How to Be Refreshed and Renewed — Shane Idleman

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 gonna go with the calling. You're going to get disappointed, you're gonna 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. My experience at Hume 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 gonna get to that as we read through the book of Acts, beginning in verse 11.

Peter Explains the Healing at Solomon’s Porch

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 temple area itself. But if you see those pillars around, Herod actually built this porch around 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 meant there in Acts five.

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 was a pastor recently on Oprah.

There was 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.

Jesus as a Friend of Sinners

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 gotta 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 didn't 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 to the Father except through him. And they'll avoid these things like sin and the blood of Jesus and the cross.

Shane, we gotta 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, right now I'm Facebooking two. Right now one is a friend of mine. I help more than any other person in the history of when I worked at 24 Hour Fitness. He was African American, still a 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, this is Shane. I've talked to you, I'd love to meet with you. 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 now. 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.

Dad, I wanna, that's affirmation. Whether you believe in the five love 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, Corazin, 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 just, I wanna just clarify the air, or the nonsense that Jesus was a friend of sinners means that some sinners didn't feel comfortable around him. Some sinners ran the other direction, but a lot of them did because 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 what we're seeing here in this setting, that Peter is speaking to all 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.

Salvation in Christ and the Purpose of Miracles

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 nother 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 healing people or 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 will 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 didn't say, 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.

Serving Others and Sharing the Gospel

I wanna give you a wonderful example. Yesterday, as I told you, I got up at four in the morning, left at 4 .45, got down from Hulme Lake to Chatsworth, it's not a quick drive. So I get there, and I'm even, I'm texting my wife, okay, I'll stay for the service.

I'm not speaking, I'm just there at 11. And I'll leave at 12, have some earplugs ready. Or if you guys wanna 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 grave site and get him out and help him there, and then also take him to the restaurant afterwards, make sure he's 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 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 10 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 wanna stay in communication with him.

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 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've said, oh man, I really have to get back. For what? To sleep. I mean, that doesn't work.

So God opens those doors. And again, I often don't like to use examples, because people think, oh man, chainsaw, my flesh was not happy at first. But you see, the flesh submits to you. Fortunately, at Hume Lake, the opposite was happening.

I actually didn't go up to speak till 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 just some nuts, and 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 gonna 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, we're gonna have a prayer, time of prayer there.

Monday at seven, if you can be there. I might give just a quick little encouragement. I don't know if there's worship there, I just found out. 7 p .m. 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. It's a prayer time for Christians, and sometimes that gets loud. And sometimes we're contending. And I wanna 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 gonna 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, oh, 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, what 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 wanna 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, it's not, 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, kumbaya. 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.

Obedience, Spiritual Warfare, and the Power of God

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, or my power, but God's power. It's things that we do for God are not through my power and 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 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 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, I'm spiritual, I'm better, I have to do this, 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, some people call it, I call it guardrails.

Do we want them to remove the guardrails on Godi 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 this 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 gonna 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 gas or something. The Holy Spirit just tells us 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 part of the triune nature of God, the Holy Spirit. 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. In 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. He's, the Bible understood, and the Old Testament writers understood as they moved into the New Testament, they gave him all these aims 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.

Repentance and the Times of Refreshing

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.

And they 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, I 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 just ran up for prayer, and I was in the back. I've never had somebody 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, ah, 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, the enemy doesn't want that.

So your struggle is, you see your need for a Savior, but do you really want it? See, 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 that he would give his heart to the Lord.

But isn't, I've never seen anything like that before. That 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 gotta, 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, I, no, it was not even on my radar. I, no, really? Well, this hasn't happened in a while. Hmm. And so I, Lord, you just gotta 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 the, he gave me a big hug and walked away. Like, 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 turmoil. What would've, no doubt hooked on something. What would've changed that? What, this man who came, that was what was hard for me.

He came for refreshing and renewal. He came for revival, 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 wanna 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 not even 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 wanna 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, 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 gonna go out easily.

It's gonna, there's gonna be travail, there's gonna be weeping, there's gonna be seeking God, there's gonna be in his word, there's gonna be fasting because you're doing battle. You think they want, 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 would 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, 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 it didn't. But I wanna talk to you, before I let you go, about how to be refreshed and renewed.

Seeking God’s Presence for Renewal

Just a couple scriptures because this is so vital. This is so vital, even I saw it in Hume, I'm like, so many men are just dying, spiritually. They're dying, spiritually. 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, I mean, can you imagine? No correspondence whatsoever, no TV, no, just go out, walk in the wilderness, seek God.