Welcome to the River Mountain Church Preaching Library. It is our prayer and indeed our hope that this message might inspire your life. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the preaching of God's Word. So we're going to talk about experiencing what the Bible calls times of refreshing. And this comes to us from the book of Acts. This is Acts chapter 3, verses 19 through 20. It says, Repent, therefore, this is Peter preaching on the day of, well, he's actually preaching a sermon to the Jewish people. He's telling them to repent, therefore, in turn, that their sins may be blotted out, and that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Refreshing comes to us in one thing, and that is the presence of the Lord. If you want to experience refreshing, then you have to get into the presence of the Lord. And the only way you can get into the presence of the Lord is if you are walking either in brokenness or in repentance. I believe repentance is more than just a one-time thing. The word repent means to turn and go in another direction. I think we should live a life that is repentant, if I could put it that way, a life that is probably a better word would be broken. We need to live a life of brokenness in which we're always aware of our sinful condition before the Lord. The opposite of that is to always be aware of either your righteous condition or not to be aware of your condition at all. And I think as we walk with the Lord, we need to be aware that we are in a broken state. And we are always in need of God's restoring of our soul and we are always in need of this thing called a refreshing. So we're going to deal with that today. And the Lord actually gave me an image. He gave me the image of a diamond, and I realized when he gave me this image that this sermon was going to have four points, not three, and that each point here in this diamond has like four shapes. We're familiar with a baseball diamond, but this is probably the more accurate representation of what a diamond looks like to most people. So I want to talk about the refreshing that comes by hearing God's voice. First of all, Adam before he sinned, walk with God. And here's what Genesis tells us. This is after Adam has fallen and has lost his relationship with the Lord. He said he heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. The word that is used here for cool of the day is the word ruah or spirit or breath. And so the Lord is walking in the garden in his spirit. cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord when the Lord is walking in in his rua the presence of the Lord has now come into the garden and the Bible tells us that he has hid himself and God asked this question to Adam where are you and I've said this before but this is perhaps one of the saddest verses in all of the scriptures because I believe that in God and Adam walked together in the cool of the day, in the Ruah, maybe every day. And so God shows up in the garden and Adam's not there. And so the obvious question is, Adam, where are you? Where have you gone? what's happened. God obviously knows. But this is the beginning of the absence of the spirits and the absence of the refreshing and the absence of God being able to minister to man in the cool of the day. I love the expression, cool of the day. How many of you have ever taken a walk in the twilight or in the evening? Isn't it beautiful? You know, right before the sun goes down. The sun's no longer beating down on your head. There's a little breeze and it's just so peaceful. My wife and I went to Ricketts Glen. How many people have been to Ricketts Glen? Beautiful place. We actually took that picture with our little camera there. That's an actual photo that we took. And a lot of greenery, a lot of waterfalls. And as we're walking through Ricketts Glen, I kind of get this idea that maybe it would be neat to actually shoot some video and talk a little bit about this subject of refreshing. And I think waterfalls are beautiful symbols of refreshing. So here's the video I shot in Ricketts Glen. We're here at Ricketts Glen. My wife and I are hiking the trails. It's just about 530 or so, maybe 6 o'clock. When the Bible talks about Adam walking with God in the cool of the day, I imagine it was probably sometime around twilight or the evening. The sun was hot today, but right now there's a cool breeze blowing, and it's actually just a little bit nippy. It's maybe in the 60s. And I have a feeling that the most refreshing thing about walking with God was hearing His voice. That was the thing that scared Adam after he sinned. But when he was in His glory, when he was walking with God in the Rua, I have a feeling that nothing else mattered. And as we get closer to this falls, the sound is going to get louder and louder until that's the only thing we hear. And I think that's what happens in our relationship with God. We draw near to Him, and as we do, He draws near to us. His voice gets louder and louder. And it's really up to us how close we get and how loud His voice actually becomes. But as we walk down this trail, maybe symbolic of our life, Imagine yourself drawing close to God, and as you hear the waterfall, Psalm 47 tells us that the voice of God is like the sound of many waters. Right now, we're as close as we possibly can get without endangering our lives to this waterfall. I can't hear much of anything other than the sound of those waters. You probably can't hear me either. But that's a good thing. Because when we're that close to God, the only thing we really hear, the only thing we really experience, is who He is. Which is very refreshing. I imagine Adam had no idea what he lost, that he had lost the refreshing that comes from hearing the voice of the Lord. So here on the, shortly after the Day of Pentecost here, we have these verses. telling the people to repent that they might again experience the times of refreshing that come from the presence of the Lord. In other words, this is the greatest news that mankind has ever heard, is that what Adam lost in the garden, the refreshing, now man, if he repents, can come back and experience this refreshing that comes from being in the presence of the Lord. The second thing I want to deal with here is this. There is a refreshing that comes to us when we walk with God in the valley. Our life is more than just a plateau. Most of us will experience mountaintops and experience valleys. And something amazing happens to us in the valley. We experience God in a way that is quite different from anything that we've ever experienced on a mountaintop or in a plateau. The Bible says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and staff, they comfort me. This is the good shepherd, and the good shepherd not only takes the sheep by the still waters, but yes, the shepherd leads them through valleys. The Christian life is about experiencing valleys. You have to experience a valley. If you don't, you'll never get what God intended for you. But when you're in the valley, don't be afraid. If there's death, it's only a shadow. The primary reason we're never afraid is because He's with us and His rod and staff, they comfort us. Here's a little bit of the video. Pretty tough terrain. You know, sometimes in our relationship with God, we go to the mountain top. Other times, He calls us into the valley. The valleys can be like dark places, they can be places where we feel maybe like God has left us, but I've always discovered in my own life that sometimes when I'm at the lowest point, God meets me in a really special way. I'm not encouraging people to go into the valleys, but I do want to say this, when we walk through that valley of the shadow of death, it's just a shadow, it's not really death that we're touching, it's just a shadow, a dark thing. But his rod and his staff, they bring us comfort. And sometimes when we get in the valley, we look around us, and there's something awesome and incredible about being in a valley. Some of the most refreshing times have come after you've come down from the mountain. Maybe you're really low, and God meets you in a special way. And you experience a refreshing that only a dark time could really bring. My wife and I came up here from South Jersey. It was an exciting time. We were on a mountaintop. God had told us exactly what to do. We were all excited about doing it. And we start our church on July 7th, 2007, on the porch of Karen Isamore's house there, right? We had a nice little gathering of people. That was three years ago. Very excited. Everything was going well. And then we decided we were going to move our church into the little community center down at the bottom of the mountain there in Eagle Rock with a little pool. And we meet there and then everything's going well and all of a sudden we're told we can't meet there anymore. They said that if they allow us to meet there, they could allow all these other religious groups to meet there. There's no other religious groups we knew about. So they kicked us out of there. And so it was summertime, so we start meeting in the pavilion, which is a nice place in the summertime, but it doesn't say summer forever. And so here we are meeting in September, and then eventually we get into October. And I remember this very, Vividly, my wife and I are at the Bloomsburg Fair. It's about 30 degrees, in the 30s, and we know that the next day at the pavilion is going to probably be in the 30s. And my wife says to me, there's no way we can meet in the pavilion in 30 degree weather. So she says, you better call somebody and do something. And so eventually I get a hold of Joyce. Joyce who stands here now, she was the general manager at the time. And she allowed us to go into the little community center for that one day. But then we knew we had to get out there, out of there, like the next week. And so we're in a valley now. I mean, we come all the way up here. We started this church. And now we really don't have any place to meet. And I just kind of felt that we were at a real low spot, that this could be a total disaster, the whole thing's going to dissolve. And then I'm jogging around Shepton and I see this church. I've seen it before, but now there's a for rent sign on it. We were able to rent this church and get in it in the beginning of October when we were facing, you know, meeting, I don't know, in somebody's home, home wouldn't work, outside wouldn't work. And what's really interesting about this is that we had a friend who came from our church back home, and he was in that service when we were meeting in the community center there for the last time. And he said, he said, I don't know what this means, but the Lord told me, showed me a fireplace, a big fireplace. And he said that this church was going to have a lot of warmth to it. But he said, I saw this fireplace. And so the first thing I did when we walked in here was we saw this giant fireplace. And we just knew that God had provided this. But see, the cool thing about God is He takes us down to a valley, and everything looks really dark, and it looks like everything's going to fall apart if God doesn't show up. But that's good. How many of us love the movie? We all watch the movies in which it looks like our hero is going to meet his certain demise and all of a sudden something happens and he's rescued. And we get sucked into the drama of it's going to be a horrible ending and all of a sudden something happens. And that's the way God is. We're in this tremendous drama of everything looking like it's going to fall apart and then at the last minute God comes to the rescue and he salvages the whole thing. And you can only experience that when you go into a valley. So God in his ultimate wisdom refreshes us by his voice Refreshes us in the valley and then he refreshes us by giving us assignments. We're told that when the when 70 Two people received this assignment from the Lord. They went out, they began to heal the sick, they began to cast out devils, and they returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to your name. There is something incredible about being used by God. There's something about being used by God that's unlike anything you've ever experienced. There is joy and refreshment in getting an assignment. You know, when you walk into our church on a Sunday morning and you're in the foyer, you look to your left and to your right and sometimes in all corners you'll see a staff. And it's not that I just got lazy with my yard work and just decided to throw something up in the foyer. It's actually symbolic. Staffs in the Bible represent God's authority. And I think it's great because the staff is so useful when you're walking through very difficult places. We're here in Wreckage Glen, and it's a little difficult at times. It's nice to have a nice staff here. But the biblical significance of a staff is that it represents God's authority. Every believer has been given some authority by God to do something on the earth. Every disciple had a job. And so there's something refreshing to know that we're not only called by God, but He gives every one of us a staff. I think, as we ponder that idea, We have a sense of fulfillment in our life that we're here with a purpose. Assignments are a little bit like God knocking on your door and saying to you, can you come out and play? Come on, I want to do something with you today. And I remember as a kid, every kid has something built into them. They love to play. You never see a little boy knock on somebody's door and say, can Johnny come out and work today? You know, I mean, it's always, can Johnny come out and play today? And you ever notice kids, their play is always spontaneous. They never plan out anything that they're going to do, right? And the smaller you are, the less planning there is. You knock on the door, can Johnny come out and play? What are you going to do? Well, we don't know. We're just going to go out and play. We'll be in the woods. One minute, next minute, we'll be bouncing a ball. Next minute, we'll be down the street. Next minute, we'll be here. And it's totally spontaneous. The older you get, the less spontaneous you become. Teenagers, you become a teenager. What do teenagers always say? I don't know if teenagers are still the same today as they were when I was a kid. I don't know. What do you want to do? And so finally somebody gets an idea, and then they go out and do it. And unlike children, small children, when they just go off to do something different, somebody in the teenage group has to say this about whatever it is they're doing. This stinks, let's do something else. Right? Somebody makes that declaration, and nobody ever challenges that, because when somebody says it stinks, let's do something else. And then it comes back to, well what do you want to do now? I don't know, what do you want to do? So that's what teenagers do. But at least they get to do it. What do adults do? We don't do that. What do we do? We make plans a week in advance. You call people up and say, so we have lost total spontaneity. And then when you get really old, Really old people, forget about phone calls, they send out invitations for things that are going to happen a year from now. Can you believe it? He only gave me six months to plan this. It's almost like we make a slow journey from total spontaneity to our lives being so structured and organized that we need a year to do anything. And the Bible tells us that we need to become more like little children. And I have a feeling that God is up there saying, man, can we just be spontaneous today? Can we just do something really different? And there's a refreshing that hearing God knock on the door of your house and say, can you come out and play? And us just walking out with God, not knowing where we're going, not knowing what's going to happen, being like Abraham, just going out there and 70, he was 90, I don't know what he was, I think he was 70 when God says, let's just go to some place and Abraham doesn't know where he's going, he just goes out there. And that's really the life of faith. And that's a refreshing thing. And hopefully you haven't lost your spontaneity because it comes with hearing an assignment from God and just getting out there and being obedient. Mountain tops are places of refreshing. I love this because this is so like us when we experience a mountaintop. Here's what happens. This is the Mount of Transfiguration. Behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, and they were talking with Jesus. They were talking to Him. And so here's Moses and Elijah, and they're talking to Jesus, right? They're having a conversation. Moses, Elijah, talking to Jesus. And Peter, according to the text, barges right in. He interrupts the conversation. That's what it seems to indicate here. He interrupts the conversation and he says to Jesus, Lord, Lord, Lord, it's really good for us to be here. And if you wish, I can make three tents. I can make one for you. I can make one for Moses. I can make one for Elijah. Read this text. So he was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud... Peter interrupts Moses and Elijah, and God interrupts Peter. It's really kind of a hilarious thing. Here's one guy interrupting a divine conversation, and then God, while Peter's still going through his big long dissertation, God speaks from heaven, and he says this, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. And what happens in this story is we all want to camp out on mountaintops. We all want to live on a mountaintop. If we had a tremendous experience with God, we say, this is it. Let's camp here. Let's live here. Let's be here. And you really can't. Because you need to go in a valley. You need to hear God's voice at times. You need to do assignments at times. So all of life... I think it's interesting when the Bible talks about meeting God talks about ascending a holy mountain. Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? He who has a pure heart and clean hands. Ascending anything is a lot of work, is it not? But there's always rewards when you get to the top of a mountain. Much like there's rewards in the valley, there's even more amazing rewards on the top of a mountain. Jesus experienced the Mount of Transfiguration, where he was glorified in front of his apostles, at least his inner three, Peter and John and James. It must have been quite a day. Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. And, of course, the Temple of God was on the top of Mount Moriah, which is Jerusalem, where Abraham also sacrificed, or was going to sacrifice his friend Isaac. Mountaintops are pinnacles. They are what we mark our life by. There's an old saying that We shouldn't gauge our life by every breath we take, but we should gauge our life by everything that takes our breath away. When you're on a mountaintop, there's something breathtaking about it. Okay, be honest, how many people thought I was going to fall? Mountaintops. We love them. They are places in which we can build monuments, things to remember. But we need to remember that in order to experience the refreshing of God, There's hearing his voice. Then there's going into the valleys. Then there's obeying the assignment. And then there are these times in which we experience mountaintops. But the point that I want to make here is that this is all necessary. Does anybody know where a diamond comes from? Mine, right? Made from carbon. Do you realize a diamond is the only gem that is made up of one single element? This is it. Carbon. Cool. It becomes this. I mean this. Well, let me just do this. This becomes this. How? Pressure. One other thing. Time. Time is big. Heat. Two things that form diamonds. Pressure. This, science tells us, has to be probably 75 to 120 miles under the earth to have enough pressure to form that. Miles. So how does it get to the surface? Again, science says that these things have to be brought up. through a volcano of some sort. Heat. They say that the only way this can be transformed into a diamond, a piece of carbon, is by experiencing heat from 900 to 1300 degrees. God, in order to take this and make it into this, has to explain heat and pressure to it. And I really do believe that this is what the Christian life is all about, becoming like a diamond from that. The only way it happens, heat, pressure. The Bible tells us this in 1 Peter, It says, we're to rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the testing of the genuineness of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes, so it is tested by fire, may be found to result in the praise and the glory and the honor of God at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let me just say this. I believe God is like a conductor, and He stands over your life, and He says, okay, mountaintop, okay, valley. Okay, I speak to them. Okay, they do the assignment. Okay, mountaintop, valley, mountaintop. And he just makes this beautiful, beautiful symphony. Thanks for listening to this week's message from River Mountain Church. If you'd like some more information, visit our website, rivermountainchurch.org.