Date:      11th March 2007                                                                    (Sunday AM)                                                                       Ref: A0296

Place:     Kambah P.S.

Title: Times of Refreshing

Text:        & Acts 3:19

Illust:     The nature of life this AM is that we can go through dry & hard times, many times these are self inflicted. If you believe the Global Warming hype then you would say that the current drought is a result of our own actions, we are reaping what we have sown. Alternatively you could view this dry period as just a circumstance of life: ~ The poem by a homesick Dorothea Mackellar first published 99 years ago in London in1908

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror

The wide brown land for me!

I.                   Nature of Life

A.               Self Inflicted

i.                 We all go through dry times, barren times. Times when in your soul you feel dry & wasted. Like the picture in an old western movie of the travelling crawling across the sand, parched lips, sunburnt face no water in sight. Fact is that dry times are a fact of life & so we want to look firstly at some common causes.

ii.               It is a biblical principle that some times you are going to go through dry / barren times as a direct result of your actions. What you have done or omitted to do.

         Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. (NKJV)

iii.             Time & time again we see this in the Word of God. – God explicitly warns you & I that this is possible. Your sin will lead you into a dry/barren time. Psalm 68:6 .. the rebellious dwell in a dry land. ~ Speaking to backslidden Israel – God passes judgment:

         Isaiah 1:30 You will be like a great tree with withered leaves, like a garden without water. (NLT)

       The picture is like that of many Canberra gardens until just recently.

         Jeremiah 17:5-6 5 Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord. 6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited. (NKJV)

       Why should you escape this same judgement if you will continue to sin & rebel against God?

B.               Circumstances

i.                 Then there is the other fact. We live in a sunburnt country, ‘droughts’, & ‘ragged mountain ranges’ are par for the course in this nation. ~ While you walk on this earth you must come to grips with the fact that you live on a fallen world, dry times, barrenness & turmoil is a part of this life.

         Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. (NKJV)

ii.               Sometimes because of the nature of our fallen world, you will find yourself in a drought time. Your spirit will feel dry & barren.

II.                 God’s Refreshing

A.               Repentance

i.                 If you are going through a barren time, a dry time, then no need to despair. ~  Firstly you need to check your heart. The Christian life is a call to continual self examination. ~ Lord am I obeying your word, am I living the way you would have me live?

         1 Corinthians 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. (NKJV)

ii.               In our text Peter’s first word, is “repent”; a call to turn from sin, from what you know is wrong. – Why hold onto sin, it will only lead you into the parched wilderness of your soul.

         Psalm 32:3-5 3 When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. 5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. (NKJV)

iii.             Our text & this psalm give you the wonderful assurance that If you will repent & turn from those things that are not pleasing to God, then He will hear & bring what is desperately needed. ~ “times of refreshing” – A refreshing rain that floods down washing away the harsh heat & the grinding choking dust of sin.

         Isaiah 58:11 The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. (NKJV)

B.               Faith

i.                 Maybe it is just a season, of your life. No particular sin or rebellion it’s just life – Always remember that God really does love you, He is still on the throne, and He desires to bring you refreshing.

         Isaiah 61:3 To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” (NKJV)

ii.               You can rely on the fact that God is concerned about His glory first & foremost, and as John Piper writes:

      “God loves His glory more than He loves us and ..this is the foundation of His love for us”

         Ezekiel 36:22-23 22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. 23 And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord,” says the Lord God, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes. (NKJV)

       That He would be glorified; ~ Stand in His love for you, being the ultimate expression & demonstration of His glory.

iii.             God loves you & cares for you – This is where you must dig again the wells of faith & trust in God. To turn to Him in humility & honesty & cling to His promises.

         Jeremiah 17:7-8 7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord. 8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit. (NKJV)

III.              Come to the River

A.               Thirst

i.                 The only prerequisite for being refreshed in God, when you are right with God was given to us by Jesus and a host of other biblical writers.

         John 7:37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. (NKJV)

ii.               To thirst!

       1372 διψάω [dipsao /dip·sah·o/]; 1 to suffer thirst, suffer from thirst. 1a figuratively, those who are said to thirst who painfully feel their want of, and eagerly long for, those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, strengthened. [1]

iii.             Just like the dehydrated, parched traveller in the desert, his one desire is to drink; thirst consumes his every waking moment. Will you thirst, Will you cry out to God, Oh God I thirst, I need your refreshing streams to flow over me. I’m desperate for you oh God.

         Psalm 42:2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? (NKJV)

         Psalm 143:6 I spread out my hands to You; My soul longs for You like a thirsty land. Selah(NKJV)

         Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled. (NKJV)

B.               Come

i.                 If you thirst you “shall be filled” – the words of Jesus. – Will you come to Him?

         Isaiah 55:1 “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. (NKJV)

ii.               To thirst & come to Him, make the move to say God I need you, I will come to you.

         Deuteronomy 4:29-30 29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice (NKJV)

         Psalm 63:1 A Psalm of David When He Was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. (NKJV)

iii.             Seek Him early, cry out to him, thirst, & wait upon Him.

         Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. (NKJV)

iv.             The awesome promise is that as you do this the times of refreshing will come, peace, security, strength, fruitfulness & Joy

         Amos 9:13 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; The mountains shall drip with sweet wine, And all the hills shall flow with it. (NKJV)

IV.             Altar Call

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[1]Strong, J. (1996). The exhaustive concordance of the Bible : Showing every word of the test of the common English version of the canonical books, and every occurence of each word in regular order. (electronic ed.) (G1372). Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship.