FOR SOMETHING YOU CAN ONLY HALF SEE. Nobody packs for a trip that looks like trees walking. And church, that's us. Now hear me, i'm not calling you blind. Most of you in this room are not blind. You've had a real touch and i'm not doubting it. YOU'RE HALF SEEING. You can see God is up to something. You can see enough to know your marriage isn't where it should be, and not enough to know what to do about it. Half seeing. Enough to know your money's not right, not enough to change one thing on Monday. Half seeing. Enough to know God's got something for you, not enough to get ready for it. Half seeing. AND YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING ABOUT IT. Not because you don't believe. BECAUSE YOU'RE ONLY HALF SEEING. And nobody prepares for a blur. HALF SEEING HAS NEVER ONCE PRODUCED A PREPARED PERSON. YOU CAN'T GET READY FOR A SHAPE. But here's the bit i've been waiting all week to say. He wasn't finished. He didn't walk off and leave a man squinting at trees. HE PUT HIS HANDS ON HIM AGAIN. And then he saw everything clearly. I said it last week and i'm saying it again. YOU ARE NOT AT YOUR CEILING. YOU ARE MID HEALING. AND HIS HANDS ARE STILL ON YOU. He's not annoyed with you that you've been squinting. HE KNOWS YOU CAN'T. That's why he comes back for the eyes. And look how Mark ends the section. It ends with Bartimaeus, and i told you last week Mark put him on the doorstep of the cross on purpose and i'd come back for it. HERE IT IS. He doesn't get trees walking. He gets it all at once. Cloak in the dirt, and he follows Jesus along the road. Towards Jerusalem. Towards the cross. Twelve men had three warnings and weren't ready. A beggar had one healing and walked straight at it. THE FIRST THING THAT MAN DID WITH HIS EYES WAS WALK TOWARDS IT. HIS EYES WERE NOT THE DESTINATION. HIS EYES WERE THE PREPARATION. YOU CANNOT PREPARE FOR WHAT YOU CANNOT SEE. THAT'S WHY HE ALWAYS DOES THE EYES FIRST. So here's the invitation. Last week i asked you to come back for the second touch. Right where you're sitting, put your hand over your eyes and ask him for the other one. Not make my roadside easier. The other eye. Do you see anything. Don't tell him what he wants to hear. Tell him it's blurry. AND LET HIM PUT HIS HANDS ON YOU AGAIN. Not so you can go home and look at things. SO YOU CAN GET READY. Because sight without preparation is just a nicer view of a life that isn't changing. Last week was the eyes. THIS WEEK IS THE ROOM. Last week i gave you seven years. Today i want to talk to you about ten days. But before i get there i want to tell you about Greece. JANE AND I ARE GOING TO GREECE. Forty years of marriage. FORTY. And we're going to Greece to celebrate it. Now here is what i want you to notice, and it isn't about Greece. IT'S ABOUT WHAT WE'VE BEEN DOING FOR MONTHS. We've been getting ready. Nobody made us. There's no deadline hanging over us. There's no penalty if we don't. WE JUST BELIEVE IT'S ACTUALLY GOING TO HAPPEN. And that's the whole thing right there. That's the entire message and you can go home. NOBODY PREPARES FOR SOMETHING THEY DON'T BELIEVE IS COMING. You don't pack for a trip you doubt. You don't decorate for a party nobody's attending. You don't build a nursery for a baby that isn't on the way. PREPARATION IS BELIEF YOU CAN SEE. It's the moment faith stops being an opinion and starts being physical. And if that's true, then the reverse is true, and it's uncomfortable. WHAT YOU HAVE NOT PREPARED FOR, YOU DO NOT ACTUALLY BELIEVE IN. Now don't argue with me about that, just check it. Some of you have prayed about the same thing for years and you have not moved one item in your life to make room for it. Say what you like about your faith. SHOW ME YOUR DIARY. Show me your money. Show me your Tuesday. Show me what you've cleared out and what you've made room for. That's the honest document. That's the one that tells the truth about what you think God is about to do. And one more thing about getting ready before we get into the Bible. YOU ONLY EVER GET READY FOR SOMETHING GOOD. Think about it. You don't prepare for a funeral, you endure one. You don't get excited about a diagnosis. Nobody's ever said i'm counting down to my root canal. GETTING READY IS THE MOST HOPEFUL THING A HUMAN BEING DOES. It is anticipation with its sleeves rolled up. So when God says to a church GET READY, understand what he has just told you about the future. HE HAS TOLD YOU IT'S GOOD. He would not tell you to pack for something he wasn't sending. I want to show you four people who were told to get ready, and every one of them will cost you something. The first is a woman. RUTH 3:3 "Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don't let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking." Now understand who she is. She's a widow. She's a foreigner. She's been out in the heat picking up leftovers at the edge of somebody else's field, because that's what you did when you had nothing. And Naomi says to her, right, that's enough of that. GO AND HAVE A BATH. Put the perfume on. Put your best clothes on. And go down to the threshing floor. And here's what's happening in that verse that i love. SHE TAKES THE WIDOW'S CLOTHES OFF. She's been wearing her grief. She's been dressed in what happened to her. And Naomi says take it off, wash it off, that is not what you're wearing tonight. Now hold on. WE'VE SEEN THAT BEFORE. Last week a blind man threw his cloak in the dirt because he wasn't going to be a beggar anymore. This week a widow takes her mourning clothes off because she isn't going to be a widow anymore. SAME ACT. TWO PEOPLE. A THOUSAND YEARS APART IN THE BIBLE, ONE WEEK APART IN THIS CHURCH, AND THEY'RE DOING THE SAME THING. And watch how she does it. She gets ready in the dark. She gets ready at night. She gets ready for a meeting that is not in anybody's diary. BOAZ DOESN'T KNOW SHE'S COMING. There is no guarantee. There is no signal. There is nothing on the horizon except an old woman's word that something is about to happen. She can't see it either. SHE'S GOT A WORD, NOT A VIEW. And she washes anyway. YOU DON'T WASH BECAUSE SOMETHING HAPPENED. YOU WASH BECAUSE SOMETHING'S ABOUT TO. Church, some of you are trying to walk into what's next wearing what's last. You're carrying the divorce into the new relationship. You're carrying the redundancy into the new job. You're carrying the church that hurt you into this one. You're carrying nineteen ninety something into 2026. You've had it on so long it's got the shape of you. WE HAVE ALL LEARNT TO CALL IT YOUR PERSONALITY. And you'll wear it into the next good thing God gives you, and it'll smell of the last one. WASH OFF YESTERDAY. You knew its name before i finished the sentence. You can't meet Boaz in your grief clothes. And do you know what happened to Ruth. Matthew chapter one. She ends up in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. A Moabite widow in her best clothes is in the family line of the Son of God. ALL BECAUSE SHE WASHED WHEN THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE. But hold onto Ruth. I'M COMING BACK FOR HER. Because i've left her on the threshing floor and her night isn't over. Second one. And this one is my favourite in the whole Bible for what i want to say to you today. Three kings. A war. An army in the desert and there is no water. Not for the men, not for the animals. They are seven days from Edom and they are going to die of thirst. So they go and get a prophet. 2 KINGS 3:16–17 "And he said, 'Thus says the LORD: "Make this valley full of ditches." For thus says the LORD: "You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you, your cattle, and your animals may drink."'" But look at what he tells them to do FIRST. Verse 16. MAKE THIS VALLEY FULL OF DITCHES. Now think about that command for a second. You are dying of thirst. You are exhausted. Your men are finished. And a prophet turns up and says right — everybody start digging holes. In the dry. In the dust. In a valley with no river in it. And then he says the line. YOU WILL SEE NEITHER WIND NOR RAIN. There will be no forecast. There will be no cloud. THERE WILL BE NO SIGN AT ALL. Just dig. I told you nobody prepares for a blur. THIS IS WORSE THAN A BLUR. THERE IS NOTHING TO LOOK AT. He clears your eyes to see HIM, not the weather. Some of you are waiting for a cloud. THE CLOUD IS NOT COMING FIRST. And they dug. And the next morning water came from the direction of Edom, and the whole valley was full. Now watch this. THE WATER CAME TO THE SHAPE THEY HAD DUG. God supplied the water. HE DID NOT SUPPLY THE DITCHES. He never has and he never will. GOD FILLS WHAT YOU DIG. HE DOESN'T DIG IT FOR YOU. And this is not a one off. It's how he works everywhere. Go over one chapter. 2 Kings 4. A widow, in debt, creditors coming to take her two boys as slaves. And Elisha says what have you got in the house. She's got one small jar of oil. And he says go and borrow jars from your neighbours. Empty ones. AND DON'T ASK FOR JUST A FEW. And she pours. And it keeps pouring. And it fills jar after jar after jar. And then verse 6. 2 KINGS 4:6 "When all the jars were full, she said to her son, 'Bring me another one.' But he replied, 'There is not a jar left.' Then the oil stopped flowing." Now stop. WHY DID THE OIL STOP. It didn't stop because God got tired. It didn't stop because heaven ran dry. It didn't stop because she wasn't holy enough. THE OIL STOPPED BECAUSE SHE RAN OUT OF JARS. The size of that miracle was set by the size of her preparation. Every jar she didn't bother to borrow was oil she never received. And she'll never know how many. GOD'S SUPPLY HAS NEVER BEEN THE PROBLEM. YOUR CAPACITY IS. Now before we leave that widow, read one more verse. 2 KINGS 4:7 "She went and told the man of God, and he said, 'Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.'" Nothing about those jars changed. They are the same jars she borrowed empty off the neighbours. AND NOW THE DEBT IS PAID AND THE FAMILY LIVES ON WHAT IS LEFT. Now your Bible says jars. The word God gave this church said POTS. Same story, and i'm going to say pots for a minute, because 2 Kings 4 is a foundational chapter for Futures Church. In 2015 God gave this church a word about EMPTY POTS. The oil in the Futures house would keep pouring IF WE FOUND EMPTY POTS. And an empty pot is a person and an empty pot is a building. Both. NOT ONE INSTEAD OF THE OTHER. Now hear what we had when that word came. ONE BUILDING. FOUR CAMPUSES. Ten years on, about twelve buildings, number thirteen on the way, twenty five campuses. And how much of that did we have in 2015. None of it. WE DIDN'T HAVE ANY OF THIS. And don't hear that as a message about buildings. EMPTY POTS ARE PEOPLE. And that's the one i want to talk to you about. And John the Baptist said it in one sentence. JOHN 3:30 "He must become greater; I must become less." That's the method. DECREASE. Empty yourself of yourself. Your reputation. Your ambition. Your need to be the one holding it. OUT. Until there is room in you. So can you do what John did. Many of you in this room already have. And if you are new here today, that is the challenge, and i'm putting it straight to you. Don't come in here and get full. EMPTY YOURSELF OF YOURSELF. Become an empty pot. And the day you do, YOU ARE GETTING READY FOR SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY. THE VALUE OF THE FILLED POT DOESN'T GO UP A BIT. IT GOES UP EXPONENTIALLY. Not because of the pot. BECAUSE OF WHAT'S IN IT. So empty yourself of yourself. HE FILLS EMPTY POTS. And it's the same at the wedding at Cana. Jesus doesn't wave his hand at empty jars. He says FILL THE JARS WITH WATER. And John tells us they filled them to the brim. Servants did the water. Jesus did the wine. HE WILL NOT CARRY YOUR BUCKETS. So let me ask you something and don't answer it quickly. WHAT HAVE YOU DUG LATELY. What have you done in the last twelve months that only makes sense if God actually shows up. Not what you'd like to do. Not what you keep meaning to do. WHAT DID YOU DIG. Is there one thing you have started that you cannot finish on your own. Because if the answer is nothing, then be honest about what that means. It doesn't mean you're not spiritual. IT MEANS YOU'RE NOT EXPECTING ANYTHING. So go and dig one. In the dry. In the dust. WITH NOTHING IN THE SKY. Third one. And here's where the ten days come in. Jesus is about to leave. He's got a room full of men who have watched him die and watched him come back. He's got everything he needs to launch this thing. And what does he tell them to do. LUKE 24:49 "I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." STAY. Not go. STAY. The last instruction of the greatest life ever lived, to men who had waited three years for a green light, was STAY IN THE ROOM. And look at the word. CLOTHED. Clothed with power. THERE IT IS AGAIN. Bartimaeus throws a coat off. Ruth takes a coat off. And Jesus says you're going to be given one. And it's all through the Bible. Exodus 19 — before God comes down on Sinai, he tells Moses go and consecrate the people, HAVE THEM WASH THEIR CLOTHES, and be ready by the third day. God gave a nation a deadline and a dress code. GOD HAS ALWAYS ATTACHED CLOTHES TO GETTING READY. Because what you're wearing is what you believe you are. Now Acts chapter 1. He says wait for the gift my Father promised. In a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit. IN A FEW DAYS. That's it. That's all they get. A PROMISE WITH NO DATE ON IT. And it turned out to be ten days. Fifty days from Passover to Pentecost, forty of those he was appearing to them, WHICH LEAVES TEN. Ten days in an upper room. Ten days of absolutely nothing happening. Ten days of getting up in the morning and it not being today. And they didn't know it was ten. THAT'S THE PART. They could have been sitting there for a year for all they knew. And that is where we come unstuck. Anybody can do day one. Day three you're still in. Day six you're watching the door. By day eight you've decided it was never God. NOBODY EVER SAYS I QUIT. WE HAVE MADE GIVING UP SOUND SO MATURE. But watch these ones. THEY DID NOT LEAVE. So what did they do in that room. Because this is the bit i really want you to hear. THREE THINGS. And every one of them is exactly what God has been saying to me about this house. 1. THEY OBEYED A WAIT. That is the hardest instruction in the Bible. Some of you can obey GO. Almost nobody can obey STAY. Nobody claps for a wait. There are people in this room ready to be sent and God is saying stay in the room a bit longer. That is not rejection. THAT IS LOADING. 2. THEY GOT THEIR RELATIONSHIPS RIGHT. ACTS 1:14 "They all joined together constantly in prayer." ACTS 2:1 "They were all together in one place." ALL. TOGETHER. ONE PLACE. Now remember who is in that room. A dozen verses before Bartimaeus, two of these men came and asked Jesus for the best seats in the kingdom. They argued on the road about which of them was the greatest. Peter had denied him. Thomas had doubted him. Every one of them had run. AND NOW THEY'RE IN ONE ROOM PRAYING TOGETHER. Something got sorted out in that room before anything got poured into it. And somebody in here is one conversation away from being ready, and you've been calling it a personality clash. THE FIRE FELL ON A ROOM WHERE NOBODY WAS COMPETING. 3. THEY FIXED THE LEADERSHIP. Acts 1:15–26. Before the wind, before the fire, before one single tongue of flame, they stood up and dealt with the fact that they were one man short. They replaced Judas. They sorted out the structure. THEY DID NOT WAIT FOR THE OUTPOURING TO FIX THE LEADERSHIP. THEY FIXED THE LEADERSHIP AND THEN THE OUTPOURING CAME. Church, write that down. And here's the arithmetic that ought to frighten us. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that the risen Jesus appeared to more than five hundred people at one time. FIVE HUNDRED. Acts 1:15 says there were about a hundred and twenty in that room. Do the sum. Nearly four hundred people saw the resurrected Son of God with their own eyes AND THEN WENT HOME. They weren't unbelievers. They weren't enemies. THEY SAW HIM RISEN. They just weren't in the room. And every one of them had a reason. EVERYBODY WHO ISN'T IN THE ROOM HAS A REASON. THE WIND FILLED THE ROOM THAT HAD PEOPLE IN IT. So don't leave the room. Not on day eight. There is no substitute for showing up early and STAYING WHEN NOTHING IS HAPPENING. Fourth one. And this one costs the most. The most famous conversion in human history. Damascus road, light from heaven, blind for three days, the whole thing. The man who is going to write a third of your New Testament has just met Jesus. So what happens next. Book deal. Conference circuit. Straight to Jerusalem to meet the apostles. GALATIANS 1:15–18 "But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem." ARABIA. THREE YEARS. Desert. Nobody watching. Nothing published. No platform. And understand who this man is. This is not some fisherman off a boat. This is the best trained mind of his generation. He studied under Gamaliel. He could out-argue anybody in Jerusalem before breakfast. HE DID NOT NEED MORE INFORMATION. He needed revelation. He says it himself — I did not receive it from any man, I RECEIVED IT BY REVELATION FROM JESUS CHRIST. Three days blind. Then three years hidden. The man had to unlearn before he could be used. And it's the pattern everywhere. Moses — forty years in Midian before a burning bush. David — anointed king and sent straight back to the sheep. Joseph — thirteen years between the dream and the palace. John the Baptist — in the desert until the day of his public appearing. AND JESUS HIMSELF. Thirty years in a carpenter's shop. Three years of ministry. TEN TIMES LONGER GETTING READY THAN HE SPENT DOING IT. Now here's the cost. You'll wash. You'll even dig. But three years where nobody claps. Could you be faithful for a year with your name off it. Some of you aren't waiting on God. YOU'RE WAITING ON AN AUDIENCE. If you're in a hidden stretch right now, hear me. YOU ARE NOT BEING OVERLOOKED. YOU ARE BEING LOADED. But don't hear me wrong, because this matters. THE DESERT DOESN'T PREPARE YOU. WHAT YOU DO IN THE DESERT PREPARES YOU. Paul wasn't sunbathing in Arabia. You can absolutely waste a wilderness. Plenty of people have sat out three quiet years and come back with nothing but three quiet years. The hidden bit is only the loading bit if you're loading. Stop asking God to end the quiet. ASK HIM WHAT TO PUT IN IT. Now i told you i'd come back for Ruth. I left her on the threshing floor. Watch how her night ends. IT'S THE WHOLE MESSAGE IN ONE WOMAN. She washed. She took the widow's clothes off. She went down in the dark to a meeting that wasn't in anybody's diary. And at midnight Boaz wakes up, a woman is at his feet, and he says who are you. RUTH 3:9 "I am your servant Ruth," she said. "Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family." Look at what she asks for. NOT MONEY. NOT GRAIN. A GARMENT. She took hers off, and now she's asking to be covered with his. And the Hebrew word there is KANAPH. It means the corner of a garment, but it's the same word for a WING. And it's the very word Boaz used over her one chapter earlier. Ruth 2:12 — "May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose WINGS you have come to take refuge." He prayed she'd get under God's wing. And she comes back and says then be the wing. Boaz, YOU BE THE ANSWER TO YOUR OWN PRAYER. Now hear the sequence. It's the same every time. SHE TOOK A GARMENT OFF BEFORE SHE ASKED FOR ONE. Bartimaeus threw the cloak. Ruth took off the widow's clothes. Jesus says stay in the city until you are CLOTHED with power. Nobody gets the new one on over the old one. YOU CANNOT BE COVERED BY WHAT'S NEXT WHILE YOU'RE STILL WEARING WHAT'S LAST. And then it's morning. And Boaz says my favourite line in the book. RUTH 3:15 He also said, "Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out." When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and placed the bundle on her. HOLD IT OUT. What have you got. A shawl. Right, hold it out. And he fills it. Six measures. Nobody's certain how much that was, but it was more than she could lift. HE HAD TO LOAD IT ONTO HER. Do you see it. THE THING SHE WAS WEARING BECAME THE THING SHE CARRIED IT HOME IN. Same as the ditches. Same as the jars. If she'd held out her hands she'd have gone home with a handful. And church, most of us don't come to God with a shawl. WE COME WITH A HAND. You want the marriage healed and you held out a hand, one prayer in the car, nothing said at home. You want your kids back and you held out a hand, you've told God, you have never told them. You want the money to turn around and you held out a hand, same account, same habits, same Monday. YOU WANT GOD TO DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR LIFE AND YOU HELD OUT A HAND. And he filled it. He always does. AND YOU WENT HOME WITH A HANDFUL AND CALLED IT YOUR PORTION. Nobody holds out a shawl for a shape. And look at her again. She isn't holding out a spare. She's a widow and a foreigner and she's wearing it. THE SHAWL WAS NOT EXTRA. AND IT CAME BACK TOO HEAVY TO PICK UP. GOD FILLS WHAT YOU HOLD OUT. Not what you own. WHAT YOU HOLD OUT. And Boaz tells her why. Verse 17. RUTH 3:17 "He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, 'Don't go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.'" EMPTY. Now hold on. That word. Go back to chapter one. Naomi comes home from Moab. Husband dead. Both sons dead. And she says to the women of Bethlehem — Ruth 1:21 — "I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back EMPTY." Same Hebrew word. REQAM. The book opens with a woman saying God brought me back empty. And it turns on a man saying don't you dare go back to her empty. SAME WORD. BOTH ENDS OF THE STORY. Naomi thought empty was the end of her story. IT WAS THE PREPARATION FOR IT. She came back empty and God had a field, and a Boaz, and a wedding, and a baby, and a king in that emptiness. She just couldn't see it from chapter one. WHAT YOU CALL EMPTY, GOD CALLS ROOM. And one more. Verse 18. Naomi says to her: RUTH 3:18 "Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today." WAIT. There it is again. She washed. She went. She asked. She held out the shawl. AND NOW SHE SITS STILL. And Boaz goes to the gate, and Boaz does the deal, and Boaz doesn't rest until it's done. SHE PREPARED. HE FINISHED. That's the order. You do the washing. You do the digging. You do the holding out. Then you sit down and let him do the part only he can do. Ruth isn't at the gate. She's at home with Naomi. THE THING SHE'D PREPARED FOR WAS SETTLED IN A ROOM SHE WASN'T IN. YOU MAKE ROOM. HE MAKES IT HAPPEN. AND HE WILL NOT REST UNTIL IT'S SETTLED. So stop holding out a hand. FIND YOUR SHAWL AND HOLD IT OUT. Now let me pull them all together. Ruth washes and takes the widow's clothes off. SHE MADE ROOM. The army digs holes in a dry valley. THEY MADE ROOM. The widow borrows every empty jar in the street. SHE MADE ROOM. A hundred and twenty people sit in a bare room for ten days. THEY MADE ROOM. Paul empties his diary for three years in a desert. HE MADE ROOM. And Ruth holds out an empty shawl in the dark. SHE MADE ROOM. Every one of them ends up holding something empty. An empty ditch. An empty jar. An empty room. An empty desert. An empty shawl. EMPTY IS NOT THE SAME THING AS WASTED. A ditch in a drought looks like a hole in the ground until it rains. An empty jar looks like poverty until the oil comes. Ten days in a room looks like nothing until the wind. A shawl held out in the dark looks like begging until he fills it. And that's where most of you got off. You dug once. You held something out. And it sat empty long enough to feel stupid, so you filled it in. YOU GOT TIRED OF LOOKING RIDICULOUS. But it only looks like a waste of time RIGHT UP UNTIL THE MOMENT IT DOESN'T. GETTING READY IS SIMPLY MAKING ROOM FOR SOMETHING YOU CAN'T SEE YET. And that's why so few people do it. Because for a while, from the outside, IT LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE DOING NOTHING. Do it anyway. Dig where it's dry. Now let me talk to you about us. JOSHUA 3:5 "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you." TOMORROW. Get ready TODAY, because TOMORROW. Preparation is a today word about a tomorrow thing. And look when he said it. THE DAY BEFORE THE JORDAN, with the river in flood and no way across. GET READY ANYWAY. Church, i want to tell you honestly what God has been saying to me. GET THE CHURCH READY. That's it. That's the sentence. And it has not gone away. So let me tell you what i've actually been doing, because it hasn't looked exciting from where you're sitting. I HAVE BEEN DIGGING DITCHES. I've been working on our CAPACITY. Because the oil always stops at the jars. And i am not going to stand in front of God one day and explain that the reason the flow stopped was that i didn't bother borrowing enough containers. I've been working on our RELATIONSHIPS. Specifically the relationships between our campus pastors. Because the fire fell in a room where everyone was in one accord, and i will not ask heaven to fill a house that isn't right with itself. THAT IS NOT ADMIN. THAT IS PREPARATION. I've been working on our ABILITY TO CARRY WHAT'S COMING. Because here is the thing that actually keeps me up at night, and it is not what you'd expect. MY FEAR IS NOT THAT GOD WON'T MOVE. MY FEAR IS THAT HE WILL, AND WE WON'T BE BUILT FOR IT. Revival doesn't fail because heaven runs dry. IT FAILS BECAUSE IT LANDS ON A HOUSE THAT CAN'T HOLD IT. And i've been getting people ready. God told me to get Ryan and Lindsay ready. And i have been working on that for a long time, quietly, where you couldn't see it. And now i believe God is saying the same thing to you that he said to me. GET READY. Not the church. YOU. I can dig every ditch in this place and still not dig yours. YOU CAN BE A MEMBER OF A PREPARED CHURCH AND BE AN UNPREPARED PERSON. A PREPARED CHURCH IS NOT A BUILDING WITH CAPACITY. IT IS A ROOM FULL OF PREPARED PEOPLE. You get ready. I'll worry about the house. One more thing and then i'm done. Matthew 25. Ten girls waiting for a wedding. Five took oil, five didn't. And here's the detail nobody preaches. ALL TEN OF THEM FELL ASLEEP. The difference between the wise and the foolish was not alertness. It wasn't willpower. It wasn't who wanted it more on the night. IT WAS A DECISION MADE DAYS EARLIER, IN DAYLIGHT, WHEN THERE WAS NO EMERGENCY, AND NOBODY WAS WATCHING. And at midnight the foolish ones say give us some of your oil. And the answer is no. Not because they're cruel. BECAUSE IT CAN'T BE DONE. READINESS IS NOT TRANSFERABLE. You cannot borrow somebody else's preparation at the moment you need it. You can sit in this church for twenty years next to people who are full of oil and it will not get into you. You can be married to somebody who prays and it will not count for you. NOBODY RISES TO THE MOMENT. YOU SINK TO WHATEVER YOU PREPARED. Verse 10. They went for oil. The shops were open. THE DOOR WASN'T. So buy yours in the daylight. Buy it this week. 1. WASH OFF YESTERDAY. Do a Ruth. Whatever you have been wearing from the last thing — the failure, the hurt, the church that wounded you, the version of you that survived it — take it off. You are not walking into what God has next in your grief clothes. 2. DIG A DITCH YOU CANNOT JUSTIFY. One act of preparation this week that only makes sense if God shows up. If everything in your life would still work fine with no God in it, you haven't dug anything. Neither wind nor rain. DIG ANYWAY. 3. GET IN THE ROOM AND GET RIGHT WITH THE PEOPLE IN IT. Nearly four hundred people saw the risen Christ and went home. Don't be impressive and absent. Be present and in one accord. UNITY IS PREPARATION. 4. DON'T DESPISE THE TEN DAYS. Or the three years. Or the thirty. If it's quiet right now, that is not the absence of God. THAT IS THE LOADING BAY. And don't waste it. Do something in the desert. A NOD IS NOT A JAR. DON'T LEAVE HERE NODDING. So pick one. Not four. ONE. Do it this week. Last week i left you with Jesus asking a blind man one question. WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO FOR YOU. And the man said i want to see. Today i want to leave you with the other half of it. BECAUSE HE GOT HIS EYES AND THEN HE GOT ON THE ROAD. The eyes were never the point. THE ROAD WAS THE POINT. Jane and i are going to Greece, and we have spent months getting ready for it. Months. For a handful of days. And i'm not embarrassed about that. THAT'S WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU BELIEVE SOMETHING GOOD IS COMING. So let me ask you the honest question. WHAT ARE YOU GETTING READY FOR. Not what do you hope for. WHAT HAVE YOU ACTUALLY MADE ROOM FOR. Some of you have prayed the same prayer for years, and if he said yes on Tuesday NOTHING IN YOUR WEEK WOULD HAVE TO MOVE. No ditch. No jar. Nothing cleared. Because your life is already a preparation document. IT IS ALREADY TELLING THE TRUTH. And here's the last thing, and this is the one i want you to take home. The oil didn't stop because heaven was empty. It stopped because a woman ran out of jars. The valley filled to the exact shape of what they'd dug. The wind filled a room that had people in it. And a widow went home with exactly as much barley as she held out her shawl for. GOD HAS NEVER ONCE RUN OUT. WE HAVE ONLY EVER RUN OUT OF ROOM. So make some. Wash off yesterday. Hold out what you're wearing. Borrow more jars than you can justify. Get in the room. Stay when nothing's happening. He is walking past today. HE IS STOPPING. And he is asking you the same question. Don't just ask him for eyes. TELL HIM YOU WANT TO BE READY. CONSECRATE YOURSELVES, FOR TOMORROW THE LORD WILL DO AMAZING THINGS AMONG YOU. Tomorrow, church. HE SAID TOMORROW. 1. WASH OFF YESTERDAY. Name the one thing you're going to stop wearing. 2. DIG ONE DITCH THIS WEEK. One that only makes sense if God shows up. 3. GET RIGHT WITH ONE PERSON YOU'VE BEEN AVOIDING. Unity is preparation. 4. COME TO THE ALTAR. ASK TO BE CLOTHED WITH POWER. Hold out the shawl. 5. GET BAPTISED. 6. SIGN UP FOR RISE. 7. BRING ONE PERSON NEXT WEEK. Lead them. DON'T LEAVE WITH NOTHING TO DO ON MONDAY.