Good News!
2021-02-28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N94RAw2-uEQ

I want you to know what God is doing in this passage, but I want you to know what God is doing in this passage. I want you to know what God is doing in this passage, but I want you to know what God is doing in this passage. I want you to know what God is doing in this passage. Yes, I think he is. Testing, testing, testing. Test, test, test, testing. One, two, three, testing. Testing. One, two, three. . . . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Hey, good morning, everybody. We're going to get started. There's new coffee in the back if you need coffee, so. All right. It's good to see everybody. I know it's pretty rainy out there, so we actually saw snow there. The other night, I thought we were done, but I guess not. Today, as we begin our time of worship, we're going to be, Brandon's going to be continuing in Acts and Peter's sermon, and we're talking about how refreshing, the refreshingness that God gives us. And we, in our lady's study this week, we're talking about some times in Saul's life and how he had gotten to a point where he was pretty far from God, and God wasn't really responding to him. And I was just thinking about how, what a dry time that would be. How could you not thirst for what God would have for you? And so I was thinking about that and what Brandon's going on, and it pointed me to Psalm 63. And those are the verses we're going to read together this morning. So if you guys want to go ahead and stand, we're going to read together.

And even if you don't want to read it, I would say just look at the words and think about them and think how they would be refreshing for your life. And what? Oh, okay. We're just waiting. So... Oh, that's cool. We can do whatever. Do 119 while we're at it if we want. All right. So we're going to read these together and just as we begin our time of worship today, starting in verse one, "O God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory, because your steadfast love is better than life. My lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live. In your name, I will lift up my hands." This is the word of the Lord. And I wanted to take a moment to just say why we do this when we start our service. When I was growing up, one of the things I hated in church was responsive reading, because we all sounded like robots. And as I got older, I realized

that reading the Bible together to start our service really gets us in the mind of why we're here and why we gather together and why it can be an encouragement to us as we get together. So we're going to go ahead and pray, and then we'll begin our service today. God, we thank you for everyone that's gathered here today and the safety that you gave them to be here. We thank you for those watching online, and we ask that the service today is an encouragement to those here and to those watching. And we just thank you so much that you are the one that can quench our thirst in these, when our life feels like a desert. And we thank you for your grace and for your mercy and just help this service to glorify you in Jesus name. Amen.

Our first Song we're going to do is a newer one. It's called Jesus Messiah. So if you don't know it, just read the words. That's cool. And we'll get through it together. So just focus on the words and just as it talks about what Jesus has done for us.

He became sin who knew no sin that we might become His righteousness. He humbled Himself and carried the cross. Love so amazing. Jesus, Messiah. Name above all names. Blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel. The rescue for sin. Jesus, Messiah. Lord of all. His body, the bread. His blood, the wine. Broken and poured. Out all for love. The whole earth trembled and the veil was torn. Love so amazing. Love so amazing. Yeah. Jesus, Messiah. All names. Blessed Redeemer. Emmanuel. The rescue for sinners. The ransom from heaven. Jesus, Messiah. Lord of all. All our hope is in You. All our hope is in You. Oh, the glory to You, God. The name of the world. Jesus, Messiah, name above all things. Blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel. The rescue for sin. The ransom from heaven. Jesus, Messiah, Lord of all. Jesus, Messiah, Lord of all.

All right. If you want to remain standing, we're going to move to our next song, and then we'll do our prayer time together. If you're watching online, there's going to be a link, or I'm sorry, a phone number posted. If you have any prayer requests and you want to text that, we'd be happy to pray with you about whatever you've got going on. So, our next song we're going to do is Great Is Thy Faithfulness. O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not. As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be. Thy faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. To sin and the peace that endureth. Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide. Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside.

Great is Thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hands hath provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Thank you. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Be with Jonathan and Amy and their family. Watch over them. Amen. Amen. Amen.

As we move on to our time of communion, I just wanted to share some of the--what the writer wrote--excuse me. In the devotional for Psalm 63, it says, "Consider the language of Psalm 63. David speaks of God as the thirst-quenching water for his dry and barren soul in verse 1. He speaks of God as a delicious meal for his hungry soul in verse 5. He speaks of God as his shade and protection, like the wings of a great bird in verse 7. David needs one thing in life, God. Not truths about God in the first place, rather God himself. And what is it in knowing God that gives David life and strength? Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you." In verse 3. It is God's steadfast love that does so. The Hebrew word is chesed, God's covenant, loyalty, his refusal to give up on those whom he has taken to himself. And how do you know that God will never give up on you? Because he has sent his son to prove it.

And so I thought that was a good summary of just what the psalmist was saying there, and that it's easy to just tell somebody, "Well, God's not going to give up on you." But it's hard to actually believe that when it seems like everything in life is not good. And so I would just encourage you to just remember what the psalmist says about how God is there, and that He's never far from us. And I think that was when I finally started to understand what the gospel actually was, that it wasn't that I had to follow all these rules and God would love me or God would give me good things or anything like that. It's just that God is good and He does love us. And all that He asks is just that we trust Him, that He will do that. And so as we continue just in our time of communion, we're going to sing the song "Cornerstone." And again, if you need anything, it's on the back table there, so. God, be the glory of God.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly trust in Jesus' name. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly trust in Jesus' name. Christ alone, cornerstone, weak made strong in the Savior's love. He is Lord, Lord of all. When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace. And stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. My anchor holds within the veil. Christ alone, call us Lord, weak, made strong. In the Savior's light, move the storm. He is Lord, Lord our Lord. Christ alone, call us Lord, weak, made strong. In the Savior's light, move the storm. He is Lord, Lord our Lord. When He shall come with trumpets sound, O may I then in Him be found. Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless than before the throne.

Christ alone, call us Lord, weak made strong, in the Savior's love through the storm. He is Lord, Lord of all. Christ alone, call us Lord, weak made strong, in the Savior's love through the storm. He is Lord, Lord of all. Let's pray together real quick. God, thank you once again that we can be here today, and thank you for all that's gathered here, and we thank you that through everything in life that you are steadfast, and we thank you for your grace and your mercy, and I thank you for the patience of everyone here as we sometimes struggle through our service, and we just ask that it glorifies you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, before we gather around the table together, Evelyn's gonna come and read to us a couple verses from the Psalms. Tell them what you're reading.

107. 107. 1 and 2. 1 and 2. O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Who He has endured from trouble. Now what I like about what Evelyn read is that she says, the way that psalm ends is, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." That we are to declare with joy the good things that God has done for us. And we're maybe not used to declaring things very loudly, and one of the interesting things to me, I think the younger you are, the easier it is to declare things loudly. And so we hear our young children declare things loudly very often. So yesterday, when we were in the car a bunch, Luke loudly declared his displeasure with the situation. But as Christians,

you and I are called to declare the good news about God. And in 1 Peter, the second chapter, Peter says this, beginning in verse 9, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." And so, Peter begins in that section. He's contrasting with who we were to who we become in Christ. And what he does is he reminds us of our identity. This is who you are, that you are chosen, that you are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that God possesses you, that he cares for you, that he watches over you. And he does so for a purpose, that we can proclaim the one who brought us out of darkness into the marvelous light.

And as we gather around this table, Paul, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, will tell us that this meal, this tiny little bit of bread and this little cup of juice, is a proclamation of the gospel. It's a proclamation of what Jesus has done for us. In fact, in verse 26, he will say, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." That Jesus, on the cross, takes all of our brokenness, and he pays the price for our sin. He rises again, giving us his victory and his righteousness. And as a people, we have hope in the midst of a world filled with turmoil and trouble because of Jesus. This is what we proclaim as we break this bread and drink this cup. Let's pray, and then we'll read some Scripture together and eat the bread and drink the cup.

Father in heaven, thank you so much that you have redeemed us, that you have saved us, that you have called us to yourself. And so help us to proclaim your goodness, to proclaim the good news of the gospel. Not just externally, but in our lives, to our discouragement, to our fear, to our worries, and to our struggles, that we would proclaim the good news that you have loved us and you have saved us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would, take the bread with me. And Paul writes this: "For what I received from the Lord, that which I delivered to you, the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and he said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'"

In the same way, also, he took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." Let's pray. Father, thank you for this message to our hearts and to the world, that there is hope, that in you there is joy, there is peace, and there is a future. Encourage us this morning. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. This morning we'll be reading from Acts 3. When 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, "Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this? Or why do you start at us? As though by our power or piety

we had made him walk. 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 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 in his name, by faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. And the faith that is through Jesus has given this 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, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. 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 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 all the families of the earth shall 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.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. We thank you for Dr. Luke, who wrote these down to share with us. May we be encouraged by Peter's sermon. May we be strengthened. May we be helped. And may most of all we be directed to the good news of the gospel. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So I don't remember the name of the TV show. I know I was probably in second or third grade, and I was over at a friend's house, and they had a whole lot more channels than we ever had because we had no channels. And we were watching TV after school, and it was one of those situations, maybe you've seen something like this, where somebody, some lucky child gets to go into a toy store, and they get like 45 seconds or a minute,

and they get a shopping cart. And as much as they can grab in that time and fit into the shopping cart, they get to keep. Now, growing up in a grocery store, I was pretty critical of this kid's plan because if it would have been me, one hand would have been on the shopping cart, the other hand would have been on the shelf, and I would have just gone down the aisle like that. But he was picking and choosing. Out of all of the wonderful things he wanted, he was trying to get them all. And when we come to this text that Brent just shared for us, Peter's sermon after this healing of a man who is unable to walk, what we find if we begin to think about and consider and meditate and dig into this text,

it's like this wonderful place filled with all of the things that we could want. And we're trying hard to pick out as many things as quickly as possible. Or maybe consider it like a diamond where light sparkles from every facet. So let me just point you in the direction of a few of those things from this text, and then we will go to sort of the center point of what Peter is saying. So one of the things that I love about Peter's text, and remember the context of this, is they have gone to the temple to worship, there's a guy sort of sitting in the doorway, and he asks them for money, and Peter and John look at him and say, "We don't have any silver, we don't have any gold, but what we do have is in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk."

And this guy who has been unable to walk since birth, who's more than 40 years old, begins to jump up. Peter pulls him up, he jumps up, and he begins to walk, and he's leaping, and he's excited because all of a sudden, everything works. And so a crowd understandably gathers because for the last probably 35 years, they've seen this guy sitting there, asking for money, unable to walk, and now he's walking. And so Peter begins to speak to the crowd. And what I love, first of all, is Peter's humility. Because we have a tendency to take credit for things we did not do. So we'll have somebody over for dinner, and Rachel will cook something wonderful, and they'll say, "Oh, this was so good." And I'll say, "Thank you. I spent weeks and weeks preparing it."

We all have a tendency, maybe not that blatantly, but we have a tendency to want to be the focus of attention. We want to take the credit for ourselves. And what I love about what Peter says, something amazing has just happened. And Peter, rather than standing up in front of everybody and patting himself on the back and saying, look at how great and good and wonderful we are. Look at what he says in verse 12. Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us as though by our own power or piety we made him walk? And down in verse 16, "And his name, by faith in his name, he has made this man strong whom you see and know, that faith is through Jesus who has given this man perfect health in the presence of you all."

And so Peter says, "Why are you staring at me? It's not like I'm super holy or super powerful. It's all about Jesus." And I love that Peter, in the midst of this situation where he could have patted himself on the back and taken credit and probably profited from this situation, says, "No. It's all about Jesus." The second thing we see about Peter is that he begins to speak some hard words to this crowd. He has a hard and difficult conversation with the people who have gathered. And what he doesn't do is he doesn't hesitate and he does not equivocate. What he will say to them is that you delivered, denied, and killed the promised Messiah, the Son of God. He doesn't pull his punches. He doesn't say, "Well, guys, have you considered this?" No, he blatantly says, "You denied, you delivered, you killed the Holy One of God."

Now, while this is hard and difficult to hear, especially when we are confronted with our mistakes and our wrongdoing, it is an act of love that Peter does that. We have hard conversations because we care about the person. We have hard conversations because we want what is best for them. I remember the street we first lived on when we went to Vermont was this little one-way street, and I remember one day we were out playing with some kids in the neighborhood, and this lady goes driving by in her car, and she has her purse on top of her car, and so all of us kids just start screaming at her, and she pulls over and gets out of the car, and she has this look on her face like, "Well, we're in trouble now," right? She's like, "Why are you guys yelling at me?"

and we just kind of scared because we were like third graders just pointed at the top of her car, and she looks and she sees her purse is like, "Oh," and then just takes her purse and gets back in the car, right? At first, she becomes confrontational, right? Why are they yelling at me? Who do they think they are? And then she sees the reason for it, and her attitude and demeanor changes. What Peter is doing is he's not saying these hard things intentionally to try to hurt or to get revenge on these people, but rather to point them to what they are missing, which is the salvation that is found in Jesus. And Peter also goes to great lengths to temper the truth with love, right? Because we can speak the truth in ways that is harsh and unloving, but that's not what Peter does.

Look at verse 18, "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance as did your rulers." When Peter says that, I don't think he means that they didn't know that they were going to crucify Jesus. I think what he's saying is that you don't understand the magnitude of the sin that you were committing. In the same way that as Jesus is on the cross, he says, "Father, forgive them." They don't know what they're doing. They don't understand the magnitude. And so he points to their brokenness, and he says, "You do not understand how the magnitude of what this is and what you were doing." And so Peter speaks to them bluntly and directly, and I love that he speaks to them from a foundation of truth. And so he says, "First of all, we are witnesses. We have seen these things. We were there.

This isn't just a good story or something that I heard from somebody. You heard it from somebody else, but I saw this with my own eyes." And then he backs it up with scriptural support by going back to Moses and to Samuel and to Abraham to credential his message. So you have these things that Peter humbly points to Jesus. He speaks the truth in love directly, even though it's hard and difficult and likely for him, makes him fearful over what will happen to him. He speaks the truth in love. He builds upon a foundation of what is true, and then woven through every part of this text is the good news about Jesus, who he is, and what he has done. He talks about the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. He talks about his servant, which hearkens back to the 53rd chapter of Isaiah,

the author of life, the holy and righteous one, the power of his name. And so throughout all of these things, Peter weaves together the goodness of Jesus. And right in the middle of all of these things that Peter is doing and saying, you hear these words, "Repent, therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed to you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for the restoring of all things, about which God spoke by the mouth of the holy prophets long ago." And so, first of all, Peter says, here is the bad news, right? You killed the promised Messiah. You betrayed him, you turned him over, and he was crucified. Now, here is what I am calling you to do, which is to repent.

Now, repentance, at its heart, is not simply feeling bad about what we have done wrong. We've all been in those situations where we felt bad that we have done something wrong, and then we said, "You know what? Can't do anything about it," and we just keep going. The picture of repentance isn't simply feeling bad, but it's that knowledge of wrongdoing that leads to that feeling of understanding that we did wrong. And the most important part, and you get a glimpse of it in this verse, where he says, "Turn back." That at the heart of repentance is we are changing the direction that we are going. Like when your GPS says, "Turn around where possible." That's a picture of repentance. And when we biblically talk about repentance, what we are talking about is the direction in which we are going,

and we turn around and go the other way. And so he calls these people to repentance, and he says, "If you will repent, and if you will follow Jesus, He says, "Here is what is happened. Here's what will happen." And first of all, he says this, "That sin will be removed, that your sins may be blotted out." Now what that means, and that Greek word literally means, to remove totally. And in fact, it's even more than that. It became used as a picture of a debt that was completely cancelled. And so we don't do that today. We sign things. But in those days, when a debt was recorded, a piece of wax was melted on to the debt, and the owner of the debt would take his signet ring, the person from whom the money was borrowed,

and would place his signet ring into the wax, leaving his imprint, saying, "Yes, this debt is owed, and I, as the lender, am certifying that it's owed." And so what would happen is when that debt was finally paid, they would take a stone or a stick, and they would scratch out that wax seal, signifying that the debt had completely been paid. That seal was removed. And the picture here is that Greek word describes that process when you pay your debt, and the person to whom you owe the debt takes it and scratches that out, saying that it's been paid in full. In Colossians 3, this word is used, "You who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses," verse 14, "by canceling the record of the debt that stood against us with its legal demands."

The word is also used in Revelation 7:17 and 21:4, where God says of his people who are experiencing sorrow, and they're crying, and he says, "I will wipe away their tears," and what it means is to take those away completely. And Peter says to this crowd, truthfully and lovingly, belt upon a foundation of who Jesus is and what he has done, and he says, "If you will turn to Jesus, he will blot out your sins. He will remove that record. He will forgive them. And no longer will that shame and that fear and that uncertainty and that guilt be weighing down upon you, but he will take it away. Your sins will be blotted out. It will be removed." If you've ever wondered why Christians sing that old hymn, "My sin." "Oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross,

and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul." It's because our sins have been taken away. We are no longer guilty. We don't have to hide. We don't have to try to fix it. We don't have to try to make excuses because Jesus has taken our sin away. And I love this text because it's not just, it's not just what is taken away from us, the guilt and shame of our sin, but it's what is given to us. He says that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Now we understand a little bit about refreshing, right? It's hard to imagine on a rainy, cold day like today, but on those hot days of summer, and when you come into the air conditioning for being outside, and you are just refreshed,

or you're so thirsty, and you go get a glass of nice cold water, or in our kids' case, you know, a glass of Chick-fil-A lemonade, right? That's their refreshing thing on the hot day. We understand a picture of refreshment, and the picture here in our text is that God doesn't just erase the record of our debt to blot out our sins, but He then refreshes us in the depths of our soul. And so what you find is that Jesus is the one who satisfies our thirsty souls. In John, the fourth chapter, Jesus is sitting by a well, and this shady lady shows up. She's had several husbands, and the man she's living with now is not her husband, and she's coming to the well in the middle of the day because she's been sort of ostracized from society.

Everybody has looked down on her and treated her badly. And you know what Jesus does to the woman that everybody whispers about and laughs at and judges? Jesus talks to her, and he talks to her respectfully so much so that she looks at him and says, "Why would you, a Jewish man, talk to me, a Samaritan woman?" And Jesus does it because he loves her, and he respects her, and he says, "If you knew who you were talking to, you would ask me for a drink of living water." So she's coming to the well to get her water for the day where hopefully nobody sees her, so she has to deal with those accusing glances and stares and whispers. And Jesus says, "I want to give you water that you're never going to have to thirst again."

And she, in her mind, thinks, "Well, I'll never have to go back to that well again." She says, "Give me this water." And Jesus says to her, "I that water. You drink of the water of me, and you'll never be thirsty again." Now what Jesus means is that all of us in the depths of our soul have things that we desire and we want and we thirst for. And He says, "Ultimately, I will quench those desires of your soul. Those things that you thirst for, I will fulfill them in you." You don't have to be afraid. You don't have to run. You don't have to hide. But rather, I will satisfy the desires of your heart. You see, we try to do that in this world. We try to distract ourselves. We try to fill ourselves up with the wrong things.

We pretend we're fine. We slap a little bit of tape on it and call it a temporary fix. But if you want to know what your soul is truly longing for, it's ultimately Jesus. He's the only one who can truly satisfy the thirstiness of your soul. And so Jesus restores our life with times of refreshing. And He quenches the desires of our soul. But He also gives us rest. This past week, all of our kids went to visit friends and family. And Friday night, I went to bed at like 10 o'clock at night. And nobody woke me up. Nobody was up early. And I had the best night of sleep. And I woke up with all kinds of energy. 5:30 Saturday morning, which is, I'm like, "Let's go. Let's get this day over." Because I slept. I was so rested.

And Rachel says, "Is this what it's like to feel well rested?" The answer is, "Yes." And it's wonderful. Look at what Jesus says. "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." God promises us rest. He refreshes us by energizing us with His Spirit, Acts 20. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. He also refreshes us with God's people. When we're together with God's people, it is a refreshing thing. Paul will say this in 2 Timothy 1: "May God grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me earnestly and found me.

May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day." And you well know the service he rendered at Ephesus. And Paul says, "Here I am in jail and in chains and likely discouraged and struggling." And then there's a friendly face. And because he is a brother in Christ, it refreshes my soul. And I love how you see the gospel play out in this text that our sins are taken away. The times of refreshing come. And then Peter says, "Hope for us is revealed." He will say this, "That he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time of restoring for all things." Now you and I, we don't have to look very far in this world to find brokenness. We see it in every facet of our life.

We see it in the news. We see it in the direction of our society. We see it in our lives. We see it in our families. We see it in our workplace. We feel the brokenness of this world, that things are not the way they should be. Paul will say this in Romans 8, that feeling that things are broken. He describes it this way. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. That this world is broken, and we feel it. And we groan out in anguish over the brokenness that we face. Well, what Peter says is that hope is coming.

Our sins are taken away. Our lives are refreshed. And then he says this, that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all things. In Revelation 21, we find this, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. For the former things have passed away." I love that. "He will wipe away every tear from their eye. Death shall be no more. There shall be no mourning, crying, or pain any more. For the former things have passed away. There is, for God's people, hope." And I love what you see in this text, that you take the brokenness and the hurt, and it's met with forgiveness and restoration and hope. And in many ways, the first verses of this chapter, where Peter and John see this lame man who is unable to walk, and through the power of Jesus, they pull him up to his feet, and he begins to walk and leap and praise God. What happens to him physically is what happens to you and I,

spiritually, when we come to the good news of the Gospel. That here we are, broken and hurting, and seeking for something that might meet a temporary need. And the good news of the Gospel comes, and it heals us, and it pulls us to our feet, and we respond with joy, because our sins have been blotted out, times of refreshing have come, and hope is laid before us. Would you pray with me? Father in Heaven, we thank You for how You have loved us and cared for us. We thank You for the good news of the Gospel. We thank You for hope. We thank You for forgiveness. We thank You that You have equipped us with Your Spirit, that You have refreshed our souls. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand and sing. Oh, just hit cancel. Amen.

To God be the glory, great things He hath done. So loved He the world that He has done. He gave us His Son, who yielded His life and atonement for sin, and opened the life gate that all may go in. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice. Come to the Father, through Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done. O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood, to every believer the promise of God, the vilest defender, who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice. And give Him the glory, great things He hath done. Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done. And great are rejoicing through Jesus the Son.

When Jesus we see. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son. And give Him the glory, great things He hath done. We want to thank you for being here with us this morning, whether you are here in person or watching with us online. We are thankful that you are here. A couple things coming up this week. One of the things we've been doing on Mondays on our Facebook page and YouTube page and website is we've been walking through the Psalms. Tomorrow we're going to finish out Psalm 8 to see sort of the greatness of God and the humility of mankind and how God works and loves and cares for His people. So you can join us for that on Facebook or YouTube or on our website. Also, this Wednesday we're going to continue in the book of Job. I don't think we have a slide for that because today it seems like everything technological has been a struggle. And as you read through the book of Job, what you find is that's what life often is, right?

A struggle of brokenness. And so we're gathering together Wednesday night at 7pm here or online and going through Job. There are some study questions in the back. We're going to be going through Job chapter 3, chapter 4, and chapter 5 where Job finally speaks and begins to talk about his brokenness. And then his buddy Eliphaz begins to speak and just makes everything worse. On Wednesday night at 7pm. Are there ladies? Ladies are meeting this week. 1 o'clock? 1 o'clock. Alright. So ladies Bible study this Thursday at 1pm. We'll go ahead and have a word of prayer and then we'll sing the doxology and be dismissed. Father in heaven, thank you for your church and your people. Be with us as we go through this week. We thank you so much for how you encourage us and help us. Just help us to see your goodness. To be thankful for it. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.