Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace May 22nd, 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.
- 0:37Anything in your life or mine that causes us to love whatever
- 0:41it is more than we love. God is appealing to the lust of
- 0:46the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life.
- 0:48It's called worldliness. Anything that moves you away
- 0:51from God's will is worldliness. Anything that causes you to not
- 0:56pursue God with all your heart is worldliness.
- 0:59Anything that causes you to spend your money on things that
- 1:02are going to perish, as opposed to investing them in things that
- 1:06are going to last for eternity, is worldliness.
- 1:08It's far easier to live worldly lives than we realize.
- 1:13The smallest things that we've been conditioned to believe and
- 1:16perceive as normal hold us back from seeing Jesus daily.
- 1:21Allowing our hearts and minds to be filled with self love and
- 1:23money continues to blind us from the sin that we've become numb
- 1:27to today. Pastor Clark teaches us that
- 1:30giving our time, energy, and love to things of this world
- 1:34hinders us from setting our affections on the things above
- 1:38where Christ resides now. Here's Pastor Clark in the Book
- 1:42of Revelation chapter 20 with today's edition of Living Waters
- 1:46of Grace. Revelation chapter 20, verse 4.
- 1:51And I saw Thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was
- 1:55committed to them. And then I saw the souls of
- 1:58those who had been beheaded for the witnesses to Jesus and for
- 2:01the word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his
- 2:06image, and had not received His mark on their foreheads or in
- 2:10their on their hands. And they lived and reigned with
- 2:13Christ for 1000 years. But the rest of the dead did not
- 2:16live again until the thousand years were finished.
- 2:18This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has
- 2:23part in the first resurrection over such the second death has
- 2:27no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and
- 2:32shall reign with him 1000 years. Now as we're studying the
- 2:37millennial Kingdom, the beginning of of God's 1000 year
- 2:40reign when He rules with authority and power on the face
- 2:44of the earth, when the devil is bound for that 1000 years.
- 2:47We're told some wonderful things regarding this future House of
- 2:51God when Christ comes and rules in Jerusalem from his throne and
- 2:55temple. And it says in chapter 2 of
- 2:58Isaiah, the word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah
- 3:02and Jerusalem now shall come to pass in the latter days, that
- 3:05the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on top of
- 3:08the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all
- 3:12nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say,
- 3:16Come, and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the
- 3:19House of God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and
- 3:22we shall walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth
- 3:26the law and the word of the Lord.
- 3:27From Jerusalem He shall judge between the nations and rebuke
- 3:31many people. They shall beat their swords
- 3:33into plowshares and their Spears into pruning hooks.
- 3:36Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
- 3:40they learn war anymore. O House of Jacob, come and let
- 3:43us walk, and the light of the Lord.
- 3:46And then in Isaiah chapter 35 says, The wilderness and the
- 3:50wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall
- 3:53rejoice and blossom as a rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and
- 3:57rejoice even with joy in singing the glory of Lebanon.
- 4:00Shall I give to it the excellence of Carmel and Sharon.
- 4:04They shall see the glory of the Lord, the Excellency of our God.
- 4:07Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
- 4:11Say to those who are fearful hearted, Be strong, do not fear.
- 4:15Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with a recompense of
- 4:18of God, and He will come and save you.
- 4:21Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the
- 4:24deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a
- 4:27deer in the tongue of the dumb, saying, For water shall burst
- 4:30forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
- 4:33The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land
- 4:36springs of water, and the habitation of jackals.
- 4:39Where each lay. There shall be grass with reeds
- 4:41and rushes. A highway shall be there in a
- 4:44road, and it shall be called the highway of holiness.
- 4:47The unclean shall not Passover it, but it shall be for others.
- 4:52Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray.
- 4:56No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beasts go up
- 5:00on it. It shall not be found there, but
- 5:04the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransom of the Lord shall
- 5:07return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy in
- 5:11their heads. They shall obtain joy and
- 5:13gladness and sorrow, and sign shall flee away.
- 5:16How awesome is that going to be, huh?
- 5:191000 year reign. No more politics, no more world
- 5:22rollers trying to take control of the earth.
- 5:25We'll be under the authority of Jesus Christ and him alone.
- 5:29There'll be perfect peace on that earth.
- 5:31At that time, everybody, the New Age people are thinking they're
- 5:34going to push Nirvana into place and have the world come together
- 5:38in the concentric circles and bring in a peace.
- 5:42But there will be no peace until Jesus Christ comes.
- 5:45He is the Prince of Peace and we need to be praying for the peace
- 5:49of Jerusalem in these days because as that peace comes upon
- 5:53Jerusalem, the peace will come upon the whole world.
- 5:55And so this is what we look forward to at the end of the
- 5:58tribulation period. But what we see in verse 4 here,
- 6:01it says I saw Thrones and they that sat on them and judgment
- 6:05was committed to them. The picture of the privilege
- 6:10that we will have, the position that we will have and enjoy
- 6:13during this millennial Kingdom. It says in verse four that it'll
- 6:17be granted to them authority to judge under Jesus Christ.
- 6:22In first Corinthians chapter 6, verse two and three, it says, do
- 6:25you not know that the Saints will judge the world and if the
- 6:29world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge in the
- 6:33smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall
- 6:36judge angels? How much more things that
- 6:38pertain to this life? So you're going to be a judge
- 6:42one day under the authority of Jesus Christ, sitting on a
- 6:46throne and judging under his leadership.
- 6:51We have no idea in our small minds, our finite minds, the
- 6:55great things that God hath prepared for those who love him.
- 6:58It says in Luke chapter 19. And he said to him, well done
- 7:02good servant because you were faithful and a very little have
- 7:06authority over 10 cities. And the second came saying,
- 7:09master, you're 1 minor or money equivalent to three months wages
- 7:15has earned 5 Minas. Likewise he said to him, you
- 7:19also will be over 5 cities. As we live our lives, all of us,
- 7:25everything we're doing right now will have an effect on what
- 7:29we'll be doing in the millennial Kingdom.
- 7:31If you're faithful in the small things in this life, God has a
- 7:34plan for you in that thousand year reign, a very specific
- 7:38honorable plan that he's going to give to you to lead and to
- 7:43serve in that millennial Kingdom.
- 7:45Some of us might think, well, boy, I don't really have much of
- 7:47an influence and impact in this life, in this world.
- 7:50I guarantee if you're faithful in the smallest of things in
- 7:53this life, God will blow your mind and what He's going to give
- 7:58you the privilege to do in the millennial Kingdom under His
- 8:01authority. Some of you might be mayors and
- 8:04governors. Some of you might be running
- 8:07different types of business enterprises.
- 8:09And in this life, it seems like you never get a shot or you
- 8:12never have the privilege to do maybe what you really would like
- 8:15to do or what you think you're capable of doing.
- 8:18I love it. What it says in First
- 8:19Corinthians 1558. Be steadfast, immovable, always
- 8:23abounding in the work for the Lord, for as much as you know
- 8:26your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
- 8:28And then that day in that millennial Kingdom, when God
- 8:31calls your name and says, this is what I have for you to do for
- 8:34me during this millennial Kingdom, you'll turn around and
- 8:36think, He can't be talking to me.
- 8:39But yes, He will be talking to you because everything you do in
- 8:41this life, no matter how small it might seem, is being written
- 8:45and recorded by Him in the book of remembrance, and He'll have a
- 8:48very, very special job for you in that Kingdom.
- 8:52And the Scriptures tell us that in this time of judgment,
- 8:55there's souls of those who have been beheaded for their witness
- 8:59to Jesus and for the Word of God.
- 9:02Why? Because they did not worship the
- 9:04beast or his image. It had not received his marker
- 9:07on their foreheads or on their hands.
- 9:11This world is very alluring. It's very tempting, isn't it?
- 9:16It's very easy for us to be drawn into things that we
- 9:19shouldn't be drawn into as Christians.
- 9:22Every day we have to fight against the temptations of our
- 9:25fallen nature that still tries to raise its ugly head up.
- 9:30We have to be on guard continually against the Wiles of
- 9:33the devil. The devil is insidious in how he
- 9:36approaches us and how he wants to trap us into things that
- 9:41would cause problems for us in this life.
- 9:44James tells us in chapter 4 verse four, he refers to those
- 9:48who have an affinity or a love for this present evil world as
- 9:51adulterers and adulteresses. It says, do you not know that
- 9:56friendship with the world is enmity with God?
- 9:58Meaning, if you're a friend with the world, you're an enemy of
- 10:01God. Whoever therefore wants to be a
- 10:04friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
- 10:08You can't serve 2 masters. The Bible says you'll love the
- 10:11one and you'll hate the other. It tells us in first John
- 10:16chapter 2. If you flip over there for a
- 10:17minute regarding this world system, First John chapter 2
- 10:21verse 15, it says do not love the world or the things in the
- 10:26world. If anyone loves the world, the
- 10:28love of the Father is not in him.
- 10:30For all that is in the world, the lusts of the flesh, the
- 10:33lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father,
- 10:36but is of the world, and the world is passing away in the
- 10:39lust of it. But he who does the will of God
- 10:42abides forever. All of us are struggling and
- 10:47fighting against this power of this world every day.
- 10:50The lust of the eye, the things that we see that seems pleasant,
- 10:56as we've studied in the book of Genesis, the woman looked at the
- 11:01tree and it was pleasant to her eyes.
- 11:04The eye is is a gateway to the mind.
- 11:08That's why it tells us don't stand in the counsel of the
- 11:10ungodly, nor sit in the seat of the scornful.
- 11:15The enemy would try to draw us into evil through the things
- 11:18that we see with our eyes, the lust of the flesh, that is where
- 11:25she saw the tree, that it was good for food.
- 11:27And this appeals to our lower appetites, the old nature, the
- 11:32things that are vain in our lives.
- 11:35The Scriptures say, Pray that the Lord would take my eyes from
- 11:38beholding vain things. And then the pride of life.
- 11:42It's a tree, she said, to be desired.
- 11:45And the the devil said it's a tree to be desired, to make one
- 11:48wise. And the pride of life manifests
- 11:51itself in flaunting our materialism and affluence, to
- 11:55try to make impressions upon other people by perhaps the car
- 11:58we drive or the house we live in, or the things that we own.
- 12:02And Jesus says that man's life does not consist in the
- 12:05abundance of the things he possesses, but everything in
- 12:08this world will be to appeal to the lust of the eye, the lust of
- 12:12the flesh, and the pride of life.
- 12:14The marketers spend big money to make you feel that your life
- 12:17isn't fulfilled or satisfied unless you acquire whatever the
- 12:21advertisers are going to put on. I mean, the amount of money that
- 12:24they spend in the Super Bowl to advertise their product.
- 12:27You know why? Because they know it works.
- 12:30They know there's going to be countless millions of people all
- 12:32over the world watching that football game and they'll do all
- 12:36they can to appeal to the lust of the eye, the lust of the
- 12:39flesh and the pride of life. Now, worldliness is a matter of
- 12:44the heart. And I struggle myself with this
- 12:47aspect of worldliness that I have to constantly be on guard
- 12:50about. And worldliness is defined as
- 12:53having an allegiance or a loyalty to anything that you
- 12:58would love more than you would love God.
- 13:01Jesus said to these people that ask them the questions, what's
- 13:05the most important commandment? And Jesus says to love the Lord
- 13:09your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all
- 13:13your soul, with all your strength, and to love your
- 13:16neighbor is yourself. If you do these two things,
- 13:20you'll fulfill the entire law. Anything in your life or mine
- 13:27that causes us to love whatever it is more than we love.
- 13:30God is appealing to the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh,
- 13:35the pride of life. It's called worldliness.
- 13:38Anything that moves you away from God's will is worldliness.
- 13:42Anything that causes you to not pursue God with all your heart
- 13:45is worldliness. Anything that causes you to
- 13:48spend your money on things that are going to perish as opposed
- 13:52to investing them in things that are going to last for eternity
- 13:54is worldliness. Anything that is profane and
- 13:58lustful and focused on your own self will is worldliness.
- 14:03That's why the apostle Paul said in Colossians chapter 3 verse 2,
- 14:07set your affections on things above, not on things on earth.
- 14:12Set your affection on things that are above, not on things
- 14:16that are on the earth. And you have to ask yourself
- 14:18this morning, where is my affections?
- 14:22Are they upon the things above, where Christ resides, where my
- 14:25life is hid with Christ and God, Where I'll spend all eternity
- 14:29someday? Definitely during the millennial
- 14:31Kingdom serving Him. And then at that final battle of
- 14:35Gog and Magog at the end of the Millennium, I'll spend all
- 14:38eternity with Him in the heavens.
- 14:42Or are my affections on the things of the earth?
- 14:44Am I wasting my life? You know, the one servant that
- 14:49was given the money to invest in the Lord's Kingdom, he hid it in
- 14:53the ground because he was fearful of the master, that the
- 14:56master came back and if there was nothing left, then he would
- 15:00be in big trouble. Well, the Lord is looking for
- 15:02fruitfulness in all of our lives.
- 15:04So He gives you and me one life, one shot, one chance in this
- 15:08life that we're going to either blow or we're going to used for
- 15:12his purposes and for his Kingdom.
- 15:15And so the picture of that servant, he hid the money in the
- 15:18ground. And when the master came back,
- 15:20he said, well, what do you have to show for what I entrusted you
- 15:23with? And he said, well, master, I was
- 15:25afraid you. I thought you were a harsh
- 15:26servant. So I hid it in the ground and
- 15:29here it is. And the master was livid in the
- 15:31sense that I gave you this and I entrusted you this with this to
- 15:35multiply and to grow and to increase and, and you didn't do
- 15:38that. In all of our lives, Christ is
- 15:41looking for a harvest, a fruitful existence, so that at
- 15:47the end, when we stand and give an account of ourselves before
- 15:50the Lord and our lives are put through that judgment seat of
- 15:55Christ where everything is revealed as to what our
- 15:57priorities were in this life and what we were living for.
- 16:00That it won't burn up and just have nothing.
- 16:05It says some will be saved as oh by fire.
- 16:07God in his mercy will save and is saving those who come to Him
- 16:13and trust in Him. But salvation is more than this.
- 16:15Asking Christ that came into our life and forgive us of our sins
- 16:19so that we can have eternal life.
- 16:20Salvation is the beginning of a new destiny for all of us to
- 16:23live for purposes that will last for all eternity.
- 16:27That our life no longer is benefiting ourselves, but it's
- 16:30benefiting and prospering other people.
- 16:35Jim Elliott, the famous missionary who was struggling to
- 16:38go to South America to work with the the tribal Indians, just
- 16:42like us, a normal guy. But everybody eulogizes and puts
- 16:45Jim Elliott on a pedestal because he was an amazing man.
- 16:49He was martyred for his faith in Christ.
- 16:51But Jim was challenging himself whenever he had the call to go
- 16:54and be a missionary. The couple weeks before he left,
- 16:57he was saying, am I nuts? Selling all my stuff, giving it
- 17:01away, going to a group of people that you know could care less
- 17:04maybe or what's the consequences of going there and he's
- 17:07struggling back and forth just like we all do.
- 17:10Whenever God begins to work by his spirit and challenge us and
- 17:13say, I want to draw you into a deeper relationship with me.
- 17:18I want you to know my heart for your existence.
- 17:22I want to live my life through you and for my glory.
- 17:27And all of us when we start hearing God that way, we have
- 17:30several attitudes. Wow, this is awesome.
- 17:33And yes, Lord, I want what you want.
- 17:35And then we also have the the fear at times, well, what will
- 17:38this cost me? What will this require of me?
- 17:43And Jesus says if you want to find your life, you have to lose
- 17:46it. If you want to save your life,
- 17:49you have to lose it for my sake. And that's a paradox.
- 17:53If we really want to find real life, we have to actually lose
- 17:57it, lose what we think is important so he can show us what
- 18:02really is important. Well, Jim Elliott, he said that
- 18:06famous phrase that he's known for after his martyrdom.
- 18:10He is no fool to lose what he cannot keep to gain what he
- 18:15cannot lose. He is no fool to lose what he
- 18:20cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
- 18:25Going back to Sodom and we're studying in Genesis.
- 18:28We haven't gotten to this section yet, but a lot is in
- 18:31this horrible place, Sodom and Gomorrah, and it's a picture of
- 18:36the world as it is back then, as it is today.
- 18:40The world is full of evil and wickedness and ungodliness and
- 18:44impurity. The majority of the human race
- 18:46detests. The Lord Jesus Christ does not
- 18:50want to have anything to do with Him, and if He was here on earth
- 18:53again, they would crucify Him. This as they crucified Him last
- 18:56time. So Lot is told to get out of
- 19:00that city. And as he's being basically
- 19:05dragged out of the city by the angels, it says he lingered for
- 19:09a while. And lingered means it's like
- 19:12sort of slowing down. And like, yeah, I know I'm
- 19:14supposed to go this way, but I'm just, you know, I'm just not
- 19:17like really wanting perhaps to go with all my heart.
- 19:21I'm just sort of still have a longing to be back here.
- 19:26But it says in the Bible that God's grace pulled them out of
- 19:31that city. Lot, his wife and his daughters.
- 19:36They were told not to look back behind them.
- 19:40But his wife, unfortunately, as she was walking away from Sodom,
- 19:44her heart still long for the world and they were warned not
- 19:48to look back. And when she looked back, she
- 19:51turned into a pillar of salt. Her life was destroyed, Jesus
- 19:57says in Luke Chapter 9 verse 62. But Jesus said to him, no one
- 20:02having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the
- 20:06Kingdom of God. I don't know where you are
- 20:09today, but as we're studying this Book of Revelation, some of
- 20:12us are here and we unfortunately, if Christ tarries
- 20:18or some of us are taken out at what is called the rapture, the
- 20:22catching away. And those who are left behind
- 20:26that never committed themselves truly and fully to Jesus Christ,
- 20:30because of them lingering and missing that return of Christ,
- 20:35and because of their love for the present world system, they
- 20:38will be deceived into taking the mark of the beast, the mark of
- 20:42the Antichrist. And some of you here today will
- 20:48perhaps end up taking that. That is not my prayer.
- 20:53It's not the Lord's Prayer. He's not willing that any should
- 20:55perish, but all that come, come to repentance.
- 20:57But things are going to get so bad during that tribulation that
- 21:01if you're left here with without faith in Christ, you will be
- 21:05tempted and most likely moved to say, well, this doesn't make
- 21:09sense not to take this because if I don't get this
- 21:11identification code, I don't have any ability to access my
- 21:14bank accounts. I can't work at my job anymore.
- 21:17I can't buy food for my family. I'm I'm going to get that mark
- 21:20and the mark is the ultimate betrayal of, of your soul to the
- 21:24devil. And once you take that mark of
- 21:27the beast, you'll never be able to withdraw from that
- 21:30commitment. Hebrews tells us about the
- 21:33subject of what we call the perseverance of the Saints.
- 21:36And if you're really gods today, if you really belong to him, if
- 21:39you've really been saved and your life has been radically
- 21:42transformed, you don't have to worry about being left behind
- 21:45and you don't have to worry about any kind of mark on your
- 21:48body that will represent your allegiance to Antichrist.
- 21:52It says therefore in verse 35 of Hebrews chapter 10.
- 21:56Therefore do not castaway your confidence, which has great
- 21:59reward, for you have need of endurance, so that after you
- 22:03have done the will of God, you may receive the promise for yet
- 22:06a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not
- 22:09tarry. Now the just shall live by
- 22:12faith, but if anyone draws back, my soul shall have no pleasure
- 22:16in Him. But we are not of those who draw
- 22:18back to perdition or hell, but are those who believe to the
- 22:22saving of the soul. So we use this term sometimes
- 22:26backsliding. And we've all been there where
- 22:28we've been walking with the Lord and we've been following Him.
- 22:31And then some events, some crisis, some temptation, some
- 22:34trial, some failing our life causes us to move away from the
- 22:38Lord. In other words, we were like a
- 22:40lot. We're lingering in an area that
- 22:42we shouldn't be hanging out in. Or perhaps some of us are, are
- 22:47like Lot's wife that we're falling the Lord and and the
- 22:50devil's whispering in our ear. Well, you're missing out on this
- 22:53and you don't do this anymore. And wasn't this good?
- 22:55And, and all of a sudden you look back and Jesus is saying,
- 22:58if you're truly called to follow me in the Kingdom, you put your
- 23:02hand to the plow and you just keep going forward.
- 23:05You keep going forward. You're not going to look back
- 23:07anymore. And I've looked back different
- 23:09times in my life and I suffered the consequences of looking back
- 23:13when I was in Bible college as a young man.
- 23:15And I, I'm dealing with the emotions of a young man and the
- 23:19instability and the weaknesses of my own will and the
- 23:22immaturity of my own walk with the Lord.
- 23:25And I'm in Bible college and I'm hearing about unreached people
- 23:27group. People have never once heard the
- 23:29gospel. And I had this compulsion in my
- 23:31heart that wanted to be involved in going to reach people have
- 23:34never heard. But you know, when I go out on
- 23:36weekends to visit families from the church, we're attending nice
- 23:39houses, nice cars, nice careers. I'm thinking of Lord, why can't
- 23:43I be like one of those people? They love you, but they have,
- 23:45they sort of have the best of both worlds.
- 23:49In the Book of Revelation, Pastor Clark is taking us
- 23:52through all kinds of events and happenings that are predicted
- 23:55for the future. But for those who believe and
- 23:58follow Jesus, there's much to look forward to in heaven with
- 24:02Jesus. However, for those who are here
- 24:05on earth during the Tribulation, there's all kinds of chaos that
- 24:09will unfold. The Bible talks about an
- 24:12Antichrist, false prophet, and of course that evil enemy Satan.
- 24:18Do you see how there are such clever attempts for the enemy to
- 24:21disguise himself as God and even the Trinity?
- 24:25The true Savior of the world is God and how he comes to rescue
- 24:29through his triune nature God the Father, Jesus the Son, and
- 24:34God the Holy Spirit. Just like Satan tried to take
- 24:39over for God in heaven was cast out, Satan will try to convince
- 24:43people on earth that he is the triune God to be worshipped
- 24:47instead of the legitimate God in heaven.
- 24:50It's an attempt, and although he will capture plenty in his
- 24:54schemes, he will not win. The true God wins, and
- 24:59Revelation unpacks how that will all happen in detail.
- 25:03Be encouraged because there's a way out for all of this madness
- 25:07that will ensue on this earth. But you don't want to wait
- 25:11indefinitely to make that decision about Jesus.
- 25:15We don't know when the church will be raptured, and you want
- 25:18to be ready to be with Jesus. To learn more about this, head
- 25:22over to calvarychapelonline.com. We're so glad you've been with
- 25:28us today. And if you'd like to connect
- 25:30further with this ministry, find us on Facebook or YouTube.
- 25:34You can also download our mobile app at calvarychapelonline.com.
- 25:39Be sure to join us for weekly services at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
- 25:44Ste. 6B in Greensburg, PA 15601. This has been living waters of
- 25:53grace.