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Living Waters of Grace 09.15.25 · 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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Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County
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of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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In the church, as elders, we pray and say, Lord, what about
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this? What do you think we should do?
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And we talk and we listen and we listen to different
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perspectives. And we, we wait and we pray.
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And many times when we pray, we're really not sure
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immediately what we should do, right?
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So we wait on the Lord. There's no hurry to make any
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decision until there's consensus in what it is in the mind of the
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Lord. You want the mind of the Lord
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right? In regard to decisions.
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You definitely want the mind of the Lord in regard to His will
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for the Church. Seeking God's will is like
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waiting for dawn. Trusting the light will
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breakthrough in time. In today's message, Pastor Clark
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reveals how you should pause and pray before big decisions,
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ensuring you align with God's plan.
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You might fast or seek agreement with others, refusing to move
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until His will is clear. In the church, leaders do the
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same, praying and listening for God's direction without rushing.
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Sometimes answers aren't immediate, so you wait patiently
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for clarity. God's mind is what you see, not
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hasty choices. Now here's Pastor Clark in Acts
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chapter one with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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It's not for you to know the times or seasons which the
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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 is there's only one that knows the big the
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return of Christ to this world to set up the Kingdom, and
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that's the Father. But you, he changes the subject.
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But you in verse 8 shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has
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come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and
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old Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
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And so they're in Jerusalem, OK, Samaria encompasses the regions
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of Jerusalem. And eventually, you know,
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they're going to go out towards Samaria, which is northern
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regions outside of Jerusalem already.
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You see, the, the plan of the Lord is to get the gospel out
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throughout the whole earth, right?
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And eventually it did go around the whole earth, and it's still
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going around the whole world. Now, the Commission we have as a
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church is to be involved in world missions, which we are,
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and you got to be focused on this, not Greensburg or Latrobe
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or Mount Pleasant or Irwin or North Huntington or wherever we
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come from. We have to be focused, yes, on
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our Jerusalem, which would be Greensburg here.
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But then we also have to be focused on our Judea, which
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would be the surrounding areas around the Greensburg area.
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And then the Samaria. Maybe it's going out toward
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Indiana or Johnstown or down towards Mckeesport or whatever,
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but the ultimate plan of God is that this gospel goes throughout
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the whole earth, right? And we work with the Dawsons.
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They work in the jungles of Venezuela, working, reaching
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tribal people who've never once heard the name of Jesus Christ.
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That's exciting for me personally to think about those
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folks. They're reaching unreached
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people groups. And then we have Philip Jackson
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that works in Macedonia at that part of the world, Philip and
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Lynn. And we have Philemon and Sheba
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who work with the people in Pakistan.
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We have Nick, I'd mentioned it works with crew.
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We have another couple, Dave and Cindy Bentz at those sports
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camps over there in Spain. And then we have others, you
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know, that we, we support and, and are behind and, and
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prayerfully, you know, involved with, in, in regards to the
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gospel. But the whole idea is OK, while
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they're doing what they're doing out there, we're doing what
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we're doing here right through Grace FM, the radio through you
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guys inviting people to Calvary or tell them about the radio or
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just giving them a track and praying for them or talking to
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them about the Lord Jesus. But this is the big picture
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here. The Lord them to be witnesses of
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him, and all these different places.
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And so in verse 9. Now when he had spoken these
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things, while they watched, he was taken up, and a cloud
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received them out of their sight.
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And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as He
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went up, behold, 2 men stood by them in white apparel, who also
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said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?
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This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so
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come and like manner as you saw him go into heaven.
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This experience of cloud is not something that's uncommon in the
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history of the Jewish people. They knew that the pillar of
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fire moved that nation at night during their time from Egypt to
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the Promised Land. And the the cloud descended and
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and was upon the Tabernacle in the in the daytime.
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And they were told not to move unless the cloud moved.
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So they're familiar with clouds. Peter, James, and John were
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there at the Mount of Transfiguration when Moses and
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Elijah showed up on the mountain within the cloud.
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The cloud represents the glory of God, the kind of glory, the
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presence of God, the Kabat of God, the very deep presence of
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God. May we personally experience in
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our times of privacy with the Lord in prayer, that cloud
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manifesting itself all around our being that we might
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experience the glory of God and the depth of God and the power
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of God. And so they're, they're looking
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at this scene and these two men are angels.
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They're in white apparel, very similar to the angels that were
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at the tomb when Jesus was resurrected.
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And he they asked him a very basic question.
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Why are you gazing up into the clouds?
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The same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so
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come in like manners. You saw him go into heaven.
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So they're literally looking and they're seeing Christ go up into
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the to the Kingdom and the clouds sit at the right hand,
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the Father, and they're also telling them the same Jesus is
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being taken up from you will also return in like manner.
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And the Bible declares that when the Lord returns and says every
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eye will see him. And how is that possible?
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What if he, you know, he's descending on the Mount of
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Olives in Jerusalem? He, he's ascending from the
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Mount of Olives. Mount of Olives is a couple 100
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feet up from the Old City of Jerusalem.
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So when you're up on the hill, you can look down and see the
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Old City. It's about half a mile from the
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city up to the Mount of Olives. They're able to walk on the
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Sabbath about a half a mile, which is what that is.
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They weren't breaking their their law at the time, but the
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Lords reminding us that whenever he comes back that every eye
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will see him and and how's that going to happen?
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Well, we got cell phones, right? And the phone will be like going
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off like crazy. Some object is coming from the
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clouds way up there in the universe.
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What is it? It's real bright.
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It's like there's this crowd of it looks like angels coming, you
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know, and that's the coming of the Lord.
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At the second coming, every eye will see him.
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Matter of fact, it says the Jewish people that are alive at
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the time will look up and see him whom they've pierced.
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And there'll be great revival for the nation of Israel at that
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time because they're going to say he is the Messiah.
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He's the one we were waiting for all this time.
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And the hands will be evidence of the piercing and they'll see
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him as he truly is. And so then they returned to
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Jerusalem in verse 12 from the mount, caught all of it.
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That's the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem, a
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Sabbath's day journey, as I said, about a half a mile from
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the Old City. And when they had entered, they
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went up into the upper room where they were staying.
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So there's this upper room where they had the Lord's Supper, if
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you remember, before Jesus was crucified, appears to be the
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same place. And, and there's approximately
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120 people in this upper room. It's a big room.
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And the some of the names of the people who were there, Peter,
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James, John, Andrew, Phillip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew,
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James the son of Alpheus, Simon the jealous zealot, and Judas
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the son of James, that's not the one that took his life.
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This is different Judas. These all continued with 1
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accord in prayer and supplications with the women and
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Mary the mother of Jesus with and with his brothers.
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So the closest people to the Lord at the time are in that
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room under the authority of the Lord's request to tell them to
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wait in that upper room. It had to be astounding them
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anticipating what it was that God said was going to actually
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occur. They had to be excited.
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They had to be wondering what will this do for me?
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What will this do to change my life?
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What will the Holy Spirit actually do to me at this time?
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And what's interesting to me is that they speak in verse 14.
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They continued with 1 accord in prayer.
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There was no arguments. There was no posturing for
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authority or disagreements. Or I like this better than that.
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Or why don't we have better food here over the next 10 days?
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You know, can someone go out to Chick-fil-A and get us something
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better than what we're having to eat here?
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No, they just were focusing on the big picture of the Holy
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Spirit and they were praying and they were all praying in unison.
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There's nothing better than praying with people that have
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the same heart as you do for the Lord.
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There's nothing better than being in the presence of others
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who love the Lord like you do. And you pray with one another
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and there's no disagreement because you're praying according
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to the will of the Father. And they were all in this unity
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and this oneness together, praising God, lifting up
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supplications, request with the women.
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Some of the wives of the apostles were there.
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Some of these famous women we read about at the resurrection
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of Jesus. And also Mary, the Lord's mother
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is there with his brothers. His brothers were interesting.
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They didn't really believe until after the resurrection.
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Some of his brothers, they just saw Jesus as the one who always
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never did anything wrong. They get in trouble, the
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brothers with the parents. This is perfect.
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And you know, why doesn't Jesus ever get spanked?
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Why doesn't he ever get yelled at?
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Because Jesus is perfect, One pastor said at a different
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friends of Jesus and his relatives would call him a goody
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2 sandals. You know, he just that would be
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challenging, wouldn't it? And they just couldn't believe
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that he was Messiah at the time. As a matter of fact, said many
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people at that time, because of remembering him being raised by
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Carpenter father, that he was a carpenter's son, that he learned
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carpentry, that there's nothing special about this guy.
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Matter of fact, he's from Nazareth.
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And that's the bad side of town. And we don't we don't anticipate
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anything coming from that place. Matter of fact says can anything
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good come out of Nazareth? And so they're they're waiting
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for the Lord to to do what he promised he would do on the day
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of Pentecost. And in those days, Peter stood
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up in the midst of the disciples.
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Altogether the number of names was about 120.
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It's interesting here, Peter, not too many days since his
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fiasco of denying the Lord had authority with the group of the
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apostles. He was the first among equals.
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He stood up with authority and he was reminding them about some
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things from the Scriptures and he said, men and brethren, verse
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16, This Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit
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spoke by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a
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guide to those who rested Jesus. For he was numbered with us and
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obtain a part in this ministry. Now this man purchased the field
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with the wages of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst open
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in the middle of all his entrails, gushed out, and it
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became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem, so that
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the field is called in their own language Echaldema, that is the
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field of blood, for it is written in the book of the
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Psalms. And this is Psalm 69 and Psalm
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109. Let his dwelling place be
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desolate and let no one live in it and let another take his
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office. So it's believed that whenever
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Judas hung himself, he was hanging over sort of like a
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Cliff area and the rope broke and when he fell, he fell on the
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rocks. And that's why everything, you
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know, busted up in his body. So now he isn't around.
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There has to be one that will take his place.
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Be the 12th. It says that therefore in verse
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21 of these men who have accompanied us all the time that
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the Lord Jesus went in and out among us.
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You had the the 70 were who were close followers of Christ that
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had the ability to be claim or name the next apostle.
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They had to be involved in the baptism of John and they also
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had to literally see Christ after his resurrection.
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Those were two main rules that had to be enforced for someone
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to be ordained an apostle. Beginning from the baptism of
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John to the day he was taken up from US, one of these must
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become a witness with us of his resurrection.
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And so they proposed to. There's two candidates here,
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Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias.
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And they prayed and they said, you, O Lord, who know the hearts
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of all, show which of these two you have chosen to take part in
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this ministry. An apostleship from which Judas
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by transgression felt that he might go to his own place.
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So they're seeking the Lord's guidance.
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They're praying. Which of these two should be
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chosen? And it's interesting in verse
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26. And they cast their lots and the
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lot fell on Matthias and he was numbered with the 11 apostles.
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This way of making decisions occur after this time in Acts.
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There was never another time where they cast lots.
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Sometimes you might say, and I've been around people, what's
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the Lord's? Well, I don't know, let's flip a
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coin. You know, 5050, you could be
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right or you could be wrong. I, I don't particularly feel
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comfortable with those kind of decision making processes.
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But I think as we pray in New Testament believers, you pray in
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your home as a husband and wife about a decision you need to
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make and you wait on the Lord. Maybe you fast, you wait and you
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don't want to make a decision unless you're both in agreement
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about what it is you feel God's will is for your life.
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In the same way in the church as elders, we pray and say, Lord,
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what about this? What do you think we should do?
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And we talk and we listen and we listen to different perspectives
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and we, we wait and we pray. And many times when we pray,
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we're really not sure immediately what we should do,
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right? So we wait on the Lord.
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There's no hurry to make any decision until there's consensus
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on what it is in the mind of the Lord.
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You want the mind of the Lord, right?
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In regards to decisions, You definitely want the mind of the
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Lord in regard to his will for the church.
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And the mind of the Lord is revealed to us in the Bible, in
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the Scriptures. And back in those days, you got
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to realize they didn't have the New Testament written yet, did
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they? They were referring all the time
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to the Old Testament. And how did they do things in
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the Old Testament? They had the Urim and the
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Thummim, right? They were like dice and they
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would give them some kind of direction.
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They cast lots. That's just the way they did
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things, right? But now we wait and we seek the
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Lord, as it tells us in James. If any of you lack wisdom, let
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him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally and doesn't hold
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back. So if you need to make a
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decision about something and you're waiting and you don't
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know what to do, don't be impulsive.
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Ask God for wisdom. Ask the Holy Spirit for
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direction, and God will give you the direction that you need so
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you'll know what to do. You don't have to guess.
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You don't have to do things. I hope this is right, or I'm not
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sure. If you're not sure and you don't
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think it's right, wait on the Lord.
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Wait on the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all your
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heart and lean not. Ensure an understanding in all
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your ways. Acknowledge Him and He will
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direct your paths. Amen.
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That's a good verse to memorize and it's a promise that God will
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truly direct your path as you wait upon Him.
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And so this is the gentleman that they picked, Matthias.
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Paul was not the 12th apostle. Paul wasn't involved with the
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baptism of John, nor was he present in the literal physical
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resurrect. He saw the resurrection
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resurrected Christ in his conversion experience in the
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road to Damascus. But Paul was an apostle, but not
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one of the 12 and his his significance as apostle was
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obviously supernatural because of how he wrote.
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Most of the New Testament and most of what it is we read about
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God's will for us as a church comes from the writings of Paul.
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However, Luke the evangelist wrote about 27% of the New
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Testament, which is interesting from the book of Luke and the
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book of the Acts of the Apostles.
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So Luke, not an apostle, but also very significant player in
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the big plan of God. And so you look at your life, I
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look at mine, Who am I? Who are you?
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We're disciples, right? We're followers of Jesus Christ
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and every one of us have been given a call by God.
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Not one is more important or less important in the Church of
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Jesus Christ. The one we worship and we
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elevate is Christ. He's the only one we lift up and
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we magnify. Every one of us are at the level
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of the cross, equal, and we're all seeking to find the ways of
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God and to please him and to live for him.
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These guys had the responsibility of as, as the New
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Testament tells us, upon the chief cornerstone.
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And the truth of the New Testament church is built upon
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the apostles and prophets, right?
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Laid upon the foundation of Jesus Christ.
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There's no other foundation that can be laid for the truth of
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Christianity than Jesus Christ and the foundation of the
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apostles and prophets, which has given us this, the word of God.
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And we can know when people ask you questions about what they
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should do, what's the Lord told told you that I don't know.
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Well, if you looked in the Scriptures, if you sought the
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mind of the Lord. And lots of times people say,
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no, I haven't done that. Well, I'm certainly not going to
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tell you what to do. You got to seek God for what He
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wants you to do. And again, that's the work of
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the Holy Spirit and why He dwells in US.
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It says He will God us in all truth.
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And so therefore of these men who have accompanied us all the
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time, verse 21, that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
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beginning from the baptism of John to that day when he was
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taken up from US. One of these must become a
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witness with us of the resurrection.
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And so they castle lots and Matthias became the 12th
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apostle. I'm not going to go into chapter
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2. It's too dynamic and too too big
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to cover in 5 minutes. There's no way.
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But Rita had chapter 2. If you've got questions about
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anything, Acts has some interesting controversial
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statements at times that people can misunderstand.
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And depending on what church kind of background you had, you
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might have a different understanding of some of these
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things in regards to the work and the person and the Holy
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Spirit. Feel free to e-mail me and I'll
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do the best I can to show you what I, what we sense in this
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church the Scripture teaches regarding the role and the work
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of the Holy Spirit. OK, so let's pray.
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Father God, we thank you Lord for the word Lord, we just thank
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you already for the leading into this very, very significant Day
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in History, Pentecost. We look forward to studying this
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together and explored and each of us have been recipients.
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If we're born again, we've experienced this baptism of your
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spirit into your body. Lord, there is no denomination
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in the body of Christ. There is no ethnicity in the
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body of Christ. We've grouped this together.
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Neither bond nor free, Jew or Gentile, male or female.
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We've been all made to drink of that one rock, that spiritual
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rock, which is Christ. So the unity of the Church of
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all believers everywhere, in all places at all times, who have
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been born again and baptized by your Spirit.
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You've placed each of us individually into the body of
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Christ as a whole, and then you've placed us in individual
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churches, Father, and we're grateful.
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I pray, O Holy Spirit, today that you would take your
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teaching and sow it into the hearts of us, your, your kids,
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Lord, that we might understand and we might grow in the grace
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and the knowledge of you. That we might have a greater
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dependence upon You, Holy Spirit, in everything we do.
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That we would ask for your help moment by moment and show us,
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Lord, your will and your direction, Your blessings.
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Father, we remember always, Lord, what you went through for
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us on the cross, Your suffering, Your death.
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We remember your burial and we praise you and glorify you in
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the resurrection. And also, Lord, today we learned
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about your ascension into heaven, that you'll come back
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the same way you left. Lord, we bring our hearts to
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you. Some are broken, perhaps some
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are mixed up, Lord. Some are hurting God, some are
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rejoicing and blessed at all. Kind of different moods in each
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of our lives, Lord. And Lord, we pray for one
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another that you would promise us, Lord, as you do promise us
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that if we draw near to you, You will draw near to us.
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We're so thankful, Lord, when we leave this place for not leaving
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you. You go with us, Lord, wherever
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we go, You promise us you'll never leave us or forsake us.
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And Lord, I pray for myself personally this week as I pray
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for my brothers and sisters that you would open up an opportunity
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for me to be able to tell someone about you.
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That every relationship we have, that we would be led to your
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Spirit and know the timing and look for the Segway, the
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opportunity to to tell someone about what you've done for us.
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If they don't know you, that they would come to know you as
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well. That's our prayer.
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And we know that's your prayer as well, Lord.
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Thank you for listening to this edition of Living Waters of
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Grace. Pastor Clark is teaching us
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about the book of Acts in this series, powerful and unique part
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of Scripture, not just because it records the spread of the
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gospel geographically from Jerusalem to the ends of the
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earth, but also culturally. Acts shows us how the message of
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Jesus moved beyond its Jewish roots and began to reach the
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Gentile world. What started with Peter leading
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a small group in the Upper Room became a global movement with
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Paul taking the gospel to cities, synagogues, and
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marketplaces across the Roman Empire.
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Acts captures this vital transition and reminds us that
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the good news of Jesus is for all people in every place.
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May we be inspired to carry that same gospel boldly into our
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world today. Living Waters of Grace comes to
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you from Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.
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If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, you can listen to Grace FM
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on the new 91.7 frequency. Pray about helping support the
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new station that will reach thousands more listeners.
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Send gifts to Grace FMPO, Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601 also
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invite you to join us in person this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E
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Pittsburgh St., Unit 6B. To stay up to date, visit
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calvarychapelonline.com where you can find our teaching
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archive, submit prayer requests, join our e-mail list, or give
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online. If you're outside the area,
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don't worry, you can still worship with us through the
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Calvary Chapel Westmoreland YouTube channel.
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Be sure to subscribe so you won't miss new content.
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We're so thankful that you joined us today.
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Be sure to tune into the next edition of Living Waters of
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Grace.