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.
We preach forgiveness of sins through the death, burial and
resurrection and shed blood of Jesus Christ.
But how do we live out this forgiveness?
It says in the Beatitudes, blessed are the peacemakers, for
they shall be called children of God, a peacemaker, someone who
can step between two warring parties.
The peacemaker initiates reconciliation when others have
wronged them. The peacemaker is quick to
repent when they have wounded others.
You must have seen this. When 2 folks get into a heated
debate, there's usually someone else who steps in trying to
smooth things over and bring a little peace to the situation.
Today, Pastor Clark has an inspiring message for you about
the importance of being a peacemaker.
Why not be the spark that encourages others to let go and
move on? Arguments rarely lead to
anything positive, but when you embrace forgiveness, you open
the door for God to work through you in incredible ways.
Now here's Pastor Clark in the book of Acts Chapter 15 as he
continues his message ministry leadership fallout.
It's interesting when Paul and Barnabas started having problems
about John Mark, that they didn't say, well, you know,
first of all, we should pray about this together.
We should get some input from some of the other brothers that
we just are with here in Jerusalem.
How do we deal with this conflict in our relationship?
We've been together all these years.
God's used us. Many people have come to know
Christ, and now we're getting mad and our pride is in the way
and we're not allowing the Spirit of God to control our
hearts. So there was much dispute.
This wasn't a simple issue here, and there was problems between
both of them in their hearts at this time.
So you might say, well, who is wrong in this contention?
Was it Paul or was it Barnabas more than the other person?
Or was it both of them together? This confrontation became so
sharp that they actually stopped on ministry together.
And this happens in just about any kind of church you've
probably ever been in. You see people that used to be
there that served, that loved one another.
They're no longer there. Or you see the doors shut of
churches that used to be very vibrant.
But because of contention and arguments and inability to be
reconciled, the work of God is is thwarted and and destroyed.
And we know who's behind all that.
It's the evil one who wants to scatter the sheep, destroy your
life as a Christian, destroy the integrity of the body of Christ,
and close churches down. This heated disagreement, this
difference of opinion was basically a difference of
opinion. Paul didn't like John Mark for
whatever reason anymore, didn't want to give him a chance.
Barnabas was related to John Mark and he had a heart for him.
He saw the potential in him. What's interesting is in spite
of everything that happened in this section of Scripture,
eventually John Mark was reconciled to Paul.
And Paul said later on in one of his epistles, please send John,
he's needful to me. And so there was that beauty of
reconciliation. Eventually it tells us in
Proverbs 1310, Only by pride cometh contention, but with the
well advised is wisdom. And so we see here that there's
pride in the Apostle Paul's life and there's pride also in
Barnabas life. God tells us in the book of
Proverbs, chapter 6, verse 16 through 19, these six things the
Lord hates. Yeah, they are an abomination
unto him, a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent
blood, a heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that
be swift and running to mischief, a false witness that
speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among the
brethren. So we see this disagreement
between people, in this instance, Paul and Barnabas,
leaders of the church. I was thinking as I was studying
this, what scriptures did they have access to in regard to
dealing with conflict up until this point?
Well, we know that Jesus taught clearly in the Beatitudes how
we're to live out our faith and how we're to live in regard to
conflict that arises in our life.
The Beatitudes were responsible to help us to understand how to
have a blessed and a happy life. It says blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.
Being poor in spirit is to be humble, to acknowledge our own
shortcomings, and to have humility in the opposition of
pride, the sin that comes before the fall.
Humility is always rooted in forgiveness and this desire to
be at peace. That's the first beatitude that
Christ gave. This is how he has been toward
us. Jesus, the lover of my soul.
Jesus, I will never let you go. You've taken me from the miry
clay. You lifted me up.
And the Lord wants us to be this way with one another.
And we all fall so short in actually doing this this
morning. I'm sure there's not one of us
here who has not experienced conflict in our lives, whether
it's in our marriages, with our children, our family, our
neighbors, our Co laborers, in the ministry, at work, it's
everywhere. And unfortunately, I find that
conflict is never really dealt with in a biblical way.
Usually it could be someone in the church that's upset about
something, about someone who said something or did something,
and they decide they're not going to go to the church
anymore because one person maybe didn't say hi to them or didn't
smile at them or wasn't pleasant toward them.
I mean, we're all so self focused unfortunately, and we're
all so easily offended. The Bible tells us that love is
not easily offended, but we unfortunately, outside of having
the love of God working in our life, we get offended over the
most ridiculous things, don't we?
Sometimes people won't talk in a family for years and they can't
even remember at times why they don't talk anymore because it's
such a stupid thing. Well, why didn't you talk to
your dad all these years or your mom or whatever?
Well, to be honest with you, I can't remember.
I just knew we fought about something, we were upset and I
can't even remember what it is anymore.
Isn't that sad? And so the Lord looks at these
things and wonders, you know, how can we call ourselves as
followers and we behave this way?
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Mourning is this morning over my own sins, the sins of the world
and the suffering that other people go through that should
break us and make us sad and make us prayerful.
That we want to see situations change and reconcile first in
our own heart with the Lord and then in our hearts with one
another and then our hearts in this broken world.
If we as believers can't forgive one another in this world, how
in the world can we reach lost pagans and people that are
really out there that are doing everything that would offend us
as human beings? How can we have love in our
hearts to take the gospel, the people that really need Jesus,
if we can't live the gospel with one another as Christians?
There's a movie coming out in February called The Jesus
Revolution, and it's on the history of the Calvary Chapel
movement. Kelsey Grammar, the guy that
played and cheers, you remember him.
He plays a part of Chuck Smith of all people.
And but anyway, this is a phenomenal film about this
little church called Calvary Chapel that was dying because of
religion and self righteousness and all the suits and the ties.
And everybody thought that because of the way they looked
outwardly, they were acceptable God.
Inwardly, hippies started coming to this church because they were
in desperate need of a savior. They were broken people.
Their lives were messed up and ruined because of sin.
Chuck didn't know how to deal with it when they started coming
in. And some of the wealthy people
in the church said, if these kind of people come to our
church, the people that support this church financially will no
longer be in this church. Chuck took a deep breath and
swallowed and said I understand but he didn't know what to do
and finally this one young hippie came to him and looked
him straight in the eye and said.
Pastor Chuck someone has to be willing to love people that are
not easy to love. Someone has to be willing to
give them a chance and invite them in in spite of the way they
look and the way they dress and the things they've done.
Chuck heard this young man started getting choked up,
excuse himself, moved away to go wash his hands at the sink,
thinking about what was being said to him by this hippie who
had just recently become saved. He then made the decision that
he was going to open the doors to whoever wanted to come into
the church, regardless of the outcome.
And he told the congregation that the door swings both ways.
The door swings inwardly for those who are broken.
For those who are easily offended, the door swings the
other way for them to leave. And so some of those people got
up and left and never came back. But what happened because of
this brokenness in this one pastor's heart, which I need in
my own life, as we all need, is to be at the point in our lives
as Christians that we're not letting things get in the way of
what's most important. And that's our relationship to
Jesus and our love for one another.
Jesus said by this people will know that you're my disciples,
not by your understanding of doctrine, which is important, by
the teaching of the Bible, which is also critically important,
but he said by the love you have for one another, by this people
will know you're my disciples. What would Barnabas and Saul
say, Paul say to those who would ask them, Where's Barnabas now,
Paul? What would they have said?
Well, we had an argument and then the Christians would say,
well, you guys are supposed to be leading us on how to be
Christians and how to act as Christians, and you guys can't
get along together anymore. That's a that's a bad situation,
isn't it? It's not acceptable.
The Bible doesn't go into great detail on this, but later on it
goes into great detail and how Paul taught about dealing with
conflict because I'm sure he never forgot about this
situation that occurred in his life.
It was a a mark in his ministry, a bad mark in his ministry.
It says blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
The meek are the humble people, obedient and submissive to the
will of God. Jesus was meek and humble of
heart, it tells us in Matthew 1129.
He's learned of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you
will find rest into your soul. The only way that we can become
like Christ is to become humble and to admit our mistakes and
our wrongdoings and ask for forgiveness to those we have
perhaps hurt and offended. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall receive mercy. And boy do we need mercy.
Lord have mercy on us, the public and said, Lord have mercy
upon me, this Sinner. He wasn't judging the
self-righteous person that didn't think he had any
problems. He was looking at his own need
of mercy. It tells us in the book of
Leviticus, you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge
against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbors
yourself. I am the Lord.
That's straight from the Scriptures that we're to love
our neighbors. We love ourselves.
Ephesians 431 and 32 says, And let all bitterness and wrath and
clamor and evil speaking be put away from you.
Anybody ever have any problem with any of those things?
Be kind, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
I mean, who am I to hold a grudge or be bitter or
unforgiving against anybody for what the Lord has done for me
and what He's done for you? This is the heart of the church,
Forgiveness. We preach forgiveness of sins
through the death, burial and resurrection and shed blood of
Jesus Christ. But how do we live out this
forgiveness? It says in the Beatitudes,
blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of
God, a peacemaker, someone who can step between two warring
parties. The peacemaker initiates
reconciliation when others have wronged them.
The peacemaker is quick to repent when they have wounded
others. So we're all to be peacemakers,
aren't we? Christ is the ultimate
peacemaker. He stands between US and God the
Father. And through what he's done on
the cross for us, he made it possible for us to not be at war
with God anymore because of our sin in Jesus own words in John
1335. By this all people will know
that you are my disciples if you have loved one for another.
I struggle at times when people come to our church for the first
time. I find out like, hey, nice to
see you. Where you from where you've
been? I always love it when they say,
well, we moved and we used to go to a really good church in some
other state and we're here now and we want to come here because
the Bible's taught. I love that.
But if they're at the door and says, well, let me tell you, we
were at such and such a church and the pastor did this or I
don't want to hear any of that because I'm thinking it won't be
too long before they're leaving here saying that about me,
right? I mean, none of us are perfect,
right? And there's always going to be
something, no matter what church you go to, where you find that
there's going to be some kind of issue you got to either deal
with or, you know, not deal with, I guess.
And so when does the migration of Christians begin to end?
Probably not until Christ comes and sets up his Kingdom on earth
and he rules and he's the pastor and we're sitting at his feet.
But when would end this migration from one church to the
next church to the next church to the next church?
How many churches do we have to move to before we realize that
the problem isn't really the church?
The problem is my own heart, usually, and how I deal with
conflict or don't deal with conflict, and then trying to
work out my own salvation with fear and trembling along with
everyone else. To learn to give people grace or
give them space to make mistakes and to not right away want to
squash them or slander them or put them down, but to figure out
ways to help people and to build them up.
The works of the flesh in Galatians 519.
And Paul wrote this himself in the book of Galatians.
This describes the fallenness of our sinful nature, Hatred,
contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish
ambitions, dissensions. And this is disagreements that
lead to discord and distrust among one another.
So here's Paul exhorting the church in Galatia of the
believers, not walking in the flesh, which we do at times.
He had to be reminded of the contention he had with Barnabas,
right? He lived this himself.
He failed. He made a mistake as well.
Versus this beauty of the fruit of the Spirit being filled with
the Holy Spirit where there's peace, long-suffering, that
means patience, hanging in there, kindness, gentleness and
self-control. So as God's servants, we all
fail. We struggle with pride and
unforgiveness and fractured relationships and homework,
family, neighbors, church. How does Jesus treat us when we
fail in these relationships? I think of one of the greatest
examples of a failed relationship and ministry is
Simon Peter, who became the great apostle Peter whenever he
was a rookie, being trained by the Lord in dealing with people
and ministry and the gospel. And so Peter thought he had it
all together. He thought he would never do
anything that would offend his Lord or let him down.
And the Lord speaks to Peter shortly before he's eventually
going to deny him three times. And the Lord says in Luke 22,
verse 31, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked for you that he may
sift you as wheat. That means to shake someone
apart and break a person down. That's what the enemy wants to
do to you. He wants to shake you so hard
and break you down so much that you don't want to have anything
to do with Christians, church, the Bible, anything.
You're done. And I've been close to being
there at times. Anybody else ever been close to
being there? Probably every one of us, if
we're honest. But where do we go?
Where do we go? We go to the Lord.
This picture of the sifting is they use these big large
strainers to shift sift the wheat and the grain as it was
shaken violently. The dirt and other impurities
that clung to the grain during the threshing process would
separate from the good usable grain.
It's good. And the Lord, in his wisdom,
Satan is not someone who does something independent of God's
authority is. It's good to know that.
So the Lord knows and allows the enemy to do what he needs to do
in order to bring us to our senses.
The enemy's goal is to destroy us and to cause us not to want
to follow the Lord. But when God's involved in this
process, we are broken and we're more prepared to do what it is
that God's called us to do. So Satan wants to crush us and
wreck our faith. The good news is that Jesus
speaks in Luke 22, verse 32, the next verse he says, but I've
prayed for you that your face should not fail.
And when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren.
Isn't that beautiful? Everybody else at that time, if
you and I were hanging out with Peter, I'm not going to listen
to this guy. I'm not going to sit under his
leadership. I reject his authority.
You know what this guy did? He denied Jesus.
That's like one thing everybody remembers with Peter.
He denied Jesus. Well, which or who here has not
denied the Lord one time and our witness by the way, we live DC
Talk had a great song one time that talked about the reason
people don't want to have anything to do with Christianity
is because they say one thing, but they live something out
that's completely different than what Jesus taught.
So Jesus says I prayed for you that your face should not fail.
And when you've returned to me, strengthen your brethren.
So there's this picture all the time of the opportunity to
repent, to get things right, not to see our ministries destroyed,
but to see them reconciled and to be renewed and to be
refreshed and to be more powerful and dynamic than they
ever could have been without our feelings.
Right. When we fail and we falter,
that's when we're humbled. And when we're humbled, that's
when God can begin to work for. God says he resists the proud,
but he gives grace to the humble.
Paul and Barnabas needed grace in their problem and their
conflict. We all need grace and prayer and
the power of the Holy Spirit to be reconciled first to God and
then one to another, to be at peace again, to make amends, to
be forgiving. And this is so important because
God allows these things to be put in the Bible that we might
stop and think and reflect and say, well, how does this
teaching today impact my life personally?
What is it that God wants to show me in regard to my need of
reconciliation with others? And even you today, you might
have been in this church a long time and you might be offended
of something that we as pastors or elders have done that we
don't even know about. If you could come to us and talk
to us and help us to be better pastors, that would be the best
thing to do. Don't give up on us.
Give us a chance like Jesus gave Peter a chance.
When you've returned, strengthen the brethren and whatever church
you're affiliated with, whatever church you're committed to,
whatever pastors and elders you sit under, I pray that you would
pray for these men. They're just men like you.
They're weak, they're not perfect.
They're learning, they're growing in the grace and the
knowledge of the Lord. They need your support, they
need your prayer, they don't need your slander, and they
certainly don't need you leaving the church over something that
doesn't make sense. 3 reasons to leave a church RC Sproul said
Financial propriety, sexual immorality and heresy.
Most of the time when I talk to people that have gone from one
church to the next has nothing to do with any of those things.
It has something to do with something that's stupid.
It doesn't make sense. We're so glad you joined us
today on this edition of Living Waters of Grace.
Pastor Clark is teaching through the Book of Acts, which is the
only book that chronicles the history of the early church
immediately after Jesus's ascension.
It gives us a front row seat to how the Gospel began to move
outwards, starting in Jerusalem and reaching into the heart of
the Roman Empire. In just three decades, a small
group of frightened ordinary believers became a bold, spirit
empowered movement that transformed the known world.
Acts is not just a history lesson.
It's a reminder of what God can do when His people are
surrendered, obedient and filled with the Holy Spirit.
Their perseverance still inspires us today.
May we follow their example and live faithfully for Christ in
our own time. We hope today's message
encouraged you. Living Waters of Grace is a
ministry of Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.
If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, we'd love to have you join
us in person. Our Sunday service begins at
10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St. Unit 6B.
Be sure to visit calvarychapelonline.com to
confirm times and learn more. If you are in the Greensburg
area, you can listen to Grace FM on the new 91.7 frequency.
Please pray about supporting this outreach.
Gifts can be sent to Grace FMPO Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601.
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Thank you for tuning in and spending this time in God's
Word. Be sure to join us again for
Living Waters of Grace.