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Living Waters of Grace 11.19.25 · 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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  Whenever Jesus does that work, when we're born again, we are
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  given His nature. Even though we still have this
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  old nature trying to take over every once in a while, we have a
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  new nature, we have a new life, and not any that the Holy Spirit
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  comes into our life to live in us at the time we're born again.
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  And when He's in us, He gives us the ability to live a completely
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  different life. Amen.
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  We're not perfect, but we're certainly not the way we used to
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  be, right? Certain things bother us now
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  that never used to bother us. When you give your life to
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  Jesus, He makes you into a new creation.
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  Your old self has passed away and you've been reborn as a
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  child of God. Pastor Clark encourages you
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  today to submit to the process of transformation that the Holy
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  Spirit is working inside you. It may only seem like baby steps
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  right now, but once you've been faithfully serving the Lord for
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  a few years, you'll look back and not be able to recognize
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  your old self because of how much your life has been changed
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  by Jesus now. Here's Pastor Clark in Acts
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  Chapter 19 with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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  We are in the book of Acts this morning and we're going to look
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  at Acts chapter 18, the last few verses starting in verse 24, and
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  then we're going to go into the 1st 10 verses of Acts chapter
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  19. Acts is a very exciting book
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  because it's all about the birth of the early church, the New
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  Testament church, and the work of the Holy Spirit and how He
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  got things moving in the lives of the Gentiles and the Jewish
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  people at that particular time. So I find that every time I I
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  study this book, sometimes I wish I was back in those days,
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  living in those days. But what's wonderful is that the
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  the Bible teaches us that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and
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  forever. So the days we're living in are
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  just as good as the days in Acts.
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  Maybe we don't see as many signs and wonders and miracles, but
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  they still occur. And they happen when the Lord
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  decides he wants to use them for his glory.
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  And we can't make things happen, but God sure can make things
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  happen, can he any time of the day.
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  So let's pray as we seek his face.
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  Father, we're thankful today that we have the word of God.
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  And that's why we're here, Lord, to learn more about you, how to
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  follow you, how to know you, how to experience you in our daily
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  lives. Thinking this morning isn't you
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  said to Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep.
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  And Lord, that's what we do here.
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  We only want to feed your sheep. That's that's what you've called
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  us to do, no other agenda, no other idea, but just to simply
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  teach your words simply to your people.
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  We pray, Holy Spirit, today that You would take what is written
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  here and make it alive for each of us, that we might not only
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  learn and experience You in a new way, but that Lord, when we
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  leave here today, there would be something different in each of
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  our lives because we've encountered You in a special way
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  this morning. That's our prayer.
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  We pray your blessing, Lord, on all those who are struggling and
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  those who are afflicted and those who are challenged in
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  life. We think of the world we live in
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  today and the so many people who are hopeless, Father, so many
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  people are controlled by addictions and the bondage of
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  sin and not knowing how to get free, Lord.
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  And You're the only one that can set us free when we come to You,
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  whom the sun sets free, the Bible says is free indeed.
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  So we pray your power today, Lord Jesus, in the midst of your
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  church all over the earth would be setting captives free and
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  helping us as believers, Lord, not to get stuck and caught up
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  in bondages of addictions or sins again, but to stay close to
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  you and to keep our hearts open to you.
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  And so, Lord, we just commit this morning to you and we
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  praise you in Jesus name, Amen. So starting in the 18th chapter
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  chapter, and a 24th verse, I want to read this the rest of
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  the chapter. Now a certain Jew named Apollos,
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  born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the
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  Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man had been instructed in
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  the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and
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  taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only
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  the baptism of John. So he began to speak boldly in
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  the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard
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  him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God
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  more accurately. And when he had desired to cross
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  to Archaea, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to
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  receive him. And when he had arrived, he
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  greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he
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  vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the
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  Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.
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  So Apollo's an interesting man, man who was called by the Lord
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  to serve him at this particular time.
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  But there was one problem. He didn't have all the
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  information yet in regard to the Gospel.
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  He only understood up until the baptism of John.
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  He was baptized by John and John was on the other side of the
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  cross. He was still part of the Old
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  Testament, the covenant. And when John the Baptist came,
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  he told the Jewish people in the desert, he was crying out a
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  repent for the remission of sin. And he was the one who came to
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  to prepare the way of the Lord. And so Apollo's, his whole
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  formation, if you may, his spiritual development was based
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  upon his experience with John the Baptist.
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  Up until this point, he hadn't really understood that Jesus had
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  actually come and died on the cross, was crucified and also
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  resurrected. He wasn't aware of the fact that
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  the Holy Spirit had come to dwell inside the lives of those
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  who would believe in Jesus Christ, but he didn't know the
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  Old Testament Scriptures. He did know that these
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  scriptures prophesize about this event of what had happened in
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  Pentecost and Jesus and his resurrection.
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  So in this particular section, we just read it.
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  Really beautiful. He's preaching the Lord's using
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  him, but up to a certain point. And so Aquila and Priscilla, who
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  were disciples of the apostle Paul, could sense that he was
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  missing some information in his preaching.
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  Wasn't that he was a heretic or he didn't know what he was
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  talking about. He only knew what he knew
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  because of only what he had experienced up until this point.
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  And so it says that they took him aside privately and they
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  explained to him the way of God more accurately.
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  And and this is a wonderful thing in the Scriptures and we
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  see the humility of a servant of God.
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  All of us are works in process. All of us are learning about the
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  Lord and the ways of God. And there's not one of us in
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  here that can say that we know it all right, that we're still
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  not in process of learning and growing and developing in our
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  spiritual of life. And Apollo's whenever Priscilla
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  and Aquila approached him, he said, well, don't you realize
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  like I'm, I'm part of this Apostolic movement and who are
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  you to tell me like whatever. No, he humbled himself and he
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  sat down and he listened. And it says they explained to
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  him more excellently the way of the word of God.
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  And so he received it at that time and he, I'm sure, was
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  greatly encouraged because he got the rest of the information.
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  And so this is really important to realize when we go into
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  chapter 19, because the apostle Paul is going to run into some
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  people that Apollos ministered to before he had the rest of the
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  information. And so it says in chapter 19,
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  verse one, and it happened when Apollos was at Corinth that Paul
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  having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus.
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  Now Ephesus was a very prominent city at the time.
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  Ephesus is is in modern day Turkey today.
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  That's where that particular city is.
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  At the particular time though that this was written, it had a
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  lot of influence. It was about 300,000 people.
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  It was a port city by the rivers, a very fertile ground.
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  It was really a place of a sort of a cosmopolitan area of a lot
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  of people from different backgrounds in the world were
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  there for people who are into philosophy and a lot of various
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  kind of teachings of, you know, mysticism and various thoughts
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  of people that really didn't know Jesus.
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  And, and it was also the center of one of the seven wonders of
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  the world at the time, Temple of Diana.
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  It was about 425 feet long by about 250 feet wide.
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  It had 127 columns about 50 to 60 feet high.
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  So it was an amazing structure. People would go to Ephesus just
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  to see their architecture that was influenced by Athens and all
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  the Greek scholars and those who knew how to build pretty amazing
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  structures. It was there, though,
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  unfortunately, to represent a false God, Diana.
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  Diana was a concoction of people at that time.
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  They believed perhaps a meteorite came down and crashed
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  and they had this, a big stone and they chipped away at it and
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  they turned it into this horrific looking deity of many
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  breast. On this particular woman, Diana,
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  she was a fertility God and people would go to worship her
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  and the temple prostitutes would be there.
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  Approximately 150 temple prostitutes were available every
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  day for men to go in and have relations with.
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  And this is all part of their horrific Pagan religion.
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  So there was nothing really good about this structure other than
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  it was pretty amazing to see. They even found coins later.
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  This place was destroyed around the 3rd century and by the
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  Goths, it was completely taken down.
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  But they did find coins in the area when they did the
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  excavation that on one side had the inscription of this temple,
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  Diana, on the other side Nero. And so, again, just a very
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  difficult place to be to try to preach the gospel.
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  But Paul had a real heart to be in Ephesus.
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  He actually stayed in Ephesus probably longer than any other
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  city that he had ministered to in his missionary journeys.
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  This is the third missionary journey now that Paul's on and
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  he's getting ready to eventually face his martyrdom.
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  Anyway, he's he's running into these people here.
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  It says he finds some disciples and he says to them, did you
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  receive the Holy Spirit when you believe?
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  That's quite a open-ended question, isn't it?
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  If you don't understand the context of what was being talked
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  about prior to this, you might think, well, is there something
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  maybe I'm missing in my life, or have I received the Holy Spirit?
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  We'll get into that in a minute. But the reason Paul asked them
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  this was that he understood that these people only were impacted
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  up until the baptism of John, and there was something missing
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  in them in their lives. The Bible tells us that his
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  Spirit bears witness with our Spirit that we're the sons of
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  God, sons and daughters of God. You know how you meet someone
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  for the first time and you just know in your heart they got to
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  be a believer because there's this witness, the Holy Spirit,
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  you to them and them to you. We had a a long day yesterday.
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  16 of us were certified by Red Cross to know how to use the AED
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  that's on the wall back there and also to do CPR.
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  So you're in good shape right now, but we don't want to
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  practice on any of you guys. But what was interesting though,
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  two of the people there, a couple times they dropped some
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  names of some people that only Christians would know.
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  And there's a marriage course out there called Love and
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  Respect. It's really a fun thing to go
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  through. You can Google it.
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  And it's when men and women, husbands and wives have conflict
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  in their marriage. This former pastor started this
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  ministry and talked about how men look through blue glasses
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  and women look through pink glasses.
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  And our worldview sometimes and how we perceive life is
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  completely different. A woman sees things different
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  than men. Anyway, this young woman who was
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  one of the leading trainers, she says, Oh yeah, love and respect
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  or something. So finally at lunch, I asked
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  them if they were believers and they were.
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  And I just sensed that her and the fellow that that help with
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  us. But whenever you're around
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  people that don't know Jesus, you also know that too.
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  You just censor something missing in their life and so you
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  want to somehow be able to be used to impact them, to tell
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  them about what the Lord's done for you and how they can also
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  know Jesus like you do, so that they can have the same wonderful
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  encounter with the Lord who loves them.
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  And so Paul's asking them this open-ended question and they
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  said to him, we have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy
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  Spirit. Now John whenever he preached,
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  it was obvious anybody that was around that he talked about a
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  baptism that would come by Jesus.
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  And of course, the baptism of the the Holy Spirit of placing a
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  lost person into the body of Christ is something that only
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  the work of the Lord can do with the Holy Spirit cooperating with
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  the Lord through the Father of the Holy Trinity.
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  But these guys that were here were so clueless that they
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  didn't even really, and this is hard for me to grasp.
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  I'm sure you do too. But you got to realize there's
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  no Internet. There's no newspaper, there's no
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  telephone. These people are spread out all
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  over the the known world at the time.
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  And to get news to people took time.
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  And you had to have people that knew the good news to bring the
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  good news, right. And Ephesus at this time had
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  really not anybody like that there.
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  There was no church there yet. And so Paul's asking them this
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  question and he said to them, into what then?
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  Were you baptized? And then here's the big answer.
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  So they said into John's baptism.
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  So Paul, you know, obviously the light goes on.
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  Well, they only knew up and to the point of what John the
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  Baptist had prepared for people to know at the time.
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  Now Jesus was baptized by John and the the picture of what had
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  occurred, the dove ascending from heaven upon the Lord, you
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  know, baptizing him was was a powerful experience and the
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  voice this is my beloved son and who am I who I am well pleased
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  and John was so humbled by this whole experience.
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  Everybody was trying to lift him up as though he was something.
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  He says I'm not even fit to tie the shoelaces of of Jesus.
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  I'm this the forerunner. I'm the one that this prepared
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  the way of the Lord, but I'm not the Lord.
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  Of course, everything took off after Jesus baptism, but these
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  people here had not experienced what you and I have experienced
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  or Paul at the time. And I was thinking about this
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  this morning preparing as I was getting ready to come in here.
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  I don't know if you remember what it was like when you didn't
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  know Christ, but I had some flashbacks of thinking about the
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  bondage I was in to live a life of nothing but sin.
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  All I could do was sin. I had no way of stopping sin,
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  even though my conscience would tell me the things I did were
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  wrong and not right. I didn't have any power to
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  change my ways. Down deep inside I knew I needed
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  to get it together, but I didn't know how to get it together
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  because I habitually kept living my life in the same pattern
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  every day. And that's what lost people do.
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  That's what people without Jesus Christ are living like.
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  They're living under the power and the bondage of sin.
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  They don't have the ability to to break out of it.
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  Now they might go get some counseling or try to get some
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  help that way, but that's temporary.
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  That's like a Band-Aid because you, you have a corrupt, fallen
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  Pagan nature. And no matter how much you try
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  to do good, you, you can't be good enough ever to be accepted
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  to God. You need Jesus to save you from
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  your sin and you need to come to the point in your life that you
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  realize you need to be saved from yourself sin.
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  I knew when I was 20 years old that I needed a miracle of some
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  sort to Get Me Out of the pattern of life I was living and
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  I hated it. I would go to bed at night and I
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  would this be in such despair and depression and
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  discouragement of my addictions to so many different things that
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  were not right. And it wasn't till Jesus Christ
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  came into my life and I was given the gospel and I realized
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  that He died for my sin to save me and to forgive me, but also
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  to free me from my sin. That's the big missing
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  connection. Sometimes when we preach the
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  gospel, we tell people to believe on Jesus.
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  He'll forgive you of your sin. You go to heaven and you don't
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  have to worry about going to hell and he loves you and all
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  those things are true, but you have to 1st realize that you're
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  a Sinner and that you need to turn from your sin.
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  That's called repentance and that you need Christ to do a
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  miracle in your life so that you don't stay stuck in your sin,
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  right? And whenever Jesus does that
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  work, when we're born again, we are given his nature, even
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  though we still have this old nature trying to take over every
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  once in a while, we have a new nature, we have a new life, and
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  not any that the Holy Spirit comes into our life to live in
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  us at the time we're born again. And when he's in us, he gives us
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  the ability to live a completely different life.
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  Amen. We're not perfect, but we're
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  certainly not the way we used to be, right?
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  Certain things bother us now that never used to bother us.
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  And there's certain things that we used to do that we detest
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  now. And there's no longer, we, we no
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  longer can do them. That's the work and the power of
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  the Holy Spirit. So these people that Paul's
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  speaking to, they have this desire to believe, but they're
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  missing these key ingredients. They're missing the power of the
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  cross and the and the resurrection, and they're also
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  missing this power of the Holy Spirit Spirit, God the Holy
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  Spirit, because they haven't received him yet.
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  And so Paul says to them, John in verse 4, indeed baptized with
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  the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they
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  should believe on him who would come after him, that is on
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  Christ Jesus. So they were prepared to believe
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  in the Messiah. Apollos preached the fact that
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  John proclaimed the baptism of repentance, being prepared for
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  the one who was prophesized in the Old Testament to be the
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  Messiah. OK, but the Messiah has now
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  already come. He's been crucified, He's been
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  buried, He's been resurrected and the Holy Spirit came down
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  upon the church in the 2nd chapter of Acts at Pentecost to
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  begin to dwell inside the life of the believer for the first
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  time. And the Old Testament, the Holy
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  Spirit came upon people and then he would take off when they
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  offended him or they sinned. The, the, the power of the Holy
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  Spirit. Even in the the times of Gospel
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  when Jesus was walking, the Spirit was working in and
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  through Christ. And Jesus even said that the
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  apostles at one time received the Holy Spirit and he blown on
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  them the, the wind of the Spirit and they, they sensed the
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  presence of God, but there was no indwelling of the Holy Spirit
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  until Pentecost. This is the great teaching of of
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  the book of the Acts, the power of the Spirit, God the Holy
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  Spirit coming to indwell in US and to stay in US and to be the
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  guarantee of our salvation and the reality of our experience
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  being real until the day that we're taken out of here.
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  So Paul said yes, John and Dee baptized with the baptism
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  repentance. Saying to the people that they
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  should believe on him who would come after him, that is on
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  Christ Jesus. So they're already in man.
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  They're like ready. OK, so when they heard this,
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  they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
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  They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
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  Many of you, I trust, hopefully all of you who are born again
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  have been baptized in water. Baptism does not save you, but
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  it is a confirmation that you have been saved because it's the
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  first sign of obedience after you become a believer.
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  For Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel into
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  every living creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father
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  and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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  And lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.
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  And baptism is, is an awesome thing.
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  When you get baptized and some of you have had the privilege of
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  baptized, baptizing it, you come out of the water, smile and it's
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  just like it's just a blessing because you're doing what it is
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  that Jesus told us to do. That's the first sign after you
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  become a Christian that I want to follow you Lord.
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  And when you're baptized, you're identifying with his death as
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  you go into the water, his burial, and then as you come out
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  of the water, his resurrection. You're affirming, I believe that
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  Christ Jesus is my Lord, that he died for my sins and he was
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  buried on the on the 3rd and he rose again on the third day
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  according to the Scriptures. And how how awesome is that?
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  You know, to be able to identify with the with the Lord Jesus.
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  A matter of fact, in the book of the Acts, when people were
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  riding down on their carts and their horses and all that kind
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  of stuff, they could always tell that something was special was
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  going on when they saw people being baptized in the water.
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  And they would say those people are of the way, the way, the way
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  of the cross, the way of Jesus, as he's the one that says, I am
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  the way I am the truth. I'm the life.
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  No man come to the Father but through me.
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  And so this is an exciting time for these people.
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  Now they're they're they've been baptized in the name of Jesus.
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  And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the
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  Lord. And when Paul had laid his hands
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  on them, and this is really important to understand the
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  laying on of hands is a wonderful ministry and blessing
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  that we can all do for one another.
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  You pray for someone, you, you, you're compelled to lay hands on
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  them. There's nothing empowering in my
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  hands or your hands, But it's a it's a sign of a blessing and a
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  sign of contact that you just want to bring comfort.
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  And the Bible talks about the this movement of the Holy Spirit
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  through the elders and the leaders of the church, that if
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  any are sick among you, let him call upon the elders of the
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  church that they may anoint them with oil and pray for them.
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  And they lay hands on them, pray for them.
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  And sometimes there's healings that occur.
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  Sometimes God chooses to bring healing, but there's no
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  guarantee that healing comes every time we lay hands on
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  someone or every time we anoint someone.
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  The Bible tells us in First Corinthians 12 that the Holy
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  Spirit gives gifts, gifts of healing, gifts of all kind of
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  things in the Bible, that He does these things severally as
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  He wills. Not as I will, not as you will,
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  OK, but as God wills. But in the apostles, they were
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  special group of people. There's no more apostles.
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  Now some people claim to be apostles, but there is no
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  apostles in the sense of what was ordained by Christ.
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  Apostles had to be eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ in his life
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  physically. OK, that was the first and it
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  gives the signs of the apostles in in Hebrews.
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  They were gifted to do miraculous signs and wonders.
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  This was the sign of authentic apostles.
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  We're so glad you joined us today on this edition of Living
• 24:00
  Waters of Grace. Pastor Clark is teaching through
• 24:03
  the Book of Acts, which is the only book that chronicles the
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  history of the early church immediately after Jesus's
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  ascension. It gives us a front row seat to
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  how the Gospel began to move outward, starting in Jerusalem
• 24:17
  and reaching into the heart of the Roman Empire.
• 24:20
  In just three decades, a small group of frightened ordinary
• 24:24
  believers became a bold, spirit empowered movement that
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  transformed the known world. Acts is not just a history
• 24:32
  lesson, it's a reminder of what God can do when His people are
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  surrendered, obedient, and filled with the Holy Spirit.
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  And their perseverance still inspires us today.
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  May we follow their example and live faithfully for Christ in
• 24:47
  our own time. We hope today's message
• 24:50
  encouraged you. Living Waters of Grace is a
• 24:53
  ministry of Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.
• 24:56
  If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, we'd love to have you join
• 25:00
  us in person. Our Sunday service begins at
• 25:02
  10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St., Unit 6B.
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  Be sure to visit calvarychapelonline.com to
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  confirm times and learn more. If you are in the Greensburg
• 25:15
  area, you can listen to Grace FM on the new 91.7 frequency.
• 25:20
  Please pray about supporting this outreach.
• 25:23
  Gifts can be sent to Grace FMPO, Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601.
• 25:31
  Stay connected through Facebook, YouTube, or our Calvary Chapel
• 25:35
  Westmoreland app. Join our e-mail list, submit
• 25:39
  prayer requests, and give online all at calvarychapelonline.com.
• 25:46
  Thank you for tuning in and spending this time in God's
• 25:48
  Word. Be sure to join us again for
• 25:50
  Living Waters of Grace.