Sermon
Living Waters of Grace for May 28th, 2026
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
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Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
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County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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God in his mercy and his grace, at the end of time there will be
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no more remembrance of the former things for the former
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shall not be remembered or ever come to mind.
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But now we live in this time when someone dies that we love
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and we're not sure of their eternal destiny.
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And it's very, very difficult. All I can hope and pray for in
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the few last moments of a soul's life that they hear once again
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Jesus saying, come to me, the Lord reaching out to them one
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last time. It's a sad thought to think that
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the ones we hold dear in our hearts may not make it to
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heaven. We pray that the Lord can draw
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them near so that we will see them again.
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We hold on to this worry and often wonder if we will be
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waiting in angst for them today. Pastor Clark teaches us the
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beautiful measure of God's mercy and grace.
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God will give us a new mind that will not allow us to remember
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the former things of this world. There will be no worry or
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heartache over things we cannot control, only joy.
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Now here's Pastor Clark in Revelation Chapter 21 with
Revelation 21 chapter mention
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today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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Revelation Chapter 21 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
Revelation 21 chapter mention
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for the 1st heaven and the first earth had passed away.
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Also there was no more sea. Then I, John saw the holy city,
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New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as
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a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from
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heaven saying, Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men,
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and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.
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God Himself will be with them and be their God, and God shall
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wipe away every tear from their eyes.
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There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.
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There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed
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away. Then he who sat on the throne
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said, Behold, I make all things new.
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And he said to me, write, for these words are true and
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faithful. And he said to me, It is done.
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I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
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I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him
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who thirst. He who overcomes shall inherit
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all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
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But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable murders, sexually
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immoral sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their
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part in the lake, which burns with fire and brimstone, which
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is a second death. If you'd also turn over to
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Second Peter, this is a prelude to this section of scripture.
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This will shed a little bit more light on what's actually
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transpiring here in this section of Revelation, Second Peter,
2 Peter 3 chapter mention
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chapter 3. It's wonderful that the
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scriptures interpret the Scriptures right?
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We don't have to depend on man's wisdom or his insight in regard
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to understanding what the Word of God teaches.
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We study line upon line, precept upon precept.
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And so we'll see here already in Peter as he's prophesying and
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Speaking of the things that are yet to come, the things that
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we're still waiting for starting in verse 7.
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But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the
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same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and
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perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, do not forget this
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one thing, that with the Lord one day is 1000 years, and 1000
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years is 1 day. The Lord is not slack concerning
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His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering
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toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all
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should come to repentance. Verse 10.
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But the day of the Lord will come as a thief.
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In the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a
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great noise, and the elements will melt with fervor and heat,
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both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned
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up. Therefore, since all these
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things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to
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be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and
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hastening the coming day of God, because of which the heavens
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will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt
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with fervor, heat. Nevertheless, we, according to
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this promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which
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righteousness dwells. So we start in chapter 21 today,
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and you might wonder, well, how does this happen?
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What happened to the old heaven and the old earth?
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Well, we've just read in Peter that they're going to be
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destroyed. God will burn them with fire,
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and He will start a brand new civilization in the Kingdom of
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heaven made-up of His people who have believed in Him since the
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beginning of time. There'll be no sin in the
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Kingdom of heaven, no more suffering, no more pain.
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How different that is from what we read about in the Garden of
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Eden in Genesis chapter 3 verse 19.
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It says in the sweat of your face ye shall eat bread till you
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return to the ground, for out of it you were taken.
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For dust you are, and the dust she shall return.
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Take a look at your body for a moment.
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Just look at your skin. Just hold your skin.
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It's hard to believe our minds can't grasp this, but this is
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all going to turn to dust one day.
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Somehow we're wired to think that this body in its present
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state is going to just go on and on and on.
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But it isn't. As we know, as we attend Funeral
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services of loved ones and friends, we we look at them in
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the casket or the cremation bowl, they're already dust.
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And we always feel sorry for people when they pass away.
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I don't know why we feel sorry for people, Christians who pass
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away because they've passed from death unto life.
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They're in glorified waiting for their glorified bodies.
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They're in a temporal body waiting for their final
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resurrection. But we stand around and and we
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lament the passing of someone, not realizing that it one day
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it's going to be us or it's inevitable, right?
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All of us. And Genesis clearly shows us
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that this is what has transpired because of our sin, because of
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the fall. Revelation verse 4, chapter 21
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says, But God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
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There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.
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There shall be no more pain. For the former, things have
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passed away. The most difficult thing for us
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as human beings to have to go through is having someone we
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love pass away, isn't it? We cry, we grieve.
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The grieving sometimes goes on for days, weeks, months, years.
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There's sorrow, there's a sense of loss.
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But in this Kingdom, God will wipe away all of our tears.
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There won't be any more physical death.
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There won't be any sorrow. There'll be no more crying.
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There'll be no more pain. For the former, things have
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passed away after the fall of man because of sin.
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Today we are living in a present state of sorrow.
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We're living in a present state of pain and of loss and of
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crying and how we should long as the apostles and the end of the
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Book of Revelation when it says Maranatha, come quickly, Lord
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Jesus, why would we want to see the coming of the Lord prolong
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longer when we see the suffering on the face of the earth in
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these days that we live, we should all look forward to this
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day. Even creation longs for this
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day, the trees and the everything that's been created
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by God over there in Romans chapter 8.
Romans 8 chapter mention
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Turn there for a minute Romans chapter 8, it tells you how the
Romans 8 chapter mention
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creation is also suffering, waiting for this glory to be
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revealed. For the apostle Paul says in
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verse 18, I consider that the sufferings of this present time
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are not worthy to be compared with the glory that should be
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revealed in US. For the earnest expectation of
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the creation eagerly awaits for the revealing of the sons of
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God. For the creation was subjected
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to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it
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in hope. Because the creation itself also
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will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the
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glorious liberty of the children of God.
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For we know that the whole creation groans and laborers
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with birth bangs together until now.
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Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the
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Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, eagerly
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waiting for the adoption, for the redemption of the body.
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So that should be the desire of all of us as Christian.
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We're to enjoy our life now and be thankful for what God has
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done and is doing for all of us and our families.
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But we should have this longing to be with the Lord.
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The early church had this desire to be absent in the body, to be
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present with the Lord. It's good news, I think of the
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winter season when it comes and fall's a beautiful time of year
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and all the leaves fall. It's glorious.
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But it's so stark, isn't it? Right now when you drive down
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the highway and all you see is sticks.
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There's no color. It's just drab.
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It's, it's ugly, basically that you're waiting.
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Wow. I can't wait to see green on
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those trees again. And, and this is the blue sky
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and the sun. That's that's something God's
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put in us because out of death comes life.
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And as we look at death this time of year, even the trees
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every year, I believe now a tree isn't a, a human being like us,
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but it has this desire because God's created that way to be
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able to bear trees forever and never lose 1 leaf.
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And I believe that the trees in the season of the fall are sad
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because all their beauty is gone, all their leaves are
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dropped and many of them end up dying.
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How God has created this whole universe to anticipate this
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glorious return, it tells us in Isaiah 6517.
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For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former
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shall not be remembered or come to mind.
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Someone called me the other day and had a very profound
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question. They said, Clark, what will it
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be like when we're in heaven and we're all rejoicing to be with
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the Lord? But then we're thinking about
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our loved ones and our family and our friends who aren't there
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that are in hell. How can we be able to live with
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that throughout all eternity knowing that they won't be with
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the Lord in glory? Well, the good news is for us,
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it says in Isaiah, the former shall not be remembered or come
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to mind. How great God is, because it
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wouldn't be heaven if all we did was remember our loved ones that
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didn't come into the Kingdom. That would be hell, wouldn't it?
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But God, in his mercy and his grace, at the end of time, there
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will be no more remembrance of the former things for the former
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shall not be remembered or ever come to mind.
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But now we live in this time when someone dies that we love
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and we're not sure of their eternal destiny.
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And it's very, very difficult. All I can hope and pray for in
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the few last moments of a soul's life that they hear once again
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Jesus saying, come to me, the Lord reaching out to them one
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last time, believe. And none of us know who repents
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on their deathbed, who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ for the
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forgiveness of their sins at the last few seconds of their life.
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But it's devastating to see someone pass away that has
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rejected Jesus Christ. But in verse 3 we see this holy
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city and it's described in verse 2 as a holy city because there
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is no sin in it anymore. This holy city is coming down
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and God will dwell with His people.
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It says in verse 3, behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men
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and he will dwell with them, and they shall be His people.
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God Himself will be with them and be their God.
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We look in the book of Genesis and it says that God walked with
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His creation, Adam and Eve, initially in the cold of the
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morning. He walked with them in the
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garden until they sinned and they weren't able to hear His
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voice audibly anymore because they separated themselves from
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His wonder and His glory. And God began to reveal and
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speak then through the written word to people.
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We see in the Old Testament that God dwelt with Israel in the
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Tabernacle and later in the temple.
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We know as the children of Israel move through bondage of
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of Pharaoh and God out of Egypt that that God manifested himself
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at night in a pillar of fire and a cloud by day.
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And when the pillar of fire began to move or the cloud, the
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people knew that it was time to move into the next location.
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It was very clear evidence that God was in their midst and yet
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they still sinned and did foolish things.
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And then Christ comes to dwell among us today, not in temples
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like buildings, churches made by hands, but He lives inside our
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hearts, the bodies of His people and His church.
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If you turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 6, this will reinforce
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that truth to you today, First Corinthians chapter 6.
1 Corinthians 6 chapter mention
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And I think this is something we all forget.
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Now, this is tied into the issue of sinning, whether it's
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immorality or drunkenness or stupid things that we can still
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unfortunately do as followers of God.
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By the grace of God, we overcome sin, we overcome temptation, but
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sometimes we don't. And we have to learn to
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continually live in repentance. We have to turn from the things
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that are destroying our lives. And today, if you're here and
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you're stuck in a life besetting sin, as a Christian, I pray
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today that you turn from that and say enough's enough.
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I don't want to live this way anymore.
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This is pulling me down. It's pulling my family down.
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It's pulling my life down. God, you don't want me to live
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this way. And the danger of living in a
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way, even though we think we know the Lord and we believe
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he's forgiven us. Galatians makes it clear, as I
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say many times that if we continue in these sins, if their
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life besetting sins, they're dominating our lives.
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It says we won't inherit the Kingdom of God even if we we say
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we believe if we really believe and we are saved and Christ is
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in our life. We want to turn from the sin.
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We don't want to live under its dominance anymore.
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And the apostle is speaking to this in the Corinthians.
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He says, do you not know in verse 19 that your body is a
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temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God
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and you're not your own, for you were bought with a price.
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Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which
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are gods. So Christ bought us with his
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blood. He paid for us.
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We don't own ourselves anymore. We belong to him.
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And so the Holy Spirit lives in my life today.
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I trust the Holy Spirit is the one that's ministering to you
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today through my life and that you're listening to the word of
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God through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives and dwells
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in you. But how often do we forget that
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the Holy Spirit lives in us? We get up on Monday morning all
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ready to go and we're thinking, oh man, I got to do this and do
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that. And all this stuff's in front of
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us and we're wondering how we're going to do it and how we're
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going to make it. And somehow we get our weary
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bodies up and chug a couple gallons of coffee down our
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throat and we get in our car and we're starting to go and, and
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man, you know, it's just not really working that well.
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We don't feel real motivated and real excited and we're not
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anticipating God doing anything because we think God's up there
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somewhere. And the mystery is God is on his
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throne and at the same time he's in us.
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In him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
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I love an ancient prayer. It says, O heavenly King, O
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Comforter, the Spirit of truth are in all places and fill us
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all things. Treasury of good things and
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giver of life, come and dwell in US and cleanse us from every
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stain and save our souls. O gracious Lord, you know the
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Holy Spirit resides in the body of Christ.
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He doesn't depart like he did in the Old Testament when David
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cried out to the Father. Please do not take your Holy
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Spirit from me. If you're in Christ and you
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belong to Christ, the Holy Spirit is in you until the day
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you're taken to be with Him in glory.
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But let's be honest this morning, do you ever forget that
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the Holy Spirit lives in you? Raise your hands.
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It's about every one of us. Now, if we go out to our car
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after church and we see the gas gauge on empty, we realize we
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have to go get fuel, right? We're not going to drive around
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and think that gas gauge is lying.
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It's not real. I have faith I'm going to keep
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driving because eventually the car is going to sputter and it's
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not going to have the capacity to go forward anymore.
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That's the way it is with us as Christians.
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But the good news is God, the Spirit doesn't diminish in US
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ever. He's the fullness of the Father
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dwelled and manifests in us. But we leak and the way we leak
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is sin, pride, self will, independence.
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And so all of a sudden we have this sense that we don't have
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any empowerment in our life. And that's when we have to
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repent and we just say, Lord, I've gotten off track somehow
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and I want to come back and get things right.
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And the way we get things right is humbling ourselves again and
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again and again and again and repenting again and again and
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again and again, and be restored to the Lord so he can restore to
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us the joy of our salvation. And as we humble ourselves, as
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we yield, as we repent, the Spirit of God begins to well up
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within us and begin to take control and begin to cause our
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senses to be under his leadership.
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And our mind begins to be renewed and our heart has a joy,
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joy and a strength and a stability.
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And, and all of a sudden we realize, like Paul, we can do
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all things through Christ who strengthens us.
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Amen. That's the good news.
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Now we have to realize that the Christian life has not been
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designed to live without the Spirit of God.
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It's foolishness. But we're told in the Scriptures
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that we quench the Spirit of God, we grieve the Spirit of
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God. And when we quench the Spirit of
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God, it's basically saying, I don't need your help.
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I can do this myself, which is pride and will fall.
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We can grieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's saying, don't
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do that, I don't want you to act that way.
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I don't want you to do this or think that.
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And we're blowing them off and we're just going to do what we
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want to do. And it breaks his heart.
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We grieve him. And so all the sudden, the sense
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of his presence is not alive. We don't sense his nearness.
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We don't sense his leading, his guidance, his blessing, and how
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foolish that is to, to live in a way that the Holy Spirit is not
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dominating our lives. And the purpose of the church,
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you know, isn't like Sunday, OK, got to go to church.
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You know, it's the right thing to do.
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And I, I show up, I come to church and I hope you come to
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church to be corrected and redirected all the time.
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My mind is brought back to the main focus of where it needs to
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be and I get filled up with the presence of God, the Spirit of
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God. I have a stability in my life if
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I'm faithful in my study of God's Word and doing what God
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says to me to do in His Word when I want to be with
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believers. When I want to pray with
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Christians, when I want to be in the Word, when I want to gather.
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That's why Paul said don't forsake the assembling of
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yourselves. And so many think they can take
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church or leave it. I know what happened in my life
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when I started blowing church off.
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I mean, it messed my life up. It mess my marriage up, it mess
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my kids up. I mean, you got to be
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disciplined. You got to be focused.
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You got to be committed to the things that the Lord says He
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wants you to be committed to. He says these things to keep us
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protected. He says if you forsake the
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assembling of yourselves as a man, or some do, He says a root
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of bitterness will spring up among you and you'll start to
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get hard in your heart and you'll begin to start judging
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people and you'll think everybody's hypocrites.
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Why would I want to go to that church?
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They're a bunch of hypocrites. Well, we come to church because
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we know we're hypocrites, right? We repent of our hypocrisy.
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We ask God to change us and to break us and to cleanse us and
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to fill us so that we become more like Christ.
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We don't come to church because we're perfect, do we?
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The church is designed to be a hospital for sinners, not a
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museum for the Saints. The early church understood that
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the church was a place of restoration to heal broken lives
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that have been destroyed through sin and have been ruined through
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sin. That's why we have an altar call
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here every week. It's not a tradition.
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It's a place we're coming down lame spiritually.
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We're coming down hobbling to the front.
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Maybe we don't look like that physically, but inwardly we are.
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We're saying, Lord, I'm here again at this place of
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brokenness and repentance. Revive me again, Lord, give me
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hope, give me victory. Give me strength, keep me from
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doing the things that I did last week that were unpleasing in
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your sight, making my life a drag for people that have been
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around me. You know, the Christian life is
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a life of being positive, excited, joyful, overcoming, and
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that comes by the Word of God and confession of our sins to
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God and to one another. But even though the Spirit of
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God dwells within us, which we all know, we don't grasp this
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like we will one day when we see the Holy Trinity before our very
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eyes in the throne room of heaven.
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Everything today that I'm speaking about to you and you're
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listening, you have to receive it by faith.
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I can't prove anything to you other than my own life hopefully
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being somewhat of an example and yours to me.
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I can look in your lies and see Christ alive.
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And the Bible says we're living epistles known and read of men.
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It isn't hard to to know when you meet a Christian, is it?
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You just know by the way they act, the way they talk, the
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smile on their face, their gratitude, their gratefulness,
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their thankfulness, their humility.
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It just dawns on you that this person is a believer.
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And you know what it's like when you're with someone who doesn't
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have the Spirit of God in them. Matter of fact, Paul says their
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spirit bears witness with our spirit that we're the sons and
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the daughters of God. You know, when someone comes to
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the church here the first time, I've never seen them before.
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I feel immediate connection when I know that the Spirit of God's
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in them, it's like I've known him my whole life.
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They're my brothers, they're my sisters.
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And I might not know where they live or what their names are
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yet, or what their interests are or what their likes or dislikes
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are, But there's this fellowship in this community of oneness
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that occurs by the Spirit of God that tells us his Spirit bears
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witness with our Spirit that we belong to Him.
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There's no division in the body of Christ from God's
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perspective. There's no caste system.
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It's all the oneness and the fullness of God.
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In the Book of Revelation, Pastor Clark is taking us
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through all kinds of events and happenings that are predicted
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for the future. But for those who believe and
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follow Jesus, there's much to look forward to in heaven with
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Jesus. However, for those who are here
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on earth during the Tribulation, there's all kinds of chaos that
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will unfold. The Bible talks about an
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Antichrist, a false prophet, and of course that evil enemy Satan.
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Do you see how there are such clever attempts for the enemy to
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disguise himself as God and even the Trinity?
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The true Savior of the world is God and how He comes to rescue
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through his triune nature God the Father, Jesus the Son, and
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God the Holy Spirit. Just like Satan tried to take
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over for God in heaven was cast out, Satan will try to convince
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people on earth that he is the triune God to be worshipped
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instead of the legitimate God in heaven.
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It's an attempt, and although he will capture plenty in his
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schemes, he will not win. The true God wins, and
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Revelation unpacks how that will all happen in detail.
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Be encouraged because there's a way out for all of this madness
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that will ensue on this earth. But you don't want to wait
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indefinitely to make that decision about Jesus.
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We don't know when the church will be raptured, and you want
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to be ready to be with Jesus. To learn more about this, head
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over to calvarychapelonline.com. We're so glad you've been with
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us today. And if you'd like to connect
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further with this ministry, find us on Facebook or YouTube.
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You can also download our mobile app at calvarychapelonline.com.
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Be sure to join us for weekly services at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
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Ste. 6B in Greensburg, PA 15601. This has been living waters of
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grace.