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Living Waters of Grace 11.24.25 · 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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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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They were convicted about the things they were reading, the
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things they were studying, and they brought their books
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together and they burned them as sight of all.
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So all the people in Ephesus, there's a big deal going on
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here. People are magnifying the Lord.
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People are confessing their sins.
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They're bringing all their garbage and they're pouring and
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whatever it might be and they're going to burn it.
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And it says they counted up the value of them and a total of
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50,000 pieces of silver in today's money.
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That could be between 1:00 and $5 million.
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Imagine a community coming out in the open about all their
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deepest secrets and hidden pleasures.
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What if people were exposing all the porn they'd been looking at,
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or all the books of a sexual nature that some had been
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indulging in behind closed doors?
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Well, this is what was happening in the city of Ephesus as Pastor
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Clark is going to fill you in today.
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There was true conviction happening in the hearts of these
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people. Guess what, By taking an action
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and moving away from sin, God was glorified.
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Now here's Pastor Clark in the book of Acts Chapter 19 with
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today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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Paul's in this city that is predominantly Pagan.
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There's very few Christians. There's not even a church at
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this time. So visualize yourself.
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Your friend of Paul, he wants to have some Bible studies.
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He rented a facility from a guy that had some real estate that
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wasn't using it at certain hours of the day, between 11:00 and
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4:00 in the afternoon. And he invited people like us at
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the time that were in the community to come and study the
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Bible, study the word. Of course, it would have been
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primarily the Old Testament Scriptures, but he was writing
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letters. So he was using things that the
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Holy Spirit had been giving him that were eventually codified in
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what we call the day our Bible, 66 Books of the Bible.
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So as he's teaching these people that the things of the Spirit,
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people like you and me, we're sitting there and we're getting
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changed. We're hearing the word.
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So all these things are happening and they're learning.
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And so they're going out from this Bible study every day.
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Can you imagine being in a Bible?
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It's one thing to be in a Bible study with me.
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I ain't anywhere near Paul. OK, I'm lip syncing what Paul
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wrote. This is all what he, you know,
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Luke translated this and put it into this book, the book of the
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Acts. But these these are the this is
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the life of Paul, his ministry. But to be able to sit with an
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apostle for six hours a day, five days a week for over almost
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three years, he would be really grounded.
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You'd really know what the Bible was all about, but not any of
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that. They were going out and in the
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power of the Holy Spirit. They were impacting the
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community and the provinces around the area that Paul was
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ministering in at the time and Acts.
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So the purpose of the church and in our church to hear is to
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explode on the outside so that people that don't know Jesus
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begin to hear about him and want to know about him and they end
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up maybe coming here to hear more about him.
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OK, or or another Bible church, whatever.
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And so this is impacting the whole known world at the time
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the gospel was going out and the power of the Holy Spirit.
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And so Paul, not any was preaching because the gospel in
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and of itself is the power of God and the salvation to
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everyone that believes, to the Jew 1st and also to the Greek.
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So I don't need to have a miracle in front of me before
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I'm a Christian to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
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the living God. The Holy Spirit does the miracle
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in my heart to cause me to believe the message of the
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gospel. And then when I believe that
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message, then my life is dramatically transformed.
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I'm saved, I become born again. I have new eyesight, I have new
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vision, new passion, new desires and my my life is is brand new
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and yours is too. When you come to faith in Christ
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and that is the miracle of miracles.
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You know of someone becoming born again, passing from death
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to light, from darkness to light.
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And now our followers of God as as opposed to followers of the
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devil in his lies. And so not any though the
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preaching at the time, but Jews require a sign, it said.
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So signs are real important to the Jewish people.
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The Greeks seeked after wisdom. Jews seek a sign.
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So in order to authenticate the message that Paul is proclaiming
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that Jesus is the Messiah to a predominantly Jewish population
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at the time these miracles occurred.
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And so these handkerchiefs and these weren't like things he was
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blowing his nose on. These were sweat bands he put
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around his head when he was doing his tent making.
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The apron were the made out of leather.
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And he used this to put his tools in whenever he was making
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his living as he was preaching the gospel and and making tents.
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And So what happened was I don't know who came up with the idea.
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I know it wouldn't have been Paul.
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He wouldn't have said we'll take this and put it on someone sick
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and, and they'll be okay and they'll be healed.
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No, that wasn't the way it worked.
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Somehow the Spirit of God, this ended up getting some of this
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stuff out into these different places.
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And when it touched the bodies of some of these people, it says
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that they were delivered from their sickness.
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Diseases left them and, and, and not any of that evil spirits
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went out from them automatically just by the touching of this
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point of contact of a man who is highly anointed of God.
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It wasn't anything in and of Paul.
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It was Christ in Paul that enabled this to actually occur.
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Now, you don't really read about this in any other part of the
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Bible. You have to realize that the
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miracles in the Bible started with Moses primarily, and then
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they were Elijah and Elijah and then they were Jesus and the
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apostles. Those were the three stages of
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the ages of miracles in in church history and in the Bible.
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There's less than 100 miracles codified or quantified in detail
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where we can read and study them tells us and John Jesus did many
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other miracles that there wouldn't have been enough books
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in the world to contain everything he did.
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But God felt that it was necessary to give us enough
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indication that he does work within the miraculous realm.
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Now today I could RIP part of my sweater off here If you had a
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headache and and tell you to put it on your forehead, nothing's
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going to happen. These charlatans on TV that sell
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these things and tell you to send money in and they prayed
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for them and and they soak their sweat in them.
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If you send 50 bucks and they'll send you this cloth.
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I mean, it's just nothing but con artists and RIP off.
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This happened one time and you know, and other times, if you
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read church history documents from way back in the early days,
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there has been miracles that occurred that there was no
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explanation for. People have laid hands on me and
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prayed for me. And when I've been sick or
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having a problem and I've done the same thing for other people,
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and sometimes God shows up and brings healing and other times,
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OK, you take the medicine, right?
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That's just the way it is. I prefer to get the healing and
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not take the medicine. But you know, if I got to take
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the medicine, I take the medicine.
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And you do too. But there's nothing wrong with
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seeking God for a touch supernaturally.
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There was a true story and I saw the movie and I read the history
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and it was authenticated that this guy, Nectarius was his name
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and he was a very godly, monastic kind of guy, praying
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all the time, a very holy man, very saintly man.
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And Mickey Rourke, the guy played in that movie, that
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boxing movie, he played the part of this drunk coal miner that
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was living at the time that Nectarius was living on this
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particular island. And he somehow, I think he had a
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drinking problem and he fell off a Cliff and paralyzed himself.
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So he's in bed and he can't move.
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And Victarius is in bed with prostate cancer.
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And this is what always fascinated me.
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Here's Paul. Able to do miracles, right?
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People getting healed, delivered.
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Paul had a physical affliction, the thorn in the flesh.
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He asked God three times to take it from him.
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He didn't like RIP off his shirt and put it on his wherever it
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was hurting and to say, OK, make it happen.
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He had to suffer it. And then the Lord said, hey, I'm
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not going to answer the prayer. My strength is made perfect in
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your weakness at the power of Christ would rest upon you.
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So Paul had to deal with the illness and the affliction that
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he had. Everybody's going to die of
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something. Even after Lazarus was raised
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from a dead miraculously, guess what?
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He eventually died physically. We all have to die physically.
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But so anyway, this, this nectarious guy, he's laying in
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bed and and Mickey Rourke, the actor, he's laying there.
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Why would God allow me to have this problem?
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I can't move. What good am I going to be to my
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wife and my kids? I can't make a living.
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He's depressed, he's complaining and nectarious just sort of
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laying there in agony and pain. He just smiles as well.
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Maybe God will surprise you. That's all he said.
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Well, this is wild. So Nectarious dies, they come
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in, the nurses are taking the shirt and everything off.
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They throw the shirt on the bed to the guy, Mickey Rourke, the
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actor laying there in the bed. And within several minutes he's
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completely healed and he's able to walk.
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His body's restored. Now.
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You can't re enact the stuff you you can't figure it out.
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I mean, even when Jesus did healing, they were always
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different. Sometimes he'd spit on the, the
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dirt and get the mud and rub it in someone's eyes or some other
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time a woman would touch the hem of his garment.
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I, I all I know is that God is able to do the miraculous and we
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can pray and ask him to do that. And sometimes we experience
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that, but there's no guarantee. There's no man.
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You can go to some woman that it's a holy person to ask him to
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pray. And just because it's them,
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they're going to be able to do something for you.
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It's only the Lord, and He does everything after the counsel of
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his own will, even the gifts of the Spirit.
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He gives them out severally as He wills.
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The idea of faith healers is not biblical, but the the idea of
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the gift of healing is biblical. But even the people that have
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been used by God to pray for people and their health, and
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there's been evidence of maybe a higher percentage of people
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being healed doesn't mean that everybody's going to get healed.
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But anyway, this this instance of this occurring in here was to
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get the attention of these Jewish people.
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And it did in verse 13, and some of the itinerant Jewish exorcist
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took it upon themselves to call in the name of the Lord Jesus
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over those who had evil spirits, saying we exercise you by the
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Jesus whom Paul preaches. Also there were seven sons of
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Skiva, a Jewish chief priest who did so.
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So these Jewish people at the time, unbelievers, had some kind
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of capacity because they did believe in the God of Abraham,
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Isaac and Jacob. So there was some anointing
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authority in their lives and I guess they had experiences at
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times where they were used and God worked through them to
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deliver people from demonic possession or oppression.
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But their minds are thinking and they're not even believers yet.
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Well, like Paul prays in Jesus name and there's, there's
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miracles that occur. So let's try this.
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Let's see if it works for us. Well, well, first of all, it's,
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it's humorous here. What's going to happen because
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these, these sons of the, the Jewish chief priests thought
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that maybe they could make some new kind of ministry going on
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here. And, and it says in verse 15,
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the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus, I know and Paul, I
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know, but who are you? Boy, that's scary, huh?
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They're in the house with this demonic person, the spirit.
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They think they're going to have an overcoming experience here
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and these demon demons going to be cast out.
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And this is what happens in verse 16.
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Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them,
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overpowered them and prevailed against them so that they fled
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out of that house naked and wounded.
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Wouldn't that be something? One guy, the strength of this
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person possessed by the devil was able to whoop 7 grown
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healthy young men and not any beat them up and tear their
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clothes off and and have them running out humiliated by what
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it was they tried to do. The devil's always trying to
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replicate or duplicate the miraculous.
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We remember Moses with the rod and throw it down it turns into
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a snake. Well, God allowed that to happen
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when the magicians were able to replicate certain degrees of
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those miracles, right? And so that's because there's a
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miracle that occurs, doesn't mean it's the Lord.
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The devil comes with lying signs and wonders, a matter of fact,
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in the last days when the Antichrist comes on the scene
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and the false prophet, they'll be all kind of miraculous.
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That will be occurring like we've never, ever experienced.
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And there'll be a lot of people thinking that he's the Christ
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and he'll be the Antichrist. And so this became known in
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verse 17 both to all the Jews and the Greeks dwelling in
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Ephesus, and fear fell on all of them.
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So we're in Greensburg here. It's in the newspaper.
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Channel 4 News is down there interviewing.
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We are all aware that something spectacular happened and scary.
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And so we know there's problems in Greensburg.
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There's demonic activity, there's demonic activity
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everywhere. There's satanic powers, there's
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a Oak Hall, there's astrology, there's false religion, there's
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all these kind of things that are happening in the day and age
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that we live. And these are the things that
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bind people into immoral lifestyles.
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Someone doesn't this one day wake up and say, well, I think
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I'm going to, I'm a guy, so I think I want to have some sex
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with a guy. I mean, that's that is demonic.
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It's not real. It's not, I don't care what any
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psychologist or what any kind of secular humanists or what
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they're trying to tell us in government now and all these
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things, these things are not normal.
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Matter of fact, Roman Empire fell because of the this
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promiscuity and this increased atmosphere of gay and lesbian
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lifestyle and abortion that eventually that nation was
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destroyed. And we are this close right now
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with testing God with what it is we're doing as a culture and
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people saying good is evil and evil is good.
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And we as Christians need This is why like we need to get out
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of the building, have conversations.
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We don't need to condemn people. We don't hate people.
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We need to love them enough to tell them, hey, what you're
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doing is sin and your sin will cause you to eventually be in
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hell. That's the bottom line.
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Now, I hope I'm not hurting anybody's feelings here today.
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But if you're living in a lifestyle that is not God's will
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and, and in his word, you're going to suffer consequences.
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You already are. The amount of people who are
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taking their lives that have tried this transgenderism and
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all this crazy stuff out there, sex changes and all this, it is
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unbelievable. You got to do the research, the
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statistics, and you know, and it isn't unloving.
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It's loving to tell people the truth.
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It's unloving to just say, well, it's OK, That's whatever you
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want to do, go ahead and do it. And so Paul wasn't that kind of
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guy. And nor are we these kind of
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people that this ignore these issues of sin today, even in our
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own time and our own culture. And So what happened was they're
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they're afraid now that the beginning of wisdom is the fear
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of the Lord and depart from evil.
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That tells us in Proverbs, you're really catching on when
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you begin to fear the consequences of your sin.
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You don't play around with it anymore.
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You don't justify, you don't say, well, that's OK, and
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everybody's doing it. No big deal.
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It's a big deal. It's a big, big deal.
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And So what happened was these people are are are starting to
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get frightened. And whenever you have an
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encounter with God to such a degree over your sin, and you
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know you have one or two choices to make, you either continue in
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your sin and you perish, or you get right with God and you
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repent and you leave your sin. And this began to cause such a a
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move of God's spirit. And the city of Ephesus, it says
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that fear fell on them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was
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magnified. That's what we need to have
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happen today. At the name of Jesus, every knee
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will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God the Father.
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There is no other name given among men under heaven by which
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we can be saved or must be saved.
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Jesus is the truth. He's the way, the truth the
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life. No man comes to the Father but
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through him. And so Jesus was magnified.
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He said if he be lifted up, he will draw all men to himself.
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Pray for Pastor Lewis and myself that when we preach the Word,
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we're preaching the Word with the name Jesus involved in the
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Word. Because the Bible without Jesus
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is just a bunch of words, but the Bible with Jesus can turn
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the world upside down. And this is what was happening
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here. Now we'll read.
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Many are intimidated now they're fearful.
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And many who had believed came confessing and telling their
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deeds. Can you imagine Calvary today?
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Some of you guys are getting saved.
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Hey, I'm not leaving today until I tell you what God's delivered
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me from before I came here today, I was sleeping around
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with every, every woman I could find or whatever.
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I was chasing some guy down the street or some woman says, well,
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I'm sleeping with all the different girls out there in the
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community, you know, and the Lord convicted me and I couldn't
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live that way anymore and I repented.
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And I want to tell you guys what Jesus did for me, right?
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If you ever have a testimony, let me know.
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Because the more we hear what the Lord's done, the more he's
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glorified and the more people here they say, well, maybe he
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could do that for me. People are trapped in sin.
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People don't just decide one day that they want to be immoral.
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They start becoming immoral and then they're trapped.
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They don't know how to stop being immoral.
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And they're they're in bondage and they're under the influence
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of the devil and says. And so these people, they're
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confessing and telling their deeds.
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Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their
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books together and burned them in the sight of all.
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Now, I've been a student of all kind of religions my whole life,
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and I was into Buddhism for a while and I was into, you know,
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reading whatever was esoteric or ocaldic, and I didn't even know
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what I was doing at the time. It just fascinated me.
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What makes the world go round and why is this happened?
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Why is that? And how far is the sky going?
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And what's truth? You know, until I came to know
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Christ, I had no idea what truth was.
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So I have a bunch of books. And there are a lot of them are
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in my garage now in a box. This, I don't know.
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What am I going to do with them? Maybe we should have a bonfire
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this summer somewhere. I'll bring my old books and you
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bring yours too, you know. But anyway, this is what was
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happening here, right? They were convicted about the
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things they were reading, the things they were studying, and
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they brought their books together and they burned them.
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A sight of all. So all the people in Ephesus,
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there's a big deal going on here.
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People are magnifying the Lord. People are confessing their
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sins. They're bringing all their
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garbage and they're porn and whatever it might be, and
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they're going to burn it. And it says they counted up the
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value of them and a total of 50,000 pieces of silver in the
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days money. That could be between 1:00 and
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$5,000,000. I read back and that day that
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silver was worth about $10,000, which is a lot of money.
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It was enough for 150 people to make their livelihood for a
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whole year. That's how much was destroyed in
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this in this fire. And as a result of that, what
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happened? It says the word of the Lord
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grew mightily and prevailed. So we have a calm church here
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today. Usually I'm a calm pastor
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because a lot of you fall asleep when I teach.
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Hey, so you have a very nice voice.
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You know what a day my voice is a little bit more, you know,
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whatever you know, I don't know, but you know, you're not falling
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asleep today as much as you normally do.
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It's not that the message is any better, but the the text is
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better because we're reading about the Lord being magnified
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and and so as a result of the word, the message in the gospel
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is growing mightily. It's prevailing in the world.
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It's prevailing in the community.
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I find that as the Lord move in a small Pagan city, Ephesus at
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the time, with 95% and 98% of the people being unbelievers,
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all the sudden this one guy with some friends, the whole city is
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being turned upside down. So you and I might say, well,
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we're in a hopeless situation. We got a Pagan government, we
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got legislators or you know, sanctioning immorality.
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We, you know, they, they're doing this, they're doing, who
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cares what they do? We need to be doing what we're
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supposed to do. And if we do what we're supposed
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to do, we're not like bad mouthing people and putting them
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down or judging them. I mean, I'm no better than
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anybody else, but I know someone who's better than all of us.
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And his names Jesus. And he can save you from your
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sin. You got to repent.
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You got to turn. You got to turn to Jesus.
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And So what happens is when a city begins to do that and a
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community begins to do that, then all of a sudden we are salt
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and light. You know, we begin to impact and
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counter balance or counter attack all this movement toward
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this godless world. Like I think the problem with
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the church and Christians in general was we don't think we
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can do anything anymore. So we don't vote, or we don't
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witness, or we don't pray, or we don't intercede.
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There's all these options in the Bible of things that we can do
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as God's people that can begin to turn things the other way.
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And throughout the ages of time, God's work with the remnant of
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people who have been open to the Spirit of God that he could work
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in to turn things in a different direction again.
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And if we were ever at a point in our time and our history and
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our nation and our own lives and in our own churches as
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evangelicals, we need this movement of God.
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We need this freshness of God's Spirit.
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We need people to be raised up in the church with ministries
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and giftings and callings and abilities to let it all out and
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give it all for Jesus now. Amen.
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I mean, what are we waiting for? Thanks for joining us on this
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journey through Acts. On today's edition of Living
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Waters of Grace, Pastor Clark shares that one of the most
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remarkable things about the book of Acts is how it shows the
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disciples transformation. The followers of Jesus we meet
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here are very different from the often confused and fearful
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disciples in the Gospels. After Jesus's death and
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resurrection, and especially through the power of the Holy
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Spirit, the apostles experienced a profound change in their
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hearts and boldness. Their faith became unwavering,
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and they moved forward with courage to spread the gospel
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despite opposition and hardship. Acts reminds us that the same
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Spirit who empowered them is at work in US today, shaping our
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hearts and giving us strength to live boldly for Christ.
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Living Waters of Grace is a ministry of Calvary Chapel
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Westmoreland. If you're in the Greensburg, PA
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area, we invite you to join us this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E
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Pittsburgh St. Unit 6B.
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Visit calvarychapelonline.com For more information where you
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can also join our e-mail list, submit prayer requests, give
25:13
online and download our mobile app.
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If you are in the Greensburg area, you can listen to Grace FM
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on the new 91.7 frequency. Pray about helping support the
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new station that will reach thousands more listeners.
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Send gifts to Grace FMPO Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601.
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If you can join us in person, you can subscribe to the Calvary
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Chapel Westmoreland YouTube channel so you'll be alerted
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when new material becomes available.
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We're so grateful that you joined us today in Acts.
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TuneIn again soon for another edition of Living Waters of
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Grace.