Sermon
Living Waters of Grace for May 1st, 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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Each time we see our thoughts and our hearts, they convict us
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many times of some sin. And it's not to condemn us that
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the Lord does that. It's that we might take the
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medicine of repentance seriously and be restored to communion and
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fellowship with God. First, John 19 tells us that we
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might be cleansed from all unrighteousness if we confess
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our sins. James 48 says Cleanse your
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hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts.
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I don't know about you, but I'm a little old school.
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I like to change the oil in my car myself.
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It really isn't that difficult and it doesn't take that long.
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One thing about it is how messy my hands are afterward.
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For sure, I'm going to spend a good amount of time cleaning up
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all the grease and grind before I do anything else.
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In today's message with Pastor Clark, he urges you to examine
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your heart and to confess any sin to God.
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Are your hands stained by the grace and grime of the world?
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Ask God and He'll cleanse you. Now.
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Here's Pastor Clark in First Corinthians Chapter 11 with
1 Corinthians 11 chapter mention
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today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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So the purpose of the supper is a healing move of God's Spirit.
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We just don't take it as a ritual, the cup and the bread
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and OK, we move on to the next thing.
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If we take an understanding what it is, Jesus said this is my
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body which is broken for you. The apostle Paul said this is
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the blood that was shed for you. If we take it examining
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ourselves and not taking in an unworthy manner, then we're not
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going to be weak spiritually. We're not going to be sick
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spiritually. We're going to have the strength
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of God in US. Repentance transforms us from
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living in sin to living in purity and holiness.
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John Morris taught us an immense study this morning the
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importance of living in a holy way, being holy as he is holy.
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Repentance changes us from having a propensity to be
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unholy, to be pure and to be holy.
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The Bible says without holiness, no man shall see the Lord.
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And so I'm going to say why pray to prayer?
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I asked Jesus that came into my heart and be my savior.
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Well, it it doesn't work that way if we aren't following
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Christ, not only his Savior, but his Lord will be terribly
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disappointed at the judgment when he says to me, depart from
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you cursed that I never knew you and we'll say, well, why I
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prayed a prayer. I asked you to come into my
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heart and save me. But Jesus said, why do you call
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me Lord Lord and do not do the things that I say?
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He says, if you love me, you will keep my word.
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Repentance is unending until we die.
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Some people think, well, I just repent when I get saved.
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Well, that's the beginning of repentance.
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I mean, once you come to know Christ and he's in your life,
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you become very aware of your inadequacy spiritually.
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You become very clearly aware of your weaknesses and you realize
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your need of God's strength and His help.
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And so you are sensitive if you've offended someone, if you
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judge someone, or if you've been critical, if you've been
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lustful, you've been bitter, you've been angry, you've been
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greedy. You can't disallow that, that
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cesspool sin to circulate in your heart without being very,
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very disturbed and bothered. And you don't have rest and you
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don't have peace until you repent and say, Lord, that was
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wrong. Forgive me and cleanse me.
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And if you have to, you go make the amends with the people that
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you've hurt and offended. Each time we see our thoughts
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and our hearts, they convict us many times of some sin.
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And it's not to condemn us that the Lord does that.
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It's that we might take the medicine of repentance seriously
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and be restored to communion and fellowship with God.
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First, John 19 tells us that we might be cleansed from all
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unrighteousness if we confess our sins.
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James 48 says Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify
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your hearts. That's the purpose of
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repentance. I'm so grateful for repentance.
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I don't know what I would do without repentance.
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I remember there was a time in my life I didn't think I needed
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to repent. I don't know.
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I was under some bad teaching and I thought, well, I got saved
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and and you know, I'm on my way to heaven and this is good as it
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gets in. And I never thought about my
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offenses toward God. And I would live day in and day
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out, week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and
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year out in delusion, living in perpetual sin.
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Think and I was OK and meanwhile having an unrest in my heart,
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having a sense of impurity knowing something was wrong.
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But I'm with my brothers and sisters and all of us are in the
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same boat, trying to make each other feel good in our sin.
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Trying to make each other feel OK.
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That it's a weakness in man's nature to be drawn to
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pornography. It's a weakness in everyone's
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heart. Sin is a sickness and it isn't
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OK for men to be in pornography. And just because two other
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brothers tell you they struggle with it doesn't mean that that's
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OK. Someone there has to be a
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brother saying I used to struggle with pornography, but
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by the grace of God I don't anymore.
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And this is what the Lord did for me.
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This is how He changed my heart and this is how He set me free.
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Purity of heart. And we look at Psalm 122 two, it
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says my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.
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The Lord is our helper. But we all are affected by this
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law of sin. It exists within all of us.
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If you're a Christian here today, you are not sinless.
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You still battle with sin in your life.
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And it's a law, it's a principle, and it affects
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everyone of us. And apart from the blood of
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Jesus Christ, everyone of us are doomed.
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Amen. If it wasn't for the blood of
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Christ, there would be no remission of sins.
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And the Word of God is what our weapon is against the sin that's
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still within our hearts. That's why the psalmist said thy
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word. Have I hid in my heart that I
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might not sin against Thee? We don't memorize Scripture to
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impress people of our great knowledge of the Scripture.
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If you memorize Scripture for no, no other reason, I pray This
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is why you memorize it, so that you are protected from sin, then
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that's a good enough reason to memorize it.
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Without the word of God, the enemy will Vanquish and capture
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you as a spiritual struggler. And some of you today, I'm sure,
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are being vanquished by the enemy.
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You're being beat down. You're struggling in your sin.
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You don't have the ability to overcome it because you don't.
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It's been so long since you've drawn near to God.
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You've been running from God, and it's been so long since
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you've drawn near to God, you've forgotten that if you draw near
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to Him, he'll draw near to you. And without the word of God, the
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enemy will mess you up. He'll strip you of the divine
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weapons that God's given you. He'll drag your life into a
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horrible pit of sin, of sorrow, of heartache, of bondage and
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destruction. And as a pastor, that's what
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breaks my heart because I see people that come and go here
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that refuse to repent and they want to have life their own way,
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and they don't realize that. They think they can get away
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with it, but eventually their life will tragically be
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destroyed by sorrow and heartache.
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The heartache that they'll receive themselves and the
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heartache that they're going to cause other people because of
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their bondage to sin and the destruction it has occurred in
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their life. I think sometimes Cindy and I,
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we pray for loved ones and people we care about, brothers
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and sisters and and I and I'm learning to be patient and gone
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upon God. It might not be today that
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someone gets busted. It might not be next week, next
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month, next year. But they'll come a time when
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someone's going to call you up and say, I need help.
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I got a bad medical report, my wife left me, my kids on drugs.
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I lost my job. I'm in the pits of despair and
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despondency. I don't know which way to turn.
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There'll come a time of crushing and breaking by the mercy of God
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that that person will then begin to say I'm waking up.
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There's got to be more to life. I want to get my house in order
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because the consequences of my life to this point, if I died
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today, I'm not real sure I would be with the Lord because of the
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way I've lived my life. All the distressing events and
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consequences that are occurring in this world today, in this
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human life are the result of one purpose, one reason, and that's
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sin. When tragedy happens and
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adversity happens in people's lives, what's the first thing
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they do? They complain.
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God, why they blasphemy. Just like the people in
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Revelation. The sun's too hot, the sores are
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too painful. Why are you doing this?
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I hate you. Why don't you just get out of my
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life? Why don't you leave me alone?
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Why don't you leave all of us alone, not understanding that
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the God of creation created us to be in communion, to have a
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life of peace and love and grace and joy with the Lord?
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Yet in the midst of these adversities of life, God will
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work everything out for good for those who love God and are
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called according to His purpose. I don't care what adversity you
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have today, what trial, what tribulation, what you're facing,
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God promises everything will work for good to those who love
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Him and are called according to His purpose in Romans 828.
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I think today as I look at this message and I say to myself,
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does God find repentance in US today as he looks over this
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congregation? Does he find repentance here
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today? Have you said or do you say or
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even as you're listening to this message, are you saying I have
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sinned against heaven and against you, Lord?
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Do you hate the sin that's working to destroy your own
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life? Are you getting to the point
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that you hate sin? Because when you start hating
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sin, you'll start to flee sin. When you start to hate sin as
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God hates it, you'll begin to draw near to Him and draw away
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from the sin. Are you willing to turn deeper
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into the ways of God, forsaking the path that you might be on
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now? There has to come a time in all
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of our lives that we say enough's enough.
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I've wasted too many days, too many hours, too much money, too
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much heartache because I wanted it my way.
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And now I want to turn to the Lord and forsake the foolish
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path I'm on and go deeper in His ways.
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I've been a pastor now for 14 years, and it's been 14 years
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that I've decided by the grace of God, to walk in a path that
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is deeper. But there was a time in my life
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that I was asleep. I was not awake.
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I thought it was OK. The nominal Christian life is,
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hey, show up for church once in awhile, put a few bucks on your
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offering plate, say a few prayers, and then live your life
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the way you want. That's not what Christ came to
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give us. He came to give us a vital,
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intimate, deep relationship with the living God, so that once you
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get a taste of that relationship, everything else is
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secondary, that you begin to lay your head down the pillow at
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night and you say, Lord, I want life, your life more than my
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life. I want you, Lord, more than life
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itself. That's what His desire is for
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all of us. And he wants to reveal himself
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to us that we might follow Him that way.
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Isaiah 38 One, the prophet says to Hezekiah, you're sick and
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you're near death. A bad report.
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The prophet says, set your house in order, for ye shall die and
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not live. Hezekiah freaks out.
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He gets that message and he prays and he repents and he
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turns to God for mercy. And the Lord gave him another 15
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years. I don't know how much time you
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have, but it doesn't matter whether you're 5 here today, one
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here today, 25456575. It doesn't matter.
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Today is a day to get your house in order.
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I don't know how much time the Lord has given you, how much
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time you have left, But we need the medicine of repentance to
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our last breath. I pray on my deathbed.
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I'm crying out to the Lord for mercy.
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Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.
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Lord have mercy. Not laying there arrogantly
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thinking my life's OK, There's nothing to examine.
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There's nothing to humble myself before a holy God and thinking
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I'm just going to glibly walk into that throne room and say,
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give me bones, God. I'm going to be on my face
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before the holy God and ask him as I'm on my face for his mercy.
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His mercy will be extended to those who cry out for his mercy,
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creating me, as the psalmist said, Lord, a clean heart, which
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after you is created in righteousness and true holiness.
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What is best for you and me as we struggle against the war of
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sin in our lives every day. Have we gotten too tired and
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lazy because of our pride or forgetful or the things of the
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world of crowded? What's really important and
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these all become obstacles to humility.
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Time flies really fast. The years roll by and they draw
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us closer and closer and closer to eternity.
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And we all see this. We're all aware of it.
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You look in the mirror. I don't know.
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You have to be blind to look in the mirror and know you look a
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lot different than you did five years ago or 10 years ago.
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But we have this mental numbness.
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And what heals us from this pride and numbness is
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repentance. And the question to me this day
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is, how white and clean is your soul and mine?
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How white and clean is our souls?
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Every minute I'm either thinking of myself or I'm thinking of
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Christ. Every minute I'm either thinking
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of his will or my will. And that's why Paul said awake
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to righteousness and sin. Not he said that to the church
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in Corinth, Awake to righteousness.
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Why? Because the people were asleep
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in in fornication in immorality and pride, wanting to act like
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they were more spiritual than someone else.
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They had this attitude in the Church of everybody trying to be
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something they weren't. And Jesus says if you love me,
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you'll keep my commandments. I that rings on my heart every
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day when I have a choice to make my own move and to do my own
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thing. I hear the Lord say, hey, Clark,
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if you love me, you'll keep my word.
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Oh, I love you, Lord. Well, if you love me, you're
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going to do what I'm telling you to do.
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Oh, I love you, Lord. Well, why are you heading that
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way? Why are you thinking that?
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Why do you want to do that? And God in his grace, draws me
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back. Yes, Lord, I want to prove that
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I love you by how I live my life.
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Hebrews 413 says God knows our hearts.
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We can fool each other. We can act like we got it all
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together. But God knows our heart.
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He knows if it's real or counterfeit faith, it says in
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Hebrews 413 And there is no creature hidden from him, from
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his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of
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him to whom we must give an account.
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That means every deed in your life, guys and gals, you have to
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give an account of every word, every thought.
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It says we will give an account to the Lord.
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Someone made this quote. They said sin is like a hook.
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It's camouflaged with suitable pleasure.
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It comes craftily as someone something sweet and charming to
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the tongue in order to attack the soul.
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However, he who has been lured by momentary pleasures in its
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comforts will find it more bitter than poison and more
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destructive than a pestilent disease in their soul.
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The Bible says you can enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season
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and then it catches up with you the consequences.
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I've had the horror in my life to sense the pestilence of the
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disease in my soul because of my own sin.
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And I thank God for His mercy and His forgiveness, that He is
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merciful to forgive us of our sin as we come to Him and
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cleanse us from our own righteousness.
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Walk on the path of repentance and you'll have a peaceful mind.
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Don't let the past trouble you. Many times we are still guilt
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ridden from our past. That's the liar.
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That's a devil. Jesus, whenever his mercy.
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And this is something hard for us to understand.
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The apostle Paul says forget the things which are behind and
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reach forward to the things which are ahead.
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And listen to this. As soon as you admit to God that
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you've sinned and you turn to God away from your sin, God
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Forgives us immediately and overlooks our sins.
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Aren't you glad? Doesn't that give you relief?
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God chooses to overlook our sins and forgive us.
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With repentance everything is corrected.
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There is nothing that overcomes the compassion of God.
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Another quote. He is merciful to the last and
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provides for the first. To this one He gives, and to
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that one he shows. Kindness, the love of God,
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covers and corrects everything, and we all realize today no one
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is sinless except for who God. Luke 7 tells us about the harlot
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who repented. She washed the feet of the Lord
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Jesus, His Immaculate feet. She washed his feet and shed her
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tears that were more precious than myrrh, and they attracted
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God's mercy and forgiveness. Then she heard from the Lord.
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Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.
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Why would we not want to repent today?
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Cry out to Jesus, fall before his feet.
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I don't care whether you do it in the front of the church at
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the end of the service, You do it in your car on the way home.
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You do it at your home by your bedside.
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This gets somewhere and cry out to God and say to the Lord, if
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there's something in your life that you know you got to stop
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doing, you got to get away from, you got to turn from say I've
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sinned. My Jesus, receive my heartfelt
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repentance, O Lord and Master of my life.
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And rest assured, if you pray and you ask God for that
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forgiveness and mercy, Christ will forgive you and pour out
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His love and mercy upon your life.
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You might get tired of Maine talking about this subject, but
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for me this is the theme of the body of Christ.
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Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
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John the Baptist brought that message.
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Jesus proclaimed that message, and the message he gave to the
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apostles and all those who have followed that vein of gold from
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the throne of God since the beginning of time.
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Is it to a lost and weary world? Repent, for the Kingdom of God
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is at hand. Don't be deaf today.
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This is a difference between sincere repentance and
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counterfeit repentance. Sincere repentance is repentance
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that displays regret for sins committed.
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I mourn. I don't look at my past sins and
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beat myself up anymore, but I mourn over the fact that I did
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them. The psalmist said My sin is ever
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before me and against you only. Have I sinned and done this evil
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on your sight. It bothers me that at one time
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in my life and still at times I will think things and say things
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and do things that hurt my Lord and that bothers me.
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You know, if you love someone like your wife or your kids and
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you, you say something to them, it's wrong or a brother and
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sister in Christ and you walk away.
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You you can't live with that. You got to go back to them and
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say, I'm really sorry that I said that.
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Please forgive me that I did that.
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And there's nothing more wonderful than to have someone
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hug you and say, Hey, man, I forgive you.
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I love you. Mourning burning tears that
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break the strongholds of sin. Sometimes it's important for us
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to cry and to weep before the Lord.
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And sometimes it's been a long time since maybe we've shed a
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tear over sin because our hearts have become so hard.
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But if we could just see him in living color on that cross with
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his arms stretched out, saying, Father, forgive them for they
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know not what they do, there wouldn't be one of us standing
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there with a hard heart, all right?
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Our eyes would be filled with tears because of His mercy.
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And it's His power and his grace.
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It causes us to go and sin. No more repentance leaves
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nothing unhealed. If you're here today and you
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have wounds and sores and heartache and heartbreak because
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of sin, if you repent today, God will heal that brokenness.
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He'll, He'll heal this, the sores.
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And without repentance, there's no one that's going to be saved.
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No one the victory is given. The overcoming life is poured
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out through gifts of repentance. And I think of the simplicity of
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the Christian life where Jesus says let us live in simplicity,
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an innocence of heart. Like little children.
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I love seeing my grandkids. I love hanging out with them, my
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Isabella, my me and my Liliana, my Logan.
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I play with them and, and there's no, I don't know.
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It's a whole different thing than hanging out with adults.
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They're so innocent. I took me out.
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Last night was her birthday. We were celebrating her birthday
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and took her outside and I said, let's go look for the moon.
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You know, we're looking for the moon.
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And we saw a brightness somewhere we couldn't find the
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moon walking around the street, around this car and this house
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and just, you know, couldn't find it.
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And so she said, where's moon, Papa?
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I said, moon's hiding. She said moon hiding.
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Moon hiding. This is simple.
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Jesus isn't hiding today. He's here in our midst speaking
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through the weakness of a man to get your attention that you
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might live with simplicity. For Jesus said unless you become
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as little children, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of
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God. When a little child's heart,
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they immediately find their parent and say, hold me, help
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me. We ask them what's wrong.
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We comfort them. The Lord is here today to
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comfort you. This has been Living Waters of
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Grace with Pastor Clark. We're going through the
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challenging and also intriguing Book of Revelation.
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Whether you're a fan of reading ahead in books of fiction,
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there's such a benefit to reading ahead in the Bible to
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read about how it all ends. But in an interesting turn of
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events, the Book of Revelation is not really the end, but
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rather the beginning. It's the end of life as we know
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it here on earth, but there's so much to look forward to.
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But what comes after all? The judgement of the earth and
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those who reject God? There's a lot to work through,
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and it can be heartbreaking to read through the intense
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judgements and wrath that will come on those who hate God with
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all their might. The thing is, God has given
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chance upon chance to these people and they don't want it.
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So the outcome is that there are judgments and consequences for
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those who've rejected the good news and the gift of salvation
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that's offered through Jesus's death and resurrection.
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Are you one who has heard about these things but doesn't really
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want it because you want to live life on your terms?
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Trust me, living for Jesus is so much better.
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That doesn't mean it will be easy, but as you listen and read
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through Revelation with us, you'll come to a stark
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realization that you don't want to be on earth when the
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apocalypse happens. So check out Calvary Chapel
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online.com to learn how to come to a saving grace through faith
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that will allow you to be with Jesus for eternity.
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We'd also love to meet you in person at Calvary Chapel
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Westmoreland. Come join us at 400 E Pittsburgh
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St. Ste. 6B in Greensburg, PA 15601.
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This has been living waters of Grace.