Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace, March 24, 2026
Transcript
- 0:03This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
- 0:08Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
- 0:12County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
- 0:16continues teaching through God's Word.
- 0:37You realize, like I've answered like the majority of those
- 0:39things, but you're still asking me and I've already done it.
- 0:42I mean, do you have any capacity to pray outside your comfort
- 0:45zone, to pray for people that you don't know or situations
- 0:49that you're normally not interested in?
- 0:51You have the heart to let me put my heart in there to expand your
- 0:56awareness of what it is I specifically want you to pray
- 0:59about right now, at this time and this day and this age.
- 1:03What does your prayer life look like?
- 1:06If you're like most people, you might try to find a quiet time,
- 1:09and then you begin to share your laundry list of wants with God
- 1:13as if He were some sort of genie in a bottle that grants wishes.
- 1:17Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with asking God
- 1:21for things, but that can't be the majority of our conversation
- 1:25with Him. Notice I used the word
- 1:28conversation. That's what prayer should be,
- 1:32conversation between you and Jesus.
- 1:35Pastor Clark challenges us today to expand our prayer life to be
- 1:40more than just talking and asking.
- 1:42Now. Here's Pastor Clark in
- 1:44Revelation Chapter 8 with today's edition of Living Waters
- 1:48of Grace. Verse 1 of chapter 8, when he
- 1:51opened the 7th seal, there was silence in heaven for about 1/2
- 1:55an hour, and I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and
- 1:59to them who were given 7 trumpets.
- 2:02Then another Angel having a golden censer, came and stood at
- 2:05the altar. He was given much incense that
- 2:08he should offer it with the prayers of all the Saints upon
- 2:11the golden altar which was before the throne, and the smoke
- 2:15of the incense with the prayers of the Saints ascended before
- 2:19God from the angel's hand. Then the Angel took the censer,
- 2:25filled it with fire from the altar and threw it to the earth.
- 2:29And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings and
- 2:32earthquakes. And so the seven angels who had
- 2:36the seven trumpets prepared themselves the sound.
- 2:41It's interesting, you know, in heaven there is no concept of
- 2:44time. Time is eternal.
- 2:46And yet John was able to distinguish in some sense, the
- 2:50difference between the two dimensions of time, of Kairos
- 2:54and Chiron. And we have, of course, in the
- 2:57languages that we communicate in two different understandings of
- 3:01time. We have human time, which is
- 3:03right now. And, and that's the way we
- 3:05think. We segment everything right by
- 3:07seconds and minutes and hours and days and weeks and months
- 3:11and years. You know, that's just how we're
- 3:13wired. But in heaven, there is no sense
- 3:16of time. The way we see it, it's time is
- 3:19eternal. The Word tells us that Christ is
- 3:22the Alpha and Omega, the 1st and the last, the beginning and the
- 3:25end. And so in eternal thinking,
- 3:28there is no sequence of of days and nights.
- 3:32It's just forever and ever and ever.
- 3:34And how do you measure Infinity and eternity that lasts forever?
- 3:38It's just beyond our ability to even conceptualize.
- 3:43But John was able to, being human still and not ascended in
- 3:49the sense of leaving this life, still, being earthbound, and yet
- 3:52having a heavenly, heavenly vision.
- 3:54He was able to understand the time that was transpiring during
- 4:00this vision that God had given him.
- 4:03And it says that the silence was unlike anything that I think
- 4:07heaven has ever experienced because we know before the
- 4:10throne of God, the four and 20 elders are continually throwing
- 4:13their Thrones before their crowns before the throne, saying
- 4:17holy, holy, holy art thou, O God, who was and is and is to
- 4:20come the the voices of the angelic beings worshipping God.
- 4:25I mean, it's, it's a lot. It says it's like the the voice
- 4:28of many waters. You, you, you just hear the
- 4:30crowd. And it's like a sound that is
- 4:33unknown even to us on this earth, as many people that might
- 4:36gather at any given time to worship Heaven's worship is, is
- 4:40completely unlike anything that any of us have ever touched or
- 4:42experienced, believe me. And so it says that there's
- 4:45silence in the midst of this period that John is about to
- 4:49encounter. The sound is deafening.
- 4:52The silence is deafening because what's about to transpire on the
- 4:56face of the earth is horrendous, but also majestic in the sense
- 5:01that as Christ has opened those seals for the first time in the
- 5:08history of the universe, he has conveyed his full plan to all
- 5:14the angelic hosts. And they're speechless.
- 5:19They're astounded at what he has in store, not only in the sense
- 5:24of his anger and his wrath toward an unbelieving and
- 5:26ungodly world, but his plan for the future of his church, the
- 5:31bride of Jesus Christ. So we see in verse one the
- 5:35mention of silence. We see in verse 2 the mention of
- 5:39musical instruments, trumpets. We see in verse 3 and 4 the
- 5:43offering of incense. And what's interesting is I
- 5:48don't know about you, but I've been in a lot of different kind
- 5:50of worship situations. I've been in like really crazy
- 5:52stuff where people are jumping around and running around and
- 5:55just like doing all kind of wild stuff.
- 5:57And I've been in real conservative type of worship
- 6:00experiences. I've experienced liturgical
- 6:02worship experiences, experience, obviously Calvary Chapel kind of
- 6:06worship experiences, But as good as we might think our worship
- 6:10is, and it is good, we have a godly worship leader and team.
- 6:14These guys love the Lord and give their hearts to serve
- 6:17Christ fully and worship every week.
- 6:20But we fall short, don't we? We all fall short of
- 6:26understanding what true worship is.
- 6:29It's not an emotion or a high, although we can get kind of like
- 6:33joy, obviously, when we think about the greatness of God and
- 6:36worship him. But it's much deeper than that.
- 6:41And so we're getting a glimpse into heaven now as Protestants
- 6:46and as New Testament Christians, we have an interesting
- 6:49perspective on how we look at the development of historical
- 6:53worship from the age of the Tabernacle, right, in the temple
- 6:57in the Old Testament, right? And we, we don't see any visible
- 7:00temple or Tabernacle right now in our day and age, right?
- 7:03But it's going to be rebuilt. The sacrifices will begin to
- 7:08continue during that time of the Tribulation.
- 7:10The Antichrist will set himself up in the temple as God, the
- 7:13abomination, the desolation, and a lot of very, very interesting
- 7:17things are going to occur. Even now in Israel.
- 7:19There is plans for the structure to build the the robes are being
- 7:24developed. The Sacramento aspect of how the
- 7:27Jewish nation connected and worshiped with God will be
- 7:30reinstituted. And but what I find fascinating
- 7:33is, is that from God's perspective, that never ended,
- 7:37right? It's still going on, even though
- 7:39there is no physical temple or Tabernacle on the earth right
- 7:43now in the sense of the way it was in Israel with the ark of
- 7:46the covenant and that kind of stuff.
- 7:47In heaven right now, there is this element of worship that
- 7:52most of us have never, ever encountered, But one day we
- 7:55will. And some people might say, I
- 7:58don't like the smell of incense. Some people get sick, get
- 8:01headaches when there's incense. But in heaven, the good news is
- 8:04when we're there, we won't have the the same kind of physical
- 8:06maladies. And incense will be awesome
- 8:09because it's like the most fragrant of perfumes and it it
- 8:13pleases God. He has it in his throne room
- 8:1724/7 throughout all eternity. And the incense represents the
- 8:22prayers of the Saints. We'll get into that in a minute.
- 8:25But in the Tabernacle or in the temple, there was a golden
- 8:30altar, different types of altars in the midst of the temple, the
- 8:33Tabernacle. But this specific altar was
- 8:35right before the veil entering into the Holy of Holies.
- 8:39And the responsibility of the temple priest was to burn
- 8:43incense because it represented the prayers of the nation of
- 8:47Israel and in heaven. Now, as we read, as John is
- 8:51teaching us, that this incense is representative of the prayers
- 8:56of Saints, believers throughout the course of human history.
- 9:02And so we see in verse one this silence.
- 9:05Again, just going back to this half hour of silence, it's
- 9:08dramatically indicating the profound awe at the opening of
- 9:13the 7th seal. It's no wonder that the Sarah
- 9:18from and Sheriff from can't help but to continually proclaim
- 9:21holy, holy art thou, O God, If we were there, that's going to
- 9:26be our description. What else can we say?
- 9:29Holy, holy, holy art you, O God. And Habakkuk chapter 2, verse
- 9:3520, it says, but the Lord is in his holy temple.
- 9:38Let all the earth keep silence before him.
- 9:42God enjoys silence. We don't.
- 9:45We have to have noise all the time.
- 9:47We always have to have some kind of media on iPod, TV,
- 9:52headphones, music. I mean, the more noise, the more
- 9:56happy we seem to be at times. But you take a time of silence
- 10:00and that makes a lot of people uncomfortable.
- 10:04That's why prayer is so difficult at times, because it
- 10:06is a time of silence and we're before God and it's just our
- 10:10thoughts and our heart laid bare before Him.
- 10:13And sometimes that makes us a little awkward because we're not
- 10:16used to having silence. But God says that he's in His
- 10:20holy temple and it's pleasing to him that the earth would be
- 10:24silent before him. In Zephaniah chapter one, verse
- 10:277, it says be silent in presence of the Lord God for the day of
- 10:32the Lord is at hand, for the Lord has prepared a sacrifice
- 10:36and he's invited his guests. Be silent in the presence of the
- 10:40Lord. And again, it's something that
- 10:42sometimes we're not accustomed to.
- 10:44Or you get with some people and you're going to pray and this
- 10:48person prays and that person's that person prays.
- 10:50And then all of a sudden there's a period of silence and, and
- 10:53sometimes people like restless, well, like who's going to pray
- 10:56next? Or how long will the silence
- 10:58last? Does that mean we're done or is
- 10:59it over? But I think from God's heart,
- 11:02the silence represents just the beginning of our being open to
- 11:06what it is that He wants to say to us, more so than what we
- 11:09think we need to say to God. In Zechariah chapter 2, verse
- 11:1413, it says be silent all flesh before the Lord, for he is
- 11:19aroused from his holy habitation.
- 11:22Be silent, all flesh before the Lord, the one that you're all
- 11:26familiar with. Psalm 4610 Be still and know
- 11:30that I am God. I will be exalted among the
- 11:33nations. I will be exalted in the earth.
- 11:37And I think it's, it's healthy at times when we come together
- 11:40as as Christians and, and pray even on Thursdays, it isn't so
- 11:43much what we're saying, it's what we're hearing, right?
- 11:47Because so often our prayers are circular.
- 11:49Lord bless me, mine, you know, me, myself and I or bless my
- 11:55people or my family or my job or my finance.
- 11:58I mean, sometimes our prayers are like really, really boring.
- 12:01God hears, I mean, he loves us, He's merciful.
- 12:03But like you realize you're saying the same thing all the
- 12:05time. You realize, like I've answered
- 12:08like the majority of those things, but you're still asking
- 12:10me and I've already done it. I mean, do you have any capacity
- 12:14to pray outside your comfort zone, to pray for people that
- 12:17you don't know or situations that you're normally not
- 12:20interested in? You have the heart to let me put
- 12:23my heart in there to expand your awareness of what it is I
- 12:28specifically want you to pray about right now at this time and
- 12:31this day and this age. And verse 2 of Revelation 8, we
- 12:37see these 7 angels. I saw 7 angels who stand before
- 12:41God, and to them were given the seven trumpets.
- 12:44These bodily powers that Victoria so beautifully sung
- 12:48about represent the Old Testament priests who also
- 12:53sounded the trumpets during the temple worship.
- 12:55You know, sometimes when we read the New Testament and the Book
- 12:59of Revelation and disconnect it from the roots of what worship
- 13:02has been about since the beginning of time, we, we
- 13:05unfortunately distort really what the meaning is or we, we
- 13:08pull things unfortunately sometimes out of context.
- 13:11But in Joshua chapter 6, verse 13, it refers to these guys.
- 13:15It says the seven priests bearing 7 trumpets of Ram's
- 13:18horns before the ark of the Lord went on and continually and blew
- 13:24the trumpets. And you remember what happened
- 13:27eventually as a result of blowing those trumpets, right?
- 13:30The walls fell down, God moved miraculously.
- 13:32First Chronicles chapter 16, verse 6.
- 13:35Benanaya and Jehaziel, the priest regularly blew the
- 13:40trumpets before the Ark of the Covenant of God.
- 13:44Psalm 96, Six, honor and majesty are before him.
- 13:48Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
- 13:50So we see this view of heaven of of music, right?
- 13:55Where's the guitars? Now there is stringed
- 13:58instruments you'll read about in Revelation, but in this
- 14:01instance, there's trumpets and verse 3.
- 14:05This is when it gets interesting.
- 14:07Then another Angel having a golden censor came and stood at
- 14:10the altar. He was given much incense that
- 14:13he should offer it with the prayers of all the Saints upon
- 14:17the golden altar which was before the throne.
- 14:22Much incense is present in heaven, much incense, and it's
- 14:27offered along with the prayers of the Saints.
- 14:32If you go back to chapter 5 of Revelation verse 8, it says now
- 14:38when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and
- 14:41the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and
- 14:45golden bulls full of incense, which are the prayers of the
- 14:50Saints. Psalm 141 two says, let my
- 14:54prayer be set before you as incense, the lifting up of my
- 14:59hands as the evening sacrifice. I mean the beauty of how God
- 15:05designed worship for Himself. It's not about us.
- 15:09We're given the privilege to worship Him.
- 15:11But whenever we can worship Him the way He has orchestrated and
- 15:15desired, what does that do to His heart?
- 15:18Let my prayer be set before you. Psalm 141.
- 15:21Two as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening
- 15:26sacrifice. So we see in Revelation that
- 15:30incense is the visible sign of the prayers of all the people.
- 15:34Symbolism is important. The dove represents the Holy
- 15:37Spirit. The cross represents the
- 15:41crucifixion, the death of burial and resurrection of Christ.
- 15:44Baptism. Immersion is a sign of dying to
- 15:48our sin and coming out as new people, a new life.
- 15:53The Lord's Supper that we take every week.
- 15:56The bread represents Christ's body.
- 15:59The cup represents His blood. God is not making this stuff up
- 16:05as He goes along. These are specific things He has
- 16:08put in place that we might truly know how to worship Him.
- 16:13You remember in the Old Testament when those priests
- 16:16took strange license to attempt to worship God with strange fire
- 16:24and strange incense? It wasn't pleasing to Him.
- 16:28We have to think about our own worship before him.
- 16:31Lord, does this really please you today so much worship today
- 16:34and I don't tell you guys and and these guys work real hard to
- 16:38pick the songs that are about God to God for God, not songs
- 16:42that are you could sing to your girlfriend or your wife, you
- 16:45know that are just like you were these words.
- 16:47What do they mean but songs that are doctrinally correct and pure
- 16:51and magnify the glory of of God in Malachi chapter one, verse
- 16:5611, it's interesting. It says for from the rising of
- 16:59the sun even to its going down. That's that's a picture of
- 17:03eternity. My name shall be great among the
- 17:06Gentiles and every place incense shall be offered to my name for
- 17:11my name shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.
- 17:15He says in every place, in every place.
- 17:19Incense is a beautiful gift that was given to our Lord at his
- 17:25birthright. Incense, frankincense and myrrh
- 17:29were given to him at his birth. And we see as we reflect on the
- 17:35Jewish temple, the worship, its continuation in heaven.
- 17:40I love this section in Luke chapter one, verse 9 through 11.
- 17:45According to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn
- 17:50incense. This is Zacharias as he's doing
- 17:53his responsibility before the altar of God and the Angel of
- 17:58God is speaking to the family that Elizabeth is going to have
- 18:04a child and it's an impossibility because she's been
- 18:06barren. How in the world can this
- 18:08happen? And he's burning the incense and
- 18:11he he went into the temple of the Lord and the whole multitude
- 18:15of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense
- 18:19again the the the community when the prayers of the of the
- 18:23incense was the representation that we now are lifting up the
- 18:27fragrance. Our prayers are like fragrance
- 18:29unto God. And an Angel of the Lord
- 18:31appeared to him to Zacharias standing on the right side of
- 18:36the altar of incense, A literal physical altar that is not any
- 18:41on earth at the time, but will also be in heaven.
- 18:45We're seeing John talk about it. So the worship and revelation is
- 18:49very different from ours, isn't it?
- 18:51Completely different from ours? And verse 4, it talks about the
- 18:56smoke of the incense with the prayers that are ascending
- 19:00before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense with the prayers
- 19:03that ascends. The Saints ascended before God
- 19:06from the angel's hand. So the Angel has a sensor that's
- 19:12coals fire to burn the incense, and he's sensing that altar
- 19:19before God's throne. And God immediately sees that as
- 19:25the prayers of his people growing up into heaven from all
- 19:28the earth throughout all time, and that He has our prayers in
- 19:33bowls. I can't imagine the size of
- 19:35those bowls, but all the prayers of every person and every broken
- 19:39heart throughout all time has never been dumped out.
- 19:45And that one day all our prayers are going to be answered.
- 19:50And some prayers we're waiting for.
- 19:52And waiting for we think, well, God, did you miss that one or
- 19:56wasn't it important to God? Every prayer of his children is
- 20:01priceless, so priceless that he stores them all in these bowls.
- 20:07And verse 5, we see the Angel, He takes the sensor, fills it
- 20:14with fire from the altar and he throws it to the earth.
- 20:18And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings and
- 20:21earthquake. The casting of this sensor to
- 20:24Earth. Shows the prayers of the Saints
- 20:27in the sense of how long Lord, will it be till you bring
- 20:31righteousness, not vengeance on our part.
- 20:33Lord, I hope you get that person that really messed me up in my
- 20:37life years ago. I hope you get even with that
- 20:39dirtbag and that you know, whatever and we're just like,
- 20:42you know, no, it's not about that.
- 20:44It's God's righteousness that we're waiting to be completely
- 20:49satisfied. If you look at Revelation
- 20:52chapter 6, we were there a few weeks ago, 9:00 and 11:00.
- 20:55This is the heart of what is happening.
- 20:58When He opens the 5th seal. I saw under the altar the souls
- 21:01of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the
- 21:04testimony which they held. And they crowd with a loud
- 21:07voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge
- 21:10and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth.
- 21:14Then a white robe is given to each of them.
- 21:16And it was said to them that they should rest a little while
- 21:19longer, until both the number of the fellow servants and their
- 21:22brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.
- 21:26And so the the the prayer for us is OK.
- 21:30Lord, how long will these things occur on earth where mankind
- 21:36refuses to acknowledge your existence?
- 21:39Where we feel as countries that we don't need God, that we want
- 21:44to take down the crosses in public places.
- 21:47We want to eliminate the prayers from our Senate and our House
- 21:52and our government. We want to change the name of
- 21:56our country to something that is completely independent of God,
- 22:00who He is. You know, I don't make this
- 22:03stuff up. I have no political agenda.
- 22:05I hope you sense that when I preach, I'm not lifting up the
- 22:09Republican or Democratic Party, but the theocratic government of
- 22:14God. And God's justice is clearly
- 22:16revealed in the Scripture for what he says is right and what
- 22:20he says is wrong. And I don't care what ideology
- 22:23we have politically, if our ideology does not line up with
- 22:28God's intention, then we're to be judged.
- 22:33And we're the ones that are responsible for communicating
- 22:36what is true in our nation. The freedom of religion that we
- 22:43have the precious right to have in our country that is slowly
- 22:47being dismantled and we're not even clearly aware of it.
- 22:53The casting of the center to earth.
- 22:55Finally, the one who has the right to bring judgement, cast
- 23:00that down and it represents the fire of God coming from heaven.
- 23:05And the beginning of the second period of the tribulation, the
- 23:10devastation upon the earth begins to be poured out.
- 23:14The thunderings, the earthquakes signify the judgment of God.
- 23:18And it is eminent at this point prior to, and we'll get into the
- 23:23rest of the chapter next week. Next week we'll get into the
- 23:27more radical aspects of the development of this difficult
- 23:30time on the earth. But then I think about this
- 23:33silence in heaven for half an hour.
- 23:36And if you pick up nothing from the sermon up until this point,
- 23:39think about this. This is a prophetic revelation
- 23:42that he's been given a long time ago.
- 23:46He's seen this. In the Book of Revelation,
- 23:50Pastor Clark is taking us through all kinds of events and
- 23:53happenings that are predicted for the future.
- 23:57But for those who believe and follow Jesus, there's much to
- 24:00look forward to in heaven with Jesus.
- 24:03However, for those who are here on earth during the Tribulation,
- 24:07there's all kinds of chaos that will unfold.
- 24:11The Bible talks about an Antichrist, a false prophet, and
- 24:15of course that evil enemy, Satan.
- 24:18Do you see how there are such clever attempts for the enemy to
- 24:21disguise himself as God and even the Trinity?
- 24:25The true Savior of the world is God and how he comes to rescue
- 24:29through his triune nature God the Father, Jesus the Son, and
- 24:34God the Holy Spirit. Just like Satan tried to take
- 24:39over for God in heaven was cast out, Satan will try to convince
- 24:43people on earth that he is the triune God to be worshipped
- 24:47instead of the legitimate God in heaven.
- 24:50It's an attempt, and although he will capture plenty in his
- 24:54schemes, he will not win. The true God wins, and
- 24:59Revelation unpacks how that will all happen in detail.
- 25:03Be encouraged because there's a way out for all of this madness
- 25:07that will ensue on this earth. But you don't want to wait
- 25:11indefinitely to make that decision about Jesus.
- 25:15We don't know when the church will be raptured, and you want
- 25:18to be ready to be with Jesus. To learn more about this, head
- 25:22over to calvarychapelonline.com. We're so glad you've been with
- 25:28us today. And if you'd like to connect
- 25:30further with this ministry, find us on Facebook or YouTube.
- 25:34You can also download our mobile app at calvarychapelonline.com.
- 25:39Be sure to join us for weekly services at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
- 25:44Ste. 6B in Greensburg, PA 15601. This has been living waters of
- 25:53grace.