Refreshed
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Good morning church!
It is good to see you all here this morning! I would like to speak with you on this word this morning.
Refreshed
It is a word that we don’t use all that much anymore, but we do understand it and some of us may use it more than others.
When something needs to be refreshed speaks of something that used to be fresh vibrant and alive but has grown dull, sour, bland or dead.
Just take the word re-fresh it means it once was fresh and nw but now has grown stale and old and we need it to be fresh once again.
For example:
If you use a computer and you are trying to use a certain page on that computer but it is not responding you hit the refresh button, and it launches the page all over again it essentially gives you the same page only renewed.
If you work for a living there comes a time when you need a vacation, you need a time to recharge, or refresh, so that you can come back with renewed energy and do your job better because you have had time to refocus and refresh.
(Contacts)
Now nobody who wears contact lenses in their right mind would take those dry brittle peices of plastic and stick them in thier eyes because the pain they would feel would be tremendous.
No if they want to try to salvage the contact they have to put it in a solution to refresh those lenses and take what is dry and brittle and make it moist and soft.
There are thousands of things I could use to describe this but you get the point no matter whether we are talking about websites, or contacts, or people.
One thing is certain everything needs a time of refreshing.
The same is true for your spiritual life, and now more than ever America is in desperate need of Christian renewal and refreshment.
Everyone needs that I had someone tell me just last week that they enjoyed coming to church, or listening to church bc it refocuses me and lets me know that whatever I was going through during the week was really not something that should have been bothering me at all. You might need restoration daily, I need it moment by moment, and i need it when I lose focus or either I get upset over something that shaouldnt have been bothering me or I need it bc of sin and I need to repent of those things.
God promised something in our passage today He promises that we can have seasons of refreshing with Him.
Peter was talking to a group of individuals who were called for 2,000 years the children of God. They were covered by something that was called the Old Covenant and this old covenant did not end until the viel of the Temple tore when Jesus died on the cross, which means when Matt, Makr luke and John while all of those events were happening during Jesus’ life those old covenant sacrifices were still going on.
SO all of the sacrifices and things were still going on and Jesus kept that, now He didn’t follow all of the man made traditions that man created but He did follow and keep perfectly the law of His Father. But when JEsus died as the perfect sacrificial Lamb the Old Covenant came ot a close it became obsolete no one was covered under those laws anymore, no one was going to be forgiven by the old covenant laws anymore bc all of those old covenant laws pointed to a Messiah, the Lamb of God JEsus Crhist Himself.
What is sad is that the people Peter preaches to this morning were people who were going to church regularly they were following all of the rituals and religious duties but inside they were not alive, they were dry cracked and stale. They were the opposite of fresh.
There are life suckers things that suck the life out of us and leave us the opposite of fresh vibrant and alive.
So if something can be refreshed then I want to tell you that something can also be defreshed lol
It aint a word but Im gonna use it anger is defreshing, if you live in a state of anger your going to get tired frustrated and lonely. Worry is a defresher, guilt is a defresher secrets are defreshing these secrets are long and they lead to death, and one thing were really trying to do is live open lives talk to somebody, recently I had to reach out to a friend and just talk about some hidden things I have been dealing with.
wrong expectations when you have bad expectations in other people or wrong expectations of God it is defreshing.
Sin of any variety on the front end looks good, but it makes a promise it canot keep.
Sometimes we are defreshed by the people we hang out with...
On the other hand there are other things that defresh that are not of our own doing.
Not all things are our fault sometimes there are things that defresh that we did not bring upon ourselves.
Sickness it is hard to be happy in Jesus when you are sick, or battling sickness. Or if you have someone you love battling sickness. SOme of you may have been abandoned by a spouse that can break you to a point where you think you wont ever be refreshed again.
Words that people say about you. You know that old saying sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me that is a lie. Words cut right to the heart and they can defresh you, the enemy Satan is always looking for some way to defresh he wants us to lose a flousihing life that God wants us to have.
Satan is just feeding us lies constantly.
So whether our defreshing is bc of our own doing or that of other people we all find ourselves at times in need of refreshing, but there are alot of counterfiets alot of things that promise refreshing but never deliver.:
Entertainment: its alot easier to make people laugh than it is to make them happy
Vacations: Can definately be helpful but they dont nearly last long enough
Relationships: people think if I only had the right relationship with this person or that person but I am reminded of that woman at the well that Jesus spoke to, she had 5 husbands and was currently living with a guy and essentially Jesus aid to her “hows that going for ya?”
He was tying to teach her that she was trying to find refreshment and joy in relationship that were not producing...
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,
Peter and John were on thier way to pray it was about 3 in the afternoon they werent headed to preach or to some kind of service they were simply headed to pray and as they were on thier way Jesus healed a lame beggar through them, and he went away leaping and praising God!
This drew a large crowd a couple thousand probably and Peter seeing this opportunity with this crowd forming and this miracle which had just occured he preached a sermon and in summary he told them that the same Jesus they disowned and murdered were actually the Messiah they were looking for.
Good news their murder was unsuccesful bc God the Father had raised Jesus from the dead, and he said to them Jesus Christ is alive!
They responded the way anyone does when they found out they killed thier savior, UHOH
bc the one they thought of as the Messiah is also supposed to be the judge and they thought they were in some serious trouble.
More good Peter went on to tell them that God used all of this to fulfill His good purposes and rather than judgement God was offering forgiveness!
To rephrase verse 19 He says: SO CHANGE THE WAY YOUR THINKING AND TURN BACK TO GOD! HE WILL FORGIVE YOUR SINS AND PROVIDE SEASONS OF REFRESHING THAT COME FROM HIS PRESENCE!
What does that mean?
REPENT AND TURN BACK TO GOD
Change your mind
I would suggest to you it is alot harder to change your mind than it is to get in shape.
You can run 5 miles you get a big enough animal chasing you and you can do anything. But changing your mind thats hard work, we get set in our ways and we think things cant be different or either we dont want them to be different bc were stuck, but this simply is not true we can change our mind!
God will help you but god will not change your mind for you.
Now some of you want God to change other peoples minds right?
You probably got a whole list of people, he will help us though change our own minds,
REPENT MEANS CHANGE YOUR MIND!
YOu cant change your brain but you can change your mind!
Gordon Mcdonald:
“Repentance= is associated with the word Metanoia which the Greeks used to describe remorse changing ones mind and altering ones direction. This word was not always a religious word, the word comes out of an ancient world where travelers had few roads, no signs, no lights and no maps or gps.
Getting lost was common this meant that the moment a traveler became uneasy about where He was he had to stop and say IM LOST that was followed by a search for the right way and a retracing of steps until he was back on the right path. Thats repentance.”
Kyle Johnson:
You’ll never be further from God than when your close to Him and say no, the distance you travel in disobedience is the same distance you will have to travel back to get into the fullness of God presence again.
You have to go back to the place where you told God no and tell Him yes Lord
JOHN MACARTHUR GIVE US 4 PROMPTERS TO REPENTANCE:
Truth we hear the truth and the Spirit applies it to our hearts and we realize wow I have been wrong I am lost
truth is the cure for the lies of the enemy it is why we need the Word
Truth leads us to repentance
2. Sorrow leads us to repentance
For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
SIN IS AN OFFENSE TO A HOLY GOD AND IT IS RUINING OUR LIFE!
That kind of sorrow brings us to a place where can repent and be renewed!
(temper)
I used to I was just walking around waiting for someone to try me, I could fight at the drop of the hat man it was really bad.
3. The goodness of God leads to repentance
Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
Many of you were like me you were doing your own stupid thing and leaning on your own understanding and then it dawned on you wow God is so gracious and so good to me that it lead you to repent!
He should have smacked me to the ground a long time ago but He didnt!
it lead you to repentance
4. The fear of judgment leads to repentance
Throughout the book of Acts at the end of each sermon preached so often people say what must we do to be saved or forgiven?
It is the fear of judgment that brings us to the fear of God and that we have offended God and that we need to turn back to Him.
Turn back to God admit that He is right and humble yourself under His mighty and good hand.
The scripture says that He gives grace to the humble He gives assitance to the humble but He resists the proud!
He pushes back on the proud.
This is the first step to true repentance
CHOOSE CHRIST AS A SAVIOR AND TEACHER FOR LIFE
We need someone to help get us through this life someone to help us navigate these things and we all have to make a decision concerning this, and everyone does make a decision, everyone in this room is following somebody, everyone watching is watching someone who is it?
Repentance is choosing Jesus Christ as Savior and teacher for life. Now some of you have never done this you might believe that Jesus is a good teacher and you wouldn’t be listening if there wasn’t something to this whole thing for you but you have never said Jesus is it He is the reason I live and move and have my being, He is my all in all I am placing all that I am in His hands.
Until you come to the point where He is everything to you you will always be unsatisfied and unfulfilled
His work on the cross made a way for us to find life and help in this life!
Jesus WILL WIPE YOUR SINS AWAY!!!
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,
Can you just focus on that truth for a minute
Every wrong thought every wrong deed every dispicable thing you have ever done was washed clean under the blood of a man who you have never met but who knew you before you were even born.
Even though you mocked Him and even though you didnt care He bled out in order to give you life..
This is refreshing!
It is like a breath of relief I dont have to walk around scared that God is going to punish me bc He already punished Jesus in my place, I dont have to wonder if I am acceptable in His sight bc through Jesus’s blood I AM ACCEPTED
WE NEED SEASONS OF REFRESHING
“Times of refreshing”= Seasons of refreshing
This means there is a rythym or a cycle to this, the refreshment of our initial relief of sin will fade you all know this, most of you are children of the most high God most of you are forgiven and you know it most of you have a home in Heaven and you know it, most of you have an inheritance in Heaven and you know it!
But that has not spared you from days where you feel sucked dry
Where you have been left defreshed Notice the next verse
and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.
RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS-
This will happen when Jesus comes back, that is going to be refreshing!
I will be so glad
The restoration of all things are awesome but we dont have to wait until that day have personal refreshment in our souls from Jesus Christ Himself!
A Psalm of David.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.
Psalm 119 says
Revive me, Quicken me in my soul according to your word!
Isaiah 55 starts out Ho EVERYONE IN NEED OF REFRESHMENT COME TO THE WATERS AND LET YOUR SOUL DRINK IN ABUNDANCE!
Jesus said whoever drinks from the water that I give will nevrr thirst and will become in Him a fountain springing up to everlasting life
In other words this life with Christ is supposed to produce something in us that even during the dry spells it is still there!
Most of walk around with a squirt gun, not a fountain bursting forth
Wakulla springs millions of gallons of water springing up a day, it is teeming with life!
Jesus says when we come to him and have life with Him its more like that
not a squirt gun
So what do we do?
Were all gonna have seasons of defreshing and refreshing
Refreshement waits for those who seek it
It requires repentance and it requires certain things for it to remain.
Gratitude
Word
Obedience
Prayer
Community
We wanna get to this place of life and beauty but I want you to know that seasons of the Christian life can be up and down especially if we dont live a life of repentance and seeking after the life source Jesus Christ
Worst part of your job?