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Living Waters of Grace 09.23.25 · 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 the Word of God goes forth, it has this power to
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convict us of our sin, our mistakes, our weaknesses, our
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ungodliness, our selfishness, our lust, our bitterness, our
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unforgiveness, all the things that are in the human heart
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because of sin. So whenever we hear the Word, we
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have to repent, and repent is a change of mind.
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Whenever the Word of God really hits you and hits me it, it's a
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call to action. It's a call to change.
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God's Word is like a mirror showing you the truth about your
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heart. In today's message, Pastor Clark
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describes how Scripture can Pierce through convicting you of
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sin. It might expose your weaknesses
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or self centeredness, revealing what's in your human heart.
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When you hear His word, it calls you to repent, to change your
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mind and direction. It's not just words, it's a
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prompt to transform your life. Are you letting God's Word
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convict and change your heart when it speaks to you now?
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Here's Pastor Clark in Acts Chapter 3 with today's edition
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of Living Waters of Grace. Well, let's open in prayer.
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We're in the book of the Acts today, Acts chapter 3.
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If you have your Bibles, you can turn there.
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And we will be going through this particular book verse by
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verse like we do all the time. Let's pray.
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Father, we're thankful today that you are the good and
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gracious King. Lord, we're grateful how you
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penetrate our hearts by your Holy Spirit, Lord, how you
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activate this life in US, daily life in Christ by the Spirit of
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God that Lord, there's never a moment that we're left alone
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that you are with us 24/7. And Lord, I'm also grateful for
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this desire that you put on us as your kids to go deeper in you
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to discover you more. Lord, to be amazed of your
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wonder and your grace. And Lord, it is your grace that
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you supplied to us, that we might first of all be recipients
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of the grace and the love and the mercy, but that Lord, then
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we would be able to be conduits that can send us forth from our
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lives. Lord, we know that in our own
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strength and our own ability, Lord, we have limitations
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spiritually. We only can go so far, but Lord,
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when you give us grace you, you expand the horizons of our
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ability to bless and impact others.
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And that's what we ask for each of us.
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And Lord, just bless this day together.
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And we pray for your church throughout the earth today and
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every city and every community where the word is clearly being
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taught. May you bless the pastors and
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the churches. And we pray these things in
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Jesus name, Amen. So before I start today in this
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continuing teaching on Acts chapter 3, verse 17, I want to
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review a couple things in regard to what it is that's happening
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in us as we study this book together.
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First of all, the focal point of this book is Jesus Christ, like
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every other book of the Bible, but even more so the work of of
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God, the Holy Spirit. God is triune Father, Son and
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Holy Spirit and the Spirit of God is obviously teaching us the
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word of God. He is the teacher, Jesus said,
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and he will guide us into all truth.
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He's also the comforter and he's the encourager and he's the
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helper. And so as we study this and we
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look at the apostles lives, we have to see how different they
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are because of the Holy Spirit in them.
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I think of the the ministry and the responsibility we all have
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as as servants of the Lord and to love others, love people with
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a supernatural love, and we can't do that apart from the
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Holy Spirit. We need the grace of God to
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impart to us this supernatural love.
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This is not something you or I can manifest in our own
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strength, our own ability, our love runs short, our love runs
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dry at times, even though we know where to love our enemies
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or where to love people, where to care about people.
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It's real easy to be self-centered and self-serving.
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And so we always need to ask the Holy Spirit to fill us again,
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over and over and over again. The the work of the Holy Spirit
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isn't a one time experience when we first get saved.
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The the need of the Spirit of God is something we need 24/7.
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We need to be filled with the Spirit and we can ask the Holy
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Spirit to fill us and he will for whatever particular
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responsibility we have this in everyday life.
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And so the life of, of Peter and the apostles is so different
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than what we read in the Gospels and how they acted at times.
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And so we'll, we'll study and we'll see this experience of, of
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the Spirit in Peter's life as as he deals with the persecution
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that's beginning to occur in his life because of the ministry
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that he's been called to. So I'm going to read from verse
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11 to 17 just to review what we covered.
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And then we'll we'll start detail study in verse 17.
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So this is Peter preaching in Solomon's portico in verse 11.
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Now as a lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all
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the people ran together to them in the porch, which is called
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Solomon's, greatly amazed. So when Peter saw it, he
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responded to the people. Men of Israel, why do you marvel
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at this, or why look so intently at us, as though by our own
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power or godliness we have made this man walk?
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The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers,
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glorified His servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied
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in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go.
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But you denied the Holy One and the just and asked for a
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murderer to be granted to you and killed the Prince of life
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whom God raised from the dead at which we are witnesses.
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And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man
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strong whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes
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through him has given him this perfect soundness in the
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presence of you all. So Peter's proclaiming this
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miracle through the work of the Holy Spirit.
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If you remember this weeks before the denial of of Peter in
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that situation where they were asking him if he was affiliated
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with Jesus, he was afraid and he said no, actually denied him
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three times. Now, how different is he?
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He's speaking with boldness the the gospel of Jesus Christ and
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he said verse 17. Yet now, brethren, I know that
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you did it in ignorance and as did also your rulers.
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So he's letting them know that what they did, which was
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horrific. Obviously being responsible for
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the crucifixion of Christ, not only them, but all of us.
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Our sin is obviously the responsibility of ourselves in
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regard to how we've lived our lives that Jesus had to die for
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our sins. But he's telling them that in
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their blindness, in their ignorance, they did this as also
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the rulers did. And that's grace.
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That's a message of grace that Peter's preaching to these
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people. He's not castigating or putting
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them down or making making them feel worse than they probably
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feel already as they begin to get convicted by the Spirit of
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God. But he's letting them know that
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the things they did, they did because they were blind, they
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couldn't see who the Lord was. They they didn't realize their
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need of, of God. And, and so he's being merciful
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to them and, and gentle, but also bold and truthful.
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And he said in verse 18, But those things which God foretold
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by the mouth of all his prophets that the Christ would suffer, he
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has thus fulfilled. So in other words, they were
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responsible obviously for the mandate of of having Christ
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crucified, choosing Jesus to be martyred instead of Barabbas.
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He's also letting them know that all this was prophesized in the
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Old Testament through the prophets of God, that this event
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had to come to pass. There was no other way that
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mankind could be saved or redeemed or forgiven or cleansed
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from their sin apart from the work of Jesus Christ and His
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death, burial and resurrection. So he told them that what Christ
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had accomplished and what He suffered was a fulfillment of
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what was prophesized by the prophets thousands of years
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before this event actually occurred and as a result of what
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had happened. Peter then speaks and tells them
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in verse 19, Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins
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may be blotted out so that the times of refreshing may come
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from the presence of the Lord. So what happens is whenever the
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word of God goes forth, it has this power to convict us of our
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sin, our mistakes, our weaknesses, our ungodliness, our
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selfishness, our lust, our bitterness, our unforgiveness,
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all the things that are in the human heart because of sin.
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So whenever we hear the word, we have to repent and repent is a
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change of mind. Whenever the word of God really
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hits you and hits me, it's a call to action.
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It's a call to change. It's a call to transformation.
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It isn't like you just hear it. Well, yeah, I know.
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Like I'm not living right and this is wrong, but you know, it
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is what it is. No, When God really gets ahold
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of your heart, He begins to give you this desire to want to
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change your evil ways. You want to go in a different
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direction. You want your life to change.
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And that's the evidence of really having a heart that's
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been hit by the Lord and convicted by the Spirit to
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change our ways. Repent therefore and be
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converted. Now we cannot be converted or
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born again or transformed or saved.
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Whatever word you want to put in there in lieu of the word
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converted, you can't be transformed unless you repent.
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So the message of the gospel has to have this message of
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repentance. Jesus said repent for the
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Kingdom of heaven is in hand. I mean, a lot of people have a
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God loves you, has a wonderful plan for you.
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And and that's true, but without the message of repentance,
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people will receive that message that their lives won't change
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because it's a feel good kind of story, right?
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There's no emphasis on why we need to be saved or no emphasis
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on why we need to change because the gospel fully has not been
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proclaimed. Jesus fully proclaimed the
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gospel. John the Baptist proclaimed the
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truth of the need of repentance. And the apostles all through the
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New Testament talk about this need to repent.
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And the church today needs to to revive this message of
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repentance and make sure that we all know that this is what is
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required of us in order to be forgiven.
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We have to have this desire and this attitude to change our
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ways. And this isn't just when we get
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saved. We are to repent continually.
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The word metanoia is an active verb tense.
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So it's all day long. If I have a wrong attitude, I
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have a wrong action. I have a wrong thought, a wrong
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focus, right? We all know what that's like,
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that the Spirit of God convicts us, and I need to say that's
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wrong. Lord, forgive me and go the
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direction that the Lord's leading me.
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Not ignore the Lord or not blow it off, but deal with what it is
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I have to deal with now. Repentance in the heart is
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uncomfortable at times because we don't like to think about
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like our inadequacy or, you know, fallenness or weaknesses.
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We, we sort of want to have a better opinion of ourselves than
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we should many times. And I'm not talking about having
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a a bad opinion, but I'm, I'm talking about having a true
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opinion. We're not to think of ourselves
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more highly than we ought to think, right?
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So I'm vulnerable. You're vulnerable to the work of
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the Holy Spirit and I need corrected in my life.
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Cindy reminds me of that often if you're married, you know your
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spouse is, you're the second person to the Holy Spirit in
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their life. They point things out when you
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need to make some changes and address some things, right?
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And that's a good thing. Even though many times we, we
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want to excuse things and not listen to them.
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But I I find as I want to go deeper with the Lord, and I know
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you do too, I just don't want to have this superficial
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relationship with God. I want to have this intimate,
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close friendship with God as I know He desires to have with me.
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And in order for that to be happening and having fellowship
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with God, I have to respond to what it is He's speaking to my
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heart to deal with. And that is important.
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It's not so much anymore to be saved.
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I'm saved, you're saved. When Christ died, He died for
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all your sins, past, present and future.
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But it's the relationship with God, it's like if you, if you
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have a friend or a loved one or someone you work with that
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you've offended and you know you've offended them, you
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usually should have the desire to want to be reconciled and
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make amends if you can and say, please forgive me for this.
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And I was wrong. And most people in in life are,
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are have a tendency to be gracious and forgive.
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And that's a good thing. But you know, for God, our
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relationship with him, he loves us and forgives us even when I
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don't ask for forgiveness in my daily life.
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But what happens is my heart will then begin to grow, grow
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cold and distant and hard. And sometimes when you find
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yourself in a position in life where the word isn't affecting
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you like you know it should or you aren't like worshipping God
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or you don't want to attend any kind of Bible studies or church
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meetings or whatever, you're, you're, you're moving away.
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It's always a, a picture of backsliding or refusal to
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repent. And then our heart begins become
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hardened, as Paul says, through the deceitfulness of sin, sins
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very deceitful, we can justify our behavior and our actions and
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our attitudes, thinking that we're right and everybody else
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is wrong. And and God's like, hey, you
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know, you got to deal with this. So I'm dealing with stuff on a
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daily basis. And it's not a negative thing or
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a cloud thing or God's not a God of condemnation, is he?
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He's not a God of thrown guilt trips on us.
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It's all about this love that he wants us to experience every
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day. He wants to love on us.
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And it breaks his heart whenever we have things in the way in our
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lives that we can't receive that love.
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We can't experience that love, We can't interact with that
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love. So this need of repentance is a
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very, very important message. Now, the majority of the people
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at this time were listeners and they weren't believers.
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And so Peter is obviously throwing the net out so that
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people would do what he's, you know, commanding them to do,
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repent and be converted. And what happens is when these
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people, and there was 3000 that got saved in the first sermon of
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Peters, there's approximately 2000 it says in the Bible that
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came to know the Lord during this sermon.
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So there's now 5000 people, but there's a lot of people that are
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listening that still aren't receiving this message,
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especially the religious leaders, they were very tuned
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out to Christ being the Messiah. To this day, the nation of
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Israel for the most part is tuned out that Jesus is the Lord
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and the Messiah. And so he tells them that if
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they repent, their sins will be blotted out.
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And that word blotted out means totally erased.
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And there'll be no more record of their guilt ever again for
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all eternity. So that the times of refreshing
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may come from the presence of the Lord.
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So not only are they forgiven, but then you know what it's like
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when you get forgiven, you are refreshed.
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You sense God's favor, his smile.
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It's, it's a joyful thing to have our sins forgiven.
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It's a joyful thing to have relationships reestablished
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through forgiveness and, and reconciliation.
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There's nothing like it. It's, it's just refreshing and
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it, and that kind of refreshing only can come from this presence
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of the Lord. And I desire, and I know you do
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too, I want to have a deeper awareness of the presence of the
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Lord in my life. It's what makes life worth
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living. It's what makes life joyful and
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peaceful. I don't want to live like
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mentally, I know this stuff, but it doesn't affect my moment by
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moment existence. I, I want to be able to, to look
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at the creation and look at the beautiful day that He's given us
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today and have a praise and a worship of my heart for his
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mercies and his love and His kindness as the good and
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gracious King. What a beautiful song to think
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about and reflect upon that He has done all this stuff because
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He loves us. And so for us to interact and
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receive it and experience that, we have to have these kind of
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hearts that are conditioned to keep turning toward God, keep
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turning toward God, keep turning to God.
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And then he says something profound here in verse 20.
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And that he may send Jesus Christ.
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He was preached to you before whom heaven must receive until
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the times of restoration of all things which God has spoken by
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the mouth of his holy prophet since the world began.
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So there's this indication here that if the nation of Israel
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would have accepted the Lord nationally, that the second
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coming of Christ would have happened at that particular
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time. Profound insight that the Lord,
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you know, he wants to come and establish his Kingdom, but he's
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waiting and he's waiting and he's waiting for the masses of
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the world to turn toward him until that last person is saved.
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It's called the time of the fullness of Gentiles in the book
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of Romans, when that last person, wherever they are in the
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middle of the world, some tribe somewhere or some major city,
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that last person, whenever the body of Christ is full, that the
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trump will sound and the rapture will occur.
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The dead in Christ will rise, and we which are alive will be
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caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in
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the air and say, shall we ever be with the Lord?
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And then the second coming of Christ at the end of the
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seven-year tribulation. But when the Lord is preaching
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through Peter, in this particular instance, you got to
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realize that the audience was primarily Jewish.
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The speakers were Jewish, the leaders of the synagogue were
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Jewish, the population was in that area of Jerusalem
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predominantly Jewish. The Lord came to His own
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initially and the Bible says the his own received him not
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eventually. The gospel was open to the
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audience of the world, the Gentiles, everyone else.
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But God chose through Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 that there
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would be this covenant made with this group of people that lived
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in the nation of Israel. And through the seed of Abraham,
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which would obviously be Jesus, all the nations of the earth
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would be blessed. That's all of us.
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The whole world would be blessed because of what God had done in
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and through the nation of Israel.
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They were the people that God utilized as the prophets.
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The greatest prophet of that time was known as Moses.
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In verse 22 it says For Moses truly said to the fathers all
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those who were in leadership at the time in the nation of
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Israel. The Lord your God will raise up
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for you a prophet like me. From your brethren, Him you
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shall hear, and all things whatever He says to you, and it
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shall be that to every soul who will not hear.
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That prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.
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So Moses spoke about the Messiah who was to come.
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The nation of Israel has gone through tremendous heartache,
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burned in ovens, all kind of things going on.
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And it isn't over yet. The, the, the army of the north,
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Russia in the last days will be that country that will descend
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upon them to try to destroy them.
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And you used to think, boy, I don't know, it doesn't seem
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possible. Russia seems like a very calm
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country, right? Sort of picking up some of the
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ideologies of capitalism and free enterprise and religious
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freedom and all that, and then all of a sudden this rogue
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leader in Russia has become a tyrant, right?
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Do you think it's possible that if he does this to Ukraine, he
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could do this to Israel? The intentions prophetically are
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directed that way. And in time this will all be
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unfolded. I don't know if it's going to be
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in our lifetime, another 100 years, whatever 1000, but it is
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prophetically in the Bible regarding what will happen in
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that last period of the seven-year tribulation, in the
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last 3 1/2 years. So Moses is being referenced by
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Peter. Peter knows the prophets and
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knows the Old Testament Torah in the Scriptures.
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This is this is how they preach. They preach from the Old
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Testament. Now as New Covenant believers,
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we preach the gospel primarily from the New Testament.
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We can use the Old Testament, but the New Covenant is far
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better than the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant we learn
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historically of how God worked through his nation Israel.
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Unfortunately, almost to no avail.
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The nation of Israel, in spite of having all these blessings
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and promises, they've still refused to believe for the most
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part that Jesus is the Messiah. And so Peter's telling them that
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Moses told you guys that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.
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You're to hear from him. Verse 24.
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Yes. And all the prophets from Samuel
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and those who follow, as many as have spoken have also foretold
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these days that this wasn't Moses, there was others.
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You are sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made
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with our fathers saying to Abraham, and in your seed all
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the families of the earth shall be blessed to you first.
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God having raised up his servant, Jesus sent him to bless
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you and turning away every one of you from your iniquities.
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And so the gospel is the same today as it was in the days of
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the book of the Acts. It's still empowered by the the
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work of the Holy Spirit and it convicts people and it causes
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them to see their need of Jesus. But for some reason right now,
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and you can study this later, we went through it extensively when
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we went through the book of Romans.
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You can read Romans chapter Doctor 9:10 and 11:00 and it'll
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sort of encapsulate all this plan that God has for Israel
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while they're blind and part so that the the gospel would come
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to us and we would receive it and that eventually Israel and
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the Jewish people would become jealous of us because we've
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become partakers of this covenant that God gave to
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Abraham. They've sort of cut themselves
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off from the covenant temporarily because of their
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unbelief. Thank.
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You for joining us on this journey through Acts.
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On today's edition of Living Waters of Grace, Pastor Clark
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shares that one of the most remarkable things about the book
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of Acts is how it shows the disciples transformation.
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The followers of Jesus we meet here are very different from the
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often confused and fearful disciples in the Gospels.
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After Jesus's death and resurrection, and especially
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through the power of the Holy Spirit, the apostles experienced
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a profound change in their hearts and boldness.
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Their faith became unwavering, and they move forward with
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courage to spread the gospel despite opposition and hardship.
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Acts reminds us that the same Spirit who empowered them is at
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work in US today, shaping our hearts and giving us strength to
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live boldly for Christ. Living Waters of Grace is a
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ministry of Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.
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If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, we invite you to join us
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this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
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Unit 6B. Visit calvarychapelonline.com
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For more information where you can also join our e-mail list,
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submit prayer requests, give online and download our mobile
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app. If you are in the Greensburg
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area, you can listen to Grace FM on the new 91.7 frequency.
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Pray about helping support the new station that will reach
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thousands more listeners. Send gifts to Grace FMPO Box
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716, Greensburg, PA 15601. If you can join us in person,
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you can subscribe to the Calvary Chapel Westmoreland YouTube
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channel so you'll be alerted when new material becomes
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available. We're so grateful that you
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joined us today in Acts. TuneIn again soon for another
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edition of Living Waters of Grace.