Faith Has Its Seasons III, The Season Of Refreshing

How many relate a little bit to that? It happens in our lives. Well, let's take out our outlines and let's look today at what the Lord would maybe say to us about a season of refreshing. While you're getting your outline card out, turning your Bibles to Acts 3, I just want to make a request. I don't want to offend anybody here. I don't think anyone in this service would be offended by this, but it's important. We had an agreement several months ago, actually a couple years ago now, that when we came into worship that we would turn off our beepers. And if you have a beeper that you just have to wear, put it on buzz or shock or whatever those things do. No beepers, no laptops, no cell phones, and none of those watches that go off, you know, on every 15 minutes. I know what time it is. It isn't going to help, in case you're wondering. All right, just last week we had a little bit of, and if you have to get up, you know, if you're really an important person and you have to get up and to take a call, we respect that, but then just find a place in the back of the auditorium because when you get up, a thousand eyes just watch you go and they watch you come back. We need to give our limited attention here to what we have before. So let's read Acts 3. If you don't have a Bible, we're just going to read a part of the text this morning, beginning in verse 17. If you'll flash it for us, Karen, please. Let me set the stage because I'll have to do it later anyhow. There's been a great miracle on the steps of the temple. A man that was crippled for almost his entire life is healed by a word, a prayer that Peter had called forth on his life. And this crowd, of course, had gathered because they'd never seen this man walking before, and Peter says it wasn't by anything other than the name of Jesus that this man had been healed. And the people were astonished and came running to him and said, what's going on here? And Peter gives them a message, which I'll reiterate in a moment, and then he says verse 17. Now let's read this. Now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders, but this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. Repent then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing, would you say that? Times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ who has been appointed for you, even Jesus. Now this morning I'm taking on a subject that is very positive in nature, the subject of refreshing. You all know what it means to be refreshed, to be lifted up, or energized, or renewed, or to have your vigor restored, according to Webster. What's sort of the universal sound of refreshing? Let's do it. I'm a little better than that, come on. All right, that's the sound we want to leave you with today, the sound of refreshing. But this is not that easy a subject to address in the Bible, because I have discovered that most Christians do not live a refreshed life. In fact, my observation is more Christians tend to be weary, worn out, tired, discouraged, and sometimes just even a little bit frustrated, rather than living the, ah, I enjoy this Christian life kind of attitude. It reminds me of a quality family moment I had several years ago with my two boys. We had gone on a day trip to go fishing together. Most of you know, if you've been around any length of time, I'm not a fisherman, but I was doing it for them. They wanted a memory. So we went fishing. I went to a place, I don't have a boat, so we had to rent a little rowboat on this lake, and I, you know, got the gear and all that stuff. And we had, I could see a whole bunch of boats off, maybe, I don't know how far it was, hard to judge on water, maybe quarter mile, half mile, whatever, quarter of a mile seems about right. And I started rowing this boat out, you know, just heading out that way, but it was either a combination of the breeze or the currents or whatever, I just wasn't rowing correctly. And we were making very slow progress toward this fishing area, and I was increasingly aware that I was getting tired, that this was probably not the will of God for us to try to get over to this fishing spot. And Dave and John were beginning to notice that just a little farther out, all these little sailboats, you know, little sunfish, were just tooling right on by. Now they were real good, they didn't say anything the first few of these boats, and then finally, they couldn't help but notice, you know, they noticed those boats were making great progress, and we were basically standing still. They noticed that the people in those boats were cool and relaxed, and that I was sweating and working hard. They noticed that the people in those boats were smiling and laughing and having fun. They noticed that I was getting angrier and angrier. And finally, after about 10 or 15 minutes, David looks at me and says, Dad, let's go back and get one of those kind of boats and try that. Well, the problem is Dad didn't know how to sail, and that would not have helped at all. So what we decided to do was we parked our rowboat and threw our line in the water from the shore. Great idea. But what happened, more than anything, was the impression that that left in my mind. There's a huge difference between rowing and sailing. And I'll just be real candid with you folks. There's a whole lot of us who have grown up as Christians, many of us sitting here today in terms of our spiritual lives, who are rowing our way through the Christian life. And we've not understood what it means to catch the wind of God's Spirit and learn to sail according to His power and not our own. What this message is about is learning how to sail and not just to row our way through life. And it's important that we get a hold of this, because if we don't, it's likely that many of us will stay in this mode. And if I were to take an informal poll, which I have done from time to time, and asked how many of you are living in a discouraged moment? How many of you are living in a season when it's really tough, that stuff just doesn't seem to be going on very well? Many of you would raise your hand. Where's my oar? Is it stashed someplace around here? Yes. This is something that many of you should carry around for a few days, just to symbolize how you're living your Christian life. And it's what it feels like. It's work. You're laboring at it. And then there's this current that's working against you. And then there's this circumstance. And then there's this breeze that comes. Friends, if you keep doing that, it's not long before the Christian life is no longer a joy. It's a hassle. And there's no joy to it. And you get up in the morning and you say, well, you know, now what is God gonna make me do? And God does not intend for you to live your Christian life that way. I want to put forth a challenge today for everyone who's been carrying an oar, trying to row your way through the Christian life, to give it up and exchange it for this new model. Let's roll it out here, guys. Let's give up on the oars and let's try sailing for a season. Shall we? Now if you're not real familiar with sailing implements, this happens to be what? What? It's a windsurfing sail. It's the kind of thing you see in those guys. They get on like a surfboard and then they hang on to this. And then I've never done that. How many of you, how many of you ever windsurf? Let me see your hands. Karen, come on. You have. I'm impressed. How many windsurfers? Okay, just a handful. But that's what this is. And then you're propelled by that wind. And so I'm gonna challenge you. If you've been carrying the oar around, you got to put it down and take up the sail. Let's look together at what that means. And let me say as we make this transition, in Acts chapter 3 there's an important principle here of scriptural interpretation I'd like us to take with us. This is for those of you who are biblically centered. Listen to this. The Bible is 75% narrative. In other words, 75% of the Bible is story narrative. And about 25% of it is didactic or doctrinal and teaching oriented. But the part that's story oriented informs us as to how to live many times. And you can draw truth out of it. In fact, it says in 2 Timothy 3.16 that all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. So when you read this passage, you could easily gloss over this and say, well, yeah, it was just a story about Peter talking to a group of Jews and it doesn't mean anything to me. And that's not true. This is a story about how to live a refreshed Christian life. The kind of Christian life that does what? So let's look and let's make sure we get that down as we move forward. Let's talk first of all here then about what it means to row. Because if you don't understand this part of it, it's likely you're going to get, you're going to miss the whole point. What does a rowing Christian do? Roman Numeral 1? A rowing Christian, that is, is a Christian who builds their life on the righteousness of self. That's your first Roman Numeral if you'll fill that in. The righteousness of self. Now, let's capture this and understand how Peter challenged this in the lives of the people that he saw. This story, as I've already recapped for you, is a story of Peter confronting this group of people who had come to see the miracle. And how do you picture Peter? He's a big fisherman, we know that. He's an outdoorsy guy, he's kind of weathered, his hands are rough. If you're a Steeler fan, he reminds me of probably what Justin Strelzik looks like. A huge guy, the beard, this big sort of imposing figure. And I picture Peter lifting up his finger and looking at these people. And we didn't read this, but let me just back you up in the text. As he says to these people, and here's exactly what he says. They said, well, who is this Jesus? And he looks at them and he says this. He said, you handed Jesus over to be killed. You disowned him before Pilate. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be released. And you killed the author of life. And I see Peter taking his finger and pointing at them. And I have a sense that in that very moment there wasn't a nodding eye in the whole place. Because folks, every once in a while, people need to know the truth about where they are. And my heart this morning is to help you see the truth. If you don't know the truth about where, if you don't know if you're rowing or sailing, you're rowing. And if you don't know where rowing is going to take you, you're not going to get rid of that oar and grab the sail. So Peter held nothing back. This was not a seeker-sensitive message. You killed him, he said. And he got their attention. But look what else he says. Now verse 17, but I know you acted out of ignorance. That's where the texts are. I know you acted out of ignorance as did your leaders. Folks, listen. Ignorance does not excuse our behavior. And as much as we might think, well, if I don't know it, I'm not accountable for it. That's not what the Bible says. In fact, Peter says, your leaders have led you astray. They acted out of ignorance and so did you, but you're all responsible. Now, who were the leaders of these people? Well, it was the Pharisees and the scribes. And what did they do? Well, they told them that righteousness came by keeping the law and doing the things that specifically were prescribed by the laws that they gave the people. Their number one sin as leaders was hypocrisy. What's hypocrisy? Telling people one thing and doing another. Hypocritical. I say this, I do that. Their number two sin were laying upon the people these laws that even the Pharisees themselves did not keep. Self-righteousness. Now, I've defined self-righteousness in a more contemporary way. This is what it means in 1996 if you'll put up that definition, Karen. Self-righteousness is the effort we make to do God's work and God's will in our own strength. Read that with me out loud, please. Self-righteousness is the effort we make to do God's work and God's will in our own strength. I'm going to ask every one of you to please tune in right now because if you miss this, the rest of the message won't matter to you. And my fear is that you'll think this is for somebody else. You see, it's very hard for me to convince many of you that you're living as a self-righteous kind of person. It need not necessarily be in an arrogant kind of a way and not a better or holier-than-thou way. It could be that you're living your life out of your own effort to do what God wants you to do. You see, the righteousness of self kind of life is the life of the unbroken soul where you've not yet come to the point of realizing that you need to surrender everything to let God carry your life. The contemplatives of old used to say there's a husk over the human soul. Until that husk is broken, you simply make efforts for God. You don't receive anything from God. And that's where many of us live. The self-righteous person has an unperceived dependence on their own way of seeing things, clinging to their own ideas about things, doing things your way because that's the way you've always done it. You did it when you grew up as a kid. Now you're doing it as an adult because that's the way you learn to do it. It's your own boundaries, your own beliefs, your own ways. And friends, it's nothing more than self-righteousness. It's a very religious thing. If I could sit down with some of you and you would tell me about your background and your history, you'd likely tell me things you've always done a certain way and now you have difficulty thinking about it in a new way. What you're doing is basically just rowing along, doing what you're supposed to do, but you're doing it out of your own strength and your own will. This husk of self-righteousness is so hard to break that even as I'm speaking today, some of you have already written off lots of reasons why I'm not talking about you. There's many of you that'll say, you know, you can't tell me how to run my life. You can't tell me how to spend my time with God or give my money or leave my family or how to worship or commit my energies or how to please God. Well, friends, all I can do is teach what the Bible says. You have to be open enough to say, God, didn't you instruct me by your word? And that humble, gentle, teachable spirit that is so essential to maturing in Christ has to be there. Isn't it interesting how difficult this is? Do you remember who was the greatest of all self-righteous people in the New Testament? Who was it? The Apostle Paul. He was, by his own declaration, he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was a law keeper of law keepers. He was the, I think he said, I kept the law without fault. That's how righteous I was. And what did Jesus have to do to get his attention? Yeah, he had to appear to him on the road to Damascus and blind him for three days and have him led along humbly and take him out to the desert and then beat him over the head with the oar for three years. Paul, it's not this way. It's faith. It's grace. It's not self-righteousness. And that's why Paul writes, and you put this on the margin of your notes, Philippians 3, that's why he said, I count all the oars, watch now, as loss for the overwhelming gain of receiving the sale of my righteousness. Church, Jesus said, don't carry through self-righteousness. Exchange it for the refreshing of my spirit. A self-righteous person may not be aware, but these are some of the characteristics, if we could just one at a time put those up, Karen. These are the kinds of things, just ask yourself, are any of these in your life right now? An independent spirit. You know, you just kind of want to do it your own way, on your own time. Number two, just run down one at a time. A lack of commitment. You find it difficult to be consistent in a commitment. Number three, a lack of transparency. When you do sit in a group, it's always surface level sharing, never the hard issues. Number four, legalistic attitudes. It's easy for you to see faults in others, but boy, is it hard to see them in your life. Number five, unaware of that condition. The strangest thing about self-righteous people is they're not aware of how they're coming across. Number six, they have few friends and fewer still converts. People don't want to be around them because they sense this legalism, this sort of criticalness. Number seven, a spirit that just comes out and finds what's wrong in the other person. And finally, the difficulty or reluctance to give or serve. Are any of those true in your life right now? If they are, just say, Lord, help me to see where I've become self-righteous and help me to be willing to exchange this. There's one other part about self-righteousness, by the way, that I've discovered about me. And this is by means of confession. You see, it may not just be trying to please God for you. It's also what you try to do for others sometimes. It's also when you try to somehow push what you want so badly for someone that you begin to make God or to take God's place in the process. How many of you want someone you love to come to Christ very badly? Let me see your hand. You see, the danger that we have is that we can want it so badly that we try to make it happen. We try to push God into the picture somehow. And so, you know, we put tracks under their pillows and into their suitcases when they travel and under their coffee mugs. And, you know, we just do whatever we can. We push, push, push, push, push. We try to make it happen. And people become very, very resistant when we do things like that. I find my own life sometimes. I want things so badly for you as a church that I push. I mean, I push too hard. And I need to understand from time to time that I've got to let go and allow the breeze of God's Spirit to carry things. Because when you push too hard, it isn't God. God just steps out and says, if you're going to push, why do I need to? And it's interesting sometimes, friends, when we let go what God can do. I had a businessman tell me on Thursday that he made a decision. He said, you know, I was pushing for business, pushing for business, going out of town. And I finally got convicted. I told my wife, I'm only going to go out, you know, he said, maybe two nights a week or whatever. And the rest of the time, I'm just going to trust God. And it was a big decision. I'm just giving you the condensed version. He said, I made that decision. He said, the next week, he said, a huge client called me from another state and said, I'd like to fly into Pittsburgh to meet with you and your company, because I think we can do business together. And he said, in that heartbeat, God showed him that if he just did what he was supposed to do and trust that God could then step up and fill. And that doesn't necessarily happen that quickly all the time, but it was an encouragement to me. Sometimes when we push, friends, we turn people away. There's an elder in this service that had an interesting experience. I think he said this past week, he was at his home and people who tend to go door to door, knocking on doors, pushing their view of religion on another person. Four of them stopped at his home. And he graciously entertained them for a couple moments. He said, well, let me, before you speak, can I tell you my perspective on God? And the four of them said, hey, four to one, no problem. Go ahead. They didn't know this elder. This elder is a determined person. And he began to share his view of grace and faith and the Lord Jesus Christ. And every time they went to interrupt, he said, no, let me give you my, I want to finish my 15 minutes. And they kept interrupting. He said, no. After a season of that, he had so stood his ground so clearly that they turned to him and said something I've never heard this particular cult of people say. They said, well, we just don't believe in the same God. And they're pushing resulted in them hopping in their car and driving off. And I say, praise God, you know, opportunities come when we're just, just ready for the spirit to move, to pick up that sale and be refreshed. Let's look at number two. What does it mean to be refreshed? Let me just quickly touch this. The word and of success in the Greek means to catch your breath again. I put it on your card there for you to catch your breath again, to be refreshed or obtain relief, receive attention or cooling fullness. The best description I can give you is this. When's the last time you had a really hard workout? Can you remember the last time you pumped, you know, a stationary bike or aerobic exercise or random, you know, maybe you just ran up the steps from the basement and got the phone. I don't know. Last time you were really out of breath though. Okay. And your lungs were filled. They were kind of burning and your heart was pumping. Well, that's maximum breathing versus how you are right now, which is stationary. And that's kind of at an unconscious level of breathing and a success is you've gone from being just sort of unconsciously breathing. You've hit your top labored breathing. And when you, and a success, you're right here, you're just now coming down and it starts to feel good. You breathe deeply and you start to fill up with air. That's what the Greek word means to be refreshed. And what the Lord is saying, there's a time when you labor, but then you catch the breath and you begin to feel, you give that sound, which is like what, what? Yeah. It's a deep, refreshing breath of air. It's the season when God says, you've been working long enough. Put up the, or let me provide the power. Let me catch your sail with my spirit and move you along. It's those times when God seems to just meet you quickly and carry you along. We're having an elder's time of prayer every Tuesday and Wednesday night for an hour. And folks, I got to tell you, when we sit down for that hour on Tuesday, I look at my watch at nine o'clock and the next time I look at my watch, it's 10 o'clock. Boom. It's like the hour goes by quickly. Why? Because the spirit of God is catching our sail and we're moving in the spirit together. Refreshing is a season where God goes before you. Contrast the characteristics of refreshing, if we could put those up, with the characteristics of self-righteousness. And this is what you'll find. In a season of refreshing, you're aware of a visitation from God. It's like the Lord's meeting you. In a season of refreshing, his presence is very real to you. Number three, it's a time when the supernatural just kind of happens in your life. Like I described in that businessman where God just arranges things. Number four, your burdens are lifted. When you're in a season of refreshing, you see, it's not that you're not holding on. It's just that it's not a labor to make progress. Number five, quietness and trust begin to characterize your journey. A profound sense, in number six, of rest and strength. Just mark down Isaiah 30, if I didn't put that on your sheet. Isaiah 30, I did. Verse 15 through 26. In quietness and trust, you will find your strength. It's a powerful scripture. Read Isaiah 30 when you go home. Verses 15 through 26. That's how the Lord wants to meet us. So how do we get there? How many candidates for refreshing do I have today? How many people say, I'd rather live with a sail than an oar? All right. How do we get there? Let me quickly close. Number one, Peter said it this way. He said, beginning verse 19, repent then and turn to God. What does it mean to repent and turn to God? Well, the word repentance, of course, has a lot of baggage. It doesn't mean necessarily wailing here at the steps of the altar. To repent, metanoia, means to change your mind. That's why I said 10 minutes ago, you've got to see how you're honestly thinking and change your mind. Change your mind. It's a change of thinking. I'm going to put down my oar. I'm going to pick up my sail. So Peter says, you've got to repent. Sometimes there's emotion. Sometimes there's not. It's just simply saying, I've been rowing God. I've been moving in my strength. I want to take up your way of doing it. I've been in charge. I'm going to give you the opportunity to be in charge. I'm no longer going to push. I'm no longer going to make it happen. I'm no longer going to row it. I'm going to trust that you're going to make it happen in my life. And then Peter says, turn to God. In the message Bible, it says, turn your face to God. Turn your face and say, God, I so want to please you with my life. Would you meet me right now? If I could give a gift to everyone in this church, it would be this verse. If you'll put up Colossians chapter 4. This is my prayer as your pastor. He's always wrestling in prayer for you that you may stand firm in the will of God, mature and fully assured. I pray that that would be true of every person that hears my voice today, that you would know you're in the will of God for your life, that you're maturing in your love for Christ, and that you're fully assured that when you stand before Christ on that judgment day, that you will be received into heaven's gates and spend eternity with Christ. But friends, that will only happen if you can have the courage to turn your face to God and say, Lord, help me to lift my sail and catch the breeze of your spirit. And I want to conclude today by sharing with you, and this will just take four or five more minutes, how to lift your sail every day. Flip your cart over. How to lift your sail every day. You see, for those of you who think, well, you know, Pastor Jay, it's more than me just giving up, isn't it? And the answer is yes. God says, I want to be able to do some things in your life, but you've got to cooperate with my grace. Let me share with you what's helped me very much over the last 10 years of my walk with the Lord. And it started when I began to understand the problem that many of you told me about is having time. When I got your prayer request on my study break, many of you said to me, pray that I have more time with God. I don't have time with God. My time with God is dry. Well, where's the time? And the Lord helped me to see that we could manage this, this putting up the sail process. If you would give the Lord one 96th of your day, this is 1996. Can you remember this now? One 96th of your day. Now, accountants, how much is one 96th of the day? 15 minutes. How many of you would say, if you call Jesus Christ your Savior and Lord, he's worthy of 1% of your day? Focus the attention. Now, it's kind of scary when you think of it that way, isn't it? How many of us will fritter away 15 minute periods just like that? Now, I'm not saying this is all you have to give the Lord, but I'm saying if you'll give God 15 minutes a day to lift your sail, you'll catch the wind. Because friends, there is a wind in this church that's beginning to blow right now. It's a refreshing wind. Here's how I would recommend that you do it. Number one, find a quiet place and lift yourself by first of all, coming in a spirit of praise and put that first overhead, put praise or the first blank on that side. Come in praise and write five minutes next to that. It takes about five minutes of focused praise just to get your heartbeat in the spirit of the Lord. And I've patterned this after the Lord's prayer when Jesus said, prayed this way, Heavenly Father or our Father who art in heaven, hallowed or I worship your name. Now, look at this card, these names. And I spend the first five minutes of my sail raising time doing this. I say, Lord, I worship your name and say it with me, Jehovah Sidkenu, say it, Jehovah Sidkenu or Jehovah my righteousness. Well, look at that. The first thing I praise him for is not self-righteousness, but he's my righteousness. And then I praise him as Jehovah Makedesh, say that with me, Jehovah Makedesh. You're the God who sanctifies or makes me holy. And you see, I begin to praise him in the morning. I lift my sail and say, Lord, thank you that by virtue of your blood being shed for me, my sins are forgiven, that you're my righteousness and you're my holiness. And then I praise him as my peace, Jehovah Shalom. You're my peace and you're the God who is there. You're Jehovah Shammah. And that's the God whose spirit fills me day by day, moment by moment. Then I praise him as Jehovah Rophe, my healer. How many of you need healing? Well, see, every morning as I raise my sail, I thank him that he's my healer. I look to him to be the one that's going to restore me in every part of my body. And then I worship him as Jehovah Jireh, my provider. And I praise his name. You see, that's his name. Look at the banners on the sides of the walls. Those are all his names. In the Hebrew, Jehovah Yireh means the God who sees. Jireh, the one who sees your need and is committed to meeting him. And then I worship him as Jehovah Nissi, my banner or the one who goes before me in battle, and Jehovah Rohi, my shepherd. Now, friends, there's 220 names. Many of you have Bibles with all the names of God. But if you just take those eight covenant names and spend five minutes hallowing those names, can I tell you, your sail starts to go up and you start to sense the spirit. And, you know, I've spent many mornings, hundreds of mornings, I'll spend 20 or 30 minutes and not get past those names because I catch the sail and God will just remind me of different things that he is by his name. And then I praise the name of Jesus because he's the name above all names. And I worship him. And then I go on number two. The second part of my five minutes or 15 minute section is to proclaim his kingdom. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. I pray that in my own life. I say, Lord, let your peace and joy and fullness rule in me. And then I pray for Carol and then Amy and Jonathan and David and all my extended family. And then I pray for the church and the fellow pastors and elders and leaders and all of you that God brings to my mind. And then I pray for the hundreds and thousands of people around us who are not Christians, that they would know the kingdom of God in their life. Now, can you see how my sales are going up? Because I'm starting to get really excited about God's spirit moving through me to touch the community around me. And then I pray for the nation and the world. And I ask God to move by his spirit throughout this country and around the world and pray for our missionaries. And then number three, I petition the Lord. Roman numeral three, I petition him for five minutes. Now, again, five minutes isn't much time, but if you'll just give him five minutes on each of these, you ask him for his spirit to fill you and for his grace to provide strength, to be open to all the provision you need and then to be forgiving toward others. And then it's very important to just start every day by putting on that full armor of God from Ephesians 6, 10 through 18. Clip it all on. And then you're ready to go out in the day. And folks, you got this sail in your hands. And when the spirit lifts, that breeze will carry you on and life will no longer be a hassle rowing your way through choppy seas. It will be a delight because the spirit will catch you up. My heart today is to say, how many people are ready to pick up a sail? Let me see your hand. Well, here's what I'm going to ask you to do more than just nod at that and say, well, I really would like to, I'm going to ask you to make a commitment today to say, Lord, I'm committing myself to lift my sail each and every day. There's a brother standing here today that shared with us recently in a group meeting. He said, you know, I've been giving God 30 minutes in the morning and it's changing my life. He's kind of doubled the time I've just given you. And by the way, if you have a few more moments, there's two other things I'll recommend to you. The second thing after prayer comes reading in the word of God. If you have a few more moments, use your chain links. Pastor Dave puts in there a Bible reading for every day. If you read that, you'll read the whole Bible in a year and then use your journal and just jot down what God's been teaching you. And friends, that time will begin to lift your life to a whole new point. If you're willing to say, God, beginning today, I'm going to lift my sail. I want you to