Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / 1 Corinthians 14 - Order In Spiritual Gifting

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1 Corinthians 14 - Order In Spiritual Gifting · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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Thank you. Thank the Lord for these
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wonderful servants of the Lord serving in the armed forces.
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Something I didn't have to do. Fortunately I had a high lottery
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number, so I didn't have to go. But I remember the night that
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the numbers were picked, my best friend said that was Vietnam.
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He said I'm going to join the Navy tomorrow.
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And that's what he did. He had number six.
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I think I had 234, so Lord knew I probably wouldn't have been
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the best of soldiers. I was a hippie at the time, so I
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had other reasons. But I'm so grateful for the
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freedom we have because of you guys serving as you have.
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So before I get into today's message, I'd like Sam and
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Miranda Morris to come up front for a SEC, please.
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So we talked a lot about Turning Point recently and that'll be a
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continual theme in our ministry because we are at a turning
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point in our lives. Personally, you go deeper with
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Jesus. But Sam and Miranda, good to see
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you, buddy. Good to see you guys.
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I've taken the the order from the Lord to give their lives
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completely to ministry. That's what they're planning on
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doing, like Cason Harrell. So this is the future of our
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church, so you guys can be encouraged, even though you got
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Gray haired guys. And Louis, he's Gray now too.
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We'll be here for a while, however long Lord has us.
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But we're smart enough to know we won't be here forever, right?
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And so we want you to know that the church will be in good
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hands. These guys are pastoral interns,
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so I wanted Sam just to tell a little bit about how he sensed
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the call of God in his life years ago.
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And when I met with him to talk to him about this, that was
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really encouraged because the Lord had already spoken to him
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about this. What you share a little bit?
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Yeah. Just press that button.
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There. There we go there.
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Thanks. You hear me?
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OK, yeah, so Clark talked to me maybe a few weeks ago, a little
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bit out of the blue, sent me a text message asking him to speak
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about church leadership. And I thought, OK, so end up
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talking to him about. I'll get a little bit of a back
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story. So my wife and I, we got married
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eight years ago now, and we moved out the Lancaster.
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I was originally from this area, went to College of Saint
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Vincent, went to College of Penn State for two years, had a job,
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been cracking for six months right before I got married that
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I'm still actually working for utility that is based on
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Lincaster area. So we were out there for four or
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five years, right? Yeah.
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So the time we had out there was great, just us, newly married.
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She was from Florida. So when we were dating it was
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sporadic, One day, one week, maybe a couple weeks at most
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together, right? So we got married, we got to
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spend a lot of quality time alone, away from our families,
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just us together. First year is a little rough
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just being by ourselves, but we couldn't have asked for anything
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better for us to grow with each other and with the Lord, but to
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getting a little bit of Baxter Clark was talking about.
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So when we were out there, we were looking for churches.
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I grew up in the Calvary Chapel. I think we were here.
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My parents probably test this when I was 5 or 6, maybe back
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when I was at the Y. So I was familiar with Calvary
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Chapel, went through through high school and college.
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And then, you know, I went to Penn State.
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I was there for two years and I came back and I was maybe here
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for just for a few months and then we moved out there.
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I was, we're looking for a new church, right.
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So there's a couple of Calvary chapels in the area.
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We tried a couple of them. We eventually went the one that
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was down next in area, Calvary Chapel, Chester Springs.
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So the pastor there, I think he actually worked for Cork when he
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was younger, Right, Right. Yeah.
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Chris Swanson. So it's kind of a weird
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connection that Cork actually knew him.
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So we were sitting under Chris for a while.
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I was attending. We were going to his Wednesday
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night. We didn't have kids yet.
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We could go on Wednesday night. We're going to the Sunday
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mornings with the so they had three services there.
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They'd one at 8:30, I think 9:30 and then one at 11.
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We were attending the earliest one.
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We had no kids yet. We could get up early and go.
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It was, it was kind of nice, but at that time, before we had
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Grace and we just felt the Lord calling us more and more towards
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him. And Miranda was going to dental
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school and I was thinking, I need to do something with my
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time, right? I'm, I'm kind of sitting there.
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So I started taking Bible college courses for probably a
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year, right? So I was taking those, but I
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didn't end up taking them for a very long time.
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I took maybe a year's worth. And then our pastor at our
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church actually taught a Tuesday morning class and it was more of
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like a biblical class for people who are doing church planning,
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church leadership, leading ministries.
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So actually still listening that today.
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He has it on their app, so I can still kind of follow it.
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So I spent a lot of time listening to that instead of
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going, you know, paying money to take these courses.
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It was the same thing. And he was in person or I could
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talk to them and ask him questions, right?
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And we were also involved with the young adults group out
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there, Stephen Stauffer. He's still actually, he's
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leading worship for Chester Springs out there.
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He's also, I believe he's in their ministry leadership there
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as well. So I had I had a good connection
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with the group there. So at that time in my life, I
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felt the Lord calling me possibly in the pastoral
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ministry. And I said, no, why me, right.
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I think that's everyone's question when they get called
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into something, you know, what's this calling?
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Why are you choosing me? And I kind of put it off for a
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while. I said, OK, you know, I was
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really interested, you know, I want to know more about God.
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I was getting this word and I felt him calling me towards
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that. But the same time, I never felt
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like, oh, I need to go do a church plan.
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I need to get my job and go here and do this or do that.
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And I said, you know what, Lord, if you want me to do something
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like this, I'll abide. And this was probably when I was
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what, 2223, right? I'll abide in your word.
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And if you want me in something like this, you need to call me
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because I'm not going to go out on the ledge and put my foot in
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something and go over, right? Because it has to be the Lord
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calling you. Because if he's not calling you,
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you're going to fail. It's of your own ability.
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And you step into something, you're going to fail, right?
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It's any, any ministry, right? I know Brad and Janelle could
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probably test you in the children's ministry if they
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weren't specifically called for that.
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You won't be able to do it. You won't be able to sustain it.
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So I told the Lord that ten well, not ten years ago, eight
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years ago now about 7 years ago. So Clark reaches out to me a
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couple weeks ago and, you know, he sent me a text message.
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I'm thinking about it. OK, what's this going to be
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about? I'm sitting down with him.
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He's talking about it. And the Lord has on my heart.
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And Clark says, is any of this ringing a bell to you?
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And I'm like, I was like, man, I was like, I told the Lord if he
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he wanted me to do something, he would have to be the one that
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came and got me for it, right? Because I'm not going to go out
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and do it. And that's what happened.
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Court came out and he texted me and we had a, a lunch the one
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day and he's he's asked me if I ring the bell and I said, yeah,
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a little bit. You know, I think God laid
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something in my heart, you know, eight years ago.
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And it seems like right now it's it's coming up.
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So I'm happy to be here. And I think from our end, we're
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just, we're just here to serve, right?
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I don't, I'm not one to put myself out there.
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I don't like being on the front of things.
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I'm done with pretty quiet reserved.
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But yeah, we're just, we're here to serve and love on everyone.
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That exciting, huh? Let's pray.
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Father God, we just thank you. And Miranda comes from a long
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ministry family. Her daddy's a pastor down in
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Florida. So a wonderful family.
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And we have our bass player. He's away.
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Is he down there in Florida now? Yeah.
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Yeah. It won't be too long before he's
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going to be getting married to one of your friends, right?
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It's exciting. So it's just cool how the Holy
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Spirit works and puts all this stuff together, right.
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So, Father, we just thank you for this dear couple.
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And Lord, you've called them for them.
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Lord, you, you come after us. We don't come after you.
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You come after us first and teach us to follow you and and
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you draw us to you. We pray, O God, your anointing,
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your blessing, the power of your Holy Spirit on this couple for
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the days ahead. Give them insight and wisdom.
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Let Sam sense more and more your presence.
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We look forward to the day that he'll be sharing your word with
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the congregation as long as along with Cason and we just are
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excited about the the new energy that will be coming through
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these younger guys. And we just thank you for their
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willingness to be yield to you and surrender to you.
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And we pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.
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God bless you guys. So exciting things, huh?
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Exciting things here at Calvary Chapel.
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So we're in the first verse of First Corinthians chapter 4 on
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spiritual giftings. So I want to delay some
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groundwork on this chapter before I just get in and teach
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it. There's a lot of history behind
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my own understanding of spiritual gifts and why I'm part
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of Calvary Chapel and not another church group.
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When I first got saved, I I got saved in the Jesus hippie
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movement. And so I, I didn't understand
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much about churches or anything like that.
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I went to a Presbyterian Church and everyone and nice people,
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nice, beautiful building, but I, I never heard the gospel there.
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I never knew that I needed a savior.
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I, I knew I was a Sinner, but I figured I was too far gone and
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I'm just going to go my own way and try to do the best I can.
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But I, I didn't really feel or sense a connection with the
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Lord, but I always believed that he existed.
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I believe that the Bible was real.
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I believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and he was
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buried and he rose again the third day.
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But that was all mental. It wasn't internal.
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And so I had to go through some tough times before I realized I
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was lost and I needed a savior. And so I got saved by reading
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the Bible, the New Testament. My brother gave it to me and
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said you might find some answers from this.
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And so I read it. And by the time I got through
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the Gospels, I realized that like Jesus was like no one else
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I ever met. And if I wanted to be close to
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someone and have a friend, I wanted him to be Jesus because
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no one else was ever a friend of me like that or ever has been
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since that time. And so go to Atlantic City to
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work. Cindy and I are living, get
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married or live down there. And so I started going to First
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Baptist Church of Atlantic City and it was amazing church.
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The pastor was one of the most anointed, spirit filled godly
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men I ever met in my life. Him and his wife.
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I'd see this guy walking to me and I was so conditioned to
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think about the New Testament, the Gospels, that when I, when I
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saw this guy was so intimidating because he, he just had this
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countenance of Jesus in his life unlike anybody I've ever met in
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my life. I mean, whenever I was with this
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guy, the Lord was all around the conversation and whether we were
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playing tennis or they were over at our house mentoring.
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Cindy and I are in their young years.
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And so he's teaching the Bible pretty much like we teach it.
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I didn't understand that there was a division in the body of
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Christ between cessationists, people that believe that the
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gifts of the Holy Spirit, the the sign gifts of miraculous
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gifts ended at the at the time of Christ coming into the world
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and then leaving and the apostles leaving eventually.
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And this normal people like us on the face of the earth,
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endeavouring to. Follow the Lord.
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And and then I I met, you know, continue continuous with, you
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know, what's a continuous with someone like we are in Calvary
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Chapel that we don't believe that the miraculous gifts ended.
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We believe they're still present and available and God can use
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them as he wills. But we're we're also wise enough
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to realize that we don't have Apostolic authority, nor do we
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have Apostolic anointing in a sense of the miraculous gifts
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like the apostles and just this is the way it is.
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So there was a Pentecostal church there that got to know me
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and was interested in me being on the radio, given my
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testimony. And so I went to this place to
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give my testimony. And I began to realize there's
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these two sides of the of the story here and what we're going
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to be teaching eventually here in this chapter.
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And so my pastor at the Baptist Church is warning me of some of
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the aberrant teachings that can come out of the Pentecostal
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movement. And one of the advantages I
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think you have coming to this church is that I've been in
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every church group that you can name.
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I've been with Catholics, I've been with Orthodox, I've been
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with Reformed people, I've been with Baptists, I've been with
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Pentecostals, I've been with Charismatic.
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And God help me, I was a season of my life where I was with the
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Word of Faith movement. And I'll tell you a little bit
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about that. So one of the things I pray
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you'll be open to as we teach on this.
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And I was thinking as as I was waiting to teach today and
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praying with Lewis and my brother and this guy over here
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with a beard, always praying Ted for me and with me.
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Thankful to these guys and all you guys that pray for us.
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But as I was back there thinking and saying to the Holy Spirit, I
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don't want to confuse anybody. I don't want to divide anybody.
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I just want you because this is about you, God the Holy Spirit.
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I don't want to quench you. I don't want to grieve you And
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I, I pray because all of you have come from a lot of
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different backgrounds. I'm sure that have some
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different views, maybe positions.
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But I thought in John chapter 3 verse 8 like the Lord put it on
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my heart when I was praying. The wind blows wherever it
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pleases. You hear its sound, but you
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cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.
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So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.
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Cell phone. Sometimes it just don't
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cooperate. Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, a
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religious leader who was a smart guy and knew a lot about a lot
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of things, but he couldn't grasp Jesus telling him that he needed
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to be born again to enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
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It made no logical sense to him whatsoever, and Jesus spoke this
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verse to him regarding how the. The movement of the Spirit
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works, and so in my early Christian experience, I said to
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my pastor when I read through the book of Corinthians.
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Especially chapter 12 and 14. I said, pastor, why can't the
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church be like this? And he just looked at me and he
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says I don't know Clark. I never saw him get frustrated.
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I don't know Clark. That's just the way it.
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Is well, he was in a denomination that would not
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allow him to talk about some of these things, like we're going
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to talk to him about the day. And so I'd been around long
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enough and all these different churches to experience all these
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different kind of people and, and belief systems and, and
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pastors and, and different things that I, I just for years
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this wondered, you know, why can't there be a church that has
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people from both sides that can worship together and focus on
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the essentials and not get uptight about the things that
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are non essential? Pastor Chuck was an amazing man
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of wisdom. He came out of the Foursquare
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movement, which is highly Pentecostal, called taken away
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Amy Semple McPherson and she was a female pastor, which we don't
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believe is biblical. The Bible teaches it isn't
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biblical. And she moved in a lot of what
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would be called signs and wonders.
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Some of them were conditioned by psychological manipulation and
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and God, being faithful and sovereign as he is, would work
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in that church in spite of her at times too.
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So Chuck saw the good, the bad and the ugly.
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So when he started ministering and pastoring, he was a
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charismatic pastor. And, and so then this event
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happened, the Jesus Revolution, the Jesus movement, and all
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these hippies started coming to Calvary Chapel, this little
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church that was about 25 people at the time.
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And they were coming in with no knowledge of Jesus, no knowledge
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of the Bible, no knowledge of anything other than they knew
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they needed help. And Chuck simply preached the
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gospel to them and began to teach them the Bible.
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Chuck used to teach topical sermons.
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And he said to his wife, you know, we got to move on in three
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years because I'm running out of sermons.
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I have nothing else to preach on.
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And then he read in Haley's Bible handbook, if you want to
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really do something good for the church, take the people through
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a book of the Bible. He thought, wow, that's novel.
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I never thought of that. So he took him through the book
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of first John. It took him 13 months and he saw
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the lives of the people changing because of the word of God
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simply teaching the Bible. Simply, he sort of laid aside
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his past preconceived ideas about.
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The work of the Holy Spirit. Nonetheless, he still believed
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that they all existed to gifts, but he wasn't interested in
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manipulating or or or making these things happen in his
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church meetings, and he also understood the confusion that
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would occur at times. From aberrant movement of what
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people would say would be the Holy Spirit.
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He started reading Charles Spurgeon, who was a
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cessationist, Martyn Lloyd Jones, who was a cessationist.
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Pink. These guys are strongly Reformed
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kind of thinkers. He began to read commentaries
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that were rooted in the truths and the depths of the scriptures
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and not taking one little teaching and blowing it out of
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proportion. And so whenever we started going
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to Calvary Chapel, I felt like I'd found a miracle church
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because I am not a cessationist. I understand why people can have
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those views, but I I could just never see blotting out certain
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verses in Corinthians and saying with these things aren't true
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today or they're not real. And, and I'm also more of a
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reform thinker. You get this division between
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Arminianism and reform kind of theology.
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I realize very clearly that I can't bring anybody to Christ.
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Christ has to draw them. He says clearly himself, no man
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comes to the Father except I draw him.
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So took a lot of pressure off of me as a pastor because I can't
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save you. I can tell you how to get saved,
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how to believe, how to trust in Christ, give the gospel, but I
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can't make it happen. It's a work of the Holy Spirit
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as Jesus said in John chapter 3, how the Holy Spirit moves.
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I was able to then be with people that believed in the
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gifts of the miraculous, gifts of the Spirit, and they were
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humble and they weren't using these things to draw attention
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to themselves, which is the biggest problem in regard to
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what we would call the charismatic movement.
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The spiritual gifts are given to us to edify the body, to build
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the church up, not to build our egos up, or to make ourselves
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feel like we have something that someone else doesn't have.
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And I like Chuck's balance teaching on the fact that when
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we get saved, the Holy Spirit comes into our life and we have
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gifts as the Holy Spirit comes into our life.
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And there are other experiences you can have with the Holy
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Spirit. Not this one, but many
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throughout your life. And that's called the filling of
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the Holy Spirit, which is taught in the in the in the gospel of
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Ephesians, that we're commanded to be filled with the Spirit.
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We're commanded to walk in the Spirit.
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We're commanded to have this deep intimate relationship with
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God, the Holy Spirit. I was speaking to someone last
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night. We had a little gathering of
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some leaders and she just said, I want to tell you guys
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something. And Lewis and I were in the
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hallway. She says, I am so thankful that
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this church talks about the Holy Spirit.
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She said a lot of churches you go to now don't even mention the
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Holy Spirit and they sort of ignore him.
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We would never do that here. We believe that the work of God
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is conditioned on the empowerment and anointing of
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God, the Holy Spirit, to give us the ability to use our gifts for
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the glory of God and the feeding of his sheep, his flock.
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So we're going to get into 14 about prophecy in tongues, and I
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wanted to read something about this Word of Faith movement,
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which is very big in our country.
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Unfortunately, in Pittsburgh, some of the largest churches are
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part of what is called the Word of Faith Movement.
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And I used to go to the conventions.
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I knew some of the people, I experienced some of the
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phenomena, if you may, and my wife Cindy was never a fan.
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But I'm a seeker, so I'm always like God.
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If I'm missing anything, reveal it to me.
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Let me experience it. Hunger, where the Word of Faith
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teaching is decidedly unbiblical.
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It is not a denomination and does not have a formal
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organization or hierarchy. Instead, it's a movement that is
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heavily influenced by a number of high profile pastors and
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teachers. And I'm going to name some names
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and some of you might be following them or reading them.
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I'm not trying to offend you, but if you want to hear more
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about my own story and my experiences with some of these
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people, I'll tell you why I'm not part of this.
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Kenneth Hagin. Benny Hinn.
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Kenneth Copeland. Paul and Jan Crouch and Fred
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Price. The Word of Faith movement grew
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out of the Pentecostal movement the late 20th century.
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Its founder was EW Kenyon, who studied the metaphysical New
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Thought teachings of Phineas Quimby.
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These are cultic, heretic kind of teachings.
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Mind Science, where name it and claim it originated, was
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combined with Pentecostalism, resulting in a peculiar mix of
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Orthodox. Christianity and mysticism.
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Kenneth Hagin in turn, studied under Kenyon and made the Word
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of Faith movement what it is today.
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Although individual teachings range from completely heretical
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to completely ridiculous, what follows is the basic psychology
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most of Word of Faith teachers align themselves with.
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At the heart of the Word of Faith movement is a belief in
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the force of faith. It is believed words can be used
24:20
to manipulate the faith force and thus actually create what
24:24
they believe. Scripture promises health and
24:27
wealth. Laws supposedly governing the
24:29
faith force are said to operate independently of God's sovereign
24:33
will and that God himself is subject to these laws.
24:36
You talk about a big heresy. It's frightening.
24:40
This is nothing short of idolatry, turning our faith, and
24:43
by extension ourselves into God. From here, it's theology just
24:48
strays further and further from Scripture.
24:51
It claims that God created human beings in his literal physical
24:54
image as little gods. Before the fall, humans had the
24:58
potential to call things into existence by using the faith
25:01
force. After the fall, humans took on
25:04
Satan's nature and lost the ability to call things into
25:08
existence in order to correct the situation.
25:11
Jesus Christ gave up his divinity and became a man.
25:15
Give up his divinity. God help us, died spiritually,
25:20
took Satan's nature upon himself, went to hell, was born
25:23
again, and rose from the dead with God's nature.
25:27
After this, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to replicate the
25:30
incarnation and believers so they could become little gods as
25:33
God originally attended. Following the natural
25:36
progression of these teachings as little gods, we again have
25:40
the ability to manipulate the faith force and become
25:43
prosperous in all areas of life. Illness, sin and failure are the
25:47
result of a lack of faith that are remedied by confession
25:51
claiming God's promises for oneself into existence.
25:54
Simply put, the Word of Faith movement exalts man to God
25:58
status, reduces God to man status.
26:02
Needless to say, this is a false representation of what
26:05
Christianity is all about. Obviously, Word of Faith
26:08
teachings does not take into account what is found in
26:12
Scripture. Personal revelation, not
26:15
Scripture, is highly relied upon in order to come up with such
26:18
absurd beliefs, which is just one more proof of its heretical
26:22
nature. Countering Word of Faith
26:25
teaching is a simple matter of reading the Bible.
26:28
God alone is the sovereign creator of the universe and does
26:31
not need faith. He is the object of faith, God's
26:35
God, His spirit does not have a physical body.
26:38
Man was created in the image of God, but this does not make him
26:42
a little God or divine. Only God has a divine nature.
26:46
Christ is eternal, the only begotten Son and the only
26:49
incarnation of God, and Him dwelt the fullness of the
26:53
Godhead bodily. By becoming man, Jesus gave up
26:57
the glory of heaven, but not His divinity, though He did choose
27:00
to withhold His power while walking on the earth is a man.
27:04
The Word of Faith movement is deceiving countless people,
27:07
causing them to grasp away a life and faith that is not
27:11
biblical. At its core is the same lie
27:14
Satan has been telling since the garden.
27:16
You shall be as God. Sadly, those who buy into the
27:20
Word of Faith movement are still listening to Him.
27:22
Our hope is in the Lord, not in our words, not even in our own
27:27
faith. Our faith comes from God in the
27:30
1st place and it is not something we create ourselves.
27:33
So be wary of the Word of Faith movement and any church that
27:37
aligns itself with the Word of Faith teachings.
27:42
Joel Osteen. Rodney Howard Brown.
27:49
Joyce Meyer. These people all flock together.
27:55
Their conventions are filled with each other, and they're all
27:59
multimillionaires at the expense of the people that blindly
28:04
attend their churches and follow their teachings.
28:08
Serious stuff. Kenneth Copeland I remember as a
28:16
young guy waking up in the morning, he would come on WPIT
28:22
or whatever, Bless God, glory to God, you're, you're not the
28:28
tail, you're the head, you know, and I'm thinking like I'm, I'm,
28:31
I'm in a job I hate. I'm in a marriage I'm struggling
28:36
with to see survive. I got little kids I don't know
28:40
how to raise. I, I needed a quick miracle.
28:43
And Kenneth Copeland at the time was my I thought my way to find
28:47
the quick answers in overcoming life and having no problems.
28:51
It was never about the money. So I ended up getting his study
28:55
Bible to Kenneth Copeland study Bible and starting reading some
29:00
of these heresies and and I was grounded.
29:02
I went to a really good Bible college and my wife would see
29:07
him on TV and she says, Clark, how can you listen to that guy?
29:11
Don't you see the devil in his eyes?
29:15
Cindy hated him. So I, I got to the convention
29:20
down in Philadelphia, you know, the Word of Faith convention and
29:25
Jerry Savelle and kind of Copeland and, and, and, and I
29:30
forget the name of some of these other people, some used car
29:33
salesman. He still preached like a used
29:35
car salesman, a comic committee kind of guy.
29:39
Kenneth is there talking and getting the audience all
29:43
exciting, starts speaking in tongues.
29:45
He has one of his buddies come up on the stage.
29:47
He's speaking in tongues of this guy.
29:50
This guy's speaking back in the tongues of him.
29:53
And then Kenneth has the audacity to say, God, you hear
29:55
what we're saying here? I'm thinking like, where?
30:00
Where do people come up with this stuff?
30:02
It's like a carnival. And they said everybody's going
30:06
to be healed here tonight by faith.
30:10
We're going to take an offering first.
30:15
And the more the offering is, the better chance you have of
30:17
getting healed. That was the bottom line.
30:21
And so I'm there as an usher in collecting offerings.
30:24
And this wasn't yesterday. Don't be afraid.
30:26
This is a long time ago my pilgrimage, OK.
30:30
So I said to the guy I'm working with, I said, if we have this
30:32
power here tonight, why don't we go to Children's Hospital across
30:36
the street where all these kids are dying and they got serious
30:39
illnesses and diseases and go lay hands on them and see them
30:42
raised, raised up. And the guy looks at me like I
30:46
ruined his night. It was like the balloon popped
30:48
that night. I went home and I never looked
30:50
back. So I'm very, very, as Pastor
30:55
Lewis and John and George, very on guard with any kind of false
31:00
teaching. We've left.
31:02
We've had people leave the church because we mentioned a
31:04
name. Someone once, one time told me,
31:07
don't you touch my Joel Osteen. I think, what do you mean you're
31:11
Joel Osteen? You know, I mean, it's really
31:13
weird that they ended up leaving them and it's fine.
31:18
So what? What happened though, because of
31:21
this heresy, it put a real bad taste in people's mouths about
31:25
spiritual gifts. Like, you see this kind of
31:30
nonsense going on and the first thing you think I'm going to
31:32
have nothing to do with any church?
31:35
It even like closely mirrors that kind of false teaching.
31:42
Chuck Smith to this day I admire this guy because he never was
31:49
thus saith the Lord or he never tried to hype the audience up.
31:54
He just simply taught the word because he knew the power to
31:58
change a life comes from the the exposition of the Bible verse by
32:03
verse through the whole Bible so you hear the whole counsel of
32:05
God. When Chuck would have pastors
32:08
conferences he never divided between a cessationist and a non
32:12
cessationist. He loved where, where and
32:14
where's be we used some of his commentaries.
32:16
He was a cessationist. Alistair Begg spoke at our
32:20
conferences. He's a cessationist.
32:24
He had other people that he would learn from and, and and it
32:29
was never like, well, you don't believe the gifts are here
32:32
today, so I'm not going to have anything to do with you.
32:34
He never acted like that. So we we collaborated.
32:38
Jim Boyce, the pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in
32:41
Philadelphia, very large Reformed Presbyterian Church
32:44
that Cindy and I attended for a period of time until they got
32:48
into infant baptism. And I, you know, I, I, I can't
32:51
swallow that. But, but anyway, it's a story
32:54
for another time. But anyway, when Jim died, him
32:57
and Joe were so close. Joe the pastor of Calvary
33:00
Chapel, Philadelphia. They loved each other and the
33:03
God used them both mightily and is using Joe mightily, but they
33:07
didn't have to draw a line in the sand.
33:09
They, they, they were able to, to agree on certain things and
33:13
disagree on other things and still have fellowship.
33:16
The Boyce's eulogy in his funeral was it was in Calvary,
33:20
Philly, because it was the largest place to have all the
33:23
people that would come to, to honor Jim's, excuse me, Jim's
33:27
life. And so that's sort of the long
33:32
and short of what I wanted to to talk to you about before I
33:38
actually get into the. The teaching Chuck Smith, the
33:43
founder of the Calvary Chapel movement, taught that all the
33:46
gifts of the Holy Spirit are available and active for
33:48
Christians today. A continuous view, but emphasize
33:52
their proper scriptural use for the edification of the church
33:55
and the glory of God, not for personal gain or drawing
33:58
attention to oneself. Smith believe the sign gifts
34:04
like tongues, healing, miracles and prophecy as well as service
34:07
gifts are still distributed by the Holy Spirit as He wills.
34:12
Not as you and I will, but as the Holy Spirit wills.
34:16
The primary purpose of spiritual gifts is to minister God's grace
34:19
to others, build up the body of Christ, and glorify God.
34:23
He warned against using them for personal notoriety or enrichment
34:28
while believing in the gifts. He stressed the importance of
34:31
order and church services, particularly regarding the use
34:35
of tongues. Based on 1st Corinthians 14, he
34:38
taught the public use of tongues, and we'll read this
34:41
later. Should be limited to two or
34:43
three people and must have an interpreter.
34:46
Otherwise, a person should speak only to themselves and to God.
34:50
He preferred the gift of prophecy, speaking and
34:52
understanding the Word from God in public assembly for the sake
34:57
of edification. Smith emphasized that the Word
35:00
of God, taught through the Enlightenment of Holy Spirit is
35:04
essential for spiritual growth. He believed that relying on
35:07
experience alone or seeking signs without faith in the Word
35:11
was a mistake. He highlighted the diversity of
35:14
the gifts teaching, helps, giving, showing mercy,
35:17
leadership, and taught that each is important and given grace by
35:22
God. He noted that some gifts like
35:24
helps often receive more honor from God even if they are
35:28
unnoticed by people. He taught that the power of the
35:32
Holy Spirit is referred to the indwelling and empowering of the
35:36
Spirit that's promised to all believers to experience.
35:42
Chuck advocated for a balanced approach, that approach that
35:46
embraced the full range of spiritual gifts for remaining
35:49
firmly grounded in biblical principles and focus on the
35:52
glory of God and the benefits of the church.
35:57
I was at Costa Mesa numerous times.
36:00
Never once did I ever see anybody speak in tongues in the
36:04
church. I've been to pastors conferences
36:07
with many of the leaders that have come with us from this
36:12
church to experience the conferences.
36:15
Never once have I ever heard anybody speak in this meetings
36:20
in tongues. I didn't hear anybody behind me
36:24
during worship speaking in tongues.
36:27
We don't believe that that's biblical within the confines of
36:31
the of the worship of the church.
36:33
Do we believe that people, some people have the gifts of praying
36:36
in the Spirit and tongues doesn't make them any better or
36:39
any less than any other Christian, but it's to be used
36:42
in your private prayer clause and alone with the Lord because
36:46
the Bible will teach us as we get into this.
36:48
That's he who speaks in an unknown tongue, speaks unto God,
36:53
not unto men. So sometimes people come here
36:56
and they wonder, well, in our worship, why can't we just have
36:59
people break into tongues? Well, because it's not biblical,
37:03
that's why. And you got some people like,
37:06
why is that person making a spectacle themselves?
37:09
They're getting my eyes off of Jesus and I'm hearing them.
37:14
And it's not what the Lord would want.
37:17
So that lays the foundation of I think who we are, where we are
37:25
and and how we function. I, I knew Chuck personally, he
37:31
was the most quiet, humble, meek, God exalting person that
37:38
I've ever met. Outside of that first pastor I
37:41
met. Chuck would tell us in a
37:43
conference is that the importance of the power of the
37:46
Holy Spirit that we need is pastors and men to do what it
37:49
is. It's an impossible job without
37:51
the Holy Spirit. His life first is Zechariah 46.
37:56
It's not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, sayeth the
38:00
Lord of hosts. And he wasn't into semantics.
38:07
Many times enters into the conversation.
38:09
He says, I don't care what you call the experience, baptism,
38:15
filling, outpouring, overflowing.
38:19
He says those are just definitions.
38:22
He says just make sure it's happening in your life, that the
38:26
Holy Spirit is filling you and that he's living out of you to
38:30
be a blessing to other people. How awesome's that?
38:35
So here we are in the city of Greensburg.
38:40
Very few churches teach the word of God anymore.
38:43
That's why this church is planted.
38:46
A lot of these churches are LGBTQ affirming, pro-choice
38:52
affirming. That's the way it is.
38:55
It's the last days. There'll be a famine for the
38:58
word of God in the last days. So when you find a church like
39:03
this, thank the Lord for it because they're few and far
39:08
between In California right now. Mike McClure is being sued still
39:15
for opening the church during COVID.
39:19
This is under Calvary Chapel magazine.
39:21
Coming up, Jay Sekulow and a couple other legal people that
39:26
work with churches for their rights or petitioning and
39:30
working to say that this is unlawful lawsuit.
39:36
It was a $5,000,000 lawsuit. Now it's down to 1.6 million.
39:42
Mike said in his interview that Calvary Chapel knew that it
39:51
needed to open during COVID out there because people had no
39:54
place to go. The sheep had no place to go.
39:58
And the church, instead of having 600, it had 4000 within a
40:04
period of a few months because all the other churches were
40:07
closed. And a lot of the people that
40:10
attended the church heard the gospel for the first time and
40:12
got saved and they had massive baptisms there.
40:17
And I talked to Mike at one of the pastors conferences a couple
40:20
years ago. I said, how in the world have
40:22
you been able to get through that?
40:24
Not just want to quit and move to a different state.
40:27
He says, Clark, it's, it's the Holy Spirit.
40:29
And this is what he's calling us to do.
40:31
And he says, I, I wish we could get in a car and go somewhere
40:34
else, but this is where the Lord told me I got to be.
40:39
He said in California. And you guys know what's going
40:42
on out there. He said it's hard to say this,
40:48
but he says there isn't a lot of alternatives for believers to go
40:54
to church anymore because of the false teaching and the heresies.
41:02
And Calvary Chapel is one of the few churches and we're not a
41:04
denomination, we're a fellowship of like minded believers is one
41:08
of the few churches that are holding to the simple teaching
41:11
of the Bible verse by verse. And I'm so thankful for the men
41:15
in this church and the women in this church that teach
41:19
expositionally the whole council of God.
41:24
Someone told me that they've been coming here and they've
41:26
become dear friends of ours. We had dinner with him a while
41:29
back and he's and, and, and the wife said I will never attend
41:33
one of those crazy churches again.
41:36
My life changed when I started hearing Grace FM and started
41:41
coming to Calvary Chapel. All my confusion dissipated and
41:47
I began to love the Word of God and see how the Word of God
41:50
changes me and changes us. I believe and this is the
41:57
challenge to you guys. You have friends and people who
42:01
are in dead churches that quench and grieve the Spirit.
42:05
You have friends that are in churches that aren't teaching
42:07
the Word anymore. Speak into their life and let
42:10
them know there's alternatives today and Calvary Chapel
42:14
Greensburg is 1. Invite them.
42:16
Tell them to listen to Grace FM Tell them to get into the
42:20
scriptures, get into the word of God.
42:23
If I die tomorrow, this church will continually be stronger and
42:27
stronger. Young men like Cason and Sam
42:31
growing up, the guys are teaching the church, just stand
42:35
up for a minute. The guys are teaching the
42:37
Wednesday nights and Bible states stand up.
42:39
Any guys they're teaching, stand up for a minute.
42:43
Stand up. Pastor Lewis, stand up back
42:49
there. Thank you.
42:54
Everybody knows you. But you, you know, you got to
42:56
you got to have my back all the time.
42:59
But OK, now, now the women stay up.
43:02
Stand up. Women that teach in the Bible
43:04
study in the church, stand up. Women, Karen, stand up.
43:13
Don't be shy. Who else are we missing?
43:15
Anybody else here? The people that teach our kids,
43:20
they're teaching the same way. Stand up, Brad and Janelle.
43:27
Isn't that amazing? Let's thank the Lord for these
43:30
people. So because of what they do, and
43:40
they're on, the guys are on Wednesday night, they're
43:42
recorded, they're on the radio live and Grace FM, thanks to
43:45
Kevin, he made that happen. Get your friends, get the people
43:49
that know you say, hey, listen to me on the radio at 7:00 or
43:55
whatever on 91.7. They're going to come to this
44:00
church because they know your life and your example, your
44:02
testimony, and they're tired of not having the Word of God
44:07
available to them. That's the priority of of this
44:12
church is to have the word of God available to as many people
44:16
as possible. We have a lot of seats here
44:19
today that need to be filled, and we believe God's going to
44:22
fill them, but He's going to fill them because of your
44:25
influence and your invitation to have people come to this church.
44:32
We have the Guineon Bible app. It's wonderful.
44:35
Fred's provided these with AQR code along with the Calvary
44:39
Chapel Connect card, plus these little Bibles that you can give
44:42
out the people when you're out and about in the community,
44:45
going through a Starbucks or wherever, and ask them how their
44:49
days going. Ask them if there's something
44:50
you can pray for them about. Get the conversations going,
44:54
give them a Bible, tell them about the QR code.
44:57
They can connect with this and if they're having troubles in
45:00
their lives, they can find the answers in the Bible to the
45:03
troubles that they have for the solution.
45:06
And then our our connect card also QR code for the website.
45:11
It tells us where we meet, the time we meet the address and
45:16
it's you are invited. Is anybody willing to do that
45:23
here? Stand up if you're willing to do
45:26
this. OK, There's a few of you
45:35
sitting. Is there any reason why you're
45:37
sitting? That's OK.
45:40
Well, Fred, Fred tells me, you know, Fred, like he's all
45:43
excited about Turning Point. He says, Clark, you know, we got
45:47
to get moving for the Lord. The time's running out.
45:49
And he's right. We got to get active in the
45:53
community. And as a side note, there's a
45:56
pamphlet out there for the food bank.
45:58
If you guys want to be part of Turning Point, you don't have to
46:01
come to the meeting. But Turning Point is just being
46:03
a Christian and caring about people and sharing the gospel.
46:07
That's what Turning Point's about, right?
46:09
And so there's a food bank is a flyer.
46:12
It tells you what they need. We're going to collect and put
46:14
it in the hallway back here wherever Karen wants it up until
46:18
the date that they're going to pick it up.
46:20
Someone's going to come in a truck and pick it up, I think on
46:22
Monday the 24th. So it tells you exactly what you
46:25
can get. No perishable items, but we can
46:28
help. A lot of people are hungry right
46:31
now. Government workers aren't
46:33
getting paychecks right now, right?
46:35
There's a lot of things going on in our culture.
46:38
People are having trouble with food stamps, all these kind of
46:40
things. We got to be salt and light and
46:43
be part of the solution, right? And this is a real simple thing
46:46
you can do to be part of this movement that's happening right
46:51
now in the country. So I gave you some background.
46:58
I don't recommend TBN. Be honest with you.
47:02
You might find one or two good pastors on there occasionally,
47:05
but you got to go. You sift through a lot of
47:06
garbage and your mind will get skewed, unfortunately, by false
47:10
teaching very easily if you're not careful.
47:17
Oh, it's 12:00 already. OK, I'm going to read this one
47:22
verse here. This is first Corinthians 13
47:26
before we go into the teaching next week and now abide faith,
47:35
hope and love these three. But the greatest of these is
47:38
love. Pursue love and desire spiritual
47:42
gifts, but especially that you may prophecy.
47:46
So read chapter 14 this week with an open heart.
47:50
I'll do the best I can by God's grace to give it to you straight
47:55
and it's going to be exciting and ask the Lord to give you
48:01
whatever it is that he wants to give you to use for his glory
48:05
and to serve people and to build the church up.
48:08
Amen. Well, let's take the Lord's
48:11
Supper and they, I'm sorry I took a little bit longer than I
48:15
thought I would, but I felt like to go, to go into this teaching
48:19
without some background would be ridiculous.
48:22
I hope that helped a little bit, You know, did it help?
48:26
All right, good. So anybody mad at me here today?
48:33
That's a, that's a good thing. That's a good thing.
48:37
We'll take the Lord's Supper and at the end you can come up and
48:40
pray if you want pray for the movement of the Holy Spirit in
48:44
our city in your lives that we're going to pray for Cliff up
48:47
here. He's having surgery this week,
48:50
back surgery and Lewis's wife Terry's getting surgery, hip
48:54
surgery. I'm getting a colonoscopy
48:57
tomorrow. So please pray for me to my
48:59
colon doesn't get blown out. But anyway, it's fun serving the
49:05
Lord with you guys. It really is it's a blessing.
49:09
I'm so thankful for all of you. Lord Jesus, we honor you today.
49:16
We worship you, we celebrate you, and thank you that you've
49:19
given us your word to guide us into all truth.
49:25
Holy Spirit, we're thankful that you were here with us and that
49:30
you're moving in our hearts and our midst to give us this desire
49:35
to know Jesus better and to praise Him and to lift him up to
49:40
worship Him, to glorify Him. We thank you for the gift things
49:44
that you give us of your Spirit, Lord, because there's no way the
49:47
church would exist apart from you, Holy Spirit, and how you
49:51
empower each of us as believers. Help us to study, to show
49:56
ourselves approved unto God, Rightly dividing the word of
50:02
truth. Workmen that need not be
50:07
ashamed, Rightly dividing the word of truth.
50:10
Help us to do that. Lord, on the night that Jesus is
50:14
betrayed, He took the bread in his hands and he broke it and he
50:17
gave thanks and he said, take heed, this is my body which is
50:20
given for you. Eat this in remembrance of me.
50:29
The same manner in that evening He took the cup and he said,
50:33
This cup is a new covenant in my blood which is shed for the
50:36
forgiveness of sins of many. Drink this in remembrance of me,
50:43
for as often as you eat this bread, and you drink this cup,
50:46
you shall force the Lord's death till he comes again.
50:49
Amen.