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Living Waters of Grace 10.13.25 · 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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  Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County
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  of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
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  continues teaching through God's Word.
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  People who do wicked and evil things that we read about and
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  hear about aren't beyond the saving work of God.
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  And you think about your own life today if you are here and
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  you're a believer in Jesus Christ, He did something very
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  wonderful for you and me. He opened our eyes that were
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  blind. We were dead before the Spirit
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  of God enlightened us and made us alive in Christ.
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  So we're so fortunate to be saved if we are saved here
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  today. There's nothing you can do to
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  secure your own eternal life. There's nothing anyone can do.
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  But there is a way. It's through Jesus.
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  Through his sacrifice on the cross, you can be forgiven of
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  your sins and have eternal life. Today, Pastor Clark will show
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  you that no matter how far you feel from God, you can still
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  come to Him and be restored. Paul was a man who used to
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  persecute Christians, but God changed him and used him to do
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  great things for the Kingdom, just like he can with you now.
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  Here's Pastor Clark in Acts Chapter 9 with today's edition
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  of Living Waters of Grace. Acts Chapter 9.
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  Lord God, we are grateful today for the power of your Holy
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  Spirit that's very present in this place and we all surrender
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  and yield to the will of the Spirit of the living God.
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  That this is the work of the Spirit, the Word of God, the
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  church, the ministry, the gospel, evangelism, all these
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  things are developed and worked by the work of the Spirit of the
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  living God. Lord, we pray the day, Father,
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  that you would touch each of our hearts in the church today
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  around the world to renew us, Lord, to revive us, to cause us
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  to go deeper in you. Lord, we will study about the
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  Apostle Paul before he became an apostle when he was a Pagan
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  unbeliever who hated and persecuted Christians.
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  And Father, we are a very aware of the fact that Paul wasn't
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  seeking you, but you sought him. And Lord, you seek each of us in
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  a specific time in our lives. You get our attention and you
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  cause us, Lord, to turn to you. Lord, we don't turn in and of
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  ourselves, Father, we. The Bible tells us there's none
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  that seeketh after God. No, not one.
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  And so Lord, we pray that you would just work and draw each of
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  us closer to you today. And we just pray you would bless
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  us as we study together in Jesus name, Amen.
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  Amen. Well, let's look in the book of
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  Acts, Acts Chapter 9, we're going to study about this
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  experience that Paul's had. It's quite amazing when you read
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  this because I don't remember reading about someone's
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  salvation experience like we're reading in Acts a day.
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  This isn't really happened this way to anybody else, at least
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  what I read in the Bible. What's been contained in the
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  Bible? All of you that know Christ, you
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  had an encounter with the Lord and you are believers.
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  You're following him because you had a personal encounter with
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  the living God. That's the only way you become a
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  Christian. You have to have a relationship,
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  an encounter with God, and that encounter is established by the
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  work of God's Spirit. None of us can take credit for
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  us coming to faith in Christ. It's the work of God.
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  He comes after us, and even as believers, He still comes after
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  us. He's he's pursuing us to to walk
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  closer with him to have a deeper relationship with Him and the
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  things you're challenged by in life, the things you're
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  convicted by the Holy Spirit in your life in regard to walking
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  closer with the Lord or being more obedient or being more pure
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  purified we find is a continual work of the Spirit until we
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  leave this earth. God's always working in us that
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  he might work through us. And many of the things that we
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  learn, we unfortunately many times have to learn various
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  times over and over again. We have a tendency sometimes to
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  make the same mistakes or sometimes fall into the same
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  patterns of sin. This is the legacy of of the
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  believer of learning how to be sanctified, how to walk with
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  God. None of us are perfect yet, but
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  we are being perfected by the work of the Holy Spirit.
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  And that's what God uses his word for.
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  He changes our hearts. He changes our minds, our way of
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  thinking. So we begin to think the way God
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  thinks and not thinking the way the world would think in the
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  fallen nature, like you think of people, you know, you'll say,
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  oh, that person will never get saved.
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  They're so evil. They're so wicked.
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  That person's beyond salvation. No one's beyond salvation.
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  The politicians aren't beyond God's saving hand.
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  People who do wicked and evil things that we read about and
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  hear about aren't beyond the saving work of God.
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  And you think about your own life today.
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  If you are here and you're a believer in Jesus Christ, He did
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  something very wonderful for you and me.
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  He opened our eyes that were blind.
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  We were dead before the Spirit of God enlightened us and made
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  us alive in Christ. So we're so fortunate to be
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  saved. If we are saved here today.
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  It's his goodness, it's his grace, it's his mercy.
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  We didn't do anything. We didn't earn our way, we
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  didn't pay our way. There was nothing we could do
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  but ask God for mercy. And he gave us mercy.
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  So we read about Saul of Tarsus, and we read in the previous
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  chapter how he was responsible for having Stephen martyred in
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  stone. Saul was a member of the
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  Sanhedrin, he was a Pharisee, he was a very zealous Jew.
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  He was so zealous that his whole focus was to persecute
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  Christians. He thought Christianity was a
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  sect, a false religion. He didn't believe in a literal
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  resurrection of Jesus Christ, even though he probably heard
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  Jesus teaching. He was probably one of the men
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  in the Sanhedrin that was going to, you know, persecute Jesus
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  and have him crucified. He was obviously the one who was
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  there when Stephen was stoned. And so he had no interest in in
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  Christianity. He was really believing that he
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  was serving God by trying to stamp out the faith of
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  Christianity. Paul grew up as a man or young
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  man who was exposed to Grecian culture.
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  So his his parents were Pharisees and they were Hebrews
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  and the Jews were broken into two groups, the Hebrews and the
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  Hellenists. The Hellenists were those who
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  were impacted by Greek culture. So Paul had sort of both
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  understandings of legalism and then arts and that kind of stuff
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  from the Greek theater at the time.
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  And as a result of that, he was primed, if you may, by God to
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  have a background that would be able to take the gospel to the
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  Jew, to the Gentile and also speak before kings.
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  Interesting fact about being a member of the Sanhedrin.
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  You had to be married to be part of the Sanhedrin.
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  So somehow Paul was married at one time.
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  There's nothing in the Scriptures that give us any
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  indication of where his wife went or what happened.
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  Did she die? Did she leave him when he became
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  a Christian? Tradition says he had two sons,
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  One went with him and one went with his wife.
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  But we can't document that because that's not in Scripture.
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  But this a lot of fascinating background with this guy.
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  He had an attorney mind. He was an attorney kind of guy.
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  He he understood law to the NTH degree.
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  And so this is a day he's heading up towards Damascus to
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  persecute Christians. His he got report from the
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  authorities that he was authorized to go up representing
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  the authorities at that time to deal with those of the way that
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  was what was Christian Christianity was called the way.
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  So we'll pick it up in verse one.
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  Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the
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  disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked
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  letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so that
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  if he found any who were of the way.
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  And again, that's what Christianity was called WAY,
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  capital WAY. Jesus said I am the way, I am
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  the truth, I am the life. No man comes of the Father but
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  through me. So that's how they came up with
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  this, following the way, Jesus being the way, and they were
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  called the sect of the way, whether men or women, he might
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  bring them bound to Jerusalem. And so as he journeyed, he came
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  near Damascus. So his whole focus on this trip
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  up to Damascus, which was about a six day journey about 130
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  miles northeast of Jerusalem, he's going up with a specific
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  intention to get people and pull them out of their homes and the
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  synagogues and bring them into Jerusalem to be eventually put
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  in prison or to be martyred. That was his whole focus.
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  There was probably about 70 synagogues in Damascus.
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  And what was interesting was there was so many people, Jewish
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  people becoming believers that it was from the point of view of
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  the Pharisees in the Jewish system.
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  It was getting out of control. And so he's journeying up there
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  to, to do this work of persecution.
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  Suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.
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  This light, it wasn't the sun, it was the the light of of God's
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  presence, the Shekinah glory, the light that was represented
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  as God moved by the pillar of fire, by night in the cloud, by
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  day as the Tabernacle move through the wilderness.
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  The kind of light that Moses experienced when the Bush was on
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  fire. These are what would you call
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  supernatural epiphanies that have occurred throughout the
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  history of the Bible where God would show up in his glory.
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  Jesus represented that at the Transfiguration where he was
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  full of light. And Peter, James, and John
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  experienced that light. It blew them away.
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  And that's when Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on the Mount
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  of Transfiguration. So they saw him in his
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  transfigured state, his glorified state.
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  And so now Paul is encountering Christ in this light.
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  And the only way anybody could be an apostle, a true apostle,
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  they had to be eyewitness account of knowing Jesus
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  physically and personally. So this is what's occurring
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  right now. This light shines around him
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  from heaven. Then he fell to the ground.
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  So he's walking with his entourage to to deal with
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  persecuting Christians. This light shining around him
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  and he falls to the ground. The light was so
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  all-encompassing that it had to put fear in him.
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  And the first thing he thought about, I got to get to get down
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  and get some cover here. And as he fell to the ground, he
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  heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you
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  persecuting me? So when there's persecution that
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  happens against Christians or the church or in the world
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  regarding people who are following the Lord, the
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  persecution is at Jesus, not you and me.
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  We might think we're being held out to dry because we follow the
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  Lord and we represent him or whatever.
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  It's never about us. All this persecution is always
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  targeted at Jesus Christ. And so he specifically says to
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  Paul, hey, why? He didn't say, why are you
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  hassling my followers? And he's saying you're
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  persecuting me. This is personal between Saul
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  and between Jesus. And he said, who are you, Lord?
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  And that's a great question to ask.
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  I think that's one of the first questions that any of us should
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  ask. And whenever God's dealing with
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  your life and he's got you in a situation of conflict or crisis
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  or tragedy or difficulty and things are going wrong in life,
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  and you begin to know that somehow there's this creator God
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  that's dealing with you personally.
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  You don't know anything about him until you're born again,
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  until you come to faith in Jesus Christ.
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  She might be religious like Paul was.
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  Paul knew how to pray, but he never prayed from his heart.
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  He prayed written prayers of Judaism.
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  He followed the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
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  Who is this God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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  But he wasn't Privy to the understanding that Jesus was the
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  Messiah. So he's asking a a very good
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  question. Who are you, Lord?
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  And then the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
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  It is hard for you to kick against the goads that may or
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  may not be in your translation. But these goads were long
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  prodding sticks that were used by the people that were farming
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  with ox to keep the ox under control.
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  And now Paul, this this goading, he's being convicted the the
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  preparation of Paul's heart in regard to this encounter with
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  the Lord had to be impacted by what he observed whenever
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  Stephen was stoned and heard the things that Stephen said and saw
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  the glow and the shine of the Lord God on the countenance of
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  of of Stephen, as he was saying, hold us not to their charge,
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  this crime of, of martyring me, the first martyr of the church,
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  Stephen. So all this influence, all these
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  past experiences had a point from God's perspective and
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  waking Paul up, bringing him out of death into life.
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  Everyone of you in your lives have encounter with God, whether
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  you realize it or not. And many times you'll say, well,
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  why is this happening to me, God or why is why is this going on
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  or this isn't fair. You don't even know God yet
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  maybe, and you're talking to him because you know, down deep
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  inside in the conscience, the Bible says everyone knows
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  there's a Creator and we're all accountable to him.
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  And so he's interacting with this Creator who's manifests
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  before him now, and we also interact with this Creator in
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  regard to daily living. I know when the Spirit of God is
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  dealing with me about something specifically that I need to
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  confront or deal with in my own life personally, and I'm sure
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  you do too. We don't get away with anything.
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  God sees it all, He knows it all.
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  And God's whole goal in creating this world and creating us was
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  to make a people that would follow after Him.
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  But He gave us a free will to follow our own will, which most
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  of us do, don't we, until we encounter God.
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  And so this is what's beginning to happen to Saul.
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  And the Lord is beginning to speak to him in verse 6.
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  So he is a Saul. He's trembling and he's
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  astonished. And he simply says, Lord, what
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  do you want me to do? Boy, that's that's powerful,
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  isn't it? Not asking any more questions.
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  It's so obvious who he's dealing with and he humbles himself.
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  He's being humbled. And what do you want me to do?
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  And the Lord says to him, arise and go into the city and you
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  will be told what you must do. So the Lord gives us steps to
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  take. He doesn't tell you or me like
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  the big picture of what our life's going to look like from
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  the from the day we're born to the day we die or the day we
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  become believers and how our lives will begin to change from
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  that point on. He doesn't show us all that.
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  He just gives us one step at a time and he tells Paul, get up
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  and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.
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  So in verse 7, the men who journeyed with him stood
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  speechless. So these guys are used to Paul
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  being in control and having it all together and has an agenda
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  and a plan. They're looking at all this
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  right now and they don't understand what's going on.
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  They don't even know what to say.
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  They hear this voice, but they can't understand the words that
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  are being said. Only Paul is getting the
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  message. They just know something
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  supernatural is happening, but they don't hear the voice of God
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  and the words that Paul heard it.
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  They just happen to observe what's happening, and so they
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  hear this voice, but they, they, they don't see anyone.
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  Then Saul rose from the ground, and when his eyes were open, he
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  saw no one. So Paul is blind spiritually, as
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  we all are until our eyes are open by Christ.
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  But now he's blind physically. Why would this happen?
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  Well, this is the plan of God. He gets up.
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  He doesn't have any human ability right now.
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  All his faculties basically have been eradicated.
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  His pride, his ego, his ability to be in control, his focus, his
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  vision, his plan. Totally kibosh non existent now
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  he's like a little kid basically.
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  He he needs help. He can't even see where he's
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  gone. He has to be led by these people
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  who are with him on this journey to to go persecute Christians.
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  He sees no one when his eyes are open.
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  So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus and he
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  was three days without sight. He neither ate nor drank.
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  So this is a force fast. He's fasting and he's praying.
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  He's waiting to hear what is next.
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  Three days. It's a long time to not eat, to
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  not drink, and not to speak with anyone.
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  He's on the receiving end of, of hearing God downloading into his
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  heart, into his spirit, the things of the Kingdom.
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  It would be fascinating to to know all the details of what he
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  was experienced at that time. And he talks about them later on
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  in some of the epistles that he wrote down the road.
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  But nonetheless, he's bankrupt of human ability at this point
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  in time. Now in verse 10, it tells us
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  another interesting story here. There was a certain disciple at
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  Damascus named Ananias. That word means gracious. 1 and
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  to him the Lord said in a vision, Ananias.
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  So Ananias is a just down to earth human being like we are
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  called a disciple, Christian follower of the way doesn't give
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  a whole lot of detail what he was up to, what he did, but he
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  was a summon that God chose to be used in the Apostle Paul's
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  life. God uses you and me in people's
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  lives, one person at a time. Matter of fact, the most
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  powerful things that happened in our lives as Christians happened
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  one-on-one with someone else, one-on-one with God first and
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  then one-on-one with us and someone else that wants to know
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  something about what it is we know.
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  And we get a chance to tell them about Jesus and about what
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  happened to us. Ananias had a vision, and in
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  Book of Acts it talks about visions, and people still have
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  visions. It's hard to discern if a vision
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  is truly from God or is from having too much pizza the night
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  before, right? A dream, a vision, whatever it
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  might be. But whenever a vision is given
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  by God, the purpose of that vision will come to pass in
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  time. This vision was very specific.
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  He said, When he's having this vision, here I am the Lord.
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  And the Lord said to him, Arise and go to the street called
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  straight. And there is a street called
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  Straight in Damascus to this day.
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  And he said, go to this street called Straight and inquire at
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  the House of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for
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  behold, he is praying. Isn't this amazing?
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  I mean, he's getting specific, detailed information.
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  God doesn't give us vagueness when He's leading us.
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  He's very specific about what it is He wants us to do, and it's
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  all through the Scripture. You don't have to be a genius to
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  understand when when the Bible says husbands love your wives
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  like Christ loves the church. That is a direct communication
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  from God to you about how you're supposed to live in your home
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  with your wife. You don't have to make it
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  complicated. You're either learning to do
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  that or you're not doing it. But God in His Word is very
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  specific from Genesis to the end of Revelation as to what His
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  will is for us as believers and how to live for the Kingdom of
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  God. And He's telling Ananias, this
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  is what you're going to do. This is where you're going to
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  go. This is the house you're going
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  to go. This is the person you're going
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  to speak to. And I love what it says here.
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  You're going to get down there and behold, he is praying.
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  So God sees Paul, He sees he sees Saul at this time.
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  He's not called Paul yet. And he sees you and me when
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  we're praying. He sees us when we're alone with
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  him, when we're waiting upon him, when we're crying out to
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  him, when we're seeking to know of him or to hear about him.
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  He's always present. God is never absent from any of
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  our lives. God is omnipresent.
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  He's able to be present everywhere at the same time, in
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  every human being's life. That in, in and of itself should
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  blow our minds of how great our God is.
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  He's always there, present. He sees what we're up to.
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  He knows our thoughts. He knows our fears.
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  He knows our anxieties. He knows our dreams, our hopes,
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  our vision, our purpose, our desires.
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  He sees it all. And He sees specifically right
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  now this man he's dealing with named Saul, that he's praying
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  and he's hearing the prayer. And in a vision, he has seen a
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  man named Ananias coming and putting his hand on him so that
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  he might receive his sight. So this is really something, not
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  only is God like giving Ananias the details, but he's saying I
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  already told Paul that you're on your way and you're going to lay
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  hands on him and he's going to be able to see again physically.
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  Thank you for listening to this edition of Living Waters of
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  Grace. Pastor Clark is teaching us
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  about the book of Acts in this series.
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  Acts is a powerful and unique part of Scripture, not just
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  because it records the spread of the gospel geographically from
• 24:12
  Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, but also culturally.
• 24:15
  Acts shows us how the message of Jesus moved beyond its Jewish
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  roots and began to reach the Gentile world.
• 24:23
  What started with Peter leading a small group in the Upper Room
• 24:26
  became a global movement with Paul taking the gospel to
• 24:30
  cities, synagogues and marketplaces across the Roman
• 24:34
  Empire. Acts captures this vital
• 24:37
  transition and reminds us that the good news of Jesus is for
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  all people in every place. May we be inspired to carry that
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  same gospel boldly into our world today.
• 24:50
  Living Waters of Grace comes to you from Calvary Chapel,
• 24:53
  Westmoreland. If you're in the Greensburg, PA
• 24:56
  area, you can listen to Grace FM on the new 91.7 frequency.
• 25:01
  Pray about helping support the new station that will reach
• 25:05
  thousands more listeners. Send gifts to Grace FMPO, Box
• 25:10
  716, Greensburg, PA 15601 also invite you to join us in person
• 25:18
  this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
• 25:23
  Unit 6B. To stay up to date, visit
• 25:26
  calvarychapelonline.com where you can find our teaching
• 25:30
  archive, submit prayer requests, join our e-mail list, or give
• 25:34
  online. If you're outside the area,
• 25:37
  don't worry, you can still worship with us through the
• 25:40
  Calvary Chapel Westmoreland YouTube channel.
• 25:43
  Be sure to subscribe so you won't miss new content.
• 25:46
  We're so thankful that you joined us today.
• 25:49
  Be sure to tune into the next edition of Living Waters of
• 25:52
  Grace.