1. EMPOWERED FOR CHANGE SERIES THE PROGRESS OF EMPOWERMENT Witness in Jerusalem Text: Acts 3:19-21

2. What Type of Positive Progression Can Take Place When We Are Empowered by the Holy Spirit?

3. I. REPENTANCE - Turning Away (3:19a) “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out... 21. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23. but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25. Thanks to be God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:18, 21-25

4. II. REGENERATION - Turning Unto (3:19b) “Repentance may begin instantly, but reformation (regeneration) often requires a sphere of years.” Henry Ward Beecher Quoted by Frank S. Mead “12,000 Religious Quotations” p. 375

5. III. REFRESHING - Turning Into (3:19c-21) Psalm 51:7-13; Acts 3:20,21

6. We so often miss out on the refreshing of our salvation because we foolishly attempt to return to our old way of providing for our daily needs.