Brought Back To God | Myles Holmes

Thank you, Jody.

I actually first heard of Jody.

We both speak at ANOVA Chapel, and the kids would always say, Oh, Jody's this amazing speaker.

And I would always say, Well, I'm competing with her.

I gotta get, I gotta be better with than her.

I never knew that she would be in my own church competing with me on a Sunday.

I don't have any sort of object illustrations.

So thankful, Jody.

Thank you for being with us.

Can we just give Jody?

Incredibly thankful for you.

Incredibly excited to partner with WoW Living as a church.

And uh she shared some information.

You can uh check her out at the booth on your way out if you're interested in partnering with them.

Um this is gonna be our introduction to WoW Living, and over the next coming months and praying years, you'll hear a lot more about things that we can be doing as a church to partner with them.

If that's something that you know you feel in your spirit right now, the Holy Spirit's kind of prodding you, like I want to be a part of this.

I would just encourage you to talk to one of the elders.

We'd we'd love to think about ways that you could be involved specifically with Redemption Church in that partnership with WoW Living.

So excited for what the Lord is going to do through that partnership, and so excited for what the Lord is gonna do this morning as we open up his word.

I want to ask you to take your copy of God's word, open it up to Acts chapter three.

If you don't have a copy this morning, the ushers are making their way down the aisle.

You can flag one of them down, and they would love to get a copy into your hands, which you can keep as our gift to you.

You turn there, I want to maybe ask you a question.

What's the thing in your life that if you could ask God to change, you would ask him to change.

What's the thing in your life you're hoping God would change right now?

Maybe for you it's a struggle with mental health.

Maybe it's a marriage that needs help.

Maybe it's the pressure of getting through another month financially in this economy, the health of a loved one.

What's the thing if you could ask God to change anything that you would ask him?

Maybe that's a bit of a comedic question because you know your response is I do ask.

I mean, I pray about this thing, and maybe I don't pray about it, but I certainly think about it constantly.

I tell my if only this would change, then I would finally be okay.

We know what that's like, don't we?

To live on the other side of an if only.

And those needs we have, those needs we think about, those needs we pray about are real needs.

They are needs that our Father in heaven calls us to bring to him time and time again, instructing us, even in the Lord's Prayer, to pray for things like our daily bread.

At the same time, we've all been through it before, where you get that thing that you had placed your hope in that would really change your life and having received it, discovered that it didn't do everything that you thought it would.

Kids recently got a, I'm sorry to say this to you, but it's this time, that they got a Christmas toy magazine in the mail.

Have you guys gotten that yet?

And this is a big moment when my kids get the Christmas toy magazine because they pull it inside and they go through it and they circle the things that they want and they put their the letter of their name beside those things.

And there's a lot of dreaming.

Dreaming of eight-foot stuffed Pikachu's and giant Gabby dollhouse dollhouses.

A lot of dreaming, Dad, I want the dad.

Imagine if we could get this.

And and I was sitting with one of my daughters this past week and looking through this uh magazine, and she was flipping through it and showing me the things that she had circled and and dreaming if only we could get this.

And she pointed at something, and I had to laugh because just a few weeks ago I had actually taken the very thing that she had pointed at to the dump.

They had already received it.

It was in this magazine again, and we had already thrown it out, and here she was again with all the all the excitement of looking at this with fresh eyes.

What would our life be like if we could just get this?

I wonder how different we really are.

Certainly we've matured a little bit.

I hope.

I mean, I hope it's not Gabby's dollhouses and stuffed Pikachu's that we're after.

But maybe in our catalog, our desires that we might label as more mature, a better house, a new job, more money, someone's approval.

Things that we maybe in our heart circle, all good things, but things that we're willing to place our hope in and ask from them to give us more than they really can.

We do it all the time, don't we?

We ask someone's approval to declare our worth.

We long for a comfortable life to satisfy a soul that was made for God.

We look to our hobbies to relieve us from the stress that we feel and the ins and outs of life.

In other words, we do the exact same thing.

We keep looking for something to make life better.

And this morning, like the loving Father that God is, he is pointing our attention away from what we think will satisfy to our very deepest need.

God, through the scriptures this morning, by the power of his Holy Spirit, is declaring to us that all we want, truly all we want and all we need, like we sing, is found in Jesus alone.

It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that points us beyond what we think we need to truly our greatest, deepest need, that we were made to know Him, to live in His love, to enjoy His presence.

We were made for these things, but sin has separated us from them.

It's the declaration of the gospel that what we truly need the most is reconciliation to God.

Now in Acts chapter 3, then we are introduced to a man who is sitting outside the temple, but he's not interested in this moment in the presence of God.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

He's interested in something else entirely, and we can understand the need.

He's asking for money.

He's a lame man.

Since the day of his birth, he has not been able to walk.

He he knows what he wants.

He has a real need.

And as he encounters Peter and John, and then here is Peter's explanation of what happens to him on that day.

It reveals to us the restoration we all need.

It reveals to us the Savior that we desire beneath or behind all the other desires that we might have, the Savior Jesus Christ.

Loved ones, here's the good news.

Here's the main point this morning.

If you turn from your sin to Jesus, you can be restored to the presence of God you have always needed.

You can be restored.

You can be restored to the relationship that you were created for.

I want you to see this with me in Acts 3.

And as we do, I would ask that you stand as I read this chapter.

Acts 3, chapter 1.

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.

And a man lame from birth was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple.

Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms.

Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, Look at us.

And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.

But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Rise up and walk.

He took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.

And leaping up he stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

And all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple, asking for alms.

And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's.

And when Peter saw it, he addressed the people.

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he decided had decided to release him.

But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you.

And you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead.

To this we are witnesses.

And his name, by faith in his name, he has made this man strong, whom you see and know.

And the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers, but what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.

Repent, therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

Moses said, The Lord God will rise up for you, raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.

You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.

And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to the prophet shall be destroyed from the people.

And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.

You are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.

This is the word of the Lord.

You can grab a seat this morning.

The same Jesus who restored the lame man is the Jesus that Peter is calling us to this morning.

Peter is declaring this message, the Holy Spirit's driving it to our heart this morning that you can be restored to God.

You can be restored to his presence.

But before we turn to Jesus and are restored to his presence, we like this man need to see how deeply we actually need him.

Now in Acts chapter 2 and 3, Luke is doing what some of our favorite movie directors do.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

In Acts chapter 2, he takes a step back and shows you the kingdom of Christ being established at a 30,000-foot view.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

There he says that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

The end of Acts chapter 2, he said that the Lord added day by day to those who were being saved.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Now, what happens then in Acts chapter 3 is really you can imagine the camera zooming in to see the salvation of one man who called upon the name of the Lord.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

To see the salvation of one person who was added to that number.

What we're seeing here is what the restoration promised by God looks like when it reaches a person.

You'll notice in chapter three that Peter and John are going to the temple in verse one at the hour of prayer.

It's a continuation of what the church was doing, and at the end of Acts chapter 2, they were meeting in the temple.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Day by day they were breaking bread together, and here are Peter and John doing what the Lord's people do, going to the temple, but they encounter at the gate of the temple, outside of the temple, a man who is lame from birth who has never walked.

Every day someone would carry this man to that gate.

Every day he would watch people pass by into the center of religious activity in Jerusalem.

And every day he would depend on someone who would stop and give him money.

Enough to get through another day.

Location is important.

Luke says four times in three verses that he was at the temple gate.

This will be incredibly important for the following chapter as well, as a conflict arises in Acts chapter four around temple theology.

But Luke is drawing our attention to something here.

Before this encounter is over, this man will not be outside the temple.

He will be inside the temple.

He will be in the very locus of God's presence.

We're told he's leaping and praising God.

His restored body is a fulfillment of a prophecy that was made by the prophet Isaiah in the 35th chapter of his book.

He said that when the Messiah comes, then the lame man shall leap like a deer.

Like we sung this morning, that in the name of Jesus Christ there would be healing brought to the nations.

And Isaiah goes on to describe God saving a people, bringing healing to them, and ultimately this joyful return into Zion, into God's very presence.

And here is the promised restoration, breaking into the life of a man who was outside the temple and lame.

And what Luke is drawing our attention to this morning is that you can experience that restoration too.

That if you call on the name of Jesus, the very name by which this man was healed, you too can be restored.

But before you see that restoration, look in verse two and three with me and notice what this man is asking for.

He's not asking for restoration, it's not on his radar.

What he thinks he needs is alms, is money.

His request makes sense.

Money can buy food, money can ease hardship.

What money could never do was solve his biggest problem.

Money couldn't give him the strength to stand.

This man needed to be raised up.

This man, so to speak, needed a resurrection, and what his mind was set on could never provide what he really needed.

But the risen Jesus, through his witnesses, Peter and John, had come to give him more than he knew to ask for.

I want you to notice, loved ones, that we find ourselves in a similar place.

The things that we want on a day-to-day basis are real needs.

Many in this room, we just want help in our marriage.

We want relief from the anxiety that we feel.

We just want enough money to pay the bills, enough money to not have to stress constantly.

We want rest from the demanding, the demands of life.

The needs we have are real needs.

And we, like the lame man, find ourselves asking for these things to which the Bible never shames us for asking for them.

They are real needs, but scripture also points out how our desires can distract us from God.

James talks about this in James chapter 4.

James 4 · chapter mention

He says, What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?

Is it not this that your passions are at war within you?

You desire and do not have, so you murder.

You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

You do not have because you do not ask.

You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.

James is looking at the church and saying, Listen, you have desires.

The problem is that you want those things so badly, you are willing to fight in order to get it.

I love to read this passage because it reminds me, you know, things at Redemption Church are not that bad.

No one's breaking out in a fight.

At least yet.

The parking lot's pretty big.

We could get out there after if there's anyone who's no.

We're doing pretty good, but but notice what James is pointing out in the church.

You want something so badly that you are fighting for it.

Your passions are at war.

He even says you desire and do not have, so you'll murder.

We know what it's like.

You want appreciation, but you punish your family whenever you're overlooked.

You want rest, but you are harsh with anyone who might interrupt that time of relaxation.

You want people to think that you matter, so you neglect the people you already love in order to impress a people that you don't.

In other words, a good desire can have a ruling demand in our lives.

Just because we desire good things doesn't mean that those good things come to good results.

And here in James 4, James is pointing out that that can even come into our prayer life.

That sometimes we ask God for help.

We've already decided what God needs to do.

And here is this man doing the exact same thing.

You see it here in verse 5.

He's fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.

He's expecting them to give him alms.

I wonder what the alms are for you.

I wonder as you place yourself in this passage in the place of the lame beggar, what is the thing that you are looking for in life?

What do you imagine would finally make you feel okay?

Perhaps it would really bring you relief.

And like this man, if you were to receive that thing, you're, you know, you're filled with expectancy of what it would do in your life, but really beyond that need, there is something deeper.

In this passage, this man is a symbolic representation not only of Israel, but of us.

We keep looking for something to make life better.

And here, Peter and John, and we'll see it especially in Peter's proclamation of what happens.

They look at us and they see a deeper need.

That the thing you need the most is to be brought back to God.

You need to be brought back to his presence.

You need restoration.

It is the deepest need of the human heart.

At this temple gate, Jesus, through Peter and John, he gives this man more than the relief he could ever dream of.

Look at verses six and seven.

But Peter said, I have no silver and gold.

But what I do have, I give to you.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

Immediately you see the result, and he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.

I love the picture there.

Luke is not accidental in using the word raised twice.

In verse 15, he will use it again when he speaks of Jesus Christ.

It is Jesus Christ, whom God raised from the dead.

And if this man was raised up, if Jesus was raised up, the Holy Spirit is looking to us this morning and telling us beyond that thing you think you need is a resurrection that you actually need for eternal life.

We need resurrection.

Now the question then is where does that restoring power come from?

And it's the same question that the crowd, when they saw this lame man walking and leaping in the temple, had for Peter and John.

You'll notice that in verse 10, filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to them, in verse 11, they're utterly astounded and they've assembled inside the temple, asking Peter and John, what just happened there?

Jumping to conclusions.

Well, it must have been by your power, it must have been by your godliness that you caused this man to rise again.

They're looking for life.

They see that this man has found life.

He's leaping, he's praising God.

Where have you found it?

And the question is the same for us: where do we find it?

Instead of looking to the world, instead of looking to Instagram, we look this morning to God's word, and I want you to see, secondly, that we are restored to life in God's presence by trusting in the risen Jesus, by trusting in the risen Jesus.

Notice what Peter says when Israel gathers around him, wondering at what power this life could be given.

We see it here in verse 12.

Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this?

Or why do you stare at us as though by our power or piety we have made him walk?

Peter refuses here to let them mistake the messenger for a savior.

He is quick to point to the power this man is standing because Jesus was resurrected.

This man could be raised up because he is following in the path of Jesus Christ.

Before explaining that power, though, Peter confronts them with their rejection.

Look, loved one, at verse 13 with me.

Preaching this sermon, Peter goes on the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus.

Now, if Peter would have stopped there, that would have been a great sermon.

Praise God.

He has provided Jesus Christ.

He has provided a deliverer.

And at the end, in the middle of verse 13, he changes the pronoun.

And he's no longer talking about Jesus.

He is now confronting the crowd.

And notice what he says.

God glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him.

But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you.

And you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead.

To this we are witnesses.

Notice the pronoun change.

Peter looks at the crowd and says, you know, this man received life because he trusted in the name of Jesus.

He was confronted with the power of Jesus.

Do you know what you've done to this, Jesus?

You've rejected him.

You killed the author of life.

And you chose a murderer, a man who took life and rejected the one who gives it.

And in their rejection, you and I see the terrible consequence of our sin.

Every time we have turned away from God in sin, we have turned away from the author of life, the one who is the fountain of life himself, to something that cannot give life at all.

This is the picture of every sin and idolatry.

The turning from the God who, in his presence, there is fullness of joy to sinful idolatry.

I saw a picture of it in my Bible reading this week.

In 1 Kings chapter 18, hundreds of prophets of Baal stand opposite Elijah on Mount Carmel.

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

They are asking their God, Baal, to provide.

And so they do this whole song and dance around this idol, and to a 21st century person, it sounds a little bit ridiculous.

Here is this God made by human hands, and they're dancing around it.

They're calling out to Baal, but there's no answer.

This is not a real God.

When there's no answer, they shout louder.

There's still nothing.

You read in 1 Kings 18 that eventually they begin to cut themselves until their blood flows.

They are sacrificing everything.

Their God cannot answer them.

No matter how much effort, no matter how much sacrifice they make, no matter how much blood is spilt to this God, they keep giving more of their lives to something that cannot give life.

And you and I, as first 21st century people, take a step back and we say, how ridiculous is that?

To look to a wooden idol and to think that this wooden idol could provide something like rain and to sacrifice so much.

I mean, we're scientific.

We know more than that.

It's easy to recognize the foolishness of what happened on that mountain.

It's harder to recognize it in ourselves.

You know, I want to suggest to you that the idolatry that you and I partake in is not much different.

I can give you an example for my own life.

Years ago, I found something that I have to confess here to my own shame, to anyone who likes working out and going to the gym.

I found CrossFit.

I don't talk about that very often because it's like, you know, not something anyone's often happy to hear about.

That and being a vegan, they're kind of in the same category.

Found CrossFit and I started doing it, and as I was improving, people were really starting to notice.

I enjoyed the exercise, but I actually enjoyed more than that the attention from having a leaderboard that you could go on your phone and see where you kind of stacked up on.

I started to enjoy what being good at it said about me.

And in that moment, I want to ask you, what did I have?

I didn't just have a hobby, I had an idol.

I had found something that if I made enough of a sacrifice to, it wouldn't give me rain.

It would give me sore muscles, but it would ultimately give me approval.

I found approval in it.

And I found that the more I sacrifice it, the more I made everything in my life revolve around this idol, whether it was my food or my sleep or just getting into the gym, the more that I made everything revolve around this idol, the more I got.

Gradually, then more of my life revolved around protecting the feeling I was getting, what I ate, how I slept, how I arranged my schedule.

Now, listen, all those things can be a part of healthy training.

That can be a part of a healthy lifestyle.

You'll see as you look into my heart that it wasn't for me.

That I was after something beyond that.

And over many years, the Lord began to show me that I wasn't really after training at all.

I was looking for a sense of worth and a performance.

In the same song and dance that the people did around the idol that was the god of Baal, so was I around this idol.

I had come to trust in the power of an idol.

My loved ones, our idols aren't wooden, but we kid ourselves when we pretend that we are more advanced.

We see our idols.

They occupy space in our calendars.

They occupy space in our thoughts.

They determine whether we think we are worth anything.

And when they fail us, we give them more and more and more.

In some way and are doing it even right now.

The question then is, what hope do we have?

Where can we find hope?

Listen to Peter's next words in verse 15.

He says, You killed the author of life whom God raised from the dead.

In other words, Jesus is saying, listen, Peter's saying, through the risen Jesus, listen, you've rejected Jesus.

But God was unwilling to let that have the final word.

This Jesus that you crucified, God raised from the dead.

And this man's restored body, verse 16, bears witness to the power of the risen Christ who reigns, Peter says, not only now, but loved ones, who is reigning at this very moment in heaven.

And if you turn to the risen Jesus, he will restore you to God's presence at this very moment.

Peter's saying this, look, this risen man, he's walking because of the power of the risen Jesus.

And loved one, you too can walk if you will turn to the same Lord.

Look at verse 16.

In his name.

By faith in his name, he has made this man strong, whom you see and know.

And the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

Peter directs their faith with Jesus.

All the power belongs to him.

All the restoration comes through him.

The question then is this Do we trust that Jesus can give us the life that we keep looking for elsewhere?

We've seen where this man's restoration came from.

Now where are we looking for ours?

You know, beneath every choice that we ever make is a question of trust.

Where do I believe that life will be found?

You know, when you when you lash out in anger, you are trusting that control will give you peace.

When you have hidden sin that you are cultivating in your heart, you are trusting that being thought of well by an outsider is where life is really found.

When you are scrolling, doom scrolling, to escape the weight of life, you are trusting that distraction is what your soul really needs.

Behind every choice we ever make is a question of trust, different choices.

Same question.

Where do I believe that life will be found?

This is why in moments like this, our hearts are they're not filled with guilt, they're filled with a desire for repentance because we look at our lives and we see that we have forsaken the fountain of life and trusted in something that is dead that cannot give life.

You have rejected the author of life, but he is alive now.

And this man standing is bearing witness to the restoring power.

In other words, Peter's saying this, it doesn't have to be this way.

You can turn from your sin and you can find life in Jesus Christ if you trust in him.

You can find someone who can do more than distract you from the emptiness that is life.

You can find someone who can forgive your sin and bring you back to God.

The question is then this do you trust that life is found in him?

Do you trust in the risen Jesus?

That trust then gives repentance a direction.

As Peter then gets to repentance, it shows us before he even uses the word repent what repentance is.

It is a turning away from sin and a turning to Christ.

We repent when we turn to a living Savior, away from the pools that could never satisfy, to the fountain of life that is in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

That is what Peter is inviting us to.

It's repentance that brings life.

It's the third thing I want you to see this morning.

You can be restored to life by turning from your sin to God.

It's ultimately what this whole sermon is about.

Where is life found?

How can I experience the same resurrecting power that this lame man experienced?

Looking for something else entirely, finding it in Jesus alone.

And Peter, he points to the risen Jesus and he tells us how to respond.

Look at it with me in verses 17 and 18.

Now, brothers, I mean, just pause there.

Do you see the loving language of Peter?

Repentance is not this message of hellfire and brimstone.

It is a message of love from a God who wants to welcome you in.

Brothers, Peter says in verse 17, I know that you acted in ignorance as did your rulers, but what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.

Repent, therefore, and turn back that your sins may be blotted out.

Your sins, Peter says, put Jesus on the cross.

But your sin has not defeated God's saving purpose.

You can be restored to the presence of God if you will repent of the ways that you have turned away from Him and turn to Jesus Christ.

It is an invitation.

It is this recognition that yes, all of us have turned away.

But is this invitation that believing that we have found something that has life in this world, God calls to us and says, Turn, turn from your sin.

I want you to experience life.

Turn in repentance.

Repentance then is a change of direction.

It's a turning from the sin that we have embraced, believing that it would satisfy to the God that we have rejected.

And what Peter then does here is hold out these extraordinary reasons to return.

I want you to see through the three rewards of repentance.

The three reasons we ought to turn in repentance.

Notice verse 20.

He says, If you turn, your sins will be blotted out.

Listen to this, loved ones.

The times of refreshing, the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

It's not in the vacation.

It's not in the distraction from work.

It's not in any place in this world.

It is in a heart attitude of repentance.

It's the first thing I want you to see about repentance, that repentance refreshes us.

You know there's no one who's so free as the person who has turned in repentance.

The person who has confessed their sin to God, to others, and experienced the freedom from enslavement to sin.

There is no one so free.

You take me to any all-inclusive vacation, you take me to any, you know, food, you take me to any escape that we turn to to try to get rest and relaxation and refreshment.

And you will not find as close to a person who has joy as the person who has turned to the Lord from their sin.

It's what we read this morning in Psalm 32, isn't it?

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven.

Loved one, biblically, theologically, where is the life of refreshment?

It is in repentance.

You know, a few years ago, my family we moved to a rural property, and one of the great things about a rural property is it gives you a lot of sermon illustrations.

It's kind of like kids.

I don't know what I'm gonna do if I don't have kids and where I'm gonna get my sermon illustrations.

If I ever move to the suburbs, I don't know where I'm gonna get my sermon illustrations.

But here's one from my rural house, okay?

When you move to uh the sticks, the first thing you discover is that you you gotta take care of your own water.

It's all on you.

You don't, I mean, when I used to live in the city, I would turn that tap on and just watch it flow and say, what a beautiful thing.

Now it's like, this is my water.

I gotta take care of it.

And one of the things you actually have to do is filter the water.

And you know, we had a new drill well, we got all this water, but but this water is very filled with iron and it needs a lot of filtering.

And you put these filters in and it fills up fast with iron, and you start to notice your water pressure is getting lower and lower and lower, and there's this beautiful, it's I mean, it's the best feeling.

I'm gonna invite you guys all over one day to feel it when we change a filter that you turn the tap on, and and when the water used to come just kind of like trickling out, now this filter is fresh, and the water comes blasting out, and you have a shower and you can actually get the conditioner out of your hair.

And it's just like this really wonderful, refreshing feeling.

And and loved one, that is.

I got the conditioner out of my hair this morning, okay?

But that's the feeling of refreshment, of repentance.

Every time you turn to the Lord, where where that relationship with him has been clogged with the muck of sin and idolatry, he forgives.

He restores his presence to you.

This is what David is saying in Psalm 32, what Mike prayed through and read for us.

When I was silent, David said, My bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

Where did he find blessing when he turned to the Lord?

Blessed is the one who is forgiven.

That is what repentance does.

Repentance does not persuade a reluctant God to welcome us back.

Repentance is God calling us to return.

We stop concealing and excusing our sin, and we come to Him for the forgiveness that Christ has secured.

And it's because you know, you know that there is something that you must repent of, that you must turn from, that you are unwilling to do it.

And like David, biblically, theologically, your b the bones of your soul are broken because you will not turn from your sin.

You will not turn from the life-giving sorrow of sin.

What's the promise in Scripture?

The sorrows of those who run after other gods shall multiply.

It is biblical theological math that every time you turn to idolatry, you are multiplying sorrow in your life.

Verse 20, loved one.

Circle it, pray it.

Repent that times of refreshing may come.

Refreshing in the presence of the Lord.

Now Peter moves on.

There's more that we receive when we repent.

And in verses 20 and 21, he talks about the Christ who will return.

And in verse 22, about the prophet that we must hear.

And what he's pointing us to is that this one who refreshes us also has an authority that we must trust.

And it's the second thing I want you to see that we are blessed by when we repent.

It's we're blessed by his rule.

We're blessed by his rule.

This one who calls us to repent is a king.

Peter says, He's reigning in heaven, but he will return.

And when he returns, he will put right what sin has ruined.

Now, Peter then asks us what is our relationship at a heart level with this king?

And he answers in verse 22.

Notice what he says, verse 22.

Moses said, The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.

You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.

And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.

What is the blessing of repentance?

It is the blessing of placing yourself under the only rule that can lead you to life.

We in many ways in our culture are anti-authority.

Every time we hear about submission and rule culturally, because of the waters that we swim in, our skin sort of curls up.

But here, I mean, you know, you think about it, it's the isn't it the firefighter when you're in a fire that you want to be under their authority?

When they say, Let me show you the way, you say, Okay, I'm gonna follow you.

You're leading me to life.

We understand that with our kids.

Like we wish we could just tell them you can't put ketchup on your ice cream.

It's not good for you.

They don't understand that you're trying to lead them to life.

They think you're trying to squash all the fun and the joy in their life, and they don't understand.

I'm you I'm trying to use my authority to lead you to something good here.

And that is what God is doing with us.

Jesus is the prophet that if you listen to him, you will be led to life.

It has been like this from the beginning.

In the garden, Adam and Eve were told, listen, if you eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will die.

So I don't want you to eat from that tree.

And what do Adam and Eve do?

Seeing the fruit, desiring it, they eat from it.

What was God trying to do?

Lead them to life.

It's a blessing of repentance.

We live under the rule of Jesus.

I want you to see the third blessing of repentance.

It's it's restoration.

We see this in verse 25.

Peter speaking to the men of Israel, draws a theological line from Abraham to them.

Note he draws out in verse 25 the blessing that was, the promise that was given to Abraham, saying to Abraham, And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Verse 26, he tells them that God has sent Jesus to bring that blessing to them by turning them from their wickedness.

We see the connection.

Their sin has not put them beyond the reach of God's promise.

Through Jesus, they can return.

And the promise is reaching us this morning in Jesus Christ.

All the families of the earth, from the garden onward, our story has been a story of sin driving us away from the presence of God.

But God is working to bring his people back.

Jesus, he brings us into that restoration through the forgiveness of sins.

And going back to verse 21, he promises that when he returns, he will completely restore us to the presence that we were created for.

Loved one, you can be restored.

You have not sinned your way beyond the power of this Savior to turn you back to God.

Maybe as you look at yourself spiritually, you are the lame man.

For your entire life, you have rejected the living God and turned in sinful rebellion to idolatry.

And Jesus' message for you is this if you turn from your sin, you can be restored.

By faith.

By faith, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Have you called on his name this morning?

Have you called on the name of the Lord?

We come to the Lord's table this morning, and as we do, I want to think about that man at the gate once more.

That he came looking for enough money to get through another day.

He left walking, leaping, and praising God.

All because the restoring power of Jesus Christ had come to him.

We've had the same invitation this morning to receive the restoration that we need.

And we see that invitation in the Lord's Supper.

You would have received on your way in, likely, uh the cup and the bread.

And if you didn't, the ushers are coming forward right now, and you can flag one of them down.

They'll get one into your hands.

You'll notice there's two layers, one on the top that will get you to the bread, and one below that that will get you to the cup.

We began with a question this morning.

The question was: what are you hoping God will change in your life?

And there is no promise here that that need will not be awaiting you when you leave this place this morning.

Whether it's a difficult relationship, it's financial pressure, it's uncertainty about tomorrow.

The promise you have is that you can face those things reconciled to God, forgiven, under the care of a risen Jesus, and awaiting the day where he will finally and fully finish his work.

That if you turn to Jesus, you can be restored to the presence of God you have always needed, and what you hold in your hands are the very things that made that restoration possible.

The blood and the body of Jesus Christ.

Peter says, You killed the author of life.

Here we remember that the author of life gave himself willingly, his body was pierced, his blood shed, in order that we might be restored.

And so I want to ask you then to just take a moment.

And if you're on this side of the room, do your best to not hear the honking car outside.

Take a moment and consider in the presence of the Holy Spirit, submitting yourself to him, saying, Lord, whatever you want in my life, whatever you want to reveal, Lord, reveal it now.

Would you consider in this moment before we take the Lord's Supper together?

If there is any sin that you've been defending, if there has been something that you have been concealing from the Lord, if there is something that you keep asking to give you life that only God can give.

Would you just take a moment before the Lord now?

Blessed is the one, we believe it by faith, Lord.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven.

And because of the blood of Jesus Christ and the body that was pierced for us, we give you all the praise that we can be restored to the presence that we have always needed, the very presence of God.

There's no other way.

And Lord, we have spent our lives and still do, looking for life in other places.

And by experience we know, Lord, that our sorrows only multiply, that the pleasures of this world are what the writer of Hebrews says, our fleeting pleasures.

That as quick as we can hold on to them, they slip through our fingers.

Father, I pray that this would be a moment of repentance.

Turning from the things that we have pursued to the things that we find, to the life that we find in you.

God, we praise you for the blood that you have shed for us.

And we pray this in the name of your Son.

Amen.

If you're trusting in Christ, this meal this morning is for you.

If you have not yet trusted in Jesus, we would ask that you let this pass by.

This is a communion that believers experience by faith with Jesus Christ in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Another reason why you might not take this this morning is because there's sin in your life you are unwilling to repent of.

The Lord says first to sort out that sin with him, to turn to him and receive the forgiveness that is extended to you this morning.

Love one, you can take the bread.

On the night that he was betrayed, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it.

He told his disciples that it was his body given for them and called them to eat in remembrance of him.

Let's eat it together, remembering his body given for us.

After supper, Jesus took the cup and declared in the new covenant in his blood.

He called his disciples to drink in remembrance of him.

Let's drink together, remembering his blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins.

Father, we thank you.

We thank you for what our Lord Jesus said when he instituted the Lord's Supper, that whenever we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

God, we pray that we would live for the daily resurrection by faith that this man experienced, being raised from the pursuit of multiplied sorrows and sin and idolatry to the pursuit of life in submission to our King Jesus.

God, we pray this all in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Amen.

Could you stand and respond with me this morning?