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1 Corinthians 12 - Unity Through Diversity of Spiritual Gifts · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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  So that leads me into spiritual gifts.
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  You do see a couple of them working here today, right at the
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  worship and Carrie and and our sister here and Kevin, I mean
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  the body of Christ coming together and using their passion
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  and their hearts for the things that are Lord.
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  And how awesome is that, right? So I wanted to talk this morning
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  about the church and how God sees it and how he designed it
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  and the purpose of why he created a church in general and
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  the initial purpose of of the Lord's heart for the world.
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  We can see in the book of Matthew chapter 28, where he
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  says to the disciples and those following him before he
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  ascended, it says, and Jesus came and spoke to them, saying,
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  all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
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  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
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  in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
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  teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you.
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  And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
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  Amen. So that's what we do here every
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  week. We we teach you the things that
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  God desires you to know so you know how to follow him.
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  You know how to keep your life on track with him so you can be
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  blessed by him and enjoy your relationship with God on a daily
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  basis because of your knowledge and understanding of the word of
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  God. Living the word of God,
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  meditating on it, receiving it, listening to it, hearing it and
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  applying it to your lives daily. That's the job of the the pastor
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  teacher to feed the sheep. Jesus said if you love me you
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  feed my sheep. And I know any man that teaches
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  in the church as well as the women that teach the women our
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  hearts desire is not to give an impressive message or whatever a
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  motivational speech, but to give you the truth of God's word.
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  So it goes into your art, your hearts and begins to change your
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  thinking and change your lives. And it happens, doesn't it?
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  Week in and week out, our lives are being changed little by
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  little. Our hearts become softer.
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  We learn to love God and we learn to to love each other.
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  We learn to be patient with each other.
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  As Cindy and I were talking about something recently, you
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  know, we have conflict at times in our marriage.
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  We all do, but we love each other.
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  We've been together 54 years and we just never gave up on each
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  other. It's easy to quit and to say I'm
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  moving on or whatever, but in church relationships, we work,
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  we endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace
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  because we, we love one another and none of us are perfect, but
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  God is perfecting us. But also, the first thing you do
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  after you become a new believer in Jesus is to get baptized.
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  So if you haven't been baptized yet, on September 20th, water
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  temperature will be about 85° and no worries, we're going to
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  baptize. OK, So let me know, Pastor
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  Lewis, if you want to get baptized at our house at 10:00
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  on Saturday, September 20th, that'll be the last baptism for
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  this year unless we go to the YMCA.
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  So take advantage of it. Some people are calling us and
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  saying, you know, I never been baptized.
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  I really need to get baptized. And that's something God will
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  bless you for. Doesn't save you, but it will
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  make you go deeper in the Lord because you're being obedient to
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  what it is he told you to do. OK and and then also what it
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  says in that little gospel message, Aaron Matthew, is he
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  going to all the world? So I know it's hard to have a
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  conversation sometimes with people about your faith.
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  And maybe you're nervous or you don't know how to do it.
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  And you, you learn as you come here how to share your faith.
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  But this is a real simple thing. You're standing in a
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  supermarket, you're bored, you're impatient, and you see
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  someone in front of you and you strike up a conversation and
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  they they're sharing their life with you or whatever.
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  They're just talking about whatever they're going through.
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  You have an opportunity to say, hey, you know, I go to this
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  church called Calvary Chapel. They have a radio station.
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  You can listen to it and hear good news.
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  Everybody needs to hear good news.
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  And there's AQR code. You can find out more about it
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  and see messages and all that kind of stuff.
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  I like to invite you sometime. It's real simple.
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  So I have a pile of them on my shirt.
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  So if I'm driving through Starbucks, hey, here's 1 here
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  and you're going through Chick-fil-A, here's 1 here.
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  Do me a favour, do the Lord a favour, bless him by taking some
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  of these and passing them out and inviting people.
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  And if we do that, one of these days, this place won't have
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  enough room to fill the people. And that's what God wants.
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  He wants to fill his church with people that desire to know him
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  and to follow him. So this is a great little tool.
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  OK, I don't know about how many times you've been around and
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  said, boy, I wish I had something to give, something to
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  tell them about the church, where it's at, what time it is.
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  I can't remember all that stuff. You know, I'm the pastor.
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  I don't even know what time at the time.
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  But anyway, you are invited to Calvary Chapel.
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  So grab some of those, maybe take 3 this week and pray and
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  say, Lord, give me 3 like arrangements or providential
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  meetings of people you want me to give these to.
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  And I guarantee the Lord will give you an opportunity to give
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  them out. OK, so let's pray.
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  Father God, we thank you today for your word.
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  We thank you for the privilege we have to be together here.
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  And Lord, we pray for the people that are listening live on Grace
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  FM even now, people who are tuned into YouTube.
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  Lord, we pray you would bless all of them and bring fruit from
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  your teaching today and the lives of your people and your
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  church. And we pray all these things in
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  Jesus name, Amen. So we are in First Corinthians
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  chapter 12 continuing where I had left off several weeks ago
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  before we were away on vacation at the beach.
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  And the first first chapter 12 verse one, it says Now
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  concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to
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  be ignorant. So this is a heads up from the
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  Lord. He doesn't want us to be
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  unknowing about spiritual gifting.
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  This is very important and you may or may not know what your
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  spiritual gifts are. Every one of you have at least
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  one. Some of you may have more than
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  one, and the only way you can really get to know what your
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  spiritual gifts are is to begin to dip your feet in the water to
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  find out maybe where you fit in the body of the church, what
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  type of ministries that are available, things you can get
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  involved in. Laurie and Paul are away this
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  weekend on their vacation and no drummer today.
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  So all we need is a drummer for people who only have a beat.
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  You remember who sang that flying the family stones you got
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  you win. I'll give you one of these cards
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  when you leave here. You get a prize.
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  But anyway, if you know how to play drums and I mean if you
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  know how to play drums, let let our worship leader Gina know So
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  when Paul is in here, you can fill in.
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  OK, there's other worship opportunities, there's sound
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  room opportunities, there's opportunities in kids ministry,
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  and there's opportunities and things that we don't even know
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  yet or even thought about yet. You might have an idea of a new
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  ministry you believe the Lord wants you to start.
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  And there's no bureaucracy here, no hoops to be jumping through,
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  no groups of people. You got to sit down and get
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  judged by you to say, hey, I want to do this.
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  I have a heart to do this. We have a sister here that's
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  helping us with social media right now and she's very excited
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  about raise your raise your hand Brenda back there.
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  And she's a newer believer and she came out of the Catholic
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  Church and she's finding something special here in her
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  life because of the word of God. And she, she's getting getting
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  used to getting used to our worship, though our worship's
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  different than a Catholic Church because like we go on and on.
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  So she comes in a little late, but that's OK.
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  You know, she catches part of it.
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  But she's her and Kevin and others are working with the
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  social media now to let people know that's another way of
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  evangelism. So if you, if you know how to do
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  Facebook, Twitter, YouTube X all these things I don't know
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  anything about ask Brenda or tell her you want to get
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  involved in helping get the word out about Calvary Chapel.
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  That would be awesome. But spiritual gifts are
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  something that you have to have faith to ask the Lord to show
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  you what he created you for and why he made you a son or a
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  daughter of his. Not to just sit and listen to
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  messages week in and week out. I mean, that's important to hear
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  the word, but how can you get mobilized and actively involved
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  in the preordained calling of God upon your life?
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  And this church believes in giving people the opportunity to
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  use their gifting. Years ago, I had to do Sunday
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  morning and we did Sunday nights and we did Wednesday nights.
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  And every time there was a teaching, I had to be the one to
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  do it. And I I don't want to be the one
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  that has to do it all the time because that's not sustainable.
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  God created men and women with spiritual gifts to serve in the
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  ministry to use their teaching abilities.
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  And Wednesday nights we have 5 different men that are gifted to
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  teach through the Old Testament. What a blessing.
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  We have women Bible studies. We have a men Bible study on
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  Tuesday night. On Tuesday mornings we have
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  women's studies over here. Sunday morning.
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  We have all these gatherings and opportunities.
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  A Bible study at a Home group that started last Friday night
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  at the Fred and Mary Ellen's home.
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  It's just so exciting for me to see after all these years of
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  ministry, the body of Christ actually working and and Deb, I,
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  I heard amazing things about what the Lord did at that
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  women's retreat. Cindy said you had like notes
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  all over the table and he's like, are we going to have to
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  listen to all these pages and you only read a couple things
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  she said, but it came from her heart, the flow of the Holy
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  Spirit through your life to give whatever the Lord wanted to
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  give, give to those women and they were truly blessed.
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  I know my wife was for sure, and so take advantage of these
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  things. This men's retreat coming up in
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  a couple weeks, that is going to be an awesome, awesome time out
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  in Ligonier. I don't stay overnight.
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  So guys, sometimes you don't want to stay overnight.
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  I drive up Friday evening, listen, go home, sleep at home,
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  get up Saturday morning, come back and then leave Saturday
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  afternoon when it's over. So please pray about attending
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  that because if you go, it'll change your life.
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  The guy that's teaching this year is a friend of mine from
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  Colorado, Ed Taylor. He teaches on our station.
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  I talked to him on the phone periodically.
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  He has a radio station like ours, Grace FM, wonderful Bible
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  teacher, came out of cocaine addiction, came out of running
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  around on his wife, came out of all kinds of stuff.
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  And the Lord got a hold of his life and saved him.
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  So you've got a tremendous, tremendous testimony to share
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  with us. So how Jesus changed his life.
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  But you might be here today. OK, spiritual gifts.
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  What's this have to do with me? It has everything to do with
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  you. And the Lord doesn't want you to
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  not be aware of the fact that you have something special He's
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  given you to serve the Lord. But if you don't test the water,
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  if you don't step out by faith, even though you might not be
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  sure that's where you're being called to, you'll never know.
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  But if you step out by faith and you find what it is God's gifted
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  you for, you'll never turn back again.
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  You love what it is he's told you to do.
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  And it's not a burden, it's a joy.
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  It's no pressure. It comes naturally.
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  And so there's, there's no expectations of me or Lewis or
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  anybody else in the church in regard to what you do or what
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  you don't do. Just the fact that you show up
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  on a Sunday, that's the gift of helps.
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  You're helping me be encouraged today by you just being here,
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  wanting to hear God's word. When you're able to give, that's
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  another gift of of helps and gift of giving.
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  That's part of what makes all this work on a week in and week
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  out, the daily basis here at Calvary Chapel.
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  So he doesn't want us to be ignorant.
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  And down in verse four, he says there's diversities of gifts.
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  I covered this the last time I was reviewing a little bit, but
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  the same Spirit. So there's all these different
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  kind of gifts that we're going to talk about here in a moment,
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  but it's the one Holy Spirit that gives these gifts.
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  I don't give him. Lewis doesn't.
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  No man gives them. This is from God, the Holy
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  Spirit. There's differences of
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  ministries and I could go on and on about all the various things
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  that happened here. You're, you're aware of them
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  through the constant contact and the announcements of all the
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  things that you can get involved in.
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  But it's the same Lord. There's diversities of
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  activities, all kind of different things going on.
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  You can't be involved in everything, but you can't be
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  involved in some things that you have a heart and a passion for.
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  I know Operation Christmas Child is going to come up pretty soon
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  and Kerry's very passionate about that.
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  I'm so thankful that she spearheads that because that's
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  her gift and the passion and Michael, but others have that
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  same gift and they get on board with her to help her.
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  And that's a form of missions around the world with Franklin
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  Graham's organization. And we we had a ton of little
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  boxes that went out last year because of that.
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  But even though there's all these different activities, it
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  says it's the same God who works All in all.
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  So this is all by God's grace. These things occur verse 7.
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  But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for
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  the profit of all. That's where I want to hang out
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  for a little bit. The gift that you are given
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  isn't to elevate you or to make you feel important or more
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  special than maybe someone else. That's that's Father's removed
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  point of why we got these spiritual gifts.
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  It's given to each one of us to profit other people.
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  So whatever your gift is, when you serve in it, it's blessing
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  other people. I think of John and Kelly and
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  they go to the to the nursing home ministry several times a
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  month. That's obviously a gift of
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  theirs of they wouldn't be doing it, a passion to reach these
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  older people. I know some people in the church
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  have joined up with them to go with them when they're able to.
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  That's something that is endless because those people in the
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  nursing homes usually have no one seeing them or caring about
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  them, not even family seeing them.
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  And when they bring their little dog in with them and they bring
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  the, the worship and the word in it, it changes their lives.
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  It brightens them up, doesn't it?
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  John and Kelly and the women's breakfast that Kelly has once a
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  month. She does that not to show off
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  their beautiful home, which is beautiful.
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  She does it to show off her beautiful Savior Jesus, who she
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  who she loves and she wants to share that with you women.
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  So all these opportunities to get engaged and develop
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  friendships and to and to get to know the Lord deeper and to get
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  to know one another deeper as well.
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  It says for the one is given the word of wisdom through the
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  Spirit to another, the word of knowledge through the same
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  spirit. It's taken me a lot of years as
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  a Christian to move away from what is called Cares mania, not
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  Karismata, which is the real empowering and outpouring of
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  spiritual gifts, which is biblical and supernatural, but
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  presumption and deception and false teaching in regard to
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  spiritual gifts. And the word of wisdom and the
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  word of knowledge isn't something that has to be
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  trumpeted. That what I'm going to say right
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  now, I believe is a word of wisdom from God or a word of
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  knowledge from God. Pastor Chuck used to say be
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  supernatural. Naturally, you don't have to act
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  like some TV evangelist roaming around the stage pushing people
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  over and slaying people in the Spirit to think that God's alive
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  or is real when the over the Holy Spirit's moving through his
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  Spirit who dwells in us through the Word of God in the midst of
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  a group of people. You don't have to advertise
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  that. It's a phenomena that any guy
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  can do. And many times when these
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  giftings are working in US, we're not even aware of it
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  unless someone comes up and says, and I'll hear this once in
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  a while when people leave, did my wife call you or did you read
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  my mail? Or like, I'm like, what are you
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  talking about? And it's like, you were talking
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  to me in there and I'm thinking like, I don't even really know
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  who you are. What do you mean?
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  I was talking to you. I heard God speak to me through
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  what you were saying. Well, praise God.
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  That's like what we're praying will happen, but we're we're
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  clueless of that. We're just going through the
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  Bible simply verse by verse. And God is using it in your life
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  specifically in a way that I'm, I'm not even aware of, right?
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  I just want to do what he tells me to do and be faithful to
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  cover the, the text and the information and, and the rest is
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  up between you and the Lord, what he's going to do with that
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  with you. But the word of wisdom is when
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  someone comes to you and you're talking with them about
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  something and, and it's complicated and they don't know
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  what to do and you really don't know what to recommend either,
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  but you're waiting on the Lord. Maybe you're praying as you're
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  talking to them, and then all of a sudden the Lord says something
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  in your conscience, your heart, your mind that you communicate
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  to them, and all of a sudden their countenance changes and
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  the smile comes on their face. Why didn't I think of that?
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  That's amazing. That's how that should be
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  handled. That's God's wisdom being poured
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  out through US periodically, the word of knowledge.
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  That's really amazing because God is giving you a sensitivity
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  about something in someone's life that you're just made aware
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  of. You have no evidence of the
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  problem or the sin or the issue whatever, or the struggle or the
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  heartache that that person's going through.
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  But perhaps you just say, you know, the Lord's laid you on my
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  heart and I wanted to share this with you.
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  I don't know if this is from Him or not, but I believe such and
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  such is happening in your life. And all the sudden they look at
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  you and they think, how in the world did you know that?
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  What's the Lord, His knowledge? It's imparted to you at times to
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  say things, and you can't command these things to happen.
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  You can't make them happen. It's according to how He wants
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  it to happen, how the Holy Spirit does these things.
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  He gives these things out severally as He wills through
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  the same Spirit to another faith.
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  Faith. How much faith you need to get
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  by every day? How much faith you need to
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  believe God for impossible situations?
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  How much faith do you need when the diagnosis isn't good or the
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  marriage is beginning to fall apart or the children are going
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  awayward or making wrong decisions?
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  How much faith do you need to overcome and to be able to walk
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  on the waves and not sink because of the waves?
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  That's a special impartation of God to to believe God in
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  impossible situations and still be able to be OK.
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  He tells us without faith it's impossible to please him, for
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  those who come to God must first believe that he is and that he's
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  a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
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  The man in the Gospels said to the Lord when he was challenged
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  with a very difficult situation, he said, Lord, I believe helped
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  by unbelief. And we all have times of
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  unbelief. Even even though we know God's
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  completely faithful, we need to have him empower us with this
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  kind of faith that isn't human. It's it's supernatural.
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  How can you trust God when everything seems to be falling
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  apart? That's the gift of faith.
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  Faith is believing God for things in ministry too.
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  Cindy and I-30 years ago had a heart and a vision to plant a
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  Calvary Chapel in Greensburg. We had no real experience.
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  Little did we know what we were getting into at the time.
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  If we knew way back then what we would have to go through or
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  experience, I would have said no thanks, Lord.
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  That's why it's good that the Lord doesn't show you everything
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  in advance, but He gave us enough faith to believe Him to.
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  For a church plant, I'm very modest little humble place at
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  the YWCA. We would sit, sit up and take
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  down for 12 years, people coming, people going back and
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  forth, all that kind of stuff. And, and man, I'll tell you, you
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  know it, it does never seem like it would develop or work out or
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  whatever. And the day he's made this this
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  place with you wonderful people with a full power radio station
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  with a wonderful facility that we never dreamed would be
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  possible. But more importantly bringing
• 22:33
  gifted people and raising them up in the ministry to serve the
• 22:37
  Lord here. This not my ministry.
• 22:40
  It's his ministry and it's your ministry as you serve him in
• 22:43
  this ministry to another gifts of healing.
• 22:53
  Now, in the Apostolic days, the apostles had supernatural
• 22:57
  capabilities that no one else has ever had since they've left
• 23:02
  the earth. Apostolic anointing and giftings
• 23:10
  to bring miraculous healings and to raise people from the dead.
• 23:17
  And you read in the book of the Acts the things that were
• 23:19
  accomplished to the hands of Peter and Paul and others.
• 23:26
  Healings are something that we all want to see manifest in our
• 23:32
  lives whenever we're diagnosed with a serious illness or
• 23:36
  disease or tragedy or accident, whatever.
• 23:42
  And we would love just to be able to go into a hospital room
• 23:45
  and lay hands on someone and see them instantaneously healed and
• 23:51
  raised up where they don't need the medicine anymore.
• 23:53
  They don't need the doctors anymore and occasions that still
• 23:58
  help. That still happens on occasions,
• 24:02
  but the degree of it happening is, let's say less manifest as
• 24:09
  it was in the book of the Acts. But nonetheless it still occurs.
• 24:15
  And anybody that would say that they have the gift of healing
• 24:19
  would really be presumptuous. The people on TV, whether it's
• 24:24
  Benny Hinn and these kind of people, I mean, they, they've
• 24:26
  made multi millions of dollars taking the word of God out of
• 24:31
  context and making people believe that if they gave an
• 24:35
  offer, if they did this an offer, if they had enough faith
• 24:38
  that they would have these miraculous healings, their sight
• 24:41
  would be restored or paralysis would be taken away and they'd
• 24:45
  be able to walk again on and on and on.
• 24:49
  And so people look at these things on TV and they get their
• 24:53
  hopes up and they're desperate and they'll go from one church
• 24:56
  to the next church to the next preacher to the next preacher
• 24:59
  and trying to find Jesus somewhere that can do a miracle
• 25:04
  for them through a human being. But that isn't what was taught
• 25:09
  in the Gospels. None of these things I'm talking
• 25:12
  about Jesus didn't specifically cover these things in any of the
• 25:15
  Gospels. These became Apostolic teachings
• 25:19
  of Paul and Peter and James and John began to discuss in the
• 25:23
  early inceptions of the church, but they gave us another
• 25:29
  methodology for healing and that's in James chapter 5.
• 25:36
  It's not to get all the people all hyped up through worship and
• 25:40
  have have me or Lewis or someone come up.
• 25:43
  I I sense God wants to heal someone today of diabetes.
• 25:47
  Come on up here. I, the Lord put it on my heart
• 25:50
  and I believe it, you know, on and on and on.
• 25:52
  Instead of people come up with the diabetes or whatever and,
• 25:55
  and, and everything's going on and, and, and you're, you're
• 25:58
  healed in Jesus name. And then they're, everybody's
• 26:01
  excited and they go home and they go to the doctor the next
• 26:04
  week to get the, the blood tests and, and what's up?
• 26:08
  Well, are you taking your insulin?
• 26:11
  Well, no, I stopped taking my insulin and I'm healed.
• 26:13
  Well, according to your blood tests, you, you have sugar
• 26:16
  diabetes. And if you don't take your
• 26:18
  medicine, you're going to die. The presumption has to be
• 26:27
  justified by a medical doctor that can give the clarification
• 26:32
  that there's been something that's occurred, it's
• 26:35
  miraculous. And you no longer have the
• 26:38
  cancer. I don't understand it.
• 26:40
  You no longer have the clogged artery.
• 26:42
  I don't understand it. But you don't need the medicine.
• 26:45
  And then you tell them, well, I was praying the Lord would heal
• 26:47
  me and maybe he healed you just through your own prayers and
• 26:52
  your own desperation before the Lord.
• 26:54
  Maybe your husband laid hands on you and really prayed and or the
• 26:58
  wife laid hands on the husband or the children or whatever.
• 27:01
  And it has nothing to do with the service at 10:30 on a Sunday
• 27:04
  morning. It's the supernatural of God
• 27:06
  working through these giftings, through his people, the body of
• 27:10
  Christ. And he tells us in James 5, if
• 27:14
  any are sick among you, let them call upon the elders of the
• 27:18
  church that they would come and be anointed with oil, which is
• 27:25
  symbolic of the Holy Spirit, and that they would confess their
• 27:30
  faults if they have a sin that they're not turning from.
• 27:36
  So they come up and, and we have the elders and, and the persons
• 27:40
  confidentially saying, you know, I'm, I'm in a unhealthy
• 27:45
  relationship that isn't of God and I'm repenting of it.
• 27:49
  And I, I want to, I want the Lord to forget.
• 27:51
  You know, they're dealing with this according to James 5 and
• 27:56
  the Bible says that the prayer of faith will save the sick and
• 28:02
  that sometimes means physical healing, but it definitely
• 28:05
  always means spiritual healings and reconciliation to the Lord.
• 28:09
  And that's something that feel free to avail yourself to.
• 28:12
  We, we don't have healing services here, but we are
• 28:16
  willing as elders to do what the Bible says in regard to the fact
• 28:20
  that if people are sick, we will do this.
• 28:22
  But you have to want that, right?
• 28:25
  You have to desire and you have to call upon the elders of the
• 28:29
  church to do that. And sometimes that's like the
• 28:33
  last stop. Maybe you've been to the doctor.
• 28:35
  Maybe you've been with the medicine and you've, you've
• 28:38
  tried all these things and, and nothing's working and, and you,
• 28:42
  you, you want to give it a shot and see, well, maybe the Lord
• 28:44
  will do something with this, this prayer of faith according
• 28:48
  to James Far. But there's no guarantee that
• 28:51
  you'll be healed physically, but there is a guarantee that you're
• 28:54
  going to be forgiven of the sin. And sometimes the sin is what
• 28:58
  manifests the illness and the disease.
• 29:01
  Not every sickness is caused because of sin.
• 29:03
  Through the fall. We're getting older and our
• 29:08
  bodies start wearing out. I wish they didn't.
• 29:11
  I wish someone had the ability to lay hands on me and make me
• 29:14
  feel like I was 20 again. Right?
• 29:17
  But that's not reality. The outward man perishes.
• 29:20
  The Bible says the inward man's renewed day by day.
• 29:26
  But these gifts of healing are still relevant and evident and
• 29:30
  miraculous. By the same capital S Holy
• 29:33
  Spirit to another. The working of miracles.
• 29:38
  How I wish there was more miracles that I could see
• 29:42
  occurring in the lives of desperate people, people in our
• 29:49
  own church. I see them suffer.
• 29:54
  I don't want to see you suffer, brother and your wife.
• 29:59
  I wish I could touch you and all the sudden you're climbing
• 30:02
  ladders again, you know? But I know their eyes are on
• 30:09
  Jesus. Regardless of whether they get
• 30:11
  healed now, they know they're going to definitely be healed
• 30:14
  when they go into the presence of God one day.
• 30:20
  But never stop praying for a miracle.
• 30:26
  You can pray for a miracle, and you never know what the Lord
• 30:31
  might choose to do. To another prophecy and this
• 30:40
  idea of prophecy isn't so much being able to foretell the
• 30:44
  future course. There are these times in our
• 30:47
  lives that the Lord gives us insight into something and a
• 30:53
  life of a brother or sister or husband some I was on vacation
• 30:57
  and a pastor was with me and his wife and Cindy and, and as he
• 31:01
  was praying, he said, the Lord has given me a vision right now
• 31:04
  of your life. I'm thinking, OK, I hope it's a
• 31:08
  good one. I like the good visions, not the
• 31:11
  bad visions, but it was a good vision.
• 31:14
  He said, I see you like a, a fish going into the ocean and he
• 31:17
  knows I love the ocean swimming and you're going down way, way
• 31:21
  deep. And it was sort of symbolic of,
• 31:25
  of what he thought, you know, my, my life of wanting to go
• 31:28
  deeper with God, which I do want to go deeper with God.
• 31:31
  And it says all of a sudden you ran into the school of fishes
• 31:35
  and they were all colorful and they were flying everywhere and
• 31:38
  they were jumping up and down and swimming all around.
• 31:41
  And that's probably a picture of the privilege I have to serve
• 31:44
  you guys, your lives that are being impacted through the word
• 31:49
  of God by Jesus Christ. Watch out for people that tell
• 31:55
  you that Jesus is coming in October 10th of 2025.
• 32:01
  There's so many books that have been written I'm so weary of how
• 32:07
  do you want to hear it? I know he's coming back.
• 32:09
  He said he's coming back. That's good enough for me.
• 32:11
  I don't need to know the date or the time.
• 32:14
  I just better make sure I'm ready when he's coming back.
• 32:17
  That I'm doing what it is He's called me to do to another.
• 32:24
  The discerning of spirits to be able to know because of your
• 32:31
  grounding on the Word of God, what you're hearing is biblical
• 32:34
  versus false teaching. And there's a ton of false
• 32:39
  teaching out there today. And if you're not grounded in
• 32:43
  the truth of the Word, you're going to be deceived.
• 32:45
  You're going to be shifted, you're going to be moving by
• 32:48
  every wind of doctrine. You're going to be unstable in
• 32:51
  your walk with the Lord in your relationship with Jesus because
• 32:56
  you don't have discernment. But discerning of spirits is to
• 33:02
  be able to recognize that there's something that's not
• 33:05
  right there. Maybe it's someone you meet and
• 33:08
  they're telling you this and that and they're trying to give
• 33:11
  you this great picture of how wonderful they are and, and
• 33:14
  everything is perfect in their lives and they want to serve in
• 33:17
  the church and they want to do this and they want to you know
• 33:20
  you. That's why we have like a six
• 33:22
  month waiting period for people. They want to get involved in
• 33:25
  ministry. Make sure this is a church you
• 33:27
  want to be in, but more importantly, make sure that we
• 33:30
  know each other. The Bible says, I know those who
• 33:34
  labor among you so you don't make a wrong choice, a wrong
• 33:37
  decision. And in relationships, when
• 33:40
  you're dating, you need to have discernment to know like, is
• 33:43
  this person really brought into my life from the Lord or is this
• 33:46
  like a real problem here? And most of the time when we
• 33:51
  first meet someone we're infatuated with or we're
• 33:54
  attracted to our bodies, what's driving us.
• 33:58
  It isn't like listening to the Lord to give us a heads up like
• 34:01
  this. This isn't a good thing.
• 34:06
  So we need to ask the Lord for that discernment.
• 34:09
  And I believe we all can be given discernment from the Lord
• 34:12
  through being grounded in the Word.
• 34:14
  But there are some people that really have the ability to 0 in
• 34:18
  on evil, evil kind of spirits to another, different kind of
• 34:23
  tongues to another, the interpretation of tongues.
• 34:28
  This is a real controversial subject, more so today than it
• 34:32
  was back in that day. The Bible wasn't codified yet in
• 34:37
  the sense that it is now. So when they had meetings, it
• 34:41
  would be someone who would speak by the Spirit of God and they
• 34:45
  would have to discern whether whatever, what is what is it
• 34:48
  that they were saying was tied into the teaching of the
• 34:52
  apostles. And Corinth had all these
• 34:55
  spiritual gifts going on and it was a mess spiritually.
• 35:00
  People were angry with each other, they were bitter, they
• 35:03
  were unforgiving, they were immoral.
• 35:06
  They were like into drinking too much of the agape feast.
• 35:11
  They were into pride and following certain people and
• 35:14
  lifting others above other. And it was just a disaster.
• 35:19
  And the whole book of First Corinthians is correction as to
• 35:23
  the church getting back to what it needs to be and how it needs
• 35:28
  to function. In First Corinthians 13, which
• 35:32
  we'll move into the next several weeks, is all about what's most
• 35:36
  important. And it isn't all these gifts I'm
• 35:39
  talking about. The most important thing is a
• 35:42
  manifestation of agape love toward one another, loving each
• 35:48
  other unconditionally, caring for one another, loving the Lord
• 35:57
  God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your
• 35:59
  mind, and loving your neighbors, yourself and those two
• 36:05
  commandments. The whole law is hinged
• 36:07
  together. And I was talking to someone
• 36:10
  recently had a meeting with them, younger brother who's
• 36:13
  digging into the Lord and really fun to be around.
• 36:18
  He said to me, we were talking about all this profound theology
• 36:22
  stuff and doctrine stuff and all that.
• 36:24
  And it's, it's fun to to have good conversations about that
• 36:27
  kind of stuff with people who are interested in it.
• 36:29
  But I said at the end of the day, though, like the most
• 36:32
  important thing is love, right? All we need is love.
• 36:41
  McCartney was on to something. But without Jesus, that Love's
• 36:45
  going to not hold up. You know, you can love
• 36:49
  supernaturally with the supernatural of love that God
• 36:52
  gives us, not human love because it can wear out quickly.
• 36:57
  But I said, why is it that, like, Christians so often have
• 37:04
  this ability to really know truth or know the Word and all
• 37:09
  that kind of stuff, and they can't love each other?
• 37:12
  Doesn't make sense, does it? Because Jesus said let's lay all
• 37:18
  that stuff aside for a moment. He said without love in First
• 37:27
  Corinthians 13, we're nothing clanging, gong, noisy cymbal,
• 37:34
  just a bunch of noise. And the thing that he said most
• 37:40
  profoundly was to all of us, by this people will know you're my
• 37:48
  disciples, not by these cards, but by the love you have for one
• 37:54
  another. The early missionaries when they
• 38:00
  would go into various countries in the Mideast, the pagans would
• 38:05
  say to people when they asked them about these followers of
• 38:09
  Jesus, they just say, oh, how these people love one another
• 38:15
  because they don't see that in the world.
• 38:18
  And unfortunately, so often in churches, church blitzes people
• 38:23
  leaving because someone hurt them or offended them.
• 38:25
  Or it's like love covers a multitude of sins, doesn't it?
• 38:32
  I want to learn to grow in the love of God.
• 38:35
  That's my heart's desire. I want to be able to love truly
• 38:40
  love enemies, not this because it says I'm supposed to, but
• 38:46
  because God's worked on my heart where now I can right and not
• 38:51
  remembering wrongs and not easily offended all that Chapter
• 38:58
  13, we get into it man. We could spend the rest of our
• 39:01
  history and as Christians in that chapter, but the tongues
• 39:06
  gift is temporal. It's fleeting.
• 39:12
  It's the last gift mentioned in order as far as significance and
• 39:17
  importance, but nonetheless, it is a gift.
• 39:21
  Some people have it, some people don't.
• 39:24
  Paul says later on that all people have all these gifts.
• 39:28
  Nope, they don't. So if you have a prayer language
• 39:33
  where you commune with God and it's supernatural and you've had
• 39:36
  it your whole Christian life, allow the Lord to use that in
• 39:41
  your life to build you up. We're not cessationist.
• 39:45
  Calvary Chapel is not a church group that would teach it all
• 39:48
  this. All the gifts are done.
• 39:51
  They aren't. There's no nothing in the
• 39:52
  Scripture that would indicate that they are done.
• 39:54
  But they're used differently. And some churches you go in and
• 39:59
  I've been in them where everybody's speaking in tongues
• 40:01
  at the same time. It's like insanity.
• 40:03
  What, what and what are these people doing here?
• 40:07
  Is there any like even if there was an interpreter, how would
• 40:09
  they interpret all this noise? And Paul gives real direction
• 40:14
  later on, like when the gift was used, there had to be a public
• 40:19
  manifestation, a gift. There had to be a public
• 40:21
  interpretation that would tie into what it was that the Lord
• 40:28
  was doing. But in all the years of my life
• 40:32
  at the pastors conferences and they've been miraculous in the
• 40:36
  word of God being taught so deeply and people worshipping
• 40:40
  and we, we never had anybody break into tongues wasn't
• 40:46
  important. But maybe people were praying in
• 40:52
  the Spirit prior to those conferences so that the Lord
• 40:56
  would really pour out His Spirit upon us as servants to be able
• 40:59
  to come back into the ministry and the places we're from and
• 41:02
  the towns and the cities and carry on in the work that God's
• 41:06
  called us to do. So that's just the beginning of
• 41:12
  this subject. And some of you are sleeping,
• 41:15
  which is good. Something wrong with that.
• 41:20
  So the worship team can come forward now and we'll call it a
• 41:24
  day. All right, Enjoy the Steeler
• 41:28
  game today, guys. See how Aaron Rodgers does
• 41:33
  against his former team. That'll be interesting.
• 41:36
  And then watch the US Open at 4:00 with the guy from Spain
• 41:41
  playing. Playing Sinner.
• 41:43
  What a name? Can you imagine a professional
• 41:45
  tennis player? What's your name?
• 41:46
  Last name, Sinner. I don't want a name like that,
• 41:51
  but he's a really good, really good tennis player.
• 41:54
  So let me say a prayer. We're going to take the Lord's
• 41:56
  Supper. Oh Lord, we're so grateful for
• 42:09
  your Holy Spirit, how you teach us, how you deepen us, how you
• 42:15
  work in our hearts, refine us, cleanse us over and over and
• 42:18
  over. You forgive us continually.
• 42:21
  Lord, there's no one like you in the universe and the, and the,
• 42:25
  and the whole creation that has this kind of capacity to love
• 42:29
  and forgive over and over and over again, forgiving for the
• 42:33
  same offense. Jesus said 70 * 7.
• 42:39
  We're lucky if we can forgive someone once, let alone twice.
• 42:44
  God work on us and make us like you, Jesus.
• 42:46
  That's the purpose of your church, to conform us to your
• 42:50
  image and likeness to make us more like you and we know you're
• 42:53
  doing that and we thank you for it.
• 42:55
  We yield to you today, Lord, we surrender.
• 42:58
  If there's anyone here that doesn't know you, Lord, we pray
• 43:01
  today that they would say, Lord Jesus, I want to know you.
• 43:04
  I want you to forgive me of my sins and come into my life and
• 43:09
  save me and change me. Only you can do that.
• 43:13
  Lord. If there's prodigals here and
• 43:16
  people who are drifting away from you, Lord, draw them back
• 43:19
  because you're you got your arms held out and ready to receive
• 43:23
  them again, to have that deep close relationship with you.
• 43:31
  And Lord use us this week wherever we go, to be salt and
• 43:35
  light, and be a blessing to others.
• 43:39
  On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread in
• 43:42
  his hands, and he broke, and he gave thanks.
• 43:44
  And he said, Take, eat, this is my body which was given for you.
• 43:48
  Eat this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, in that
• 43:58
  evening he took the cup and he said, This cup is a new covenant
• 44:02
  in my blood, which was shed for the forgiveness of sins of many.
• 44:07
  Drink this in remembrance of me. For as often as we eat this
• 44:15
  bread and we drink this cup, we show forth the Lord's death till
• 44:20
  he comes again, Amen. And he's coming again, right?
• 44:25
  Get ready. Love you guys, God bless.