Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace, March 27, 2026

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Living Waters of Grace, March 27, 2026 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
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Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
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County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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I need to do better, I really do.
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I need to grow closer to the Lord.
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I need to deny myself more and fight against the things that my
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pride wants to force me to follow.
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I need to be committed to the things that Christ died for.
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I need to be committed to the lives that the apostles lived in
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my job, in my home, in my neighborhood, in my community.
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Can you say the same thing that Pastor Clark just said?
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Do you need to do better with your witness for Christ?
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Of course, if you answered no, you probably need to listen very
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carefully to today's message. We all need to increase our
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fervency in sharing the gospel. Why?
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Well, this study through Revelation should be a strong
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indicator to the answer to that question.
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Jesus is coming back, and our job here on earth is to prepare
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as many people as possible for his return so that they will be
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with him forever. Now here's Pastor Clark in the
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Book of Revelation Chapter 9 with today's edition of Living
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Waters of Grace. Who would have ever thought on
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September 10th, that day we got up that our country would face
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what we faced on September 11th, right?
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It's still, you look back all these years and, and you see the
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events of that World Trade Tower falling and it's almost like,
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did it really happened? I mean, I can't believe that
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this happened, but it did happen.
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And it only took a few people with incredible planning to
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destroy those towers and to try to destroy our financial markets
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and all those lives that were lost during that time.
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In verse 12, it says the 4th Angel sounded and the third of
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the sun was struck, 1/3 of the moon, 1/3 of the stars, so that
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a third of them were darkened, 1/3 of the day did not shine,
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and likewise the night. And I looked and I heard an
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Angel flying through the midst of heaven saying with a loud
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voice, woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth because
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of the remaining blasts of the trumpets of the three angels who
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are about to sound. You think about Egypt again when
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we go back to God's dealing through Moses with Pharaoh.
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And there was three day period of complete darkness in the 9th
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plague in Exodus 10. But what's being described here
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is an unnatural darkness and it's one of the signs of the end
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of the days. And Mark 13, it describes the
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sun being darkened and the moon shall not give light.
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The darkening of the sun and the moon and the stars portrays A
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cosmic catastrophe. We think of what happened during
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the crucifixion in Luke 30/23/44.
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Now it was about the 6th hour, that's 12 noon.
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And there was darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour
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3:00 that's the time of Christ crucifixion.
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The sun was darkened and the veil in the temple was torn in
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2. So we see this judgment of God
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that if you could imagine today, you know, I don't know, we get
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sunrises, I don't know, probably what, around 6 O clock or
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something. And we still have some daylight
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up to around 9 O clock. Now days are getting longer that
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you cut that by 2/3 and you only have 1/3 of the day that's
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emitting lights and sunshine. What that will do to the crops
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and the food ecosystem, food markets, it's just again going
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to be catastrophic. And again, this is the the power
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of God trying to get the attention of a hard hearted
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human race. We see the 1st 4 seals that we
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studied a few weeks ago. They were identified by horses,
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meaning the swiftness of the judgments of God moving upon the
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earth during this time of tribulation.
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These judgments that we just studied, the first four are
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clear enough and the indication of God's desire to get the
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attention of the human race. But the X3 are going to be even
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worse than the first four. And they're called woes, meaning
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intense severity. Now, as time moves on in this
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particular book we're studying, as I said, things will get even
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more horrendous. And Chapter 9, we're just going
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to go through a few verses here this morning.
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We'll pick it up again next week.
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But I already read the verses. But there's going to be the star
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that falls from heaven. And this, this individual is a
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person is going to be given a key to the bottomless pit.
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Now, what happens to everybody who dies right now, if you're a
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believer, the Bible says to be absent in the bodies, to be
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present with the Lord. So our soul goes to be with
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Christ in his present, but our body is laid in the grave until
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the final resurrection, when Christ will actually raise those
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bodies out of the graves and will be given new bodies in in
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the heaven. That's the final resurrection,
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but those who without Christ will go into the place of
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holding until that final judgment.
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And it's the element of hell, but not to the degree of what
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will be experienced at the final judgment.
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When the Bible says that whoever's name is not found, and
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in God's land, book of life, that book that holds the names
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of all those who belong to him, whoever doesn't have their name
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in that book will be cast into that final judgment, which is
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the lake of fire. But the fallen angels that left
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the throne of God prior to the foundation of the earth were
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Lucifer, who was the highest created Archangel of God.
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His job was to reflect the glory of God.
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If you remember, before the heaven, he had an amazing job.
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But God creates us with free wills.
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And what happened was Satan had the ability, Lucifer at that
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time to desire to have the glory that God had.
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And he thought, wow, you know, I want to be like God.
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I actually want to exalt my throne above the Most High God.
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I want to be seated where God's seated.
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And so sin was found in him. And so that cosmic rebellion
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caused him to be cast out of heaven with the fallen angels
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and they were sent down to the abyss to be locked into that
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place until this time that we're reading here in Revelation
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Chapter 9. If you remember the story and
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Luke and not the story, the teaching and Luke chapter 16.
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I, you know, I got to be careful.
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Sometimes we say story is that made believe or everything in
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the Bible is, is true. You know, Jonah was in the belly
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of the whale for three days. You asked me how that can
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happen. I don't know.
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But have you ever seen the size of a whale's mouth and the size
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of a human being? There's a lot of space in there
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to be inside the belly of a whale for three days.
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It's not a big deal. Unbelieving scientists will try
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to make it like a big deal. So you don't believe it.
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And if you don't believe that, then all of a sudden they try to
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break apart the whole Bible so you don't believe any of it.
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But believers in Christ, we have total confidence in the validity
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of everything that's written in the Scriptures.
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We believe everything from Genesis to Revelation is given
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to us by God to help us to know who he is and what his plan is.
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But, and Luke 16, it says there's this rich man in hell.
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He had it made while he was on Earth, and he treated Lazarus
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the Servant like dirt. Lazarus is a believer.
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What goes around comes around because when you die, you can't
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take your riches with you, right?
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And if you don't know Christ, doesn't matter how much money
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you have, you're going to suffer in hell forever.
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Well, Lazarus, even though he had a tough life on Earth,
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didn't have too much prosperity or wealth.
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He's a rich man now in the next World, right?
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It's just amazing how the roles are reversed.
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But the rich man in hell, he says he can see the chasm
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between him and where Lazarus is.
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It's what we call Sheol. SHEOL, the bosom of Abraham, is
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a place where the Old Testament believers and those who died in
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Christ prior to the death, burial and resurrection of
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Christ were stored or held, place of the peace of God, the
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presence of God, but still in a holding pattern.
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And then the other side of that was the place of Sheol, which is
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this place of where unbelievers are.
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And it says that he asked that this man Lazarus would be able
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to be sent to him to dip the tub of his finger in water and cool
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his tongue. For he says he's tormented in
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the flame. And hell is a literal place of
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judgement, isn't it? Hell is real.
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And and the more we understand the reality of hell, the more we
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want to make sure that people we care about and love aren't going
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to have to be in that place. Because once you're there, it's
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too late. There's no way to get out.
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And you know the old phrase, wherever there's smoke, there's
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fire? Well, what we see in this abyss,
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whenever it's opened up, it says the sun of the air was darkened
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because of the smoke of the pit, the place of hell.
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And so this great shaft is like this.
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Well, and it's this bottomless place, intermediate place of
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punishment of the fallen angels and demons until the final
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judgement of Lake of Fire. So they're down there, this
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waiting for the state that they can be let out to literally make
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all hell break loose on the face of the earth.
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You think things are bad today? You see the permissiveness of
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our society, the lack of respect for the things of God, the
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pushing of God out of the school systems and out of the public
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places of our nation, almost a crime to confess that Jesus
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Christ is the only way the truth and the life.
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And we also see the growth of pornography.
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You know, my, I have a friend who is involved with the cutting
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edge technology of, of Internet development and computerization
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of, of our society. You know what drives that the
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money that drives the growth of faster computers and capability
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to surf is pornography. And he taught that shocked me
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when he said, Clark, what do you think?
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Where do you think these corporations get the money to do
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all this crazy speed and and capability of of all these
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things that are in our our homes now?
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It's driven by pornography and pornography is rampant today.
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Obscenity is is at an all time high and it's increasing the
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levels of influence in our culture.
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Christianity, The message of the Gospel is getting weaker in
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these last days in the sense that these other things are
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becoming so much more appealing and interesting to people.
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But what is it going to be like when this abyss is open?
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You think things are bad now, right?
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Literally all hell will break loose.
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And so we see that this torture of these creatures, it says
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these locusts, these are horrendous beings.
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I mean, I, I get freaked out from spiders, you know, and I
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can't I, you know, I was in a place one time.
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They, they said be careful when you go to bed because we have
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scorpions down here. And I'm like scorpions, man, I
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want to get out of this place now.
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I didn't sleep too good that night.
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I left the light on and they said they sort of crawl like her
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along the cracks of the, of the room.
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So all night I'm like, you know, looking around and putting the
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covers up over my head, you know, but the scorpions thing is
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like one of the worst heights that anybody could possibly
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anybody ever been bit by scorpion in here.
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That's why we like living up north, right?
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The farther S you go, the more you get exposed to these things.
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But they, they, John says the apostle that it's like the sting
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of a scorpion, not literally the saying it is a scorpion, but
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it's like the sting of a scorpion.
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And it talks about these locusts.
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Now these locusts can wipe out vegetation in a very short
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period of time, as we saw in Exodus Chapter 9 and 10.
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But these locusts are very, very interesting because they have
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the face of a man, a body of a iron.
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They have the body of a horse and they're they're strong like
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iron. And so you're trying to
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visualize what the really a weird looking thing.
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You know, it can fly, it can sting.
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What kind of creature is this? And can God make something like
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this or of course, but these things are distorted from God's
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original creation, right? They're part of the fallen
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creation, the the opposite of what God intended.
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And that's what's weird that whenever we decide to go our own
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way, we become very, the Bible says we're creating the image
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and likeness of God, literally we are.
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But because what sin does, it distorts that image and it makes
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us look like devils and act like devils in our society.
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But these creatures, whatever they are, they're going to
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torture all the unbelievers on the face of the earth.
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So, you know, people think, well, if I hang out with Satan,
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he's my buddy. When I go to hell, I'll be down
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there with all my friends. We'll decide I have all good
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time. Satan hates us.
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Whether you're a believer, an unbeliever, he hates you.
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He's not in cahoots with anybody.
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All he wants to do is destroy it.
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The Bible says he comes to rob, steal, kill and destroy.
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That's his whole agenda. So when these demonic beings are
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out of this abyss, they won't be able to touch the believers or
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the 144,000 or they're sealed with the name of God in their
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forehead. No matter what they want to do,
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they can't touch them or harm these people.
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They're protected by God during that tribulation.
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But all the people are on the earth that are unbelievers that
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could care less about the things of God.
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They're the ones that are going to be tortured now at this time
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also because of what's going to happen.
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You know, the vegetation isn't impacted by these locusts.
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Locusts would normally be going after leaves and trees and grass
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and all that kind of stuff, but they're only focused on getting
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at human beings. And I can't imagine what this is
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going to be like. It says it's going to be 5
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months of torture. The despair is going to be so
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bad. It says in verse 6, in those
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days men will seek death and will not find it.
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They'll desire to die and death will flee from them.
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It's almost like it's so bad. I want to commit suicide because
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I can't imagine anything being worse than this.
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They're not even going to have the capacity to end their own
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life. The torture is just
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unbelievable. Total despair and yet people
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still won't turn to God. It talks about the appearance of
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these locusts in verses 7 through 10 and their demonic
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spirits inside these beings, just like the demonic spirits
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that were in the pig. Remember the pigs and, and
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whenever Jesus was dealing with them, they, they said cast us
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out, the spirits that cast us into the swine.
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And so Jesus, they didn't want to go into the abyss.
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They said they didn't want to be locked up.
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They wanted to have because there's an element of these
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creatures still out there in this, in the world and the
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society now, but the majority of them are locked up.
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But there's an element of demonic spirits on the face of
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the earth right now who are actually possessing different
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types of beings, human beings, animals, people who are
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possessed by the devil, the demon are people you don't want
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to run into. Some people think Hitler was
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possessed. The way he acted and the way he
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lived, it wouldn't, wouldn't surprise me the evil that he
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brought upon the face of the earth.
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But these creatures are going to be so horrendous.
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And this is an interesting thing.
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You know, when this book was written, John didn't have the
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ability to see technology like we see it now.
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But people who served in Iraq and Afghanistan say that when
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they read this verse, Christians, these remind them of
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these helicopters that look like locusts.
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And they make the sounds of many noise and the face of man
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driving the helicopter, the potential with nerve gas like I
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mentioned earlier, where they're able to spray and the pain that
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will begin to inflict a large mass of people on the face of
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the earth at that time, that the pain would be so bad that you
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can't eliminate it without any kind of medicine.
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There's no relief. So all these things are in some
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ways aren't clear to us as we read it because we're saying,
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well, what that, what does that look like?
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What will that be? It can be this actual creature
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in the essence of literal exegesis here of interpretation
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of what we're reading. And again, it leaves room for
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the technology of the modern times to bring these things upon
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the face of the earth. So how many want to be here for
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that? I pray today if you're here and
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you don't know Christ, that this will be one more warning for you
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to turn your life over to the Lord and let him save you today.
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To let him commend your life and and be your Lord and Savior so
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you can be spared from this. I just want to close and I think
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about 2-2 words. There's minimalism today and
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maximalism. Minimalism is how little so I
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have to do to be a Christian. Like is it enough for me?
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This would go to church on Sunday and put a few bucks in
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the offering plate and not smoke and curse and chew or go out
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with girls that do. Is that is that enough to get me
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by? That's sometimes how some of us
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think, well the gospel is completely different because it
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says if any man will follow me, let him deny himself and take up
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his cross daily and follow me. Like from Jesus perspective is
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if you want to follow me, it's 100 more flat out 100% tilt
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toward my Kingdom. That's Christianity.
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I think a lot of us, especially in these last days when we
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studied Ephesus, the church in Laodicea, Ephesus left his first
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love. And Jesus warns them, go back
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and do your first works. Be like you were when you first
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got saved, in tense, radical, focused on the Kingdom and not
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this world. And Laodicea thought they were
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intense. And Jesus says they're lukewarm.
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He says, I'd like to spit you out of my mouth because you're
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neither hot nor cold. And they taught good Bible
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doctor and all this stuff. They were, they thought they
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were doing everything good. And he says, don't you know
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you're naked, poor, wretched and blind?
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So the day when I study this stuff, I can say, well, that's a
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good study. It's interesting, it's cool,
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it's fascinating. OK, what am I going to do the
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rest of my life with this stuff? But let's lay it down.
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And I'm a prophecy addict and I just like to talk about this
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stuff and think about it because it's cool.
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But it isn't changing my life and convicting me to become more
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focused on God's Kingdom and lost people.
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Then I got a problem, right? So is it enough just to be saved
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and saved from what? Is there any cost to you and me
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to follow Christ? Well, some people say salvation
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is a gift. It's free.
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You don't have to do anything. You just receive it and believe
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it. Yeah, that's the beginning
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stages of what salvation is all about.
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Because you can't buy it. It's a gift, but it it's a cost
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once it comes into your life because your life isn't yours
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anymore. Whether you realize it or not.
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Your life doesn't belong to you. And what makes you and me
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miserable every day after we become Christians is we still
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want to run our lives like it belongs to us, don't we?
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Many times I want to do it my way and do this, and I don't
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want to do that, Lord. And we argue with the Lord and
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we fight and sometimes we get involved in things we know
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better, but we we just do it because we're proud and we want
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to do what we want to do. But Jesus says if any man will
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follow me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and
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follow me. So that's the cost.
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What's it mean to deny myself? It's different for all of us.
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But you need to ask the Lord yourself personally.
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Lord, how can I deny myself more?
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To honestly follow you. What's my responsibility as I
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study this with you and teach it?
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What's my responsibility to you and your responsibility to me
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and to other people, especially people who are ignorant of
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what's in this book? What's my responsibility?
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It's to tell them. And when I study this book, I
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ask myself what's occurring in my heart regarding my spiritual
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temper, temperature with God. You have to ask yourself today,
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are you hot with God or are you lukewarm with God?
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You have to ask yourself that really every day.
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Am I really focused on what God wants me to be focused on, or am
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I doing as little as possible to be focused upon what He wants me
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to be focused upon? So where's your heart today when
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you think about these things? I would pray that it's where
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mine is. I need to do better, I really
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do. I need to grow closer to the
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Lord. I need to deny myself more and
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fight against the things that my pride wants to force me to
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follow. I need to be committed to the
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things that Christ died for. I need to be committed to the
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lives that the apostles lived in my job, in my home, in my
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neighborhood, in my community. And today, if you drive through
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southwest Greensburg, the majority of homes have cars
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parked in front of them, and they're not in any church today.
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And they need to hear this because if they don't and they
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don't come to Christ, the judgments, if they're still
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living on earth, will fall upon them.
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And if they're dead, it's too late and they'll be in hell
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forever. So there's still time to do
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something about these issues that we're studying about South
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practical things. Come on Thursdays when you can
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and pray for an hour. Pray for the city, pray for
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yourself, pray for your. It's a sacrifice.
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Well, I'd rather work around the house or I'd rather watch TV or
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I'd rather be involved in some kind of athletic event.
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Well, there's nothing wrong with that, but there's elements of
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what is it? You're going to press in more
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for God for right Wednesday nights.
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There's Bible studies here for young people and older people
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and, and you know, commit yourself to the word of God and
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sacrifice your time, sacrifice your finances for the sake of
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getting the gospel out to other people.
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How much should I give? Well, that's between you and the
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Lord. But figure out ways that you can
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give more of yourself, your time, your treasure, and your
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talent. Because if we study these things
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and we're just listening, but we're not doing what it says,
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then it's hypocrisy, right? For all of us, including me, all
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we have to do is say, Lord, how can I press Ed?
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How can I get closer to you? What practical things can you
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show me that I can possibly do in order to walk closer with
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you? Lord, just think about those
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things this upcoming week with your own time with the Lord.
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Just say, Lord, speak to me about what it is I can do
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personally to be more committed to your ways.
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And it's not about looking what this person's doing or what that
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person isn't doing or what, what is it that I'm supposed to be
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doing? And if you do what you're
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supposed to do, everything else will take care of itself.
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Amen. We are digging into the Book of
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Revelation here on Living Waters of Grace.
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Pastor Clark is tackling this challenging book as we try to
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discern the messages that are within its pages.
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There's so much imagery and at times you're not always sure
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what's literal and what's metaphorical.
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At one point there's a reference to an adulterous woman riding on
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a beast, and as someone else mentioned, at one point it
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almost sounds like a rodeo from hell, and in actuality it kind
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of is. You learn about the downfall and
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demise of a sinful and rebellious world, falling down
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in worship to someone who is the anti hero, the enemy, Satan
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working his insidious ways into the minds of fallen people.
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It's sad and it's heartbreaking, but it's a classic story of good
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versus evil. Thankfully, we know how this
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story ends. Jesus wins, Jesus reigns, and
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evil is conquered once and for all.
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We pray and trust you've received Jesus as your Savior,
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but if you haven't, don't wait until the events in Revelation
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become what's happening on the streets.
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None of us wants you to be there at that time.
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Instead, we'd love for you to be with us in heaven as we
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celebrate the marriage supper with Jesus as his bridegroom.
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To get a better understanding of where we are in the Book of
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Revelation. To listen to any messages before
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or after this one, you can find them at our website,
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calvarychapelonline.com. That's it for today's edition,
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but we hope you'll want to hear Pastor Clark teach more from the
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Book of Revelation. It can be exciting to think
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about the future for believers, but it can feel a bit harrowing
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for those who don't believe. Come hear more next time on
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Living Waters of Grace.