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.
I'm gonna say why? I thought you were a believer.
Why are you acting that way? I thought Christians were
different. Well, many times Christians
aren't different. We're just like everybody else,
right? Unless our eyes are on the Lord.
If our eyes are on him, then we're going to be OK.
The NLT says, I love this. I know the Lord is always with
me. Do you know the Lord is always
with you? Sometimes we forget.
Sometimes we don't feel him. We don't sense him, but he's
always with us. I will not be shaken, for he is
right beside me. Everyone has struggles in life,
no exceptions. It doesn't matter who you are,
where you're from, whether you're rich, poor, tall,
shorter, or whatever other distinction you might have to
claim to. Everybody has good days and bad.
Everybody goes through storms. In today's teaching, Pastor
Clark lets you know that even Christians struggle with things.
Yes, that's right. Being a Christian doesn't make
you immune to difficulty. But do you know what makes all
the difference? The Lord is with you now.
Here's Pastor Clark in the book of Acts Chapter 20 with today's
edition of Living Waters of Grace.
Everyone needs to hear the importance of needing to repent
of their sin, and repentance means changing your mind.
You're used to going this way, which is a way toward hell.
The highway to hell, the road that leads to destruction is
broad, and many are those on that road heading toward the
Cliff where they'll eventually end up in hell.
Repentance is I'm not wanting to go there.
I got to stop this behavior. I need a savior.
I need someone to help me, not do what I keep doing over and
over and over again. I need a new life.
I need a change. I need a fresh start, and that's
repentance. Then you're turning to the road
that's narrow. The Bible says it leads to life
and few there are that find that road.
Most people are on the road, the broad road to destruction.
There's less people on the narrow Rd. that leads to life.
So Paul knew the importance is any pastor or teacher or
Christian should know. We need to let people know they
need to repent. Amen.
They need to get right with God today, not tomorrow, not next
week. Paul also said today is a day of
salvation. If you hear his voice, his
Spirit speak in your heart, this is the time when you say, Lord,
you're right, you got me. I know I need you now.
I know I'm a Sinner. Lord, forgive me.
Come into my life and save me for my sin and get me on this
path that leads to life, repentance toward God.
I've offended God of sinned against God and now my faith
needs to be in what Jesus Christ has done for me.
For Christ took your sin and my sin upon himself upon the cross,
and he took the punishment for my sin and your sin so that I
don't have to take it and you don't have to take it.
And he shed his blood. He died for us and he said he's
forgiven us of all our sin and all our unrighteousness.
It's the it's the best news anybody could ever have.
When we were at the movie theater and I was working with a
big fella from he was from Saint Vincent.
He was a football player. He graduated, wants to go into
law. And he was wondering like what's
this movie about and why these people come in here?
And I was helping him with the tickets because there was 2
theaters. There was one.
People bought Pandora, not Pandora.
But what's that? What is it called?
Fandango. Yeah.
And there was something like that.
But anyway, he's a good song. Fandango here.
Check that out. But anyway, so, you know, I'm
helping them and, and so, well, these people, you know, they got
tickets from Calvary, so they go to this theater and the other
one. And so as we were talking, I, I
was telling him about the movie. I said he had to come in and
check it out if you have some time.
He said what I'd really like to. He says I need, I need to get
back to God. He says, I've, I've gone to mass
a couple times up at the Seton Hill, but you know, just not
connecting or whatever. And, and I said, well, we're
going to come here. We've invited him here.
I was hoping he'd be here today, but this pray for this brother.
And you know, he said, well, I've, I've done too many bad
things in my life and I've really messed up and, and you
know, God's not going to want me.
I said that's the point. God wants you.
That's why he came. He came to die for people like
you and me that have messed up. We've all messed up.
And he will forgive you and there's no guilt.
He takes your guilt away and he takes your sin away and he gives
you a new conscience, a heart that's pure and a life that's
changed and transformed. And his eyes got real big.
And he says, was that? Is that really true?
I said, yes, it's true. That's what that movie is all
about. That's what the Jesus Revolution
is about. And Jesus Revolution started at
Pentecost, didn't it? And it continues until Christ
comes back again. And it's done through the
preaching of the gospel. And so all humility, Paul's
telling them this is what you do.
You testify, you give your testimony, and then you tell
people about their need to repent toward God and then to
put their faith in Jesus Christ. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. And then he said in verse 22,
and see now I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing
the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy
Spirit testifies in every city saying the chains and
tribulations await me. So he's heading to Jerusalem.
He's being warned by people and by the Holy Spirit that there's
going to be problems for him when he gets there.
Believe it's Agabus, a prophet that warned him that he the belt
that he wore was going to be representative of the bondage
that he would be put in and change when he gets to Jerusalem
and they were begging him not to go there.
This is this is Paul right and he understands what what he's
facing. But he says none of these things
move me nor do I count my life dear to myself so that I may
finish my race with joy and the ministry which I received from
the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel, the grace of God.
What a brother and the Lord. I mean, if I knew personally
today that there was a place that I'm being warned not to go
because if I go there, I'm going to have a lot of problems, my
first thought was I'm not going there.
I'm not going to go there. But the Holy Spirit override at
Paul's personal opinion, I'm sure worked in his heart, gave
him grace. Don't worry about it, Paul.
I'm going to use you there. And it was many years later
actually, when he actually did get martyred.
So this wasn't happening tomorrow, next week, but it was
an eventual thing he would definitely experience.
But he said he didn't count his life dear to himself.
He was living for one purpose and the only purpose he wanted
to be alive is that he might serve the Lord and and do the
ministry. And he said none of these things
move me. Wouldn't you like to be in a
place with God that no matter what happened in your life today
or tomorrow or next week, it's not freaking you out?
You just be calm and cool and collective.
We're not normally that way, are we?
We're freaking out. You don't believe what's
happening to me or this is going on or that's going on and this
isn't right and this isn't fair and you know, and we're all
worked up. But Paul had such peace by the
Holy Spirit's power. He said none of these things
move him. And the psalmist says in Psalm
168I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my
right hand. I shall not be moved.
I'm sure Paul memorized that verse.
He probably had it deep inside his heart and his conscience.
We need that kind of focus, having the Lord always before
us, no matter what, because he's at our right hand and we won't
be moved. That's King James, NIV says.
I keep my eyes always on the Lord, with Him on my right hand,
I will not be shaken. When your eyes are on the Lord,
you're not freaking out, you're not shook up, you're not
hopeless, you're not overwhelmed.
But I guarantee you, because I know when my eyes are off Jesus,
I am a mess. I'm whining, I'm complaining,
I'm feeling sorry for myself. I'm whatever, you know, emotion
you can get is a human being, a sinful human being.
My, my head needs, my eyes need to be on the Lord.
That's not like on Sunday or when I'm preaching or when I'm
teaching or when I'm being a dad or a grandfather, all these
different roles. You wear your son, son-in-law,
brother, uncle, you know, all these hats you guys all wear.
Every circumstance, every situation that we enter into our
lives, My eyes need to be on him because if they're not, I'm not
going to be effective for the Lord.
I'm going to be a bad example. I'm going to say, well, I
thought you were a believer, why are you acting that way?
I thought Christians were different.
Well, many times Christians aren't different.
We're just like everybody else, right?
Unless our eyes are on the Lord, if our eyes are on him, then
we're going to be OK. The NLT says, I love this, I
know the Lord is always with me. Do you know the Lord is always
with you? Sometimes we forget, sometimes
we don't feel him, we don't sense him, but he's always with
us. I will not be shaken, for he is
right beside me. And more than that, he dwells
within us and he promises us he will never leave us or forsake
us, no matter what we feel or what we think in our minds.
And so Paul was able to be stable and not freaking out.
And he, he always wanted to testify the gospel, the grace of
God, the grace of God. I want to have more grace in my
life. You want to have more grace in
your life. Grace is what enables you to
live a different life. Grace is what enables you to be
forgiving and not hating and judging.
Grace is what enables you to love God in a deeper way than
you've ever loved him before. Grace is what enables you to
turn from your sin and be saved. Grace is what gives you the
ability to to love your wife as Christ loves the church.
Grace enables the kids to follow the leading of their parents and
not rebelling. You know, grace is what gives us
the ability to live in a world that's in chaos right now and
still know that the Lord's on the throne.
Verse 25 And indeed, now I know that you all among whom I've
gone preaching the Kingdom of God will see my face no more.
That's a sad comment. They're not going to see him
again. Therefore, I testify to you this
day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.
What does he mean by that? He says, for I have not shunned
to declare to you the whole counsel of God.
Lewis and I will stand before the Lord one day and he will
deal with us based upon this verse.
Have we ever prevented you from hearing the whole truth and
nothing but the truth? So help us God, the whole
counsel of God from Genesis to Revelation.
That's what God requires of a shepherd to teach, to feed the
flock of God and to protect them from things that aren't in the
Bible and aren't biblical. That's a serious responsibility.
Matter of fact, it says we'll be judged with a stricter judgment.
Won't we, pastor? When we stand before the Lord,
then we do what it is that He told us to do.
And this is what Paul's telling the elders that he has done, and
he's expecting them to follow suit and do the same thing.
I've not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God,
Genesis to Revelation. Therefore, take heed to
yourselves. Look at our own hearts.
How are we doing? What are we doing?
And to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you
overseers, to shepherd the Church of God, which He
purchased with His own blood. We love you guys, we care about
you. We want you guys to know the
truth, to walk in the truth, to walk in the light.
And we're looking at our own heart as well.
And we're to give oversight, not control, not boss, not
manipulate, not roll in the sense of like, do what I say
kind of thing. No, do what the Lord says.
We're trying to encourage you as we're trying to encourage
ourselves. Be faithful to the truth of the
Lord and walk in the truth of the Bible.
God has made us overseers to shepherd His church.
It's the Church of God. It's His church, and it's so
much His church that He purchased it with His own blood.
He shed His blood for you and for me, for all of us here in
this church. This is His church.
And then he says in 29 for I know this, that after my
departure, savage wolves will come among in among you, not
sparing the flock. This happened in Corinth.
No sooner did he leave, leave false teachers are coming in and
he had to go back and deal with that.
The people didn't want to hear it.
I mean, there are so many false teachers out there today on the
radio and books and Airways and videos and YouTube.
I mean, I could spend a month just doing a study on false
teachers, but I'd rather focus on the the truth and the true
teacher, Jesus Christ and wasting time about false
teachers. They'll come and go.
But if any are infecting the church, we will definitely bring
it up and warn people and talk to people.
Someone was here about a month ago and they had a book and they
were talking about demons and curses and sins and generational
curse and, you know, just a lot of crazy stuff.
And this guy had this like in the book, this sort of procedure
of how to rebuke the devil and how to get, you know, and really
complicated stuff, you know? And I said, well, you know, she
said, what do you think? I said, well, I, I personally, I
wouldn't read that book. And I don't think it's biblical.
And, and #2 I said, why don't you just read chapter 6 of
Ephesians? For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers in the
World of Darkness of this present age.
Be strong in the Lord in the power of his might tells us in
the scriptures resists the devil and he'll flee from you and he
gives all the armament of the symbolism of what it is we wear
spiritually and have the the sword of truth, the Bible and
the shield of faith which is able to quench the fiery darts
of the wicked one. That's the Bible.
I don't need some book by some guy telling me how to do that
when it's already in the Word of God, he said.
Also from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse
things to draw away disciples after themselves.
There's been occasions here and it never lasted too long where
someone came in, they had an agenda and wanted to have a
Bible study and they wanted to begin to teach stuff that wasn't
our spiritual DNA, which is the word of God.
And they had different views. Well, I got this new truth and I
want to tell people that there really isn't a hell.
I'll never forget this guy. He's telling me that he was
going to prove to me that, you know, there is no such thing as
everlasting punishment. So I took him to Revelation.
Whosoever was named name not found in the book of life was
cast in the lake of fire that this literal hell.
And and then when I showed him that, he says, well, maybe I
should, you know, you know, look at it differently or something,
I don't know. But fortunately he left and
didn't come back. But that was a perverse teaching
that would come in to draw away disciples after that particular
persons theories. Therefore watch and remember
verse 31 that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone
night and day with tears. Paul was so intense.
It wasn't like I'll just remind you one time and tell you and
warn you about some problems here.
You know, three years, night and day.
And he was so burdened that he he wept if people weren't
believing or following or relying upon the truth of the
word of God. So now brethren, I commend you
verse 32. This is his blessing to the
elders. I commend you to God and to the
word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an
inheritance among all those who are sanctified or set apart.
So this this beautiful blessing that he's praying on them and
and encouraging them with is that this word of his grace
which we're studying every time we gather is able to build you
up and you experience this inheritance that God has given
us because we belong to Jesus Christ.
You'll you'll have this reality of of spiritual health in your
life. Verse 33 I have coveted no one's
silver or gold or apparel. Paul wasn't in it for money.
He wasn't in it for himself. He was in it for the sake of
others and the glory of God. Yes, you yourselves know that
these hands have provided for my necessities and for those who
were with me. I have shown you in every way by
laboring like this that you must support the weak and remember
the words of the Lord Jesus that He said it is more blessed to
give than receive. What a blessing.
The Lord gives us the opportunity to give unto Him and
to be a blessing to other people, to help other people and
have the Holy Spirit speak to you about your resources, how to
use them for the sake of others and His Kingdom and people that
you run into in life sometimes that need a helping hand, that
you use what it is the Lord's entrusted you with secretly and
privately to help someone who's less fortunate.
And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed
with them all. Then they all wept freely and
fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for
the words which he spoke. And they would see his face no
more. And they accompanied him to the
ship. This had to be very, very
difficult for them. They loved him, they honored
him, they needed him. He impacted them greatly and now
he's moving on and they'll never see him again.
But he's given them everything they need to have to continue
the legacy that the Lord had given him.
And every generation, the Lord raises up new young people.
I think of the young kids in that room next door.
They're the future leaders of the church.
You parents are disciple and your children and teaching them
to how to walk with the Lord. Because one day Lewis and I
won't be here and it'll be a whole different group of people
and a different group of leaders.
And it's going to come from the Lord continually raising people
up from one generation to the next to.
Continually do and teach the things that Paul has taught us
thus far in the book of the Acts.
I remember whenever we had our last opportunity to be with
Pastor Chuck, he was dying of cancer and he met us at Sandy
Cove at the pastors conference about 12 years ago and he was
weak. He could tell they had to help
him get up in the pulpit. And I was thinking, I need to
pull up the archives and and review what the last things he
taught us at that time. But I'm sure it was along the
lines of what Paul is teaching here because Pastor Chuck was
the kind of guy that gave the ministry away.
And he loved raising men up and letting them be used in the
church. And then also men who were
called to plant churches, he would send them out and help
them do that, as you saw with Greg in the movie.
And you know, we we got to get pictures with them and hug them
and love on them as he loved us. We were like his kids, spiritual
kids. The Lord used him to raise up
1700 churches to this day called Calvary Chapel around the world,
just simply teaching the Bible simply.
And I had a chance to go up to him at the time.
And I said, Pastor Chuck, I said, I just want to thank you
for letting us hook our caboose your locomotive.
And because there's no way I'd be a pastor today, nor would
this church be here if it wasn't for his legacy impact.
And he just smiled at me, says great things God hath wrought.
Chuck never took any credit for anything.
He just wanted to see the Lord work.
And at that time, we didn't have this building at the time, but
we were making some degree of progress, slow progress, and
told about the radio station and he got biggest kick out of that.
We didn't even have it up. Then the low power and then we
finally got it up. And every day, 8:00 in the
morning, he comes on after my teaching and I hear him and I
say, Cindy, thank the Lord for this man's life and how he
impacted us as a couple and how he's impacted families all over
the world and continually does to this day.
And but it was sort of like this thing with Paul and the elders.
It was us and him because we understood the anointing that
God had on his life and what how he had impacted us.
It was funny, you know, when we first became pastors, we didn't
know how to do weddings. He'd give us videos how to do
it. We didn't know how to do
funerals. He'd give us videos how to do
it. And he did a great teaching and
acts the Lord how he builds a church, not church growth
methods and all the hype stuff that people get into.
But how does the Holy Spirit, you know, grow a church?
He provided all these resources and of course, to this day, word
for the day and Blue letter Bible.
You can go on and find his teachings if you want.
You can go through the whole Bible if you like with him and
and many other pastors. So we're grateful for what it is
that that God has done through Paul's life because Paul
continually impacts the Church of Jesus Christ to this day.
We need to pray that men will get back to the Bible and
churches, that they'll teach the whole council of God so that
believers can be healthy and know the truth and not be
confused. There's a famine for the word of
God right now, so we want to get this out more and more.
That's the purpose of the radio station.
What people are going to hear is what you've heard today.
Amen. Thanks for joining us on this
journey through Acts. On today's edition of Living
Waters of Grace, Pastor Clark shares that one of the most
remarkable things about the book of Acts is how it shows the
disciples transformation. The followers of Jesus we meet
here are very different from the often confused and fearful
disciples in the Gospels. After Jesus's death and
resurrection, and especially through the power of the Holy
Spirit, the apostles experienced a profound change in their
hearts and boldness. Their faith became unwavering,
and they moved forward with courage to spread the gospel
despite opposition and hardship. Max reminds us that the same
Spirit who empowered them is at work in US today, shaping our
hearts and giving us strength to live boldly for Christ.
Living Waters of Grace is a ministry of Calvary Chapel
Westmoreland. If you're in the Greensburg, PA
area, we invite you to join us this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E
Pittsburgh St. Unit 6B.
Visit calvarychapelonline.com For more information or you can
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We're so grateful that you joined us today in Acts.
TuneIn again soon for another edition of Living Waters of
Grace.