If you are our guest, we are so happy that you are here. It is our practice at Branches Church to give God an opportunity to minister before we leave. We do this by coming together in prayer.

I have learned that when God’s Word has been delivered and someone is stirred in their spirit that is when God is ready to do something. There are people who want to receive the Holy Spirit. There are people who need the Lord to touch them. We want to give them the opportunity to respond and not in a way that all eyes are on them when they do. So will you help me by coming forward as a church family and praying. If you are joining us from home, take some time and pray, ask God to minister to you. He will! We have had people receive the Holy Spirit joining from home on our service stream.

I will be praying with people. I will wear a mask and if wearing one makes you comfortable to come forward for a time of prayer. I encourage you to wear it too. We want God to move! He can do more in our time of prayer than I could with a one thousand messages.

Do You Need Refreshing?

There is very little that can be more bothersome in life than being weary, worn out, tired, overcome with fatigue. All of us know what it is to be very tired, we can have things come at us with such rapid pace that we can’t keep up.

Even more problematic than being weary is being weary and confused.

Smoke alarm at night. I was weary and confused.

Many people in this life are weary and confused. You might be one of them. Today I want to help you find the refreshing and clarity that you need.

In Genesis 19 we have the story of Lot and his family in the city of Sodom. A wicked place that God has determined to destroy, but before He is going to destroy the city He needs to get Lot and his family to safety. He has promised Abraham that He would deliver them from the coming judgement. So God sends two angel messengers to tell Lot’s family what they must do.

As the two angels are convincing Lot to leave Sodom, the men of Sodom surrounded the house and were threatening to harm the angels. Lot goes outside to try and calm the crowd of men down, but the intensity of the situation only grew till finally God’s angels had to take action.

Genesis 19:10–11 NKJV

10 But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 11 And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.

The messengers of God hit the men of Sodom with blindness so they would not be able to find the door of the house. This blinding was so effective that verse 11 says they became weary trying to find the door.

Have you ever lost something, you look everywhere and cannot find it. You look to the point of frustration! If you are like me, you keep looking until you get beyond frustrated. At that point you are weary, you give up, maybe you it will surface while you go on about life. But you aren’t going to spend any more time and energy on it.

These guys got wore out trying to find the door. They had been looking right at the door, but now, try as much as they could, they were blind and the door eluded them. Till they got weary trying to find it.

A Blind Weary World

We live in a weary and confused world, a blind world. Recently an article that came across my desk said the top three things this current generation faces are loneliness, burn out, and depression.

The world is a weary place, full of weary people. A confusing place, full of confused people. Blind to the things of God. Sin and Satan have done a lot to make it more confusing, blind and weary.

Sin blinds

Ephesians 4:17–18 NKJV

17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;

Satan blinds

2 Corinthians 4:4 NKJV

4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

Put on top of the blinding confusion brought by the active work of sin and Satan, a religious world that offers every option imaginable. Because of it, millions and millions of souls will go to hell. Have you ever wondered why there were so many religions? Or ask why there are so many versions of Christianity?

Jesus said of the religious elite, the pharisees, that they were the blind leading the blind.

Matthew 15:14 NKJV

14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”

So we have a world full of people that are blind and weary searching for answers, often led by other blind people. Satan is happy with it.

As long as you are too blind to find the answer, too weary from searching that you can’t find the door, he is satisfied.

You can be sincere, and still be blind, confused and weary.

You can be a good person, yet be blind, confused and weary.

God has an answer for being blind and weary.

Jesus gives us who are blind, confused and weary an invitation...

Matthew 11:28 NKJV

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Jesus says I am the door...

John 10:9 NKJV

9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

Thank God that in the middle of all the confusion there is a door!

If you want to find rest, you need to find the door. Jesus is the door. That settles it. Stop searching, stop reaching, stop wandering, stop stumbling through life being worn out by sin, Satan and your search. Jesus is the door!

Jesus gave the keys to Peter.

Matthew 16:16–19 NKJV

16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Notice that Peter has just proclaimed a revelation of who Jesus is, the Christ! Immanuel, God with us.

We have the door (Jesus), we have the man with the keys to the door (Peter).

Let me tell you about the three times that Peter used the keys to help other people access the door.

The Day of Pentecost

Acts 2:37–38 NKJV

37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

They were to repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and they would receive the Holy Spirit.

In Samaria

Acts 8:12 NKJV

12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.

They believed and were baptized. But God wasn’t finished. Peter and John are sent to help them get through the door.

Acts 8:14–17 NKJV

14 Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, 15 who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. 16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

They repented, were baptized, and they received the Holy Spirit.

In Acts 10 at the home of a gentile named Cornelius.

Peter preaches to these gentiles about the door - Jesus Christ.

Acts 10:44–48 NKJV

44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. 45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 46 For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, 47 “Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days.

Here are the keys that Peter gave these various people who were searching for the door.

Door - Jesus Christ

Keys - Belief, Repentance, and Baptism in Jesus name.

When the door is opened, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is given and you will know you receive it because you will speak in a language you don’t know as the Spirit gives you the ability and words.

Altar

If you are here today, or watching online. You are weary, tired of searching, weary of trying some new thing to help you get through another week or month. Tired of the blindness in this world, blindness of your sin. You have a door of access to refreshing in Jesus.

His Spirit is inviting you...

Acts 3:19 NKJV

19 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,

Isaiah 28:11–12 NKJV

11 For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, 12 To whom He said, “This is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest,” And, “This is the refreshing”; Yet they would not hear.

You don’t have to go on from here without having sight and being renewed in the Holy Spirit!

You can repent of your sins.

You can be baptized in Jesus name.

You can ask Him and He will give you the Holy Spirit, this is the rest, this is the refreshing.