How to Be Refreshed and Renewed

If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Acts 3, Acts 3, verse 11, Acts 3, verse 11, How to be Refreshed and Renewed is the title of the message. How to be Refreshed and Renewed, because a lot of times Christians need to be refreshed and renewed. It's going to go with the calling.

You're going to get disappointed, you're going to get discouraged, sometimes feel beat down, but you need to be refreshed and renewed often. And there are many ways to be refreshed and renewed. I've talked about them often.

That was my experience at Hulme Lake, was very, very tiring, but very refreshing and renewing. But there's one way that I think supersedes all other ways, and we're going to get to that as we read through the book of Acts, beginning in verse 11. And last week we talked about the lame man being healed.

Now verse 11, Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch, which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed. So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people, Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this, or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or our own godliness we made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our father, saying he knew the right God, glorified his servant Jesus Christ, whom you delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. Pilate was actually determined to let Jesus go.

I find no fault in this man, but the people, the people wanted him to be killed. Now this is interesting here, there at Solomon's porch, I think we have a picture up there, I sent it out this morning. I think Susie was able to upload it.

That's kind of a replica of the Solomon's porch area, and if I had some time I could explain a lot of it. There's what's the inner court, the outer court, the Holy of Holies is inside that actual building, and there's an inner court, there's an outer court where actually the Gentiles were allowed. They could not go into the the temple area itself, but if you see those pillars around here, it actually built this porch around this this Temple Mount area, not Temple Mount, but the temple area, and the east wall was called Solomon's porch, and Jesus actually, I believe it was in, I wrote it down this morning, John 10 23, Christ taught there, and actually the early church met there in Acts 5. So Gentiles were no doubt present in the Solomon's porch area, they just could not go into the inner court, the outer court, obviously not the Holy of Holies, that was where the priest could go once a year to make atonement for the sins of the people.

So my point is, because a lot of times we think, we forget about the audience, and at least in my opinion, Peter here is talking, there's Jews, there's Gentiles, there was Gentiles in the audience yelling, give us, grab us, get rid of Jesus, there was Jews as well, it's a mixed crowd here that he's talking to. And it's interesting, I was deciding on whether to go back and forth on this, but a lot of this now is coming out. There's a pastor recently on Oprah, there's a Christian author, a female Christian author that eventually, her publisher just pulled her books because she was getting a little unorthodox and saying things that really don't line up with the Christian faith, and they'll often say something like this, Jesus was a friend of sinners, and therefore our goal is to be a friend of sinners, and therefore not offend anybody.

Now, this could be a whole sermon, but I've got to say this, a friend of sinners does not mean that all sinners like you. Sinners hated Jesus, the ones who didn't repent and believe, the one who didn't, those who didn't, he rebuked entire cities, and they did not repent. Now, to qualify that, sinners were gravitated toward Jesus.

They loved him because he spoke truth to them, he helped them, he healed them, he restored them. So we see sinners coming to Jesus, loving to be around him, but we see sinners also hating him, and not wanting to be around him. Remember the scripture that talks about that if the world hated you, they're going, they're hating me, they're going to hate you as well.

And so there's this view in Christianity, and I hear it sometimes, that Shane, we just need to be a friend of sinners. Right, but when I try to be a friend of sinners, love them, tell them the truth, some of those sinners are going to hate me. The sinners that will love you are the ones who appreciate you telling the truth, and they're open for the truth.

Also, a friend of sinners does not mean that Jesus approved of their lifestyle. To be a friend of a sinner doesn't mean you approve of their lifestyle, it means you love them in that lifestyle. And that word friend of sinners comes from the passage where Jesus was actually healing people, setting people free, and the religious leaders came to him, said you're just a drunkard and a friend of sinners.

Meaning he was with the sinners, and that's where we need to go to. We need to go to the sinners. But that doesn't mean that we can change the message to accommodate that person.

So that's what's happening. This person on Oprah recently was, I mean he'll quote, Jesus is the only way, the only truth, the only life, and then he forgets the other half. Nobody can come through to the Father except through him, and they'll avoid these things like sin, and the blood of Jesus, and the cross, you know we just, Shane, we got to be a friend.

No, that's not a friend of sinners, that's a coward. Because to be a friend of sinners is you come alongside, you love them, and you encourage them, but you also help point them to the truth. So I found that, I've got, right now I'm Facebooking too, right now one is a friend of mine.

I helped more than any other person in the history of when I worked at 24 Hour Fitness. He was African-American, still good friend of mine, lives about an hour from here, and he's really saying some harsh things on Facebook about things, coming election or different things. I reached out, hey I'd love to talk with you.

He goes, hey is this Shane? I'd love to meet with you, talk. So I'm reaching out there. I've got my best friend from high school reaching out too, and he knows where I stand, but you're reaching out.

How can I encourage? How can I help? He's going through a significant problem, and I'm reaching out, but they know right where I stand. Now there's other people though that hate where I stand, and they'll let me know. So we can't go, am I pleasing this person? Am I pleasing, and I've struggled.

I opened up at Hume Lake about this with a lot of the men that were there, and there's a lot of pastors in the audience I didn't know as well, but that really helped them, is my flesh or the way I was raised is to be a people pleaser. My dad, you know, not giving me much affirmation, never saying I loved you, and never, daddy, am I pleasing you? Am I pleasing you? I'm being good in sports, I'm cleaning my, I'm pleasing, I'm pleasing you. That's affirmation.

Whether you believe in the five languages or not, that's probably one of mine. You know, it's positive affirmation because I never got a lot of it from my father. So now you come to the pulpit with that? Oh, you better leave that at home, because that's not gonna fly.

To try to please men, you cannot please God. It's impossible to please men, the world in general, and God. You can't.

So what you do is you're filled with the Spirit, you're filled with love and joy and compassion, but you speak the truth. So sinners that, you know what, I do need to hear that. They love Jesus.

Those who didn't, they didn't love Jesus. They didn't like what He said. He rebuked entire cities because of their unbelief.

Bethesda, Corzine, it's gonna be better for you on the Day of Judgment than all Tyre, Sidon. It's gonna be better for you on the Day of Judgment than these other cities, because they did not repent. So there's a, there's just, I want to just clarify the error, the nonsense that Jesus was a friend of sinners means that He, some sinners didn't feel comfortable around Him.

Some sinners ran the other direction, but a lot of them did because He was, He was, it was like a magnet of love and compassion and mercy, and that's what I think we should be. Love and compassion, just as, I don't like what He's saying, but He's such a nice guy, I can't hate Him. You know, and that's, that's what we're seeing here in this, this setting.

That Peter is speaking to all this, this group of people. The statement, He didn't make sinners feel bad, is nonsense. He gave them hope, and He showed them how to be saved.

That was, that's really the way for an unbeliever, the best way for an unbeliever is how to be refreshed and renewed, is to find salvation in Christ alone. Those songs, unbelievable this morning. I just, in Christ alone, that one has been a favorite of mine, because that's the solid rock, and then hell has been defeated.

My resurrected King has rendered you defeated, and we're supposed to walk in that victory, not defeat. The miracle, we see here, the miracle, men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? So Peter and John, if we fast forward, actually rewind, they said silver and gold, I don't have, but what I do give you, I give you in the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. And there was a miracle that took place, and the miracle opened the door for Peter to speak to this audience.

And that's why, this could be a whole other side note, so I'm gonna hurry up and not stay on it too long, but this is one reason why there are groups divided on signs and wonders and miracles today, is they'll say it was only for the New Testament church to prove the authenticity of the gospel. And that's true, absolutely true. You don't see too many people walking by in their shadow here healing people, or a handkerchief of Paul falling, but it doesn't mean that God still doesn't heal and do signs and wonders today, especially if you read a lot of books on the mission field, you'll be absolutely convinced that the power of the Holy Spirit is still evident today.

Absolutely evident, unless tons of missionaries are lying. These people have given their life for the gospel, given up family, friends, and they're just lying, right? I mean, come on. So that's why there's a divide, because you see that the signs and wonders were given to authenticate who Christ was.

I am the Son of God, bam, healed, delivered, set free. There's no confusing if this was really the Messiah. But this miracle opened the door for Peter to speak.

So Peter used this miracle, he says, okay, he's healed, let's just go home. He used this miracle to speak, and I often wonder what doors is God opening that allows us to speak into the lives of people? And if you're careful and watchful, God will open doors, and often we don't like those doors, but He'll open those doors for us to speak to people. I want to give you a wonderful example.

Yesterday, as I told you, I got up at 4 in the morning, left at 4.45, got down from Hulme Lake to Chatsworth, not a quick drive. So I get there, and I'm texting my wife, okay, I'll stay for the service. I'm not speaking, I'm just there at 11.

I'll leave at 12, have some earplugs ready. Or if you guys want to run errands for two hours, I'm okay with it. Earplugs, when you have four kids, you need earplugs to take a nap.

That's where I'm going with this, right? So I'm out, Susie remembers, I was back by the door and greeting the family, and then Glenn, whose wife passed away, said, hey Shane, my friend's here, dying of cancer in a wheelchair. Would you mind helping him get in his car, and then also following him to the gravesite, and get him out and help him there, and then also take him to the restaurant afterwards, make sure he's, you know, okay. And I'm like, well, sure, I can do that.

And I'm just, I'm following them, driving to, I'm like, God, you are so funny. You are just, you know. But I was refreshed.

I was happy to do that. The person didn't know who I was, carrying him, lifting him, so I was, didn't get home till around four o'clock. And come to find out, he's not in a good relationship with God.

So I was able to give him a book, and they told me thank you ten times, him and his wife, and getting them, serving them, as they're serving them. Now Shane, you're so holy. No, I'm not.

My flesh was thinking, nap time, nap time, nap time. And, but God opened that door, because he doesn't have a lot of time. And I want to stay in communication with him.

And, and, and God is opening that door. Now he's got 666 in his email, just to tell you. And I didn't even, can I even email somebody with that email? I mean, can I even write that? I have a hard time, you know.

It's like, I can't, I don't know if I can send this email. I don't know if I can follow up, you know. But of course, I'm being facetious.

Of course I can. I'm not, now if I got that number on my license plate, I would be the first to the DMV. And I would say, whatever you need to do, change that number.

I don't want that number anywhere around me. But it's, God will put those people, but you have to be open. I could say, oh man, I really have to get back.

For what? To sleep. I mean, that's, that doesn't work. So God opens those doors.

And again, I, I often don't like to use examples, because people think, oh man, I'm chained. So I'm, my flesh was not happy at first. But you see, this flesh submits to you.

Fortunately, at Hume Lake, the opposite was happening. I was, I actually didn't go up to speak until almost eight o'clock at night on two of the nights. I'm not used to that.

I get back after 10. But I'm ministering to guys afterward for half, we miss, I miss dinner and lunch each time. Because of staying there, ministering, fasting, I brought some fruit and some, just some nuts.

And it was, it's amazing. Once you starve that flesh, and he fights for a little bit, but then you can feel the Spirit of God coming upon, and God is changing people on the drive back. So he prepared me for this as well.

The flesh was in submission. And it's ready to come back and rear its ugly head. So it's all about submitting to the work of God and fasting and praying.

Concepts we don't hear about much anymore. That's going to be our arsenal. Are you aware of that? Fasting and praying and seeking God.

On that note, at Hope Chapel, where we used to meet, that must mean one of my kids are in trouble. So, so at Hope Chapel, Monday night, the seventh, the day before the elections, there's, we're going to have a prayer, time of prayer there. Monday at seven, if you can be there, I might give just a quick little encouragement.

So I don't know if there's worship there, I just found out. 7pm Monday. And I would encourage you though, those who can make it, make it.

I don't know what will result. I'm not endorsing or not endorsing. I just, it's a prayer time for Christians, and sometimes that gets loud.

And sometimes we're contending. And I want to just throw that out there. Monday at seven, if you need more information, we can give it to you.

But that's where we're going to see a difference. And that's where a lot of the men who came up at Hume Lake were open, that they don't have a prayer life. They don't fast.

They're addicted. The numbers of men now addicted to pornography is amazing and startling, and women. We are not, when I read the Bible, I see the seriousness of sin.

The church now sees it as some little thing that, well, you know, it's something I'd struggle with, but it's not that big a deal. But the Bible says it's a really big deal. I mean, when Jesus says cut out your eye or your arm if it's causing you to sin.

If a little, if a man leads a little child into sin, it's better for that man to have never been born, or for a millstone to hung around his neck and cast into the sea than to ever lead one of these little ones astray. There's some seriousness about that, and we need to address this topic with the seriousness that God addresses it. Now back to this.

The miracle opened the door for Peter to speak. And what door is God opening for you? I want to encourage you to get involved in our hospital home ministry, where we go and we visit people in these hospital homes. And I really promote this a lot because we've seen just as many salvations and changed lives there than here.

And people, every time I go there, there's not a time I don't go there that God is not moving in this way, because you're going out of your comfort zone. You're going into a difficult environment. It's not fun.

But you walk into that, and God will open amazing doors. We forget that faith isn't just a belief. Faith has feet.

I don't just sit at home and kumbaya my lord. God says good worship, now go out and do something, and put feet on our faith. And then he said, not their power or their godliness.

Not their power or their godliness. Sometimes we think that, and I talked about this already in the sermon a few weeks ago, not by my power but God's power. It's things that we do for God are not through my power, my strength.

It's submitting and being the vessel that he can use. But it's interesting, they also said, not by my, our power, but or by my, or our godliness. And this is interesting because Christians often think, and I'm gonna be careful here, the more godly I am, the more, the better I am.

The more spiritual I am, the more I'm tuned with the Holy Spirit, and I'm just so godly and you're not. And we have this, now I can just walk through doors, and I can go to the hospitals and heal people. But the godliness is never meant for self-exaltation.

Godliness is meant to draw me closer to Christ so I can be filled with the Spirit and then operate in his power. And people forget that about obedience. I really got this point clear with the men there, and I've got it real clear here before, that this concept of obedience as, you know, I'm spiritual, I'm better, I have to do this, you know, it's obedience.

I love God so I have to obey him. And this concept of grace, that by grace I can sin more, Paul said absolutely not. Grace, because of grace I actually live under a higher standard.

Because of grace, because I want to please God, I want to follow his rules, what some people call it. I call it guardrails. Do we want them to remove the guardrails on Goaty Pass? Just take them off and let's widen the street right to the edge.

Why? Well, they're guardrails, Shane, that's exactly what God's laws are. And people get upset at me, Shane, you're legalistic, you're mean, you're throwing all the stuff on people. No, the Bible says put on this, take off this, be obedient here, flee from sexual desires, make no provision for the flesh, put these things in your mind, be not conformed to the world but be transformed, put on the armor of God, all these things of obedience.

Why? To draw us closer to God and fill us with the Spirit because it's warfare. This is warfare, guys. We're not here playing church, we have to take this seriously.

We are in a battle. Oh, I don't know about that, Shane. Well, you're in the battle whether you know about that or not.

You are in it and you're probably losing if you don't think it's a spiritual battle. So it wasn't by their power or their godliness. But when it comes to godliness and obedience, the more I surrender and submit to God's laws and obey them, then from that comes the Spirit's power.

Again, I really want to clarify that. There's nobody operating in the power of God, whether it's a preacher, pastor, teacher, preaching with the anointing of God, seeing lives change, and all these other things that have not submitted this area and are trying to follow what God is doing. Obedience comes with power because it's the Spirit's power working through us.

Verse 14, but you denied the Holy One. So Peter just put out this whole case. Jesus, who you crucified, Pilate was going to let him go, but you crucified him.

You denied the Holy One and the Just One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and killed the Prince of Life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. In His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes from Him has given Him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

The Holy One, the One set apart. It's interesting, people are confused. A Holy Spirit, they don't know what that means.

Sometimes it's like this floating, you know, gas or something. The Holy Spirit just tells me what kind of spirit He is, because you can have a deceiving spirit, you can have a lying spirit, you can have these different kinds of spirit. The Holy Spirit tells me that is holy and set apart.

He's a part of the triune nature of God, the Holy Spirit. And Jesus being the Holy One, the One set apart, the Messiah. That's why there's different names for Jesus.

Messiah, He came to save His people. Savior, to save His people. The Anointed One, He was anointed by God.

And that's why He has so many different names in the Bible, because He took on all those different things. The Alpha, the Omega, the Beginning and the End. He's actually my Sabbath rest, and Him I rest from my labors.

He is the Prince. He is the Lion from the tribe of Judah. He is all these, He's an ever-present help in time of need.

He's my strong tower. The Bible understood, and the Old Testament writers understood, as they moved into the New Testament, they gave Him all these names, that He is everything. That encompasses who God is.

The Just One, the Holy One that took our place, the Prince of Life. There's abundant life in Christ, and people need to start getting a little bit more excited about who He is and what He's done. And the problem, many times we don't rewind 2,000 years and remember the cross, remember what He went through because of me.

See, the Bible is interesting. It first condemns me before it releases me. Read scriptures, it will condemn you, and then it releases you.

It will break you, and then it restores you. That's the point of the Gospel. Verse 17, Yet now, brethren, I know that you did this in ignorance, as also your rulers.

But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. He's telling the people, you were ignorant. You didn't know exactly what you're doing.

But guess what? Now you do. He just laid it out. Now you have a choice to make.

And that's what we do often when we preach. People are ignorant to the Gospel. They have no clue.

But once you present that truth, now they have the responsibility to respond accordingly to that truth. Ignorant. You know what that means, right? A lack of knowledge, a lack of information.

These people did it in ignorance. And then verse 19. So Peter, so what's the solution? Repent.

Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Basically, bam, no more excuses. No more excuses.

Refreshing, energizing. That's what happens when repentance takes place. From Cain to Abel to Noah, from Kings, prophets, and priests, from the New Testament to the book of Revelation.

Repentance. That's what brings the refreshing and the renewal. If you go all the way to Revelation, all the way at the end of the Bible, all those who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

What are they doing? Repenting. Cain. Cain killed his brother.

God said, listen, sin is knocking at the door. Actually, it's crouching at the door ready to jump in. It's ready to.

But had you done what is right? Had you repent? Noah, what was he telling the people to do? Repent. What were all the prophets throughout all the Old Testament, the majority of them, telling the people to do? Repent. That's how times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord.

And that's why I said first the Bible condemns you before it releases. See, it condemns me, I repent, it releases me. It sentenced me to death.

It sentenced me. Then I repent, then it pardons me. You see how this works? Then the gospel breaks me.

It tells me who I am, and then it begins to restore me. That is how there's refreshingness. Refreshing, I don't know if that's a word.

But to get refreshed, you have to. That's why I love repentance. I say, well, Shane, I've repented.

Yeah, but we still need to repent from some things. I know people who are miserable in their Christian faith because they have not repented. They've repented for salvation, but they have not repented for bitterness, and arrogance, and unforgiveness.

And we walk around, we're miserable. We just hate life, and I just don't know what's wrong. And when we repent from these things, times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord.

Those of you with your Greek Bibles, go back and look up, or the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, or just now you can just go online. It's so easy. Look at that word, times of refreshing.

Look what the Greek word means. It's actually revival. Revival.

Revival will break out. We love, we talk about big revivals. What about little revivals? When a soul comes to knowledge in Christ, and they repent, and revival takes place.

See, we can talk to people who are dead, and they're dying. They are depressed. They are suicidal.

I can't tell you how many people I pray for that are suicidal. They just walk around, and many times, if they're not a believer, it's because they haven't repented. And often, they think they have repented.

When I was a little kid, I think I became part of the church. That's not repentance. Repentance is acknowledging, God, I'm a sinner.

I've never truly repented. You'd be amazed at the people who have never truly repented. You would be amazed.

One guy actually came up for prayer, and he said, I'm praying for this guy this week, and I wish I remember his name. You can pray for him too. But he came up, and he ran up for prayer, and I was in the back.

I've never had some kind of, you can tell, I gotta pray. Every time he said, Jesus, I just wince. Because I was talking about, there's no other name that can save.

Every knee will bow, and every tongue will. He was just wincing, and he's like, I just, when you said there's so much power, even demons tremble. I had to come up for prayer, and I said, young man, do you want to accept Christ as Lord and Savior and repent today? That's what we need to pray for.

He goes, no, I don't. And he goes, see, see, that's my problem. That's my problem.

I can't. I go, no, the problem is there's demonic influence that is stopping you. You don't want that.

The enemy doesn't want that. So your struggle is, you see your need for a Savior, but do you really want it? So you can't just have good thoughts, and positive thoughts, and hope for it. That young man had to repent.

And all I could do after the conversation is pray, and pray that God would convict him, and draw him this weekend, and he would give his heart to the Lord. But isn't it true? I've never seen anything like that before. He ran.

He knows he needs it. Can you imagine that? You get up. You're 50 feet away.

You run. It's kind of like, I got to, I need, I pray. Every time he's, I need Jesus, and I know, but I'm wincing, and I can't.

I just, it's just like, okay, lay it out. No, I don't want that. I mean, it was just straight up.

I straight asked him. No was not even on my radar. I, no, really? Well, this hasn't happened in a while.

Hmm. So I said, Lord, you just got to help me with this prayer, and I prayed, and that you convict him, that you save him. Show him your grace.

Show him your love. Your sins are forgiven. If he acknowledges your son, he needs to repent of these.

He gave me a big hug, and walked away. Boy, there's a struggle there. Because on one hand, if the enemy's there, and they're not coming for prayer, they're definitely not giving me a hug.

What they're giving me is this, or now it's pepper spray, right? That, but this, this turmoil. What would it, what, and no doubt hooked on something. What would have changed that? What, this man who came, that was what was hard for me.

He came for refreshing, and renewal. He came for revival. He came, I need answers.

I need something, and there it is. It's this one little word. It's this one little tiny word that has enormous consequences.

Repent. Repent, and believe in the gospel. Bow your knee right now to Jesus Christ.

Give up everything for him. Repent, and then to say no. That's how powerful this word is.

That's what is the hope for the nation. That's what the hope is for churches. It's this word, that's where you get refreshing, and renewal, and that's what's so hard for me.

I don't want to belabor this point, but the hardest part about pastoring, the hardest part bar none, is to watch people die spiritually. They're dying spiritually right before our eyes, and all you say is drink of the living water, drink of the living water. You're bound in iniquity.

I'm even not talking about people, unbelievers. I'm talking about believers. They're dying.

They're dying. They're depressed. They're sorrowful.

They don't have the passion of God. The Bible's boring. They hate everything to do with church, but they'll come just because they're supposed to, and they're dying spiritually.

And I just take of the living water. Christ spoke of take of the living water. There's always something sometimes we need to repent of, but they don't want to.

They don't want to release those, whether it's anger, or bitterness, or unforgiveness, or lust, or now we call them besetting sins. Yeah, I guess I have to live with this. No, you don't.

One verse after church, just give me one verse that says we just live with that besetting sin, because actually what happens is a besetting sin, let me clarify, this is a sin that a believer is struggling with. Have you ever been that? You just can't. I just can't defeat this.

I just can't. I prayed. I've even fasted, Shane.

I've come to you. I just can't beat that. I fall back into this besetting sin.

Well, a besetting sin then becomes a stronghold, and that's where the enemy will continually beat you up. And he'll go to that area, that stronghold that has begun to work in your life, and he'll continue to harass you in that area. And sometimes those sins don't come out easily.

This kind cometh not out but by prayer and fasting. Now some people say, well that verse isn't in some of the other manuscripts, but if you look at the fathers of the church, early church fathers, many of them quoted and referenced that verse, that there's some type, sometimes there's a stronghold of besetting sin that's not going to go out easily. There's going to be travail.

There's going to be weeping. There's going to be seeking God. There's going to be in His Word.

There's going to be fasting, because you're doing battle. You think the enemy just wants that stronghold to go easily? He doesn't. That's why repentance is so important.

It gets the heart right. Lord, I'm sorry. You know it's okay to say this.

Lord, I'm sorry. I have jealousy and envy in my heart. I'm repenting.

I just, I'm struggling with all these different issues, and I'm repenting. I'm struggling with unforgiveness and bitterness. There's people, there's believers I hate.

I hate them. God, and you bring it to the cross and you repent. Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord.

You cannot hold these things in and be a Christian filled with the joy and power of the Holy Spirit. It's impossible. It's impossible.

Most secular psychologists recognize that guilt is a major cause of depression. Did you know that? That if you could just get rid of guilt, that many people will be set free of what they're struggling with. And we have a person who has set everybody, should have set us completely free of guilt and shame, because he paid the price.

Every burden of sin, and one of the songs we sang, it just made me think, every, the curse, every curse was put on his shoulders. Everything. So we walk in freedom, and then the enemy brings up the shame.

I walk in, either Christ paid it all or it didn't. It either paid it all, or he either paid it all or didn't. But I want to talk to you, before I let you go, about how to be refreshed and renewed.

Just a couple scriptures, because this is so vital. This is so vital. Even I saw it in Hume, like so many men are just dying spiritually.

They're dying spiritually. And we see it here, we're just, what, I mean, you read the book of Acts, you say, well, that was for them, brother. I don't think so.

It was, it's for us to experience that. Now, I have some thoughts that they didn't have Facebook and media and all kinds of garbage back then. And you can, I mean, can you imagine? No correspondence whatsoever, no TV, no Facebook, just go out, walk in the wilderness, seek God.

No lust, you'd have to go drive somewhere. No envy, no greed, no, what's Beyonce doing? What's going on with Brad and Jolie? I mean, what's going on? And then you read this thread, and it turns into that thread, and then three hours later, you're like, why am I doing this? Hillary's taking our guns, Trump's gonna start World War III. But see, they didn't have any of that.

So I truly believe it's a much bigger challenge for us today to separate from the world and be filled with the Spirit of God. We have so many distractions. But on the flip side, we have, look at the advantage.

YouTube, radio, getting the message out. And it's amazing. I just, and I don't say this to toot anybody's horn, but what God has done through Westside, there are literally tens of thousands of listeners per month hearing what I'm talking to you about.

Where does that come from? But where does that come from? Because I think of that, and I get nervous. I mean, I see a camera going, people like, uh-oh, you know, it's, I just gotta just forget about all that. But where does it come from? God says, I want to do this.

I found a church, and the leadership of the church, those who attend, who want to give support and submit to what God wants to do. So he gets his messages out there. So all these things that can be a curse are also meant to be a blessing.

Now, I don't want to just leave you hanging with that. How to be refreshed and renewed. Jeremiah 31 25, I will refresh the weary, and I will satisfy the faint.

God says, I will refresh the weary, and I will satisfy the faint. Here's what we do. We sit here and go, huh, I believe it.

I promise. But read it in context. What do you have? There's always something on our part.

I will seek God. I will put him first. One thing have I desired, David said.

One thing have I desired, that I dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. That's all I desire. That's what I'm going to seek.

And as I seek him, I will be refreshed from my weariness, and I will be satisfied as I seek him. See, we can't continue in sin and all this stuff and try to get God in on Sunday and expect to be refreshed and renewed. The context is very important.

Isaiah 40 31, but those who hope in the Lord, you know this one. I love the other translation. Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.

They will mount up like wings like eagles, and they will walk and not grow weary. They will run and not faint. Those who wait upon the Lord.

See, it's always the position, and I joke about this a lot, but I am deadly serious. You want to be filled with the Spirit of God? You want to get rid of a lot of this weariness and be refreshed and renewed? Then take a break from the media. There's nothing wrong with grabbing this big TV, putting it out in the garage for a month.

Facebook, you can unsubscribe from Facebook for two weeks, and it'll save your profile. Trust me, I've done it many times. And I'm not, I don't, oh Shane, you're getting, no, I'm against things that draw people away from the Lord.

Now if you can monitor and use it wisely now and then, of course, but for the most part, we know these areas. And as I said to the men there, the sad state of our church and our families is that usually the average man will spend seven to eight minutes a week of quality undisrupted time with their children, but 35 hours on TV. Shane, are you sure? Come on, you must have missed some numbers in there.

Guys, eight minutes, not eight hours. Eight minutes of quality time with their kids a week, uninterrupted. Because I can sit there and go, uh-huh, uh-huh, mm-hmm.

Oh, you're learning guitar? That's great. Play something. Mm-hmm.

Girl, they're not standing for the National Anthem again. Those Broncos. Uh-huh.

Wife wants me to fix something. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. But that's not quality time.

Quality time is where you take them, you spend time with them, you listen, and 35 hours for the world and eight minutes at home. We wonder, why, Shane, what's going on? I'll tell you what's going on. You better wake up and realize this is warfare.

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. You've got to go against the flesh and pray and seek God. If you, if you seek Him with all of your heart, you will find Him.

Those who wait upon the Lord, those who hope on the Lord, will renew their strength. That's why many people are miserable. They're not seeking God with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their strength.

Matthew 11, 29, Jesus says, take my yoke upon me. Guess what? There's an action word again. The verb, pretense, all these things.

You are taking, you're taking the yoke, take my yoke upon you. And these yoke, oxen would have these big yokes, wood yokes. I don't know what they weigh, probably a couple hundred pounds.

They would be tied to the plow, and these oxen would pull the yoke and till the land. So Jesus says, take my yoke upon you. Meaning, I don't, I just, I let Him carry my load.

I let Him do those things. And people ask me, it often happens when I speak about, you know, you realize someday, don't you, that the First Amendment, they're going after pastors first. Yes, I do.

I understand where we are going quickly. But what I have to do is take that yoke. Christ, you pull me.

You pull me through this. If I'm going to jail, I hope it's once my kids are raised, at least. That's my prayer.

So if I can get caught up and worry, I have to put His yoke upon me. That's how I'm refreshed and renewed. I mean, we think that if a Christian, you're gonna be popular.

The most powerful preacher that ever lived, John the Baptist, was beheaded. And we think we're gonna have our best life now? You see, you have to train your kids, train your family for warfare. Pray for hope.

Pray for peace. I love it. Thank God for it.

Times are refreshing. But also prepare for the enemy. Prepare that things will get more difficult.

That's one of my pet peeves about the rapture. It's like, we're gonna be out of here when it all gets bad. We're gone.

We're just gone, you know? Really. Do you know that many people don't believe in the rapture? And that we don't know. And people ask me, brother, the ends are coming.

Aren't you excited? Well, I've got four kids to raise. I'm married. I've got a church to lead.

That's what my focus needs to be. Yes, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Please.

Please. I hope it's true. But if it's not, I'm prepared.

Because we know he's coming again. We know he's coming again. There's no way around it.

John saw heaven open, and he saw that white horse. And who sat on that white horse? He who had a crown of thorns and eyes of fire, and out of his mouth was a sharp sword. And he will tread the the winepress and the fiercest and wrath of God.

And the angels of heaven will follow after him. So there goes your Jesus as a pacifist. Turn the other cheek, just gentle.

When he comes back, like, and see this is interesting. You can't shoot him. You can't get your AR.

You can't nothing. There's nothing that's going to happen. When a sharp sword comes out of his mouth, he's going to level the playing field.

He's going to tread the winepress and fierce and wrath of Almighty God. He's going to bring the wrath of God on an unforgiving, disregarding society that mocks God's truth. So he's coming again.

But as he's coming again, we've got to be prepared. You might not be out of here in a couple days, or a couple weeks, or a couple years. You might go through hell on earth.

I don't know. I pray for it. People, oh, we're leaving Sunday morning.

We're so discouraged. No, back to this. You take his yoke upon you, and you learn from him.

He's gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. And it's interesting thing about this idea of fear. If you fear the right things, it can be good.

If you fear that your wife might walk out on you, you might change the way you act. If you fear that your husband might, you might change the way you act. If you fear financial collapse, you might invest more wisely.

If you fear that you're not, you're losing all your money, then you might stop spending like a drunk sailor on furlough in Hawaii. You might, see, the fear can be good. Often, many of you know, I was a heavy equipment operator digging throughout the valley, and any time it would say, I would call underground service alert.

They would come, and they would mark the area where I'm digging. And any time I saw HP in yellow, hmm, I do not like that. High-pressure gas line, that's not good.

Or Verizon, fiber optics, $10,000 a minute to fix it when you break it, or $1,000, their prices were astronomical. So I would fear that. Now, who's gonna say, oh, that's not good? That's the kind of fear we have for God, that reverence and a respect for who he is.

I respect 12,000 volts of electricity. I respect the 32- inch gas line coming from Texas to this area. I respect the same thing.

That's fear, and that's reverence before God. We need to fear God again. We need to come in our churches fearing, but also prepared to hear from God.

God, I fear you, and I love you. You're my Savior. You're my judge.

It changes the way you worship. First Chronicles 16, seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his presence continually.

See, there's a seeking. The more I seek him, the more I find him, and the more I find him, the more I love him, and the more I love him, I want to seek him. You see how this works? Full cycle.

This is a good kind of hunger. The hungrier I am for God, got to check that word too, the hungrier I am for God, the more I want him. But what we do, I'm hungry for lunch, I go and eat lunch, I'm no longer hungry.

But with God, the hungrier I am, the more I devour, the hungrier I become, and the hungrier I become for God. That's why, and I told the guys up there, do you realize, probably most of you have not struggled with lust for two or three days? Yeah, why is that? Because you've removed, you've removed the stimuli, and you've created a different environment. It's like, where did lust go? Where did this go? I just feel so, right, because you moved the triggers.

You removed the fuel from the fire. So how much more are we as Christians need to change our environment to something that's wholesome? See, I remember, I remember when the hero was the father. I remember when the father was respected.

He was the hero. Not all these, these reality shows and dating shows that are a stench in the nostrils of a righteous, holy, pure God. The hero was the father.

Purity and wholeness were things that were sought. And when those things are sought, times of refreshing comes from the presence of the Lord. I don't know about you, but I've got three little daughters in the AV, and that makes me very scared.

Unless, everything I just talked about. Seek God, trust in Him, trust in His sovereignty. You can go to the inner cities and minister and be safe if you're inside the will of God.

On that note, I thank you guys for sharing about the Oaks, and I felt prompted, and I actually forgot to put my notes, but if you want to give to that organization with World Impact, you could put their names in the memo line and say you want it for inner city missions. You want it to get these kids in the camp and hear the gospel. You can do that.

Oh, gee, it's gonna hurt our tithe. I don't care. God's gonna do that.

It doesn't matter. Every time we give the missions, texts come in the mail that are, oh, I just sold my house. Here's $10,000.

I just sold. It's like, where's that come from? Because God will provide for His people if that's not the focal point, if Christ is the focal point. And I know there's people that probably want to, we've given to that organization before to get kids from the inner city who can't afford it.

They say, oh, they haven't seen mountain and stars before. They haven't. They haven't.

They've seen buildings and discussing things, and when they get up there, they almost are like withdrawals, right? Without following the pager, they don't know what to do, because it's hard to wait on God if you've never done that before. So it's something good. So if you want to invest in that, as you leave, you can make it out to World Impact, put the bells in the memo line, see them and what to put exactly, and you can help get kids into the camp.

That's how we make a difference. Oh, I gotta save, shame. No, you've got to give more.

We've all got to give more. We are so blessed in this country. Man, that's another sermon.

Philippians, and I'm going to close on this. Philippians 4, 6, and 7, do not be anxious about anything. Oh, Lord, help me apply this.

But it tells me not to be anxious tells me I'm going to be anxious in the flesh. So do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God which surpasses, transcends all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Now it keeps going.

Finally brethren, when Paul wrote this letter to the church in Philippi, he concludes, finally brethren, whatever things are pure, and noble, and honest, and upright, meditate on these things. That's where the peace comes from. You see the battle, I always go to this is here.

This is why we're not experiencing a lot of peace and transforming work of God, because we're putting things in that actually oppose God. We're putting things in that make us anxious, and irritable, and afraid. We're actually feeding the thing that God says don't feed.

We're fueling the fire that God says put out. You know, I can see all the posts on Facebook. We are, the Christians are scared, and they are reading too much garbage, and they're allowing that to affect their worship.

They're allowing that to affect their peace and their joy. And then I was going to get through verse 20, but I'll just go to the end. Verse 26, maybe come back to it later.

To you first, God having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to bless you, and turning away every one of you from your iniquities. Peter will go on to say that was the point of Jesus coming to turn you away from your sin, to save you, born to die. And the audience this large, I know there's people maybe here that don't know Jesus, that you don't know God.

You've been in church, but you don't know the Lord. You have religion, but not a relationship. You've got to get this right.

You cannot live your life with the question mark here. Like the man I talked to the other day, you cannot live your life with the question mark here. And I shared this, I think it was last year, but when Robin Williams died, there are people texting him, Jeannie, you're now free.

Or when Joan Rivers died, now you're relaxing in a recliner with a cabana boy bringing you champagne. That's not what she's doing, guys. And I'm not joking, I'm sad.

I wish we could reach some of these people. I wish we could reach some of these people. In Hollywood or different things.

This is serious. No, Jeannie, you're not free. You're bound if you don't know the Lord.

You're not going to see a cabana boy in champagne. You're going to be in the fires of hell. Do you guys realize Jesus said that? If Jesus was here today reading from that portion, he would say, do not fear him who can just kill your body, Isis.

We're more afraid of Isis than the creator of the world. Do not worry about those who kill the body, but fear him who can cast both body and soul in hell. Why would Jesus say that to tell people the truth? Because he loves them.

That's what all of Jesus telling the truth, he loved them. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I love you but I see your destruction. People, children of God, Pharisees, religious leaders, you stiff-necked people, come to the cross, come to salvation.

You read the scriptures, yet you have a blinded mask on. You can't even see them through your iniquity. Come to the cross.

This is the most important subject we own. This is the most important possession you own. I don't care how much you have in 401k or if your house was paid off.

This is the most important thing you possess, the gospel of Jesus Christ. You know, I heard something that really helped me this week because it was hard. I mean, I was the guy who's speaking after me this week and has a PhD.

And so I'm like, uh-oh, you know, Hushain just speaks at a church, you know, and that's fine. But what people think, what they think, and have a hard time reading and stuttering and all the, and God just using that, he really, he really, I'm opening up maybe more than I should, but he really helped to build me up because I remember saying, I heard many years ago, that there are a lot of people, don't get me wrong, that can preach the gospel better than me. There are a lot that can preach the gospel better than me.

But no one can preach a better gospel. That's the key. But that will help you.

That will help you. And people, they'll call me or email, Hushain, if you were just with me at my neighbor's house, you would have known what to told them. No, not necessarily.

You're the person in their life. Oh, if you were there, you could. No, no, you're the person.

There's people who can preach the gospel better. They're eloquent. They're on target.

They're smooth. There's no rabbit trails. But nobody can preach a better gospel.

Same thing with you when you minister to your friends, minister to your family. You have to spend time with God, meditate on Scripture, and remember that there is a lost and dying world out there. They are going to hell.

And God calls us to bring the perfect gospel, the perfect message, through vessels that are not perfect. And as you do that, you are refreshed and renewed and revigorated. One of the hospital homes I went and talked to, unsaved Jewish man who is gay.

Wow. Unbelievable. Still want to go back, talk with that man.

Learned so much about the Jewish traditions in the history. But you're able to say the true Messiah is Jesus Christ. Well, he's not listening.

How do you know? See, all you do is you plant the seed with God's Spirit. Oh, it's gonna grow. You plant the seed.

It's gonna grow. And it's gonna grow, and it's gonna grow. And that's how to be refreshed and renewed.

Last point. I know I keep saying this. But if you don't know Jesus, you will never be refreshed and renewed ever.

They once asked a billionaire, when's it enough? After one more dollar. And that's true. You will never be refreshed and renewed if you don't know Him.

And I'm concerned that many people have religion. They've grown up in the church. They play church.

They know all about Jesus, but they've never repented. And they've never experienced these times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. There were men up at this camp that I almost could not hold up afterwards.

They were crying so hard praying. I had to literally hold them up weeping, weeping. And they left there refreshed and renewed because they stopped playing church.

But there's also believers that are not refreshed and renewed. And you have to begin to apply everything that the Bible talks about. Who's our trust? Who's our strength? Filling our mind with things that glorify Christ.

Seeking God with all of our heart. And that does mean radical change. People say that, you know, that's pretty radical.

Oh absolutely. Of course. You think Christianity is just gonna kind of fit in there like on Twitter? It's radical living.

It's radical life. It's radical change. Not weird change.

Radical change. There's a big difference there.