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Living Waters of Grace 09.12.25 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
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Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
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County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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He's called our comforter. He does not expect us to do life
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in our own strength. And I want to know that deeper
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myself personally, because there's days that I get
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frustrated too and burn on and overwhelmed and discouraged or
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whatever. And and I don't want to stay in
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those places. I want to immediately connect
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with the fact that I need the help of the Spirit of God.
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And when we ask for the help of the Holy Spirit, He will
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definitely come through for us. Amen.
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The Holy Spirit is like a sturdy railing, keeping you balanced
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when life's weight feels too heavy.
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In today's message, Pastor Clark portrays how God is your
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comforter. Not expecting you to face life
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alone might hit days of frustration, burnout, or
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discouragement. Feeling overwhelmed?
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Instead of lingering there, you can turn to the Spirit for help.
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He's ready to come through when you call, bringing strength and
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peace. God knows your struggles and
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offers his Spirit to carry you forward.
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Now here's Pastor Clark in the book of Acts chapter one with
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today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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Father God, we thank you Lord, for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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It is the only hope that the world has.
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And Lord, you told us clearly that you are the way the truth
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of life, and no man comes of the Father.
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But through you, everywhere we live, we have an opportunity to
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share our relationship with you, Lord, with other people.
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I pray, Lord, that you would work in our hearts as a church
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family, as a body, where we work, where we live,
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friendships, Father, neighbors, that you would open up doors of
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opportunity for each of us on a daily basis to be able to share
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the gospel with people. Lord, because we know that you
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love people and you want us to love people and and father,
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we're around people every day that are on their way to a
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crisis eternity if they don't know Jesus Christ as their Lord
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and Savior. We don't grasp that many times
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we get up and we live our lives and we see countless hundreds of
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people every day and we don't perhaps at times sink.
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I wonder where they're going to spend eternity.
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And Lord, you tell us in your word that the only way we can
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spend eternity with You is to have you as our Lord and Savior,
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to have our sins forgiven, and to have you come into our life
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and change us to become like you.
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And so, Father, we just ask that we would be used by you.
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We know this is Your will. We know the book of the Acts was
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written by you, penned by you through Luke the Evangelist to
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help us see the beginning of the church and how it thrived and
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how it grew and how it increased Lord.
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And so Lord, we hold one another up and pray for one another.
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We ask Lord God today by your spirit's power, by your Holy
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Spirit's power, that you would truly minister to us through the
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word of God today and that the book of the Acts would it is a
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living book. It's, it's the Acts of the Holy
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Spirit through the hands of the apostles.
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And so God teach us to trust you and to know you and to walk
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deeper with you. And, and God, we, we do all
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these things for your glory and for your honor, and we pray
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these things in Jesus name, Amen.
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God bless you guys. We are in the book of the Acts.
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We're starting the series and Acts.
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We finished the Gospel of Matthew.
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And so I felt that it would just make sense to to see what
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happened to the church immediately after, you know,
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Jesus was getting ready to ascend into heaven to be with
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his father. Before, though, I go to the book
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of the Acts. I wanted to talk about the Holy
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Spirit a little bit. I've taught this book several
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times before, the book of the Acts, and I don't know if it's
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because I'm getting older, things are sinking in more, I
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don't know. But boy, I'll tell you, these
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truths in the Bible are just hitting me at different levels
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than ever, ever before. So I wanted to ask you a
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question. Have you ever heard this phrase?
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God helps those who help themselves.
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Do you believe that's in the Bible?
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Well, some people do, and we're all conditioned to sort of live
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in our own strength. I don't know about you, but I'm
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when I review my life and I think about my life, I'm
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astounded at times of how much I'm trying to do in my own
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strength, which is ridiculous. And so the reason I want to tell
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you a little bit about this personally is that the I need to
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be reminded about this as much as you do.
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And in the book of John chapter 14, it says the heading verse 15
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of John 14. And Jesus promises another
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helper. He says, if you love me, keep my
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commandments and I will pray the Father and he will give you
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another helper that he may abide with you forever.
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The spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it
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neither sees him nor but you know him, for he dwells with you
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and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans, I
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will come to you. And then he says over in the
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book of John 15, he says, I am the vine, you are the branches.
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And he that abideth in me, and I in him the same bringeth forth
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much fruit. Without me you can do nothing.
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Really think about that. Without Him we can do nothing.
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And then He also tells us about this importance of this witness
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that we have the privilege to be able to be part of.
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He says in the 25th verse of John 14, These things I've
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spoken to you while being present with you.
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But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send to my
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name, He will teach you all things and bring to remembrance
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all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace
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I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give
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to you. Let not your heart be troubled,
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neither let it be afraid. You have heard me say to you,
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I'm going away and coming back to you.
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If you love me, you would rejoice because I said I am
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going to my Father, for my Father is greater than I.
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And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come
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to pass, you may believe I will no longer talk much with you.
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For the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me
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but that the world may know that I love the Father.
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And as the Father gave me commandments, so I do arise.
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Let us go from here. And so we have this opportunity
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to share our faith. That's why God established the
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Church to help us learn how to communicate to one another and
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to the world their need of Jesus Christ.
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And so perhaps you're here today and maybe you have never really
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felt comfortable sharing your faith with other people.
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Well, you're not alone, right? We're all beginners at this, and
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we're learning how to openly find opportunities to share our
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relationship with Jesus. But what I love about the Word
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of God, the Comforter, the encourager, the Helper, it says
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in John 1526 And the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you
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from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the
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Father. He will testify of me, and you
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also will bear witness because you have been with me from the
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beginning. So the Holy Spirit dwells in the
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lives of the believer. So we have the supernatural
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power and authority and ability to speak to people about their
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need of a Savior, Jesus Christ. It comes from the Spirit of God
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in us. He is the ultimate witness.
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He's the one that testifies of the truth.
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And the Holy Spirit always works to magnify the Lord Jesus.
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He doesn't draw attention to himself.
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And so as we study the book of the Acts today and begin to work
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through this, my prayer for us as a church is that we would
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find opportunities in daily life to share our faith with other
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people, that we would pray and ask God to open up doors and
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opportunity that we might be able to present the Lord to
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others. And Speaking of crew, we support
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a missionary with CREW as a church.
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We have for quite some time. He was a student at Northwestern
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University studying engineering, had an opportunity to have all
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kind of countless job opportunities making big bucks.
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But for some reason, the Lord had dealt with him and worked
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with him to be part of crew. So he's moved up in the ranks of
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crew to be a leader, and we get his newsletter.
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His name's Nick, and he comes here periodically.
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But I wanted to read some prayer requests.
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He asked. Pray for all the students who
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attend the winter conferences in January and February.
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They do that all over the world, that they would take away
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practical next steps in walking closely with God and continue to
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grow closer to Him. Back on campus.
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Pray that those in the local communities who got to hear
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about Jesus and who made decisions to follow Jesus during
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the outreaches at the conference would be connected to their
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local churches and continually grow in the knowledge and love
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for God. And he asked for a prayer for
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himself. Pray for me in this season of
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discernment as I process my next steps and what I will be doing
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after my program ends in June. Especially pray that I would be
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trusting God in the unknown. So that's Nick, so hold him up
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in your prayers. So let's go to the book of the
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Acts. It's right after the Gospel of
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John, and we're going to start working through this book just
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like we went through Matthew, verse by verse and chapter by
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chapter. And before I start again, the
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Holy Spirit, he wants us to know him in a deeper way, in a
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personal way. God the Father, God the Son, God
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the Holy Spirit. He's the helper to comforter and
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He wants to help us. And I pray that we have the
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humility whenever we're stressed out and we're burnt out and
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we're overwhelmed and we're tired or whatever, frustrated in
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life that it would dawn on us that we need God's help.
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And we just say, Lord, I'm not in a good place right now.
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I need your help, Holy Spirit. And that's wisdom, isn't it?
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Because He's called our comforter, He does not expect us
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to do life in our own strength. And I want to know that deeper
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myself personally, because there's days that I get
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frustrated too and burn on and overwhelmed and discourage or
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whatever. And, and I don't want to stay in
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those places. I want to immediately connect
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with the fact that I need the help of the Spirit of God.
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And when we ask for the help of the Holy Spirit, he will
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definitely come through for us. Amen.
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So it starts in the first verse of the 1st chapter of Acts.
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It says the former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that
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Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He
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was taken up, after He, through the Holy Spirit, had given
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commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, To whom he
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also presented himself alive after his suffering, by many
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infallible proofs, being seen by them during 40 days, and
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Speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of
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God. So Luke is the author.
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He wrote the Gospel of Luke, the Evangelist Luke, and he also is
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writing the the book of the Acts.
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At this particular time, he was not an apostle, he was an
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evangelist. He was a medical doctor, he was
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a surgeon, and he traveled with the Apostle Paul and his
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ministry to help him with some of his infirmities and
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illnesses. Luke was a disciple of the
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apostle Paul. So we believe that Paul LED Luke
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to the Lord Jesus. Luke got all the data and the
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information, interviewed apostles and people who are
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eyewitnesses of the accounts of the life of Jesus Christ, and he
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compiled those things in the gospel of Luke.
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And then he's now compiling all the experiences he had traveling
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with Paul throughout all the regions.
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Whenever the book of the Acts is put together, they believe that
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he finished his sometime before 8060.
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Because there's no information in here of the crisis that
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happened in in Rome when the church was sacked and all that
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kind of stuff, and the persecution began to be poured
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out upon the church. Luke is a student of history,
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and everything he wrote was rooted and founded in evidence,
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not theory. Luke, when he wrote these
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things, he took his time to be very, very detailed in what it
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was he was speaking about the subject matter in the book of
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Acts, the Holy Spirit is mentioned 56 times and prayer is
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mentioned 39 times, more than any other book of the Bible.
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Prayer and the person, the Holy Spirit are discussed.
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And so this is really the foundation of what makes things
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work in this earth in regard to the things of God, prayer, and
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the power of God, the Holy Spirit.
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Theophilus, this person that Luke's referencing here was some
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type of perhaps Roman dignitary. It appears in the Gospel of Luke
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that he had an interest in Christianity.
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And so Luke actually sent the letters to this fellow
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Theophilus. That's about all we know of him,
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of everything that Jesus began both to do and teach.
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So everything that Christ did, and we studied that in a book of
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Matthew from the beginning of his birth to the eventual
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crucifixion and ascension, resurrection, are all detailed
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in the Gospels. And so everything we read in
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Acts is grounded and founded in the historic aspect of Christ
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being truly a human being, fully God in human form, human flesh
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who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the
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dead for our sins. And so he's giving again the
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details and everything now that is culminating in the outpouring
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of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost is rooted in this evidence that
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until the day he was taken up after he through the Holy Spirit
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of giving commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen.
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Remember the last thing we studied in the book of Matthew,
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chapter 28. He said go into all the world
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and preach the gospel, right. Some of you are starting to fall
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asleep. Preach the Gospel unto every
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living creature that entitizing them in the name of the Father,
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Son, and Holy Spirit. And lo, I'm with you always,
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even and to the end of the age, right?
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And so that was a commandment not only to the apostles, but to
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us as the church, as Christians, as believers to spread the
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gospel. And so it says that whom he also
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presented himself alive after his sufferings.
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And we read in First Corinthians 15 that Christ died for our
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sins. According to the scriptures, He
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was buried. He rose again on the third day,
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according to the scriptures, and ascendeth into heaven.
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He was seen by over 500 witnesses after He rose again
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from the dead, literally seen by many, many witnesses.
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So He presented himself alive after his crucifixion by many
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infallible proofs. He was seen by them during the
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40 days. He would come in and out of
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their lives during this time before He ascended to tell them
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more and more things about what it was he wanted them to
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accomplish. And he was always speaking about
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the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
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I was reading something this morning about fasting.
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And fasting sometimes is a good thing to do, especially for
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media right now, How much more media fee do we need about
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what's happening in the world? It's very, very overwhelming and
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at times very, very depressing. And we need to pray for peace.
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We need to pray for these world rollers to come to their senses
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and be able to sit down and talk about the issue before more and
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more people are slaughtered needlessly.
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It's heartbreaking to see what what's happening to these
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people. 1.4 million people are out of that country of Ukraine
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now trying to find a place to work and to live.
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And where do they find food? We're going to be involved with
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some other Calgary's across the world financially and helping
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and if we all help a little bit, that's going to be significant
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in regard to refuge and relief. We have missionaries on the
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ground in Ukraine who are actually helping people get out
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of the country. There's a Calgary Chapel in the
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farthest western region in Ukraine, which is surrounded by
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NATO countries that Russia isn't going to mess with over there.
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That's about as safe as you can be in Ukraine, that particular
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region. And they are already helping in
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the church, providing things for the people who are moving out of
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out of the Ukraine. But this need of understanding
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where we are in time in regard to the work of the Holy Spirit
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and what it is he wants to do in the days that we're living.
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And so I, I look at the time we're reading about in the book
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of the Acts prior to the persecution and the difficulty
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of living under a Roman rule as a Christian.
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It's a difficult time in parts of the world to live as a
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Christian under various types of dictatorships in the world.
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And then this is other places other than what we're dealing
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with right now with Russia. We have issues in Iran and we
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have issues in China. We have issues in North Africa,
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we have issues in Venezuela, we have issues in Colombia.
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There's rulers that don't have a lot of good things planned for
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the people of those countries. So when you look at Acts, Acts,
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this isn't a past tense book. It's a living book right now in
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regard to what it is we're dealing with in our own world
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today. In verse 4 it says in being
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assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart
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from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father.
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Now remember in John where Jesus was talking to His followers
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telling them He would send them the comforter, the helper.
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OK, this is real time now for them.
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They're told specifically to wait until the Holy Spirit is
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going to be poured out upon them.
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Now, they had experiences with the Holy Spirit, as did the Old
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Testament believers, the Old Testament Saints.
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But the Holy Spirit before Pentecost came upon people and
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then he would depart from people.
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We know David in Psalm 51 when he prayed his prayer repentance
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after his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, he prayed
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in that one section and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
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Now for a New Testament Christian, that would be a weird
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prayer because we the Holy Spirit doesn't leave us as
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Christians. He's in US and he'll never leave
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us or forsake us. But we can quench the Holy
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Spirit and we can grieve the Holy Spirit by living in our own
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power and our own strength. The Holy Spirit wants to fill us
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every day afresh that we have strength and power and wisdom,
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ability to to live for the glory of God and the blessings of
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other people. But in this instance, they have
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not received the Holy Spirit in the indwelling yet permanent
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indwelling. And this didn't happen till the
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day of Pentecost. The apostles received the Holy
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Spirit at different times. Jesus breathed on them and said
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receive the Holy Spirit for ministry and the miraculous
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things that they did. They didn't experience this
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complete experience that you and I experienced when we got saved
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and we were born again. When we were born again, the
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Holy Spirit came to dwell in us at the moment we were born
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again. It tells us in First Corinthians
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12/13, For we are all baptized by 1 Spirit into the body of
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Christ at our conversion, at our belief.
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It tells us in Romans 8-9, if any man have not the Spirit of
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Christ, he's none of his. So some movements in
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Christianity will say to people, have you received the Holy
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Spirit? And they asked this in Acts.
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We'll get into that down the road.
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Since you believe, well, you can't be a Christian if you
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don't have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in the
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believer. The Holy Spirit does not in
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dwell the unbeliever. And the only way you can have
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the Holy Spirit is to be born again.
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I don't know your experience when you were born again, but
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it's pretty significant for most of us because there's a way of
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life and a new sense of being an experience after you're born
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again that you didn't have before you were born again.
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You just know that you know that you know.
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And it tells us that his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, bears witness
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with our spirit that we are the sons and daughters of God.
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So when you come into a church like this, and maybe you've
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never been here before, if this is your first time, we welcome
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you. You can feel connected
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immediately because you're with other people who have the same
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Spirit. You do the Holy Spirit.
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And so he's commanding them to not depart from Jerusalem, but
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to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you have
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heard from me. And he said, for John truly
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baptized with water. And he's referring to John the
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Baptist baptism, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit
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not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come
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together in verse 6, they asked him saying, Lord, will you at
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this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?
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And this is a great question for them to ask because God will one
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day restore the Kingdom in Israel.
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This will actually happen the second coming of Christ when the
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millennial Kingdom begins. But this is not the particular
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point in time that this is going to occur.
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But they're familiar with the, you know, Ezekiel 36 and these
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prophecies that are going to one day be fulfilled.
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They're asking him the specific question.
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They're thinking there's going to be a literal Kingdom right
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now. We're going to have freedom.
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God's going to roll and reign, and we're not going to have to
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deal with Roman government or Russian government or Ukrainian
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government or American government or whatever
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government you want to say. The good news is one day the
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Lord himself will be the ruler and he will rule with an iron
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hand in Jerusalem. There won't be anybody else
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telling the Lord what to do at that time.
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That's when there will be real peace, That's when the nations
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will be under his role and reign and they won't have these rogue
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governments behaving the way they are now.
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But anyway, he says it's not for you to know the times or seasons
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which the Father has put in his own authority.
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People love to sort of plan and in her mind study.
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This is when I think Jesus is going to come and they have it
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all calculated. They can use computers now and
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algorithms and figure out dates and based upon different feasts
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in the Old Testament or whatever.
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I've never met anybody that got it right yet.
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You know, Jesus isn't anyone that knows the big the return of
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Christ to this world to set up the Kingdom, and that's the
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Father. We're so glad you joined us
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today on this edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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Pastor Clark is teaching through the Book of Acts, which is the
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only book that chronicles the history of the early church
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immediately after Jesus's ascension.
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It gives us a front row seat to how the Gospel began to move
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outward, starting in Jerusalem and reaching into the heart of
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the Roman Empire in just three decades.
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A small group of frightened ordinary believers became a
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bold, spirit empowered movement that transformed the known
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world. Acts is not just a history
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lesson. It's a reminder of what God can
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do when His people are surrendered, obedient and filled
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with the Holy Spirit. Their perseverance still
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inspires us today. May we follow their example and
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live faithfully for Christ in our own time.
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We hope today's message encouraged you.
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Living Waters of Grace is a ministry of Calvary Chapel,
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Westmoreland. If you're in the Greensburg, PA
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area, we'd love to have you join us in person.
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Our Sunday service begins at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
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Unit 6B. Be sure to visit
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calvarychapelonline.com to confirm times and learn more.
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If you are in the Greensburg area, you can listen to Grace FM
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on the new 91.7 frequency. Please pray about supporting
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this outreach. Gifts can be sent to Grace FMPO
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Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601. Stay connected through Facebook,
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YouTube, or our Calvary Chapel Westmoreland app.
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Join our e-mail list, submit prayer requests, and give online
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all at calvarychapelonline.com. Thank you for tuning in and
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spending this time in God's Word.
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Be sure to join us again for Living Waters of Grace.