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Living Waters of Grace 01.26.2026 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
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Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
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County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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We all have a purpose and we should not, we should not make a
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a mistake of putting our purpose as being the same as Our
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Calling. It is not.
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We all have a purpose. Everyone who was saved have the
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purpose. And our purpose is to glorify
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God and to worship God. That's the purpose of those of
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us who are in Christ Jesus. It's to glorify God.
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Paul's purpose is to worship and to glorify God as well, even
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though his calling was to take the gospel to the Gentiles.
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Many people go through life looking for purpose.
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Some find a sense of purpose in things like careers, family,
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college education, or other accomplishments.
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And although those may be good things to do, they are far from
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being a purpose for existence. In today's message, Pastor Lewis
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wants you to know that God created you for a purpose, and
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that purpose is to bring him glory.
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He may call you to do great things in life, but your purpose
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is to worship him in everything that you do.
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Now here's Pastor Lewis in the Book of Second Timothy, chapter
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3, with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace, I'm.
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Going to ask that you would turn your Bibles, please, to the
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Second Timothy, chapter 3. And we're going to beginning at
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verse 10, we're going to go through to verse 17 today.
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And while you're doing that, I'm going to just welcome everyone
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for coming this morning. Thank you for blessing us with
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your presence. Those of you who are new to
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Calvary Chapel, if this is your first time being here, we want
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to welcome you. And we want to thank you for
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choosing to worship with us this morning.
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And we pray that your worship experience would be good and
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that you'll come back and see us again.
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Amen. And those of you who are
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listening by way of Grace FM or listening on YouTube or any
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other social media option, we thank you for your presence and
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we just welcome you with us this morning.
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And as always, we want to welcome those who are listening
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behind prison walls. We want to welcome you this
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morning and say hello to you. And we pray that the service
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would be a blessing to you as well.
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Why don't we pray and go into the word of Godfather?
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We need you. We thank you, Lord, that you did
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plead for us on Calvary. We thank you, Father, for the
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many blessings that you bestow upon us, particularly your
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blessings of salvation, redemption.
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You sanctify us by your word, the wisdom, Lord, that you give
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us through your word. We thank you Father for meeting
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every need in our lives. Lord, we thank you for the very
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breath in our in our lungs this morning.
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And Father, we need you this morning.
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Father, we desire to have a manifestation of your spirit
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this morning that you would speak to all of us, Lord, that
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we would know that we are with you, Lord.
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And when we leave here today, Lord calls us to be deeper in
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you. Cause us to be convicted, cause
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us to be encouraged, cause someone to turn their life
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towards you. Lord Father, we can only do
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these things or through the power of Your Holy Spirit.
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No one came here today to hear me.
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Father, we're all here to hear you.
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We're your people and we're gathered before you this morning
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and we're asking Lord, that you would speak to us.
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In Jesus name we pray, Amen. So we are in the second Timothy.
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We're in chapter 3 and we're going to start right there at
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verse 10. I'm going to read a few verses
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and then we'll go back and we'll make some commentary.
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It simply says, but you have carefully followed my doctrine,
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manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, love,
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perseverance, persecutions, afflictions which happened to me
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at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I
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endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me.
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We can stop there for a second. And I just want to take us back
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a few verses to when we first started, just to give you a
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little background of where we're going.
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When we first opened up this particular chapter, we talked
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about the perilous times and the fact that we're in those last
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days. And in doing so, Paul's talking
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to Timothy, which is probably his last letter that he would
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ever write. And he's telling Timothy about
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the character of the men, the false teachers who will be
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around in those last days, the unbelievers who will be around
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in those last days, and how bad things will get, the depravity
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of man and how bad things will get.
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And in doing so, he focuses primarily on the fact that men
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will become lovers of themselves, which will give
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birth to a number of other negative characteristics that
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men will have. And he listed things like
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they'll be lovers of money, they'll be boasters, they'll be
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proud, they'll be blasphemers, they'll be disobedient to
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parents, unthankful, unholy. They'll be unloving, unforgiving
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slanderers. They'll be without self-control,
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brutal despisers of good. They'll be traitors.
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They'll be headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than
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lovers of God. And then he kind of summarizes
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that whole thing by saying that they will have a form of
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godliness, but denying its power.
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And then he admonished Timothy by saying from such turn away.
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So Paul's just got finished giving Timothy this list of
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traits that ungodly men, false prophets, false teachers will
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demonstrate. And, and, and we see, I can see
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some of those things in myself sometimes.
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And you may be able to see some of these things in yourself.
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And we can always ask for forgiveness.
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We can go and repent of those things and ask for forgiveness.
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And we serve a God who's willing and gracious enough to grant it.
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But then we also have men who will not ask for forgiveness
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because they are deceived. They are deceived and they're
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blinded by the things of the enemy and they will not ask for
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forgiveness. They think that they're doing
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things the right way, but they are deceived.
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So he switches from there. As he gets to verse 10, he
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switches from that and he says, but you, oh Timothy, you oh man
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of God. So we're we're seeing that
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there's a switch here. We're going from the
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characteristics that we want to stay away from the
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characteristics that mark ungodly false teachers.
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And now we're turning Paul's turning to Timothy and saying,
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but you, Timothy, it's going to be different for you because you
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have seen something different. You have witnessed something
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different. You have known something
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different, Timothy, in your lifestyle and he says, for you
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have carefully followed my doctrine or you have carefully
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examined my doctrine. You, you've examined my life.
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You have been around me to imitate the things that I've
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seen. You've examined, you know,
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whether or not I'm real or if I'm fake, you know, because you
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have been with me long enough to see these things.
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So you've seen my life, Timothy. So he gets to and he says
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you've, you've followed my doctrine.
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He's going to list about 8 things that Timothy have
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witnessed in his life. He said you have witnessed my
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doctrine, Timothy. You've seen the things that I
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teach. You've heard the things that
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I've teach. You set out to me, you know
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whether these things line up with the true Word of God.
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You know, you know that I didn't make anything up.
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You know that I didn't come up and start teaching psychology or
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philosophy. I didn't get off into the
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astrology and all these other wild things, New Age things.
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I didn't get off into all that. I stuck with the Scriptures.
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Timothy, you know that about me. You also know, Timothy, my
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manner of life, and I love the fact.
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Please don't miss this. The fact that Paul mentions his
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manner of life right after he mentions his doctrine, that is
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significant because that's the way it should be in our lives.
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The doctrine and our manner of life should go together.
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We should be, Paul is saying, I don't teach anything, Timothy,
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that I'm not living in my life or endeavoring to live in my
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life every day. And that should be us as well.
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We should not be proclaiming anything to anybody that we are
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not endeavoring to live ourselves.
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So it's, it's, it's fitting that doctrine and manner of life
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would follow one another. The manner of life, it's so
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important because it's the manner of life that actually
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gives, gives evidence to the doctrine that we're teaching.
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The power of what we're teaching is lived out in our lives.
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And that's what brings glory to God.
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That's what brings glory to God. And Paul understands that
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because the power truly worked in his life, because Paul wasn't
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always this way. In fact, he told us back in
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First Timothy chapter 1 and in verse 13 as he's given his
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testimony, Paul says although I was formerly before I've met
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Christ, before I gave my life to Christ, I was formerly A
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blasphemer. I was a persecutor and an
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insolent man. In other words, I was a violent
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man, a violent and angry man, a prideful man.
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So I wasn't always these things, but the power of God working in
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me has changed me, Timothy. And you have seen my life.
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And that's exactly what each and everyone of us probably had that
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same testimony. We can all say that at one point
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in our lives, we were a lot of things that we aren't now, thank
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God, right? A lot of things that we are not
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now. And that's good because that's
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the power of God. That's the witness of the power
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of God working in our lives. People are still looking for
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miracles. They're looking for these, the
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things that happened with Peter and the things that happened
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with Paul and the other apostles back when the church was first
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starting. How people were getting healed
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from handkerchiefs and, and how people were the miracles of
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people who were limping or was, you know, you know, they were
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paralyzed and all of a sudden they were walking and people
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coming back from the dead. We start to look for those
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things, but we see these things spiritually now in our own
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lives. We limp.
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We didn't walk or run into salvation.
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We limped into salvation. We were those who were
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paralyzed. Our lives are paralyzed and Paul
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is saying here that God has done miracles in my life and it
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changes the power of God working in my life.
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And now that's how you are able to see and witness the manner,
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my manner of life. And then he goes on into purpose
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and he gives, he starts to talk about his, his purpose.
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And we all have a purpose and we should not, we should not make
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a, a mistake of putting our purpose as being the same as Our
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Calling. It is not.
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We all have a purpose. Everyone who was saved had the
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purpose, and our purpose is to glorify God and to worship God.
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That's the purpose of those of us who are in Christ Jesus.
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It's to glorify God. Paul's purpose is to worship and
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to glorify God as well. Even though his calling was to
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take the gospel to the Gentiles, it was to take the gospel to to
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all these different nations. That was his calling, Our
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Calling maybe something different, but that was Paul's
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calling. But his purpose, His purpose was
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to worship God. One of my favorite authors is AW
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Tozer, and in The Purpose of Man, that the book he has called
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The Purpose of Man, he makes this quote.
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He says worship is a man's full reason for existence.
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Worship is why we are born, and it's why we are born again.
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And then he goes on. He talks about his own purpose
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and he says, I desire to deliver my soul as a prophet of God and
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explain from the Bible why we were created and why we are
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here. It may not satisfy the temporary
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needs at that time, but it will satisfy something bigger,
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grander and more eternal. And then he goes in to this and
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says that biblically defined purpose is this, that we might
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worship God and enjoy him forever.
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That's our purpose. And from that we all have
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different callings, but the purpose is to glorify God and
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everything that we do in life should be in worship and praise
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to God. We come on Sundays and we
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worship and thank God that we have a place that we can come
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together corporately and worship.
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Thank God we have that we can do that together.
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We encourage each other. All that is worship.
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Everything we do is worship up here.
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The the fact that we we hear the songs of worship, the fact that
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we have people working in AV they're doing it in worship.
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The people who are working with our kids and teaching them the
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word of God on their level at this age is all in worship and
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in praise to God. Clark and myself, when we stand
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at the sacred desk and we share the gospel, we share the
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scriptures, that is in worship to God.
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Listening to the Word of God and sitting under the word of God is
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in worship to God. But our worship does not stop
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there. When we get up on Monday morning
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and we say hello to our wife in the morning, it should be in
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worship to God. When we deal with our kids, it
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should be in worship to God. When we go on our jobs, it
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should be in worship to God and we're in the in the supermarket,
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we should be in worship to God. Any contact that we have with
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anybody should be an example of our worship to God, and that
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should happen seven days a week, not just on Wednesdays and on
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Sundays. And God, I pray that you would
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help us to be able to live a life that's in worship to Him.
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And that should be our prayer, you know, because we need the
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Holy Spirit to help us to do that.
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Because sometimes we don't worship God, We worship
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ourselves. We worship our thoughts and we
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worship our own feelings. And that's, we're normal,
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that's, that's being human. And that's why we need the Holy
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Spirit to help us to always be cognizant of who it is that
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we're living for, of who it is that died for us.
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So everything we should do should be in worship to him.
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In first Peter chapter 2 and verse 9, he says, but you are a
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chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his
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own special people. I love the way that the King
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James says it. It says a peculiar people that
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you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of
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darkness into his marvelous light.
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And again that happens through the power of the Holy Spirit.
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We do not need a neon sign to and tell anyone that we're saved
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or that we're Christians. They only should be able to see
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our lives and be able to examine our lives and they would be able
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to see our purpose and be able to see who it is that we live
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for now. The next three that he states or
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that he mentions, the next three traits that he tells Timothy
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that he has observed are things that are consistent with the
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fruit of the Spirit. He says my faith or
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faithfulness. He says my long-suffering or his
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patience and his love. Love is really significant with
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Paul. In fact, Paul wrote a whole
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chapter on it back in first first Corinthians chapter 13.
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He wrote a whole chapter on love because that's how significant
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it is to him. And he says the love bears all,
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believes all, helps all, and endures all.
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Love would be important to Paul because that's why he wrote this
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letter. He wrote this letter under the
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power of God because of his love for his son in the Spirit,
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Timothy. He wrote it because of the love
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that he had for the Church of Ephesus.
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The same thing he did when he wrote to the Church of the
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Thessalonians. Paul loved the people that he
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ministered to. In fact, he loved him so much
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that he literally put his life on the line to be able to share
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the gospel to all of these people.
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That where he started churches. He literally put his life on the
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line to do it and that was because of his love.
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Of course, he had a very good example.
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His Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who did the exact same
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thing for us, put his life, it took him all the way to the
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cross because of his love for us, because of his love for us.
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And he says to us that we should deny ourselves, that we should
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not be selfish about our lives, but we should deny ourselves and
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that we should pick up our crosses or the hardships that we
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have, the things that we have to deal with on a daily basis, pick
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up those crosses, sacrifice ourselves on those crosses, die
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daily to ourselves, and that we should follow him.
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That's what he asks us to do out of love.
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So Paul does love. In fact, he loves so much that
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in Romans Chapter 9, Paul said of his brethren, he said, I wish
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that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, for my
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brother. And then at First Thessalonians
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2 and 8, he says We not only imparted the gospel to you, but
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also our own lives because you became dear to us.
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So Paul understood love, and he definitely understood that it
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was necessary to have that agape love that can only come through
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the Holy Spirit in order for him to do what it is that God had
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called him to do. And that's the same for us as
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well. So Mark of a Christian, that's
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why Jesus said that. This is how you'll know that
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we're all Christians because we have love one for another.
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When people come in this house, I love the fact that people will
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say that, man, you know, you can tell that they love each other
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and they should be able to say that.
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They should be able to say that and I know that I feel love when
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I come into this house. I feel love.
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Thank God for that. He goes on and he talks about
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the perseverance, you know, being steadfast.
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Verse 11, he says the persecutions, afflictions which
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happened to me at Antioch. Paul was very clear about the
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fact that he did go through a number of persecutions and
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sufferings that he did at different places where he would
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preach the gospel. When he went to Antioch, he
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taught the gospel there. When he went into the
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synagogue's there were number of people who believed and as a
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result of that, the unbelieving Jews, they wanted to stir up the
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people, stir up the Gentiles that were there.
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And they ended up rising up in persecution against Paul and his
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companions and they had to leave.
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And they went into Iconium. And when they went to Iconium,
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the very same thing. He taught the scriptures and
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Iconium, he taught the word of God and he preached the gospel
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and there were many people who heard the gospel and they
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listened and they became, and, and they put their faith in
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Jesus Christ. And as a result of putting their
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faith in Jesus Christ, they began to gather together and,
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and, and, and, and have an assembly themselves.
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Well, the people who lived there who were not believers didn't
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like that either. So they persecuted Paul and
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wanted to stone him and ran him out of Iconium.
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And then when Paul got the Lystra, it was so bad that when
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Paul preached the gospel there and I and in Lystra, which is
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probably where Timothy heard the gospel from Paul the first time,
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we understand that it was the people from.
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Antioch that got together with the people from Iconium and all
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of them came down to Lystra, and they began to want to persecute
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Paul. That's how bad it was for Paul.
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But in every situation, he continued to put his life on the
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line to share the gospel because he believed that the one that he
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believed in was able to keep him, was able to keep him, and
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so he did what God called him to do.
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It may be sometimes where it seems hairy or seems dangerous
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for us to share the gospel or seem that it may cost us
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something if we share the gospel.
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But we have to believe that the one that we're serving is
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greater than anyone else. And He's able to keep us.
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He's able to protect us. He's able to deliver us from any
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situation that we may run into as a result of being faithful to
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him. So he gets to Lystra and there
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he is stoned. So Paul witnessed that.
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He witnessed being stoned in. And it's possibility, don't know
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for sure because the Bible never really says so, but it's a
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possibility that when he was there in Lystra and when they
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stoned him and they thought he was dead, then they took him
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outside of the city and their disciples gathered around him
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and they supposed that he was dead, That it was a possibility
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that maybe he was truly dead at that particular time.
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And maybe we don't. Again, we don't know because the
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Bible doesn't say that. But that could have been where
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he actually had the experience of the 3rd heaven during that
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particular time. He could have had that
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experience at that particular time where he went into the 3rd
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heaven and witnessed the things that he was not even able to
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talk about, but he was stoned. He was thought to be dead.
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But then he got up and again, because of his steadfastness or
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his perseverance, because of his love and because of his
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faithfulness, Paul got up and went right back into the same
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city that they had actually stoned him and continued to do
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the work that God had called him to do.
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What an example of steadfastness.
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What an example of someone who is just relentless to do what it
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is that God has called him to do.
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Lord, give me that steadfastness.
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Give me that relentlessness, that fearlessness in you,
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Father, so that I can under any circumstance, do Your will.
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And then in verse 12, Paul makes it clear to Timothy, I mean,
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this is this is not something that you probably want to put on
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your mirror or your refrigerator when you get up in the morning.
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Verse 12, yes, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will
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suffer persecution. That's probably not a good
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motivation speech for those who, you know, want to serve the
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Lord. I mean, you probably would have
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thought that Paul or, you know, will want to say something a
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little bit more encouraging, but Paul was a straight shooter and
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his attitude was I'm going to give you the truth because you
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know what? Jesus Christ gave us the truth
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when he talked about, you know, following him.
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And if you go to the 10th chapter of Matthew just for a
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2nd 10th chapter of Matthew, Jesus makes a very interesting
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statement over here, Tim chapter over here in verse 16.
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He says, behold, I send you out his sheep in the midst of
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wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents
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and harmless as doves, but beware of men for they will
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deliver you up. And this is his rallying speech
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to get them to be motivated to go out and serve him.
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They're going to deliver you up to councils.
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They're going to scourge you in the synagogues.
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You will be brought before governors and and kings for my
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name's sake. And he goes on and say, You'll
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be delivered up, but don't worry, because we'll give you
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what to speak at that particular time, for it will be given to
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you in that hour what you should speak.
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For it is not you who will speak, but the spirit of your
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Father who speaks in you. This has been another
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encouraging edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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Pastor Louis Harrell has shared some good reminders for us to
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learn and walk in today as he's teaching through the books of
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First and Second Timothy. There are useful practices and
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advice that the apostle Paul offers to Timothy in these books
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from a fellow pastor, Paul imparts some wisdom to Timothy
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about solid leadership and what some of the criteria should be
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for leadership. There are specific passages
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directed toward men and women, respectively, and All in all,
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there's much to gain in coming to an awareness of God's heart
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for each person and God's purposes for each one.
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We're happy that you've taken the time today to listen.
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We invite you to come here the next edition.
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In the meantime, when you have some time to spare today, go
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check out our website, calvarychapelonline.com.
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There you'll find additional messages as well as a variety of
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resources and information about how to meet with us in person.
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We're also on Facebook, so you can be a part of what we share
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there as well. You can stay plugged in with
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this ministry via YouTube to watch previous teachings or tune
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into our live stream. Living Waters of Grace is a
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ministry of Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.
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Before we go today, we ask that you share this program with
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others and invite them to listen on Grace FM at 91.7.
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That's all we have for today, but we're so glad that you've
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been with us. There's more to dig into here in
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First and Second Timothy, so let's gear up for some more
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great teachings from Pastor Lewis next time here on Living
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Waters of Grace.