Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace 10.24.25
Transcript
- 0:03This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
- 0:08Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County
- 0:12of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
- 0:16continues teaching through God's Word.
- 0:37The Spirit is the one that draws us to our need of Christ.
- 0:41This man called for Barnabas and Saul.
- 0:43So Elimus verse 8, the sorcerer for his name is translated,
- 0:48withstood them seeking to turn the proconsul away from the
- 0:52faith. And that's what the enemy does.
- 0:55You know, the day I don't know who's saved, who isn't, I can
- 0:58tell by the fruit of people's lives whether they really know
- 1:00Jesus or not. But that's not my job to judge.
- 1:03You know that. My job's to teach and to preach.
- 1:06Jesus said you can know a tree by its fruit.
- 1:09You ever seen a banana growing on an apple tree?
- 1:12No, the fruit is the way to identify what kind of tree
- 1:16you're looking at. The lives of followers of Jesus
- 1:19are the same. We should be bearing the fruit
- 1:22of God's Kingdom here on earth as we await our last breath or
- 1:26Christ's return. Today, Pastor Clark will remind
- 1:30us how important it is to abide in Jesus so that we will bear
- 1:35the fruit of the Kingdom. Notice I didn't say to be a part
- 1:39of God's Kingdom. Salvation comes from faith in
- 1:42Christ alone, and works are only the outworking of that
- 1:46salvation. Now here's Pastor Clark in the
- 1:49book of Acts Chapter 13 with today's edition of Living Waters
- 1:54of Grace. And sometimes you need to be set
- 1:56aside like I was for a month to hear some things that I needed
- 2:01to hear for a long time about my personal relationship with the
- 2:06Lord. This not as a pastor, but as a
- 2:09son of God, a son and a daughter of God.
- 2:13God wants to have this nearness with you and me, and you want to
- 2:22include the Lord in everything in your life.
- 2:25As they did, they sought him, they ministered to him.
- 2:29And this is something I'm learning a lot more about as
- 2:32well, that the Lord wants to be involved in everything you're
- 2:36doing. Sometimes you're doing a mundane
- 2:38task and moms are running house, raising kids clean, and guys
- 2:42work, wives work. We do all this stuff and it's a
- 2:45drudgery at times and it's burdensome instead of like at
- 2:49this dawn of me recently. Hey, Lord, can you hang out with
- 2:51me while I do this? Can you be with me when I work?
- 2:57Like really? I sense him being with me and my
- 3:01marriage and my relationship with you guys and family, that
- 3:07Lord be with me in the midst of these relationships so that you
- 3:11can be glorified and how I can also be blessed knowing that
- 3:15it's really true when it says the Lord will never leave you or
- 3:18forsake you. You ever feel like he's left
- 3:20you? Yeah, we all have.
- 3:23Have you ever felt like he's maybe forsaking you?
- 3:25Yeah, we all have. But that's not true, is it?
- 3:29That's called toxic narratives. We have these things that go in
- 3:33our mind many times that are not even based in the truth.
- 3:36They're lies. And sometimes we think they're
- 3:39the truth and we embrace them and they just mess us up because
- 3:43it's not the voice of God. There's two voices, God's voice,
- 3:45which is always loving, edifying, merciful, patient.
- 3:49And then the other voice is condemning and judging and
- 3:52critical. It makes you feel worthless,
- 3:54right? Makes you feel like a failure.
- 3:57God will never speak that way to you or to me as his kids.
- 4:02And so they're learning all this as they're ministering to the
- 4:05Lord. And this is approximately 18
- 4:08years after Paul's conversion, what we're reading about here.
- 4:11Sometimes when you read the Bible, you think, oh, it was
- 4:13yesterday, got saved, and today or next week he's doing all this
- 4:17stuff. No, he spent a lot of time being
- 4:19broken, being humbled, being taught, just like we all do.
- 4:24And he's understanding these principles of the Holy Spirit
- 4:30because the book of the Acts is about the Holy Spirit.
- 4:34So when we're fasting, we're basically learning to surrender
- 4:38more to the Lord. That's the purpose of fasting.
- 4:41It's not to get something or demand something of God if
- 4:46you're trying to impress him. Oh Lord, I didn't eat today.
- 4:49Well, he's like, well, So what? I didn't eat for 40 days, 40
- 4:52days. You know, now when you, maybe
- 4:54when you do that, we'll have a deeper conversation, right?
- 4:57But I can't fast for like 1/2 a day.
- 4:59I got like hyperglycemia. I feel like fainting.
- 5:02Oh, I'm so weak. You know, that's what you're
- 5:05supposed to learn when you fast, is that you're weak, that his
- 5:08strength is made perfect in your weakness, that the power of
- 5:11Christ would rest upon you. I said to Lewis this morning, I
- 5:14said, boy, after they prayed for me, you know, I said, I just
- 5:17feel so weak today. And I looked at him.
- 5:20I said, I guess that's a good start, right?
- 5:23So if I came up here feeling I was strong, that's that's not a
- 5:26good thing. I need to be dependent on the
- 5:29Lord as much as you guys do. So when we're fasting and in
- 5:34this case, we see the result of the fast because the Holy Spirit
- 5:37clarified what it was that the will of God wanted to
- 5:40accomplish. And so it helps us to be more
- 5:44open to him. People need prayer.
- 5:50And so I think one of the wonderful thing that's occurring
- 5:52here is that anything we are seeing of any kind of spiritual
- 5:56significance is happening because of prayer.
- 5:59And you don't need a lot of people to pray.
- 6:01You just need the people who are called to pray this way.
- 6:04That's not just by, well, that's a good idea, let's pray.
- 6:08That's a calling the people to really pray for the movement of
- 6:12God in this world, in this city, and in the church that we're
- 6:16part of. We need to pray that God will
- 6:19get a hold of people and government and our culture
- 6:24because we were like them at one time, weren't we?
- 6:28We were without Christ, without any kind of direction.
- 6:33And I think about people that need healing.
- 6:39Many of us, we come to churches on Sunday, we hear hopefully
- 6:43messages that are rooted in the truth of the word.
- 6:46But maybe we're bleeding inside, we're hurting, we don't know how
- 6:51to get past it. Or maybe we're too ashamed to
- 6:54talk about it. You know, we don't know what to
- 6:58do. So we leave with a :) and
- 7:00everything's OK. And many times not everything is
- 7:03OK in any of our lives. So they're sent out by the Holy
- 7:09Spirit In verse 4, they get down to Seleucia and from there they
- 7:13sailed to Cyprus. It's an island.
- 7:16And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word
- 7:19of God in the synagogues of the Jews.
- 7:22And they also had John as their assistant.
- 7:23This John is the one that wrote the Gospel of Mark.
- 7:27We'll study about him. He actually split from these
- 7:29guys because he couldn't deal with the pressures of the
- 7:32ministry or whatever. And, and Paul got upset and
- 7:34says, well, I don't want him working with us anymore because
- 7:37he wimped out or whatever. Eventually they get in communion
- 7:41and reconciled down the road. But this is who this John is,
- 7:45John Mark. And Seleucia was about 20 miles
- 7:50north of Antioch, so it wasn't a short trip to get there.
- 7:54They sailed to Cyprus, which is about 40 miles from Seleucia.
- 7:59And that city of Cyprus was 90% Gentile, only 10% Jewish.
- 8:08It was a country that worshipped Venus the the sex goddess, Lust,
- 8:14the goddess of love, lust and evil dark area godless.
- 8:22So much so that a wife and a daughter at that time was
- 8:25expected to offer themselves as temple prostitutes at least one
- 8:29time. So we think about America, where
- 8:33we are in our morals. It's not good, but it's never
- 8:37been good on the face of the earth since the fall, has it?
- 8:41The constant decline of depravity and immorality in the
- 8:45world is what makes the world what it is today.
- 8:49The preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the worship of
- 8:53Christ and the teaching of His Word makes the world like it is
- 8:58this morning right here in this church, a hospital for sinners.
- 9:03Then they go to Salamis, which is on the coast of Cyprus in a
- 9:09very, very dark place. And the apostle and those with
- 9:14him knew that the only way to turn the darkness to light was
- 9:19to preach the word of God. And that's how you see the
- 9:25darkness begin to leave, whether it's in your own life,
- 9:29personally, or the things you're praying for.
- 9:33So they're preaching the good news and they go to this island
- 9:38in Papfos, which is about 90 miles trek walking on the other
- 9:44end of Cyprus, not a short trip. And so they're having victory.
- 9:50They're seeing God work by his spirit.
- 9:52People are getting saved. And now they experience this
- 9:55here. Now when they had gone through
- 9:58the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false
- 10:01prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar Jesus.
- 10:05What a name, huh? Who was with the pro council?
- 10:08Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man.
- 10:12This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word
- 10:14of God. So the reputation of the
- 10:17ministry at that time was causing people to want to get in
- 10:20the presence of these missionaries.
- 10:24But what happened was this Sergio Paulus, who is an
- 10:28authority in the empire at the time, a lot of influence, the
- 10:32Holy Spirit was beginning to work in his life.
- 10:34Convict him, show him his need of of Jesus, right?
- 10:37Well, isn't it interesting? Anytime someone gets close to
- 10:40salvation, the enemy is always trying to turn him the other
- 10:44way. That happened to me when I first
- 10:46heard the gospel. Those people are fanatics.
- 10:48They're crazy. You know, they're going to,
- 10:50they're trying to ruin your fun. You, you can't do this, do that
- 10:54anymore. You know, I mean, it was like
- 10:55crazy. And this guy Sergius is being
- 11:01drawn by the Holy Spirit. He's not in any church.
- 11:05He's not in any synagogue at the time.
- 11:07He's just the Spirit is the one that draws us to our need of
- 11:11Christ. This man called for Barnabas and
- 11:14Saul. So Elamas verse 8, the sorcerer
- 11:18for his name is translated withstood them seeking to turn
- 11:22the pro council away from the faith and that's what the enemy
- 11:25does. You know, the day I don't know
- 11:27who's saved who isn't. I can tell by the fruit of
- 11:30people's lives whether they really know Jesus or not, but
- 11:33that's not my job to judge. You know that my job is to teach
- 11:36and to preach. So this this guy.
- 11:40It's like the parable to Sir, you know, the seed sown and then
- 11:45all of a sudden you read in that parable, it's always the enemy
- 11:48trying to take the seed out and prevent the real growth, the
- 11:53conversion, salvation. You might be here today, here
- 11:57and stuff, and the Spirit of God is convicting you and you know
- 12:00it's true because it's God's word.
- 12:02And you're got a battle on inside and you're, you know,
- 12:05yeah, I understand, I need Jesus.
- 12:07But you know, it's the enemy that would want to prevent you
- 12:10from being a believer, right? The enemy, he always wants to
- 12:15take the seat out and steal it. So he withstands this
- 12:21conversation and he's seeking to turn this guy away from the
- 12:24faith. So here's Paul in verse 9, Saul,
- 12:28who is who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit,
- 12:33looks intently at him and said, Oh, full of all deceit and all
- 12:38fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will
- 12:42you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?
- 12:45He didn't say that calm. He was yelling it.
- 12:49Where are you trying to do here? You're you're an enemy.
- 12:52You're you're a wicked man, you're unrighteous and there's
- 12:56times to be angry in regard to the work of the enemy and what
- 13:01he tries to do to keep people from knowing Jesus Christ,
- 13:05right. He didn't go up and say, Oh,
- 13:07you're, I know you mean well, but you're you know, there was
- 13:10nothing that kind of conversation.
- 13:12Paul knew through discernment that this guy needed dealt with.
- 13:18And so Paul being an apostle and we don't see these kind of
- 13:21things common among us today, but nonetheless, God still does
- 13:25bring judgment when he says enough's enough.
- 13:28In God's heart, we see the Lord turning the money tables upside
- 13:32down. Speaking to the Pharisees.
- 13:35He was angry at times, wasn't he?
- 13:38There's like this righteous indignation, not self judgement,
- 13:42but like this is wrong and someone is messing with someone
- 13:46you love. You tell them in a very firm way
- 13:51you do this and you and I are going to have problems.
- 13:56There's a time you turn the cheek and there's a time you
- 13:58don't turn the cheek and we see that in the Lord's life.
- 14:03So what's he do? Verse 11 and now indeed the hand
- 14:08of the Lord is upon you and you shall be blind, not seeing the
- 14:12sun for a time. Now who does that remind you of?
- 14:17There was a period of time where Paul was blinded right for three
- 14:20days. So Paul knew that something can
- 14:23happen when you're blind for supernaturally blind, you start
- 14:29to not see anything, but you begin to hear things that you
- 14:32need to hear By the Spirit of God, I guarantee if that
- 14:36happened to us, we'd be screaming out, Lord, what is it
- 14:38you want us to know? I want to get it.
- 14:40I want to do it. I want to be faithful.
- 14:42I want to be responsible with with the truth now that you've
- 14:45given me. So it's powerful to know that
- 14:52God is aware of the evil that's in the world.
- 14:55He's against the evil. He has a plan to deal with the
- 14:59evil, and eventually he will completely eradicate the evil
- 15:04when he sets up his new heavens and earth.
- 15:07In the meantime, we stand on the truth of the Word of God.
- 15:13And I'm sure there's been people in your life that you would like
- 15:15to be able to say this kind of thing, see the result, and then
- 15:19they wake up and they realize I got to change my life.
- 15:22But that's the work of the Spirit of God through the word
- 15:24of God, right? That's what he does.
- 15:27One day you hear it and you say, that's me.
- 15:30I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips, and I
- 15:33dwell in the midst of an unclean people, and I need Jesus.
- 15:38The best day of your life will be when you come to the
- 15:41realization that you need Jesus to save you from your sin.
- 15:48You get saved. You're not perfect.
- 15:50You're still flawed, you still have struggles, but you know
- 15:54you're forgiven and you know where you're heading when you
- 15:57leave this world. And then you begin to become an
- 16:00influence to other people, salt and light.
- 16:03You begin to see them impacted by your testimony and who you
- 16:07who you are in Christ, what he's done for you.
- 16:10One of my favorite experiences in Spain was we're in this big
- 16:14corporate room, about 40 of us, and we're given 2 minutes to
- 16:17tell a little bit about ourselves, how we got into this,
- 16:21what do we do, what's our hobby, whatever.
- 16:24And you, that's the worst thing you can say to a pastor. 2
- 16:26minutes, that ain't going to happen. 2 minutes turns into an
- 16:29hour now. So I'm telling them my story,
- 16:32how I got into it and, you know, the purpose of it, to actually
- 16:37have an opportunity to do more ministry outside the church with
- 16:41people I see every day that have all kind of issues that are
- 16:44going on in their lives, be able to speak into their lives.
- 16:47I said, yeah, my, my hobby and my passion is the word of God
- 16:50and the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I'm a pastor.
- 16:53And, well, they pretty much all knew I was a pastor because that
- 16:56gets around, you know, he doesn't get drunk like we get
- 16:59drunk. You know, doesn't mean that you
- 17:02can't have a glass of wine or a beer and, you know, be OK.
- 17:07But most people, when there's free booze, they don't know when
- 17:10to stop, do they? They just go on and on.
- 17:13After all, you're like, OK, I have enough of this, I'm going
- 17:15to. But the Lord said, no, you're
- 17:16going to hang with these people. You're going to listen to them,
- 17:18you're going to talk with them. You're not going to hide in your
- 17:20room, which is what I usually like to do.
- 17:25And I I got to have these amazing conversations with
- 17:28wonderful people, good people that have had events occur in
- 17:35their life is broken up. So there I am.
- 17:38I don't know if I'm the only believer.
- 17:39No one came up to me after I said, Hey, you Christian, I am
- 17:42too. No one said that.
- 17:43So that's always fun when that happens.
- 17:45At least you have a partner. But it was me alone.
- 17:50But nonetheless, you know, seeds were were planted.
- 17:54So what happens to this guy? Immediately a dark mist fell on
- 17:59him and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.
- 18:02Now the scriptures never get back to this guy.
- 18:05What happened to him when it was his sight, you know, temporarily
- 18:09taken or how long or did he come to the realization like Paul did
- 18:13that he needed to be saved? You know, pray that that was the
- 18:18case for him. Then the pro Council, this is
- 18:21the government official, verse 12, it says believed when he saw
- 18:27what had been done, but it wasn't the miracle of this man
- 18:32becoming blind in God's judgement that got this man to
- 18:35believe. Pay attention to the last part
- 18:38of this verse, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
- 18:45That's what brought him to salvation.
- 18:48He was astonished at the teaching of the Word.
- 18:54And that's what's happening to us every time we gather.
- 18:57I trust that somehow in the midst of the sermon, I see
- 19:00people nodding off. And that's why I raise my voice
- 19:02every once in a while. I I do the same thing as you
- 19:06guys. I'm at a pastors conference.
- 19:07Oh, it's so good. Lord, I need this all next time.
- 19:10I know well who's put me to sleep.
- 19:13It's a Sandman the devil. I don't want you to get too
- 19:16serious about this stuff. Right.
- 19:19So the gospel and the teaching of the Lord brought this man the
- 19:26faith in Jesus Christ, just like it has for you and me.
- 19:30Now, as I begin to conclude, I know some of you better than
- 19:35others because I've hung out with you or had coffee or
- 19:38whatever. But I know as I meet with
- 19:42people, every one of us has a story, right?
- 19:45Broken things that didn't go the way we wanted them to go in
- 19:49life, tragedies, it's difficulties, broken
- 19:53relationships, whatever. It's part of life and it can be
- 19:58very, very painful, as you all know.
- 20:00So who can save us out of our lives that have been perhaps
- 20:05ruined because of sin and rejecting God?
- 20:09What needs to happen to bring Christians to a deeper, closer
- 20:17repentance, closer relationship with Jesus?
- 20:21Surrendering our lives to Jesus. What do you want, Lord?
- 20:26When we're in situations we don't like, we want them to be
- 20:30fixed immediately. We don't like to have
- 20:33discomfort. But Jesus, the Bible's profound
- 20:38verse. Jesus learned obedience by the
- 20:40things he suffered. Now Jesus is perfect.
- 20:42He's God Incarnate. What did he have to learn?
- 20:45He was in our human skin. He experienced rejection,
- 20:50persecution, all this. He felt the human emotions that
- 20:54we feel and he had to learn in the human frame clearly what it
- 21:02was like to not know God and to live in sin.
- 21:07Of course, he never lived in sin, but he did experience
- 21:11briefly what it was like to be separated from God the Father
- 21:15and the Holy Trinity. That's why he said, we don't
- 21:18have a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling our
- 21:21infirmities, our weaknesses, but was on all points tempted as we
- 21:26are, yet without sin. He says, therefore you can come
- 21:28boldly into this throne room of grace that you might find mercy
- 21:32and grace and help in your time and need.
- 21:34Someone said to me recently, and it wasn't a criticism, it was
- 21:37just a question about altar calls.
- 21:41And I've been in churches where every week it was an altar call
- 21:45and you felt if you weren't upfront, then you weren't
- 21:47serious about God. This is how the pastor rolled
- 21:50it. So you go up, you know, OK, you
- 21:52know, how long is this going to be today?
- 21:55Because the Steelers are coming on at 12:30 and I want to see
- 21:59the kickoff. That's what I'm thinking as I'm
- 22:01at the altar. There's nothing wrong with that.
- 22:03Just being human right now. If I knew the guy was going to
- 22:07like just let the spirit work for a couple minutes, whoever
- 22:11were compelled to come, then it's the church is dismissed.
- 22:15That's that's more easy to to deal with, right.
- 22:18But if being in that church, you know, it was almost like he was
- 22:22like playing with our heads. I'll see if you're really
- 22:24committed to Jesus, you won't be thinking about the Steelers.
- 22:28That's ridiculous stuff, man. We, we still live life.
- 22:32We have hobbies, we like to travel, we like to have fun, we
- 22:34like to have stuff with family. It it isn't, you know, 24
- 22:39mindset hours of this idea that I need to get right with God.
- 22:43You have been made right with God through the cross and the
- 22:46sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Nothing you can add to that.
- 22:50Nothing you can do to make it better.
- 22:53It's the simple what must I do to be saved?
- 22:56The Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall
- 23:02be saved. It isn't coming up front.
- 23:06It's believing in Christ and ask Him to forgive you of your sin
- 23:10right in your seat, in your car, wherever you are.
- 23:15But sometimes you need some brothers and sisters to come
- 23:20around you to pray for you. You don't need to get into
- 23:22detail what it is you're doing or going through or struggling
- 23:25with or failing. You can just come up and you can
- 23:29just be there. And someone might come up and
- 23:31just lay their hand on you back or pray for you.
- 23:35And as that begins to happen, the Holy Spirit begins to do
- 23:38things that we don't anticipate. You would feel the burden
- 23:42lifted, or sometimes there's a physical healing, or sometimes
- 23:46there's a touch of God that lets you know it's going to be OK.
- 23:49It's not fixed right away maybe, but it's going to be OK.
- 23:53I need that as much as you do. Thanks for joining us on today's
- 23:58edition of Living Waters of Grace, a ministry of Calvary
- 24:02Chapel, Westmoreland. Today, Pastor Clark is teaching
- 24:05about the Book of Acts, And as we learn more about Acts, it
- 24:09becomes clear that the early church didn't miss a single
- 24:12opportunity to share the gospel. In nearly every chapter, you see
- 24:16apostles like Peter and Paul stepping into conversations,
- 24:20crowds, and crises with boldness, ready to proclaim the
- 24:25name of Jesus. Their example challenges us to
- 24:28consider how we might step into gospel moments in our own lives.
- 24:33What doors might God open this week for you to speak truth,
- 24:36offer hope, or live out your faith in a way that points
- 24:40others to Him? The story of Acts reminds us we
- 24:43are part of the same mission. Today, let's live with eyes open
- 24:47and hearts ready to respond. We hope you are challenged by
- 24:51today's message. If you're in the Greensburg, PA
- 24:53area, we'd love to see you in person this Sunday at 10:30 AM
- 24:58at 400 E Pittsburgh St. Unit 6B.
- 25:02For more information, visit calvarychapelonline.com.
- 25:06You could also join our e-mail list, give online, or submit a
- 25:10prayer request right from the site.
- 25:12If you can't make it in person, be sure to tune in on the
- 25:16Calvary Chapel Westmoreland YouTube channel.
- 25:18Subscribe so you never miss new teachings.
- 25:22If you're in the Greensburg area, you can listen to Grace FM
- 25:25on the new 91.7 frequency. Pray about helping financially
- 25:31support the new station that will reach thousands more
- 25:34listeners. Send financial gifts to Grace
- 25:37FMPO, Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601.
- 25:44Once again, we're so grateful you joined us today to be
- 25:46inspired by God's Word. Please tune in again for more
- 25:50Living Waters of Grace.