Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace for May 1st, 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.
- 0:37Each time we see our thoughts and our hearts, they convict us
- 0:42many times of some sin. And it's not to condemn us that
- 0:46the Lord does that. It's that we might take the
- 0:49medicine of repentance seriously and be restored to communion and
- 0:53fellowship with God. First, John 19 tells us that we
- 0:59might be cleansed from all unrighteousness if we confess
- 1:02our sins. James 48 says Cleanse your
- 1:05hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts.
- 1:08I don't know about you, but I'm a little old school.
- 1:11I like to change the oil in my car myself.
- 1:14It really isn't that difficult and it doesn't take that long.
- 1:17One thing about it is how messy my hands are afterward.
- 1:21For sure, I'm going to spend a good amount of time cleaning up
- 1:23all the grease and grind before I do anything else.
- 1:27In today's message with Pastor Clark, he urges you to examine
- 1:30your heart and to confess any sin to God.
- 1:33Are your hands stained by the grace and grime of the world?
- 1:37Ask God and He'll cleanse you. Now.
- 1:39Here's Pastor Clark in First Corinthians Chapter 11 with
- 1:42today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
- 1:46So the purpose of the supper is a healing move of God's Spirit.
- 1:51We just don't take it as a ritual, the cup and the bread
- 1:55and OK, we move on to the next thing.
- 1:57If we take an understanding what it is, Jesus said this is my
- 2:00body which is broken for you. The apostle Paul said this is
- 2:05the blood that was shed for you. If we take it examining
- 2:09ourselves and not taking in an unworthy manner, then we're not
- 2:12going to be weak spiritually. We're not going to be sick
- 2:16spiritually. We're going to have the strength
- 2:18of God in US. Repentance transforms us from
- 2:22living in sin to living in purity and holiness.
- 2:25John Morris taught us an immense study this morning the
- 2:28importance of living in a holy way, being holy as he is holy.
- 2:35Repentance changes us from having a propensity to be
- 2:39unholy, to be pure and to be holy.
- 2:43The Bible says without holiness, no man shall see the Lord.
- 2:47And so I'm going to say why pray to prayer?
- 2:49I asked Jesus that came into my heart and be my savior.
- 2:52Well, it it doesn't work that way if we aren't following
- 2:57Christ, not only his Savior, but his Lord will be terribly
- 3:01disappointed at the judgment when he says to me, depart from
- 3:04you cursed that I never knew you and we'll say, well, why I
- 3:07prayed a prayer. I asked you to come into my
- 3:09heart and save me. But Jesus said, why do you call
- 3:12me Lord Lord and do not do the things that I say?
- 3:16He says, if you love me, you will keep my word.
- 3:20Repentance is unending until we die.
- 3:22Some people think, well, I just repent when I get saved.
- 3:26Well, that's the beginning of repentance.
- 3:28I mean, once you come to know Christ and he's in your life,
- 3:31you become very aware of your inadequacy spiritually.
- 3:36You become very clearly aware of your weaknesses and you realize
- 3:41your need of God's strength and His help.
- 3:43And so you are sensitive if you've offended someone, if you
- 3:47judge someone, or if you've been critical, if you've been
- 3:50lustful, you've been bitter, you've been angry, you've been
- 3:52greedy. You can't disallow that, that
- 3:55cesspool sin to circulate in your heart without being very,
- 3:59very disturbed and bothered. And you don't have rest and you
- 4:02don't have peace until you repent and say, Lord, that was
- 4:05wrong. Forgive me and cleanse me.
- 4:07And if you have to, you go make the amends with the people that
- 4:10you've hurt and offended. Each time we see our thoughts
- 4:15and our hearts, they convict us many times of some sin.
- 4:20And it's not to condemn us that the Lord does that.
- 4:24It's that we might take the medicine of repentance seriously
- 4:28and be restored to communion and fellowship with God.
- 4:32First, John 19 tells us that we might be cleansed from all
- 4:36unrighteousness if we confess our sins.
- 4:39James 48 says Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify
- 4:43your hearts. That's the purpose of
- 4:46repentance. I'm so grateful for repentance.
- 4:50I don't know what I would do without repentance.
- 4:52I remember there was a time in my life I didn't think I needed
- 4:54to repent. I don't know.
- 4:55I was under some bad teaching and I thought, well, I got saved
- 4:59and and you know, I'm on my way to heaven and this is good as it
- 5:02gets in. And I never thought about my
- 5:04offenses toward God. And I would live day in and day
- 5:07out, week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and
- 5:10year out in delusion, living in perpetual sin.
- 5:14Think and I was OK and meanwhile having an unrest in my heart,
- 5:19having a sense of impurity knowing something was wrong.
- 5:23But I'm with my brothers and sisters and all of us are in the
- 5:26same boat, trying to make each other feel good in our sin.
- 5:30Trying to make each other feel OK.
- 5:33That it's a weakness in man's nature to be drawn to
- 5:36pornography. It's a weakness in everyone's
- 5:41heart. Sin is a sickness and it isn't
- 5:46OK for men to be in pornography. And just because two other
- 5:50brothers tell you they struggle with it doesn't mean that that's
- 5:54OK. Someone there has to be a
- 5:56brother saying I used to struggle with pornography, but
- 5:59by the grace of God I don't anymore.
- 6:01And this is what the Lord did for me.
- 6:03This is how He changed my heart and this is how He set me free.
- 6:07Purity of heart. And we look at Psalm 122 two, it
- 6:11says my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.
- 6:15The Lord is our helper. But we all are affected by this
- 6:19law of sin. It exists within all of us.
- 6:23If you're a Christian here today, you are not sinless.
- 6:27You still battle with sin in your life.
- 6:29And it's a law, it's a principle, and it affects
- 6:32everyone of us. And apart from the blood of
- 6:35Jesus Christ, everyone of us are doomed.
- 6:37Amen. If it wasn't for the blood of
- 6:40Christ, there would be no remission of sins.
- 6:45And the Word of God is what our weapon is against the sin that's
- 6:48still within our hearts. That's why the psalmist said thy
- 6:52word. Have I hid in my heart that I
- 6:55might not sin against Thee? We don't memorize Scripture to
- 6:59impress people of our great knowledge of the Scripture.
- 7:04If you memorize Scripture for no, no other reason, I pray This
- 7:07is why you memorize it, so that you are protected from sin, then
- 7:12that's a good enough reason to memorize it.
- 7:16Without the word of God, the enemy will Vanquish and capture
- 7:21you as a spiritual struggler. And some of you today, I'm sure,
- 7:24are being vanquished by the enemy.
- 7:26You're being beat down. You're struggling in your sin.
- 7:30You don't have the ability to overcome it because you don't.
- 7:33It's been so long since you've drawn near to God.
- 7:36You've been running from God, and it's been so long since
- 7:38you've drawn near to God, you've forgotten that if you draw near
- 7:41to Him, he'll draw near to you. And without the word of God, the
- 7:46enemy will mess you up. He'll strip you of the divine
- 7:50weapons that God's given you. He'll drag your life into a
- 7:54horrible pit of sin, of sorrow, of heartache, of bondage and
- 7:58destruction. And as a pastor, that's what
- 8:00breaks my heart because I see people that come and go here
- 8:03that refuse to repent and they want to have life their own way,
- 8:07and they don't realize that. They think they can get away
- 8:09with it, but eventually their life will tragically be
- 8:13destroyed by sorrow and heartache.
- 8:15The heartache that they'll receive themselves and the
- 8:18heartache that they're going to cause other people because of
- 8:20their bondage to sin and the destruction it has occurred in
- 8:24their life. I think sometimes Cindy and I,
- 8:28we pray for loved ones and people we care about, brothers
- 8:32and sisters and and I and I'm learning to be patient and gone
- 8:36upon God. It might not be today that
- 8:40someone gets busted. It might not be next week, next
- 8:43month, next year. But they'll come a time when
- 8:46someone's going to call you up and say, I need help.
- 8:49I got a bad medical report, my wife left me, my kids on drugs.
- 8:56I lost my job. I'm in the pits of despair and
- 9:01despondency. I don't know which way to turn.
- 9:04There'll come a time of crushing and breaking by the mercy of God
- 9:08that that person will then begin to say I'm waking up.
- 9:12There's got to be more to life. I want to get my house in order
- 9:17because the consequences of my life to this point, if I died
- 9:20today, I'm not real sure I would be with the Lord because of the
- 9:24way I've lived my life. All the distressing events and
- 9:29consequences that are occurring in this world today, in this
- 9:32human life are the result of one purpose, one reason, and that's
- 9:37sin. When tragedy happens and
- 9:40adversity happens in people's lives, what's the first thing
- 9:42they do? They complain.
- 9:45God, why they blasphemy. Just like the people in
- 9:48Revelation. The sun's too hot, the sores are
- 9:52too painful. Why are you doing this?
- 9:54I hate you. Why don't you just get out of my
- 9:56life? Why don't you leave me alone?
- 9:58Why don't you leave all of us alone, not understanding that
- 10:02the God of creation created us to be in communion, to have a
- 10:05life of peace and love and grace and joy with the Lord?
- 10:09Yet in the midst of these adversities of life, God will
- 10:13work everything out for good for those who love God and are
- 10:17called according to His purpose. I don't care what adversity you
- 10:20have today, what trial, what tribulation, what you're facing,
- 10:24God promises everything will work for good to those who love
- 10:29Him and are called according to His purpose in Romans 828.
- 10:34I think today as I look at this message and I say to myself,
- 10:39does God find repentance in US today as he looks over this
- 10:43congregation? Does he find repentance here
- 10:46today? Have you said or do you say or
- 10:50even as you're listening to this message, are you saying I have
- 10:53sinned against heaven and against you, Lord?
- 10:58Do you hate the sin that's working to destroy your own
- 11:01life? Are you getting to the point
- 11:03that you hate sin? Because when you start hating
- 11:06sin, you'll start to flee sin. When you start to hate sin as
- 11:09God hates it, you'll begin to draw near to Him and draw away
- 11:14from the sin. Are you willing to turn deeper
- 11:18into the ways of God, forsaking the path that you might be on
- 11:22now? There has to come a time in all
- 11:24of our lives that we say enough's enough.
- 11:27I've wasted too many days, too many hours, too much money, too
- 11:31much heartache because I wanted it my way.
- 11:35And now I want to turn to the Lord and forsake the foolish
- 11:39path I'm on and go deeper in His ways.
- 11:43I've been a pastor now for 14 years, and it's been 14 years
- 11:48that I've decided by the grace of God, to walk in a path that
- 11:52is deeper. But there was a time in my life
- 11:54that I was asleep. I was not awake.
- 11:58I thought it was OK. The nominal Christian life is,
- 12:01hey, show up for church once in awhile, put a few bucks on your
- 12:04offering plate, say a few prayers, and then live your life
- 12:07the way you want. That's not what Christ came to
- 12:09give us. He came to give us a vital,
- 12:12intimate, deep relationship with the living God, so that once you
- 12:16get a taste of that relationship, everything else is
- 12:20secondary, that you begin to lay your head down the pillow at
- 12:24night and you say, Lord, I want life, your life more than my
- 12:28life. I want you, Lord, more than life
- 12:30itself. That's what His desire is for
- 12:33all of us. And he wants to reveal himself
- 12:36to us that we might follow Him that way.
- 12:39Isaiah 38 One, the prophet says to Hezekiah, you're sick and
- 12:45you're near death. A bad report.
- 12:48The prophet says, set your house in order, for ye shall die and
- 12:51not live. Hezekiah freaks out.
- 12:54He gets that message and he prays and he repents and he
- 12:58turns to God for mercy. And the Lord gave him another 15
- 13:01years. I don't know how much time you
- 13:03have, but it doesn't matter whether you're 5 here today, one
- 13:06here today, 25456575. It doesn't matter.
- 13:12Today is a day to get your house in order.
- 13:16I don't know how much time the Lord has given you, how much
- 13:19time you have left, But we need the medicine of repentance to
- 13:24our last breath. I pray on my deathbed.
- 13:27I'm crying out to the Lord for mercy.
- 13:30Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.
- 13:32Lord have mercy. Not laying there arrogantly
- 13:35thinking my life's OK, There's nothing to examine.
- 13:37There's nothing to humble myself before a holy God and thinking
- 13:41I'm just going to glibly walk into that throne room and say,
- 13:44give me bones, God. I'm going to be on my face
- 13:48before the holy God and ask him as I'm on my face for his mercy.
- 13:55His mercy will be extended to those who cry out for his mercy,
- 14:01creating me, as the psalmist said, Lord, a clean heart, which
- 14:05after you is created in righteousness and true holiness.
- 14:09What is best for you and me as we struggle against the war of
- 14:13sin in our lives every day. Have we gotten too tired and
- 14:17lazy because of our pride or forgetful or the things of the
- 14:21world of crowded? What's really important and
- 14:24these all become obstacles to humility.
- 14:27Time flies really fast. The years roll by and they draw
- 14:31us closer and closer and closer to eternity.
- 14:35And we all see this. We're all aware of it.
- 14:37You look in the mirror. I don't know.
- 14:38You have to be blind to look in the mirror and know you look a
- 14:40lot different than you did five years ago or 10 years ago.
- 14:44But we have this mental numbness.
- 14:47And what heals us from this pride and numbness is
- 14:50repentance. And the question to me this day
- 14:54is, how white and clean is your soul and mine?
- 14:59How white and clean is our souls?
- 15:02Every minute I'm either thinking of myself or I'm thinking of
- 15:05Christ. Every minute I'm either thinking
- 15:08of his will or my will. And that's why Paul said awake
- 15:13to righteousness and sin. Not he said that to the church
- 15:19in Corinth, Awake to righteousness.
- 15:23Why? Because the people were asleep
- 15:25in in fornication in immorality and pride, wanting to act like
- 15:29they were more spiritual than someone else.
- 15:31They had this attitude in the Church of everybody trying to be
- 15:34something they weren't. And Jesus says if you love me,
- 15:36you'll keep my commandments. I that rings on my heart every
- 15:41day when I have a choice to make my own move and to do my own
- 15:44thing. I hear the Lord say, hey, Clark,
- 15:46if you love me, you'll keep my word.
- 15:49Oh, I love you, Lord. Well, if you love me, you're
- 15:51going to do what I'm telling you to do.
- 15:53Oh, I love you, Lord. Well, why are you heading that
- 15:55way? Why are you thinking that?
- 15:56Why do you want to do that? And God in his grace, draws me
- 15:59back. Yes, Lord, I want to prove that
- 16:01I love you by how I live my life.
- 16:05Hebrews 413 says God knows our hearts.
- 16:09We can fool each other. We can act like we got it all
- 16:11together. But God knows our heart.
- 16:14He knows if it's real or counterfeit faith, it says in
- 16:19Hebrews 413 And there is no creature hidden from him, from
- 16:22his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of
- 16:26him to whom we must give an account.
- 16:29That means every deed in your life, guys and gals, you have to
- 16:33give an account of every word, every thought.
- 16:37It says we will give an account to the Lord.
- 16:42Someone made this quote. They said sin is like a hook.
- 16:45It's camouflaged with suitable pleasure.
- 16:48It comes craftily as someone something sweet and charming to
- 16:51the tongue in order to attack the soul.
- 16:54However, he who has been lured by momentary pleasures in its
- 16:58comforts will find it more bitter than poison and more
- 17:01destructive than a pestilent disease in their soul.
- 17:06The Bible says you can enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season
- 17:10and then it catches up with you the consequences.
- 17:14I've had the horror in my life to sense the pestilence of the
- 17:18disease in my soul because of my own sin.
- 17:21And I thank God for His mercy and His forgiveness, that He is
- 17:26merciful to forgive us of our sin as we come to Him and
- 17:30cleanse us from our own righteousness.
- 17:33Walk on the path of repentance and you'll have a peaceful mind.
- 17:38Don't let the past trouble you. Many times we are still guilt
- 17:42ridden from our past. That's the liar.
- 17:44That's a devil. Jesus, whenever his mercy.
- 17:48And this is something hard for us to understand.
- 17:51The apostle Paul says forget the things which are behind and
- 17:54reach forward to the things which are ahead.
- 17:57And listen to this. As soon as you admit to God that
- 17:59you've sinned and you turn to God away from your sin, God
- 18:04Forgives us immediately and overlooks our sins.
- 18:08Aren't you glad? Doesn't that give you relief?
- 18:13God chooses to overlook our sins and forgive us.
- 18:19With repentance everything is corrected.
- 18:22There is nothing that overcomes the compassion of God.
- 18:26Another quote. He is merciful to the last and
- 18:29provides for the first. To this one He gives, and to
- 18:33that one he shows. Kindness, the love of God,
- 18:36covers and corrects everything, and we all realize today no one
- 18:42is sinless except for who God. Luke 7 tells us about the harlot
- 18:49who repented. She washed the feet of the Lord
- 18:55Jesus, His Immaculate feet. She washed his feet and shed her
- 18:59tears that were more precious than myrrh, and they attracted
- 19:04God's mercy and forgiveness. Then she heard from the Lord.
- 19:09Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.
- 19:14Why would we not want to repent today?
- 19:18Cry out to Jesus, fall before his feet.
- 19:22I don't care whether you do it in the front of the church at
- 19:25the end of the service, You do it in your car on the way home.
- 19:27You do it at your home by your bedside.
- 19:30This gets somewhere and cry out to God and say to the Lord, if
- 19:34there's something in your life that you know you got to stop
- 19:36doing, you got to get away from, you got to turn from say I've
- 19:39sinned. My Jesus, receive my heartfelt
- 19:42repentance, O Lord and Master of my life.
- 19:46And rest assured, if you pray and you ask God for that
- 19:49forgiveness and mercy, Christ will forgive you and pour out
- 19:53His love and mercy upon your life.
- 19:56You might get tired of Maine talking about this subject, but
- 19:58for me this is the theme of the body of Christ.
- 20:01Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
- 20:05John the Baptist brought that message.
- 20:07Jesus proclaimed that message, and the message he gave to the
- 20:10apostles and all those who have followed that vein of gold from
- 20:13the throne of God since the beginning of time.
- 20:16Is it to a lost and weary world? Repent, for the Kingdom of God
- 20:20is at hand. Don't be deaf today.
- 20:24This is a difference between sincere repentance and
- 20:27counterfeit repentance. Sincere repentance is repentance
- 20:31that displays regret for sins committed.
- 20:34I mourn. I don't look at my past sins and
- 20:36beat myself up anymore, but I mourn over the fact that I did
- 20:40them. The psalmist said My sin is ever
- 20:43before me and against you only. Have I sinned and done this evil
- 20:46on your sight. It bothers me that at one time
- 20:49in my life and still at times I will think things and say things
- 20:53and do things that hurt my Lord and that bothers me.
- 20:57You know, if you love someone like your wife or your kids and
- 21:01you, you say something to them, it's wrong or a brother and
- 21:03sister in Christ and you walk away.
- 21:05You you can't live with that. You got to go back to them and
- 21:08say, I'm really sorry that I said that.
- 21:11Please forgive me that I did that.
- 21:14And there's nothing more wonderful than to have someone
- 21:16hug you and say, Hey, man, I forgive you.
- 21:19I love you. Mourning burning tears that
- 21:23break the strongholds of sin. Sometimes it's important for us
- 21:27to cry and to weep before the Lord.
- 21:30And sometimes it's been a long time since maybe we've shed a
- 21:33tear over sin because our hearts have become so hard.
- 21:37But if we could just see him in living color on that cross with
- 21:40his arms stretched out, saying, Father, forgive them for they
- 21:44know not what they do, there wouldn't be one of us standing
- 21:48there with a hard heart, all right?
- 21:51Our eyes would be filled with tears because of His mercy.
- 21:56And it's His power and his grace.
- 21:57It causes us to go and sin. No more repentance leaves
- 22:02nothing unhealed. If you're here today and you
- 22:05have wounds and sores and heartache and heartbreak because
- 22:10of sin, if you repent today, God will heal that brokenness.
- 22:16He'll, He'll heal this, the sores.
- 22:20And without repentance, there's no one that's going to be saved.
- 22:23No one the victory is given. The overcoming life is poured
- 22:28out through gifts of repentance. And I think of the simplicity of
- 22:34the Christian life where Jesus says let us live in simplicity,
- 22:39an innocence of heart. Like little children.
- 22:41I love seeing my grandkids. I love hanging out with them, my
- 22:46Isabella, my me and my Liliana, my Logan.
- 22:50I play with them and, and there's no, I don't know.
- 22:54It's a whole different thing than hanging out with adults.
- 22:57They're so innocent. I took me out.
- 23:02Last night was her birthday. We were celebrating her birthday
- 23:05and took her outside and I said, let's go look for the moon.
- 23:08You know, we're looking for the moon.
- 23:09And we saw a brightness somewhere we couldn't find the
- 23:11moon walking around the street, around this car and this house
- 23:14and just, you know, couldn't find it.
- 23:16And so she said, where's moon, Papa?
- 23:18I said, moon's hiding. She said moon hiding.
- 23:21Moon hiding. This is simple.
- 23:24Jesus isn't hiding today. He's here in our midst speaking
- 23:30through the weakness of a man to get your attention that you
- 23:35might live with simplicity. For Jesus said unless you become
- 23:40as little children, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of
- 23:43God. When a little child's heart,
- 23:46they immediately find their parent and say, hold me, help
- 23:50me. We ask them what's wrong.
- 23:51We comfort them. The Lord is here today to
- 23:54comfort you. This has been Living Waters of
- 23:59Grace with Pastor Clark. We're going through the
- 24:01challenging and also intriguing Book of Revelation.
- 24:05Whether you're a fan of reading ahead in books of fiction,
- 24:08there's such a benefit to reading ahead in the Bible to
- 24:11read about how it all ends. But in an interesting turn of
- 24:15events, the Book of Revelation is not really the end, but
- 24:20rather the beginning. It's the end of life as we know
- 24:23it here on earth, but there's so much to look forward to.
- 24:28But what comes after all? The judgement of the earth and
- 24:30those who reject God? There's a lot to work through,
- 24:34and it can be heartbreaking to read through the intense
- 24:38judgements and wrath that will come on those who hate God with
- 24:42all their might. The thing is, God has given
- 24:45chance upon chance to these people and they don't want it.
- 24:49So the outcome is that there are judgments and consequences for
- 24:53those who've rejected the good news and the gift of salvation
- 24:57that's offered through Jesus's death and resurrection.
- 25:01Are you one who has heard about these things but doesn't really
- 25:05want it because you want to live life on your terms?
- 25:10Trust me, living for Jesus is so much better.
- 25:14That doesn't mean it will be easy, but as you listen and read
- 25:18through Revelation with us, you'll come to a stark
- 25:21realization that you don't want to be on earth when the
- 25:24apocalypse happens. So check out Calvary Chapel
- 25:28online.com to learn how to come to a saving grace through faith
- 25:33that will allow you to be with Jesus for eternity.
- 25:37We'd also love to meet you in person at Calvary Chapel
- 25:40Westmoreland. Come join us at 400 E Pittsburgh
- 25:43St. Ste. 6B in Greensburg, PA 15601.
- 25:50This has been living waters of Grace.