This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
If we sow according to the flesh, we're going to reap
according to the flesh. It's just not if, it's just When
it's a principle. We challenge God and we disobey
God. God will intervene because He
loves us, just like you. As parents, your kids do things
you don't want them to do. You just don't turn a blind eye
and ignore them, do you? You reach into their little
hearts and you tell them why they need to do this versus
that. Is a loving parrot the one who
allows their children to do whatever they want, or the one
who creates boundaries and teaches their children how to
behave properly? Those children who learn how to
behave while they're young are more likely to have good
behavior when they're grown. In today's message from the book
of Acts, Pastor Clark reminds you that God is a good father,
and he will also guide and correct his children so that
they know how to live in a way that brings glory to his name.
Now here's Pastor Clark in Acts Chapter 5 with today's edition
of Living Waters of Grace. Don't try to make something
happen that God isn't in. And we all have a tendency at
times to do certain things. And lots of times we we begin to
do ministries in our lives. And it doesn't mean just because
we don't see anything happening right away that God isn't in it.
Sometimes God's testing our perseverance, our dependence on
him. Our patients are waiting upon
the Lord. The Bible says those who wait
upon the Lord, right? Waiting on the Lord is a hard
thing to do. They shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and
not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
And you may be waiting on the Lord for something in your life
to come to pass. Don't get discouraged and don't
get downtrodden. Whenever God gives you a vision
and a purpose and a plan, keep on keeping on, and in time
you'll see the fruit come forth as He blesses what it is.
And He's called you to put your hand too.
Don't ever give up. And so he says with great power,
the apostles, they give this witness nor in verse 34, nor was
there anyone among them who lacked for all who were
possessors of lands or houses, sold them and brought the
proceeds of the things that were sold and laid them at the
apostles feet and they distributed to each as anyone
had need. Now we have a Benevolent Fund
that part of the budget is funded by what you guys give to
be put in crisis fund mode that when people in the body in the
community here are in dire straits, we have resources to
help and be part of a solution to get them through a tough
spot. But the the the early church,
there was crisis everywhere because a lot of the people, as
I said, were in Jerusalem and they weren't working.
So they they needed this stuff in order to be able to survive.
And then it says in verse 36 and Josies, who was also named
Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated Son of
encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus having land
sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles
feet. Now this is the first time we
read about this man Barnabas. Barnas ended up being an
understudy and an associate with with the Apostle Paul and the
missionary journeys. He has given this name.
His name is Son of Encouragement and how important it is for all
of us to have a Barnabas in our life.
Someone who can come alongside of us and encourage us and
remind us that God is with us and that no matter what we might
be going through that this person is in your life to
encourage you. But we want to be Barnabas to
you guys. Pastor Lewis and myself and the
elders. We want to be encouragers to you
guys and to serve you and, and to thank you for your labor of
love and the Lord and your sacrifice and your commitment to
his work and his Kingdom. We're we're so blessed by the
body of Christ and to watch what the Lord's doing in and through
your lives. And so this was the beginning.
Now, nothing's being said here that this has to be done this
way, right? It was just done in the
beginning for a short period of time when you study the Pastoral
Epistles by Paul and he talks about taking up the collections
for the church that's impoverished in Jerusalem.
Obviously the church then began to be in multiple places after
the persecution, small assemblies here and there and
all of our Ephesus in different communities, Colossa, Philippi,
all those places that Paul wrote letters to and he would send out
a letter to letting them know that, hey, there's some brothers
and sisters in need in such and such a place.
And we're going to give a collection such and such will be
around to pick it up. And we'll deliver this to the to
the Saints in this particular area that has the difficulty.
And that's how it has gone on since that time.
Calvary Chapel magazine often has different outreaches and
ministries that we participate in.
We're alerted by certain things that are happening in the world,
whether it's a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, whatever.
And if every church gives something to that particular
need, then quite a bit of work can be a accomplished.
And that's the benefit of having a lot of people on the same page
about crisis in the world. But anyway, this guy's an
encourager and he took his asset and he invested it in what was
happening in early stages of the church.
Now we continue on this and what happens is I don't think there
was any accolades and, and Barnabas certainly wasn't
bragging about what he did. He probably didn't want anybody
to know about it. But it's written here that
everybody does know what he did. And so there's other people in
the assembly there to think, well, boy, if I can make some
kind of movement that I'm doing something extraordinary, then
maybe I'll have a following or maybe I'll get glory, or maybe
I'll get whatever. You know, it's, it's, it's very
delicate in regard to what we do when we invest in the Kingdom of
God. There's a church group that I
guess puts it in the bulletin, the names of the families and
who who gives, you know, you guys probably know what I'm
talking about. That's not the way it's to be
done. Bible says the left hand should
know what the right hand gives. You know, so you know we give
unto the Lord privately in the boxes or online or however we we
do it. And we do it for the glory of
God, not for any kind of recognition.
None of us want recognition, but yet God does bless us when we
sow into His work. This is something that is very
important. All of us should be tuned into
investing in things that last for eternity.
So what happens here? There's this guy Ananias and his
wife Sapphira. I don't know what possessed them
to behave this way or to act this way, but this is a really
strange, strange story here. They're obviously Christians.
They're the Holy Spirit's in them.
They're part of this new move of God.
It was hard to be a hypocrite in the early stages of the church.
It was so pure that you would stick out like a sore thumb if
you were a phony, right? And this is what begins to
happen here in this particular teaching.
A certain man named Ananias with Sapphira his wife sold a
possession and he kept back part of the proceeds.
His wife also being aware of it and brought a certain part, laid
it at the apostles feet. So they made a determination to
give whatever it was that they were compelled to give, but
somehow they were portraying the fact that they were giving
everything and they weren't. Now, no one first of all told
him they needed to do this. This is what they were compelled
to do. But for some reason they were
using deception that they didn't need to even use.
And it became very evident to Peter, this is called the word
of knowledge or the Word of wisdom.
Peter's given insight into something is happening in
someone's conscience or life that this isn't right and he
calls them out on it, right? And so Peter says, Ananias, why
has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep
back part of the price of the land for yourself?
Now, it wasn't wrong for him to keep back the price, but the the
problem was he was saying he was giving it all and he wasn't.
That's the problem. And so the gift became corrupt.
It wasn't used for God's glory. There was a manipulation here
and Ananias and Sapphira's life probably wanting some kind of
recognition of looking more spiritual than they really were
or whatever. And so Peter says, why has Satan
filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part
of the price of the land for yourself?
Question mark while remain was it not your own?
In other words, this was your asset and you were free to do
with it whatever you wanted to do with it.
This wasn't a commandment to these people that they needed to
lay everything at the apostles feet.
And so after it was sold, was it not in your own control?
In other words, you still had control over what it was you
were doing. Why have you conceived this
thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to
God. Now when God makes a particular
point of something in the Bible and, and, and shows us something
like this, it it was meant in that early stage of the church
to be a warning to the body, to not be deceptive, to not lie, to
not be a con artist, to not live in wolf of hypocrisy.
We need to be who we are and let the chips fall where they may.
We don't need to be trying to make ourselves something we're
not. We just need to be normal,
average, down to earth people, humble, loving God and serving
God and doing what it is that God's called us to do in
obedience to Him, right? Not in obedience to anybody
else, but to obedience to the Lord.
That's who we're going to give an account to one day.
But somehow Ananias and Sapphira were trying to, I don't know,
get some kind of influence in this, in this assembly.
Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed
his last. In other words, he died great in
the presence of the church and the people.
So great fear came upon all those who heard these things,
and the young men arose and wrapped him up and carried him
out and they buried him. Shocking that this occurred.
Now one commentator said, you know, in today's modern church,
we're singing this worship song, take my life and let it be holy,
only used by the take my silver and my gold.
You know, in other words, the allegiance of my life is to you.
And so we can sing that song and meanwhile deny everything it
says, though this is my life and what I have is mine, right?
It's a wonder we aren't all wiped out on a Sunday.
Don't sing that song unless the Lord ready for us to sing it.
But you know, and what was the other song, Lord be Thou my
vision? That's that's another powerful
song. And and you read the lyrics, so
you hear the lyrics on that. You have to say to yourself, am
I really live in this right now? Is this what I really believe?
And there's been some songs that are played that I don't sing
them because I'm just not quite there 100% the way I need to be.
It's not the song. Isn't nothing wrong with the
song, but I'm convicted by what the song saying and I want that
lyric to be real in my life. I don't want to fake it right
And the Lords concern was when he said about people, he said
these people worship me with their lips, but their heart is
far from me. May that not be the case here at
Calvary Chapel, that when we worship God, we worship Him in
spirit and in truth, that we are loving him.
We are repenting of things in our lives that need to change.
And, and so we're open to the work and the conviction of the
Holy Spirit as opposed to acting like we got it all together and
we're just lip synching things and really not believe in them.
Right. So then Anais, you know, after
he falls down, he's buried. He didn't have time to give his
wife a heads up. He didn't have a phone to text.
Hey, they're on to us. Honey, whatever you do, don't
you know it's too late? There's no way of communicating
this. She's going in naively.
About 3 hours later, when his wife came in, not knowing what
had happened, Peter answered her, Tell me whether you sold
the land for so much. And she said yes for so much.
Then Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together
to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have
buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you
out. Then immediately she fell down
at his feet, and breathed her last.
And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her
out, buried her by her husband. So great fear came upon all the
church, and upon all those who heard these things.
The chastening hand of the Lord in our lives is sobering.
We've all been chastened by the Lord.
If we're his, we're disciplined by God, not because he's mad at
us or, you know, particularly angry.
He's, he's sad and he knows that if we don't make amends to the
way we're living, we're going to cause a bad testimony to occur
in our lives. And we're also going to cause
problems in the home and the family work everywhere we go.
We're going to be a train wreck waiting to occur.
So the chastening hand of the Lord is to sober us and to cause
us to reflect on where we are in knowing where we need to be.
When the Lord chastens us, the Bible tells us He does it
because he loves us, and it doesn't seem to be pleasant when
we're being chastened. The discipline of God, however,
he doesn't. In your life, it could be a
health issue. It could be a financial issue,
it could be a family issue. It could be a work issue.
You just know that what's happening in your life at the
present moment is not based on anything other than God catching
up with you about something He's been talking to you about that
you haven't been listening. Anybody understand?
You ever been through that? You know, two people have.
OK, yeah, we all have. So it says it's not pleasant for
the present time, but if we're exercised by it, meaning we're
responding to it, it'll yield the peaceable fruit of
righteousness. We get beyond it.
And God's, there's peace in our life again and there and there's
unity and there there's blessings.
And so. But in the early church when
this happened, this put fear in the lives of the people.
Some churches, they have testimony times and we probably
should have a night once a month and we just have food and
testimony. What's the Lord been up to in
our life? Well, let me tell you where I've
been and where God has me, you know, And all of a sudden people
are like, wow, you know, and then all of a sudden people
start fearing the mighty hand of God in intervening and dealing
in lives because of inappropriate behavior, actions
or activity. And whenever I hear a story
about someone that did a particular thing and the
consequence of it, if I'm involved in that kind of same
thing, one or two things happen. I'm a fool and I don't listen.
And I'm set myself up for the discipline, right?
And the chastening or immediately I say, Lord, have
mercy on me. Have mercy on me, O God.
So the church is supposed to be continually being refined by the
Spirit of God, washed in the power of God, in the cleansing
blood of the Lord, so that we're being made holy as he's holy.
The Lord desires his church to be holy, and he wants us as his
people to be holy as He's holy. And so he does this stuff by the
work of his Spirit. So when you read this section of
Scripture, you might be shocked if you never read it or never
heard about it, but it's in the Bible to the sober us to
understand that God is not mocked, that whatever we sow, we
we reap. If we sow according to the
flesh, we're going to reap according to the flesh.
It's just not if, it's just when it's a principle.
We challenge God and we disobey God, God will intervene because
he loves us just like you as parents, your kids do things you
don't want them to do. You just don't turn a blind eye
and ignore them, do you? You reach into their little
hearts and you tell them why they need to do this versus
that. And there needs to be more of
that, I'm sure going on in every home in America in these days
because of what kids are getting involved in, what they're being
impacted by is the world, the Pagan world.
And the more they're impacted by the Pagan world, the more
they'll become like that world, participating in the same things
that that world does. And so as a people of God, we
need to pray for the kids the next door and the kids in the
ministry and the youth that the word of God who influence them
so that they want to have Christ supreme in their hearts and
their lives. And that's the work of God and
all of us. And so, and through the hands of
the apostles in verse 12, many signs and wonders were done
among the people, and they were all with 1 accord in Solomon's
porch. Again, they had no physical
facility to lease or to rent or to own at this time.
They were borrowing this space, yet none of the rest dare join
them. But the people esteemed them
highly, and believers were increasingly added to the Lord,
multitudes of both men and women, so that they brought the
sick out into the streets and they laid them on beds and
couches that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall
on some of them. Also multitude gathered from the
surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those
who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all
healed. Now there was no power in the
shadow of Peter. Peter made it very clear when
that lame man was healed. And why Look on us as though and
by our own power we've done this work.
It's in the name of Jesus. Jesus Christ did this healing,
and so the power of God was on the lives of the apostles of God
at this time in such a great way that there was these magnificent
times of healing and the people were desperate.
They were bringing everyone they loved, every everyone they cared
about to this environment where they could be brought and be
made well. What's sad is that so many
people that were healed and made well, this got well but didn't
follow Jesus. As we read in the Scriptures,
the 12 lepers, you know, there was one that returned, right?
What happened to the other 11? And so people don't get saved by
miracles. Miracles are a testimony of of
the greatness of God. But it's the gospel of Jesus
Christ that saves souls. The preaching of the cross.
The gospel is the power of God and salvation to everyone that
believes. Healing is wonderful if you've
been healed. I've been healed at different
times in my life, but I eventually I'm going to die,
right? Lazarus was healed, but
eventually he had to die. He had to leave this earth.
And so healing is temporal, but the gospel is eternal.
Continue to read ahead. As you read ahead, you're,
you're prepared to to think a little bit more about these
things before I teach. But in these days where there's
so much going on in the world, it's not by coincidence that
we're in the book of the Acts and we're learning, all of us,
that we need the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in a greater
degree, all of us. So I want to pray specifically
for God the Holy Spirit to encounter each of us in a very
powerful way to help us to see what it is that God wants us to
see and that we would become more and more like God has
created us to be. Father God, we thank you.
God the Holy Spirit, You're the most neglected part of the
Trinity. So often we talk about the
Father God, we talk about the Son, the Lord Jesus, and so
often we are remiss in understanding that you also are
called in Scripture God the Holy Spirit.
So forgive us, Lord, for at times of quenching this precious
person, the Spirit of God, of grieving him and hurting him by
our own willfulness, of wanting our way instead of your way.
Lord, He's gentle, the Holy Spirit, You tell us The fruit of
the Spirit is love, that agape love and joy and peace and
long-suffering and gentleness and goodness and meekness and
self-control. This is what we want in our
lives, Lord, and we know that the fullness of the Spirit comes
by the filling of the Spirit and by surrender to the Spirit.
And so, Lord, we pray for our church family, our church body,
those online, those in the building today, that today would
be a new day, a fresh day of encounter, of discovering this
wonderful person, God the Holy Spirit, to have a relationship
with the Holy Spirit, to cooperate with the Holy Spirit,
and to be LED of the Spirit. You tell us that the children of
God are led by the Spirit of Godfather.
We pray that in the days ahead we would experience more and
more of your leading in the church and the activities of
your church, Lord, and the ministries as you raise people
up to serve you in different capacities and different
calling. That your hands would be upon
those who have committed to certain aspects of what it is
they believe you created them for the people that come that
are still maybe thinking about what is it?
That is my gift. What is it that God wants to
use? Holy Spirit?
You would speak to them about that and encourage them to step
forward and what it is you might be calling them to.
We thank you, Lord, that in this world today that things seem at
times to be spinning out of control, but from your vantage
point, they're completely under your control.
And Lord, you teach us as we study the Bible that the way we
find our way through in this life is by being men and women
who are LED of the Holy Spirit and men and women who are filled
by the Spirit. Lord, convict us where we need
to be convicted. Challenge us and draw us closer
to yourself so that we can be more like you.
Jesus, we know it only happens by the work of the Spirit.
So we praise you today for what you've given us and what we've
received. And you can walk out of here
today knowing that you are with us and that we are filled afresh
to do whatever it is you've called us to do.
Thanks for joining us on today's edition of Living Waters of
Grace, a ministry of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.
Today, Pastor Clark is teaching about the book of Acts.
And as we learn more about Acts, it becomes clear that the early
church didn't miss a single opportunity to share the gospel.
In nearly every chapter, you see apostles like Peter and Paul
stepping into conversations, crowds, and crises with
boldness, ready to proclaim the name of Jesus.
Their example challenges us to consider how we might step into
gospel moments in our own lives. What doors might God open this
week for you to speak truth, offer hope, or live out your
faith in a way that points others to Him?
The story of Acts reminds us we are part of the same mission.
Today, let's live with eyes open and hearts ready to respond.
We hope you are challenged by today's message.
If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, we'd love to see you in
person this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St., Unit
6B. For more information, visit
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