OCT 11 2015 | The Good News of Sin

Sea Change Church · "The Good News of Sin" · Adam Stadtmiller · October 11, 2015
Acts 3:17-19
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Open your scriptures. We're going to be in the New King James Version. I'm going to be in that for a while. I've been enjoying the New King James Version. I've been enjoying it. We'll be in there for a while. I do use different translations just to give you a taste of what different scholars think of the scripture. Sure. I, um, Connie told me last week, if you have, you can download on your phone, the Bible app. It's just, if you put in Bible, it'll, it'll come up. It's called the Bible app. It's you version, Y-O-U-V-E-R-S-I-O-N, you version. If you download that on your phone, you can follow me with any version of the Bible immediately. It is awesome. So you can do that. So if you have that, you can follow along with me. I'm going to read this before I read it. Let me, um, frame what we're talking about today.

First is this sin breaks things just straight up. Sin breaks things. That's all there is to it. And as believers, God has given, uh, given us a refreshing gospel of good news that when we talk about the things that sin breaks, that we can share it in a way that promises people refreshing, that promises people the presence of God himself. The question is, where do we share the gospel from? The gospel is called good news. Gospel is not called bad news. And then it gets good in the end. The gospel is called good news, but it starts with a message of separation from God. Actually, you can even start it before that with God's love that he created us. You can take it all the way back to God's love.

But the message of the gospel is good news. And where the platform from which you share it from and the place from which you share it from will set you apart from many Christians. If you can share repentance with people in a way that brings hope and joy and refreshing and the presence of God, they will put you in a different category. They will think there are Christians that are like this. And this, this is how I think most Christians are. But, but this person, I know they're a Christian. They seem different. Um, and so there's like this one Christian that they know that is different, that still gives them hope. Be that Christian.

Be the Christian that understands that sin breaks things. But when we share, we have a message of good news. We have a message of good news. And I think that I oftentimes seeing in our culture, in a culture that actually probably no longer is, is not believing in sin. And we'll talk about that in a moment. That they need to know that they need to know that the things that cause brokenness, but they need to know for the reason of restoration with God. Let's read these scriptures. Acts 3, 17 through 19.

I'm going to read it once through, and then I'm going to read it again, because I know some of you want to have it read, my wife particularly, all the way through before I highlight it and stop and make knee jerk back and forth. So, verse 17. Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, and did also your rulers, but those things which God foretold by the mouth of all of his prophets, that the Christ would suffer, he has fulfilled.

Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before. It's powerful scripture. Now I get to read, it's so hard for me not to stop when I'm reading. I'm like, I want to say something about that, so I'm going to read through it again.

Just know this, because somebody else also asked me, why do you not start the first point until 20 minutes into the message? Know that when you're speaking, they say to say something once and then say it again. So usually I preach the message as I read through it, and then you're going to get the points kind of fleshed out after that. They kept saying, well, you know, you never get to the point until 20 minutes.

It's by design, okay? And I do say now we're going to start the sermon. It actually starts right now, so let's go. Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance. Did what in ignorance? Crucify Jesus is what they did. They put Jesus to death. As did also your rulers. He didn't only blame the rulers, he blamed the people for following along with the rulers.

The people of Germany were just as much at fault as Hitler because they followed along. And I would say that we, if we follow along the stream of society, voiceless, quietly, then we also, I believe, will be held accountable for that. It was interesting. I was listening to Ben Carson yesterday, and he was talking about political correctness. And he said that political correctness muzzles our society from being able to have important conversations that need to be had while our fabric of our culture is being changed.

I thought, man, you know what? There is a backlash now. There is a backlash that is starting to happen where people are beginning to say that I won't be muzzled anymore. That I want to speak truth and I want to speak it in love. And it was really an interesting thought. And I find him an intriguing individual. That isn't an endorsement, by the way.

It's just saying I find him intriguing. And I'm going to continue to keep my eyes on him and pray for him like I do for all the candidates. But it says that the rulers crucified Jesus, but so did you. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of his prophets. Basically, this is saying that Jesus was crucified and it wasn't unbeknownst to God.

That it didn't catch him by surprise. It was God's design. It wasn't like, oh, this Jesus campaign just isn't going good. I got to get it sorted out. And let me say in your life, he's not surprised by what's happening in your life either. It was of his design. And what's going on in your life might not be of design. There are different reasons why we have things happen in our life.

But God is not surprised and God is in charge. It says that the Christ would suffer and he has thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore, and be converted. I love that message. There is a conversion. When you take a product. And maybe you guys have DIY. Do it yourself, okay? I recently, I'm sprouting my winter garden right now. I decided to let you know. So I took some one-gallon water bottles that were plastic and I cut them open and I made them in a terrarium is the right word, right?

So if you're at my house study tomorrow night, you'll see. Is that a terrarium? Is that what it's called? Where you put the little things in? And I'm seeding these seeds in these little terrariums next to a window. Because I was going to go to Home Depot and spend $15 to buy the terrarium. And I thought, no. You know what? They're sprouting. Oddly, they're sprouting inside of the little greenhouse I made.

I converted it into something that had another function. That's what conversion is. God takes the beautiful products of human beings. Every human being is beautiful no matter what they're doing. Why? Because the creation, the kiss of God is upon them. That is the beauty of the creation. We need to be careful not because of what people think or the ideology that they follow or the sins that they commit that all of a sudden we see them as ugly and disgusting.

C.S. Lewis, when speaking about a believer, he said, if you could see how God sees people, his creation, and you could see them in a glorified state, what they will look like when they leave this world in the glorified state, he said you would be tempted to bow down and worship them. We need to understand that people are beautiful. People are beautiful because the presence and the spirit of God that created them is on them.

No matter what they're doing. Everything that we do is not beautiful, but they are. And they have been, he says, repent and be converted. We want to see people converted. We want to see the product, the beauty of God's product, turned into something that works better. Turned into something that has more blessing. Turn into something that is refreshed, something that sources its grace and its hope and its power and its magnificence from something more than a bottle of wine or more than something you can find in our culture from something that is eternal.

I did a wedding yesterday. I gave them a rock from our house that says grace on it. If you've been to my home study, like some of you are, you will see little rocks around the house that talk about the culture that we want to create in our home. The culture I want to create is one of grace and one of hope. And I put the one that says grace right by the front door.

So that when I walk in, I will know and think to myself, I want to have grace today. Because grace is eternal. I want to release a culture in my home that is not based on what I can harvest of my own volition from my own skills or how I'm feeling that day or how many, you know, a lattes or espressos I had that day. But it's sourced from something greater than that and a conversion of my own being, harvesting the things of eternality.

I want to say you can do that as well. It says that we have been saved in Ephesians 2. It says that God has given us a kindness and he has given us a grace that he has given us as a gift. You cannot create grace. All you can do is be a channel for it. But the amount that you can give is limitless. They have been converted. Repent, therefore, and be converted.

Are you being converted? I want to say if you're a believer, we need to be converted. I need to be converted every single day. I want to say I was saved. I am being saved. And I what? I will be saved. Every single day we need to have conversion. Now, here's the first of three that's. This struck out. I've never seen this before. It said, repent, therefore, and be converted.

What is we often hear is repent, therefore, and be converted that you won't go to hell. Repent and be converted because you're a miserable sinner and the things you do are disgusting. Repent. Add it on. That is preaching the gospel from a message of death. We preach the gospel from a culture of life. You get the difference. Oftentimes, it is so easy to look at things that are happening in the culture.

Look at what people are doing. Things that are happening. As we see infant destruction. To look at infant destruction in our culture. And to look at the destruction of infants. And to preach and to speak against it from death itself. Do you see that? We want to speak from a culture of life. A culture that says, here's the blessing of life. Let me tell you this story.

What story are you telling? I want to say the best story wins. Do you get that? Do you get that we live in a storytelling culture? And that the best story wins? And there's a lot of false stories out there. Let me tell you this, though. You have a great story. The gospel of Jesus Christ. With a good ending. And it's good news. And it's true. The best story wins.

And I want to tell you. I realize that story crafting and framing is what drives our society. And there's a constant battle with the media and different people that were framing things. You see things being framed. Constantly being framed. Over and over. In this church, I realize that I am framing a story. But it's a true story. We're a little church on the corner.

With a little band of renegade band of Christians and believers from all walks of life. That believe actually we can not only change this block. But we can change the entire world from this little corner. That's the story. Because of the power of God. Because of the power of the Holy Spirit. And for our love for one another. That is the story I tell here.

You want to know what? It's a true story. It's a true story. So we see this. And so where are we preaching this gospel of repentance from? Peter preaches it from a place of life. Now granted. He said these things happened. This is the truth. This is wrong. But then he comes on and he says, now repent and be converted. Why? He says that. First that. Your sins may be blotted out.

We'll talk about that in a second. Two. So that times of refreshing may come. That times of refreshing may come. You need to be refreshed. Get rid of your sin. Where does it come from? Does it come from you? No. From the what? The presence of the Lord. I want to tell you. God hangs. He likes holiness. God hangs out where things are clean. God cannot be around things.

And not that he can't. But he chooses to rest his presence upon things that are holy. He chooses that. And the more holiness that we drop, we go into, the more we decide to step into his holiness, the more the presence of God surrounds us. Do you get that? And so we see that, that God, from the presence of the Lord, when we repent, there's a promise of God's presence.

Verse 20. And that, the third that, that he may send Jesus. That Jesus himself might be sent. Who was preached to you from before. Let's talk about the good news of repentance. And first talk about sin. If you go underneath that, what is sin? I want to say sin is this. Sin is anything that violates the will of God. Okay? Sin is anything that violates the will of God.

Whether you know you're doing it or not, which we, which Peter just said, you were ignorant of this. You didn't know what you were doing. That still, that doesn't make it not sin. Anything that violates the will of God or anything, and this is really key as you understand the things and the reasons why Christians believe what they believe. It is that it goes against God's nature.

Anything that goes against God's nature is sin. Because it leads to brokenness. It breaks things. Anything that is within God's nature leads to life and vibrance. And so lying, why is lying sin? Did God just arbitrarily come up with, hey, you know what? I know they want to tell, you know, they won't always want to tell the truth. So I'm just going to say it's, you know, that's a sin.

Anything that's just, you know, arbitrarily thinks, anything that these humans are going to like, I'm going to not let them do it. And we'll call that sin. Absolutely not. Sin is anything that goes against the nature of God. And so it has to be, by consequence, a sin. And so lying is a sin because God is what? Truth. Lying breaks things. If you lie in a relationship long enough, you're going to lose what in the relationship?

You will not be in the circle of what? Trust. You will not be in the circle of trust. Why? Because lying breaks things. And all sin leads where? Death. The scripture says all sin leads to death. Let me tell you this. Sin is insatiable. You get that. Sin is completely insatiable because we were created to be insatiable. We cannot be satiated as human beings.

You know that. The reason why. There's only one being that can live in a constant state of satisfaction. Who is that? It's God himself. Because God is all sufficient. Being created. If you are not God, it is impossible for you to be completely satisfied for all time. Does that make sense? Because only God can be sufficient within himself. God never needs anyone to love him because God is 100% love.

God never needs anyone to trust in him. God never needs anyone to believe in. God needs nothing because he is God. The fact that you were created means you are not God. Which means that you will be, you will have insatiable needs that cannot be satiated. One of the benefits of that is you also have an insatiable need for who? God. It's a blessing.

The problem is that sin captures that and it says that you cannot be satiated and it will continue to want to grow. Sin will become all consuming. Sin starts out as a small little cough but leads to death. It is impossible to manage sin. If you're a sin manager, you will lose. Sin wants more. More and more and more. It will take a little bit and then it will take more.

It will start out as a match and it will end up as a brush fire and that brush fire will take out a city like we've seen here when the Santa Ana blows. Sin will do that over and over because we were created by our nature because we are not God to not be able to be satiated. But God can satisfy him but we have to continue to be satisfied in God.

Now when you go to heaven, we will be in his presence constantly. That we will constantly be satiated by what? By the presence of God himself. You will not become God when you go to heaven. If God was not in heaven with you after you died, you would continue to have an insatiable need for something. We all have an insatiable need. And God himself in heaven being there will be like a power generator that will give you the love that you need.

And so what is sin? Sin is progressive. Sin is insatiable. Sin is anything that violates the will of God. Sin breaks things. I want to say brokenness is a gift. Because when you're broken, you know you're hurt. Now have you ever heard of people that have had leprosy? One of the things about leprosy is they say you have to do CBCs, which is called a constant body check.

Because what happens is the nerves within you begin to get deteriorated so that you no longer can feel pain. So if you have leprosy and you're walking by this pulpit and you hit your hand and you cut your hand and bruise your hand, you won't know that you did it. And you'll injure yourself so many times that you don't know that you've been broke to eventually you lose your hand.

That's one form of leprosy. We lose the ability to know we're broke. The scripture talks about if you sin in one direction soon and long enough, you will become calloused to that sin. You'll become calloused to the point where you don't even know you're broken. You see, you're terminally ill with the sickness of sin and you won't even know it.

You won't even know it. And so repentance is so key because when we repent for our sins, even if it's a progressive pattern of sin, but you keep coming back and saying, Jesus, I messed up again, but you get to reset. You get to start over. But when you start justifying your sin, it's okay. You start living in it long enough. Pretty soon it becomes okay.

We begin to not know that we're broken. We begin to call sin good and we begin to call good evil. It talks about that in Isaiah. You'll see that in just a moment. And we see that sin is this progressive thing. And so I would ask you this, how are you doing with sin? And do you need refreshing? Because let's talk from a culture of hope. Do you want to be refreshed?

Do you want the presence of God that it promises? And do you want Jesus to be made real to you? Because it says that if you repent and become converted, that you will be refreshed. Times are refreshing. We live in a world that needs to be refreshed. We live in a world that needs to be rebooted. We live in a world that needs Christians like yourself that walk out of there with a presence of refreshing upon your face.

I'll tell you what, you'll know it when you see a believer that has been refreshed. You'll know it. I'm going to say, if I want to say, get sin out of your life, the reason you want sin out of your life is not so that you're not sinning and don't feel guilt. That's not the reason. The reason is because you want the very presence of God to rest on you.

God has given us a gift. He has given us a gift that we can repent. We repent that we might have refreshing. It says we must understand, go down to the next point there, we must understand that I said sin breaks things. God commands are not arbitrary. They all go, are in according with his best practices. Do you understand when God told us what sin was, that was a gift.

If he didn't tell you, you would be ignorant of the things that we did. If he did not tell us in the word, if he did not give a law, we would go on sinning and we would be separated from God and we would not know it. The fact that God gave a law was a gift. Do you get that? It was a gift. He gave us the understanding and we need to give that gift to others as well.

We need to share with others in love what is right and what is wrong. And that is a judgment and that is God's judgment. We live somewhere in a society that says if you tell someone that they're wrong, you're judging them. We hear what? Hashtag what? Don't judge. I'm not judging, but I know what God's judgments are. You see? Me knowing what God's judgments are and seeing it in society and being able to say that that breaks the laws of God.

Am I the judge of that? What? No. God's the judge of it. So I'm not judging is when you take judgment into your own hands. This person is such and such and so and so because I think this in my opinion. Now we still need to share God's judgments from a place of hope. But this whole don't judge thing, can we just throw that in the trash? Okay? I just, and I, you know, and I'm thinking again of what Ben Carson said was so interesting.

We've gotten to a point where our society, the fabric of our society is being changed and we're not allowed to say anything anymore. I'm just over it. I'm completely over it. I don't, I don't really like, like, like he said, once again, it's not a political endorsement, but I'm just over being politically correct. But I do want to share from a place of hope because the world needs the gift of knowing what is right and wrong.

It is a gift and God showed us what is right and wrong. Why? Because the things that are wrong, did he just arbitrarily want to set up sin so that we can be bummed not to get to go out and party? Not at all. He knows that not only sin breaks things, but it separates them from him and they are against his nature and he wants to be with you. So he tells you what is wrong.

But in Romans, it says our nature, finding out what is wrong, wants more of that. Sin creates a lust for more sin. Now yesterday in my soccer game, we had a lust for goals. Okay? It was unbelievable. We scored our first goal in four games. It was amazing. Our first goal. And usually they're a little bit, you know, hesitant. The last 10 minutes, oh, my strikers got hungry.

It was, we were a powerful force yesterday. Bam! Going after it. Going after that goal. We were scoring. We're shooting. We didn't score any more goals, but it was phenomenal. I want to say that our nature, because it is bent towards doing what is not right, going against God. When sin, the command is given, we'll chase after. We'll want those things.

We'll want to satisfy because we were created by our nature to be insatiable. And we feel that those things can satisfy us. Only God can satisfy. Romans 6.23 says, for the wages of sin is death. But the gift, the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. God tells us what sin is so we might have to life, that we might have life and have it in super abundance.

That when we repent for our sins, we move into the streams of God, and God's streams are of super abundance. When we get our tongue in alignment with the things that God would say, you will have a super abundance. Because the power of what is in the tongue? Let's say it a little bit louder. Life and death. The power in the tongue. The power of life and death is in the tongue.

How's your tongue? How's your tongue? How's the culture of your tongue in your house? I want to say, once again, I keep talking about my soccer team, but this is where I'm living. And I'm trying to disciple you as a congregation on how to change the cultures you're in. Whether it's you're at work or whatever. It's very easy to get frustrated when my nine-year-olds play Little Bunny during practice.

Okay? We're having a practice. We're learning how to score and be a dominating force. And I look over, and four of my players are being little bunnies. Hopping around. Stop being a little bunny. Okay? I'm so frustrated. We're going to be a dominating force of nine-year-olds. I can get angry. And I just think, hey, girls. Hey, sweetheart. Everyone's sweetheart.

Pat them on the head. You know, people need appropriate touch these days. Appropriate touch. You know, I just go, and I put my hand on their head, and I just say, you know, you guys are doing great. I need you to pay attention. Thank you, sweetheart. Hey, could you please pay attention? We would like to score a goal in the next month. Culture of life.

My wife and I rarely speak curses over each other anymore. You always do this. You never do. That's a curse. It's death. We just, we, our kids don't grow up with it. We grew up with that. Why don't you ever? Ah, ah, death. You're just heaping death upon people. I want to say, in our thing, we say, hey, you can do it. I believe in you. Grace. Grace is a culture.

Speak life. We speak life to each other in super abundance. So when we get our tongue in alignment with God, you are going to be able to give life to people. I want to say, when we get our finances in alignment with the things that God wants to do, and he will share that with you, I don't think there's a plan for each, for everyone, but your own thing.

As you do that, God will begin to touch your finances. Does that mean you're going to be rich? I don't know. But what I want to know is that God will bless. Whatever you submit to him, he blesses him. Consider God what? In all your ways. And he will do what? You walk in a crooked path? You want it straight? Who's going to make it straight? God, consider him in all your ways.

And with your sin, go back to him. I want refreshing. I want to tell you, the slime of sin is just so, we've all had it, right? It's so heavy. It's so heavy. And the good news is this. The good news is this. God wants to refresh you. He's like, here, I want to refresh you. Yesterday, 92 degrees, my little soccer, they were melting on the field. And they'd come over, and I have a thing of cold water and a spray bottle.

I'd throw water on them. They'd be refreshed. I said, go back out and try again. More water, just, you know, refreshing. You see that. I want to say, today, the definition of sin is changing. And this is why we see more brokenness in the world. If there is no God, then there is no right. The only sin I know is telling someone that they sin. I mean, there's pretty much like three sins in our culture now.

It's, you know, if you mess with a child, definitely, you're going to get shamed for that. If, yeah, I think it's if you mess with a kid, if you murder somebody, and if you tell someone they're wrong. I mean, I think those are the, I'm serious. I mean, I've been thinking about, I mean, you know, stealing and things like that. We don't like that.

But, I mean, there's pretty much three. The thing is, when you have no God, you have, your morals aren't tied to anything. I was talking to a friend the other day, and I said, you know, we live in a culture that's crowdsourcing its morals. We just crowdsource, what do they think? What's the Twitter reaction? You know politics do that, right? What does everyone think?

And then we're going to come up with a platform. What I like is we're beginning to see in politics people saying, you know what? I think there's a silent group of people that aren't saying anything. And we're not going to crowdsource our understanding. This is what I think is true, and I'm going to say it. You see what's happening in our culture right now.

As people are beginning to say, you know, it's nice to have someone speak some truth. Somebody said to me, and look, I'm not a Putin fan, okay? I'm going geopolitical right now, okay? Somebody said to me, you know what I like about Putin? I said, I don't know. Tell me what you like, because I watched the 60 Minutes interview with him. We were talking about it.

He says, if he tells you he's going to do something, what? Finish the sentence. You might not like it, but you're not getting double talk. Wouldn't you rather know someone's going to punch you in the face than trip you on the way out the door when you're not looking? I mean, I'm going to brace myself for it, you know what I mean? There's just a sense that we want to know these things.

God tells us that. So today's definition of sin is changing. If there is no God, then there is no sin. We're also being told today, and in November, the first week of November, I'm going to be doing a week on, a couple weeks on the sexual identity. And I encourage you to be here. David Levy is going to be part of that, talking about sexual identity and from a biblical platform.

Don't miss that. It's going to be starting in November. We're told today if something's done in love, then it can't be sin. If something's done in love, you can do anything you want as long as you did it in love and it doesn't hurt anybody else. I want to say that makes love God. Love is not God. God is love, but love what? Is not God. Love is an attribute of God.

He is completely love, but love is submissive to God because God is God over love. And God has ideas and paradigms about love. And he has standards about love and the way that what is the most loving and how to give love in a way that doesn't break things. Good to see you, Kai. It's a pretty good entrance. Next is, I said this, it's a sin to tell someone that they're wrong.

To do so now is called hate. God says it's a gift. To be able to tell someone that they need to repent, that they might have refreshing, is a gift. It's a gift that you need to give people. Let me say that again. Telling people that they are wrong in a way that brings love, refreshing, hope, and joy is a gift. God himself told us we were what? Wrong.

And we need to be able to share that with people. Does this sound politically incorrect? I don't care. I honestly just don't care because I'm going to stand before God one day. And he's going to hold me accountable on how I use my tongue. And I want to share the message of repentance from a platform of life, from a culture of life. And I want to say it to you as Christians.

We need to repent. We need that times of refreshing might come on this congregation. The more of us that try to walk into holiness, that ask God and source our holiness from God, the more blessing we're going to see on this congregation. Do you know that? That that's how it works. The more raindrops that come astream become a mighty river that no one can ford.

It becomes a rushing river. And each of you is a raindrop. And if we say as a congregation, this week is Seek Week. I encourage you to come to one of the prayer meetings. You're going to see them in your bulletin. Come to one of the prayer meetings. Fast a little bit this week. Take an extra half hour at lunch break. Do something. But step into that.

What if we all stepped into it just a little bit? What would the blessing of God be on this congregation? Do you think sometimes as a congregation we might be able to get his attention a little bit more than maybe some other places we have been before? That he says, hey, there's a group of people there and they're bringing a difference. And you know what?

I'm going to bring times of refreshing. And what's another word for refreshing that starts with an R? Revival. How does revival start? It starts with a few committed people that cry out to God, that repent of their sin and say, God changes. I want La Jolla changed. I want this corner changed. I want every part of La Jolla, UTC, San Diego, the city I was born in, the city I love, I want this city changed.

I love Southern California. I want Southern California changed for Jesus Christ. I don't like Northern California so much, but I want them changed too. Boo. Right? Right? It happens if we as a congregation, what if it did start with us? What if a worldwide revival could start here? It could. Hope. Hope. Hope. Hope does not what? Disappoint. Hope. What if that revival for this congregation started in your home?

What if it started with you? We've seen it in the past before. Jim Rayburn with Young Life that had a little group of praying women across the street from a high school that prayed for like 20 years for this high school. Nothing happened. And then I think Jim Rayburn came and started the first Young Life Club. And they had revival. And kids are saved.

Some of you now probably were saved because of Young Life. Because of a group of women that in a home right there. There's one that just raised their hand. That said, a group of women said, in our home, we want our city back. We want our high school back. We are going to pray and ask God and God changes the world. Yeah, you can applaud for that.

Like a black preacher. Right? I'm going to be like Chuck Norris, my buddy up the street. He's got to give me preaching lessons. Three important that's and we're done. One, it says we often share the message of repentance from the wrong platform. Peter shares the message of repentance from a platform of hope. He also highlights the great blessing that comes with repentance.

That's your highlighter pen. Do you get that? When we share the message with the highlighting on this. Yeah, this is wrong. What you're doing, it's going to break you. I just want to tell you. But let me just tell you, God wants to refresh you. God loves you. They've got to see it though in your life. Sometimes you've got to win the right to be what?

This is a Young Life thing. Win the right to what? Be heard. You've got to win the right to be heard. You've got to show up at that coffee house. You've got to show up at that soccer team. You've got to show up wherever that place is in your life. Over and over again. With that refreshing on your face. It only comes from you spending time with God.

That only comes when there's somebody more important than you in your life. Are you the most important person in your life? Or do you have a person you fixate on? They become the most important person. You can't think about anything else than this other person and changing them. Maybe that focus needs to be on God. And we have a congregation. I hear it.

You know, there's many people in this congregation. The face of this congregation is a face of joy. The face of this congregation is a face of welcome and kindness. You guys have experienced it. You're here. You know what it looks like. You know when you walk in what it feels like. That feeling comes because enough people have said, we're on board with caring for people when they come to our church.

And it goes beyond this place. The three that's. We're done. First one is this. That your sins might be blotted out. I want to say whatever sin you've committed, Jesus' blood is bigger. Whatever sin you have created, you have done, you are in, you are involved in, the enemy wants to hang it over your head. You did it 15 years ago. You did it yesterday.

You did it last night. Whatever it is, Jesus' blood is bigger. And when you ask repentance for your sin and you receive his forgiveness, he blots it out. It no longer exists. And it is far as what is from what? The east is from the west, which is eternal. God has eternal forgetfulness. You can keep reminding him of your sin and he will say, what sin?

No, but remember, I'm doing this over and over again. No, you asked, I think you asked forgiveness last Tuesday. And I don't know about anything before that. So what are you talking about? Over and over again. Now, we have a tendency to have eternal remembrance with the mistakes we make. And at some points, repentance has to change our actions. Because repentance, the point of repentance is action change.

Not just the blotting out of sins, but that we change our actions. If you need your sins blotted out today, at the end of this service, I'm going to give you an opportunity in just a couple minutes. I've already hit this point a million times in verse 19, that times of refreshing might come. If you haven't been refreshed for a while, go sit down with Jesus and say, hey, I'd like you to forgive me of some stuff.

What do I need to be forgiven of? Spend 10 minutes on yourself doing a house cleaning. Don't be Adam and Eve. We don't need to hide in the bushes. Jesus died on the cross that you have access. You get that? He's never there with a splintered ruler. He's not the headmaster in some British, you know, reform school. You know, that is waiting there to beat you up.

He's waiting there with open arms. The times are refreshing. And three, that he might send Jesus Christ. It's interesting. Not only the presence of God upon you, but we can bring back the return of Jesus, I think. We can hasten the day through repentance. That he is waiting that people would repent, that revival might come. That's what we want to see.

We want to see God bring revival. Do you want to see revival? Let's start.