Sermon
Living Waters of Grace for April 30, 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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Sometimes we read all these poor people, they refuse to repent of
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their sin, they won't acknowledge the Creator, they
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blasphemy of the Creator. And many times I look and I look
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at the image of the Church of Jesus Christ today and I say, do
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we look any different than those who will have to face that
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eternity of hell? Are we the kind of people that
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are refusing to repent of our sins?
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Are we walking around in self righteousness saying I have no
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sin? Isn't it better to take a look
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at ourselves before we point out the fault of others?
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Have you ever gone to point out to a friend the spinach in his
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teeth only to have it pointed out that you had some toilet
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paper on your shoe or something worse?
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It's pretty embarrassing, right? It is.
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Message. Today, Pastor Clark expresses to
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you the importance of examining your own life.
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Of course the world is going to act like, well, the world.
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But what is your life like? What do you see when you look
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into the mirror of God's Word? Now here's Pastor Clark,
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beginning in the book of Exodus chapter 10.
Exodus 10 chapter mention
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He'll continue into Revelation 16 on this edition of Living
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Waters of Grace. It reminds us of what happened
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in Exodus chapter 1021 and 22. The darkness was so thick, it
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says that God extended that through the hands of Moses so
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that the darkness would be felt. Sometimes you've been in a
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situation where you've just felt darkness.
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Maybe you felt the darkness of the evil 1, the oppression, the
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attacks of the evil 1 I have. It is so thick, it is so dark.
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It is so real. You almost feel you can touch
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it. Or maybe you've been out in the
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woods some night and the stars are overcast.
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You can't see the the moon and and you're trying to find your
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way in a path and it is so dark that you know you better not go
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anywhere. You'll really get lost.
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So you just stay in the place that you are.
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It was such a thick darkness in Exodus.
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It lasted for three days and it says it was so dark that the
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people had not the ability to see one another, neither anyone
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rose from the place that they were in.
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It also says that they nod their tongues in verse 10 because of
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the pain of the sores and the heat from the sun.
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And it reminds us of what it says in Matthew 2530.
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And he casts the unprofitable servant into outer darkness.
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And there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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This is a preview of hell. Hell is a literal place.
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It is a place designed by God for the devil and his angels.
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God never intended that man, his creation, would have to be in
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hell. But because of our own hardness,
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the own wickedness of our own hearts and our refusal to repent
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and submit to God, we we'll have to enter into that place.
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If we don't have Christ, it's not any our Savior, but our
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Lord. And so he says in verse 11 that
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they did not repent of their deed.
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I'd like to read something to you.
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This is something that's just been on my conscience the last
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couple weeks. It's from a devotional I've been
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looking at, and it says my brother and deem it all joy.
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Whenever you fall into diverse temptations or trials, knowing
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that the testing of your faith works out patience.
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God has a purpose for trials and adversity.
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It's to cause us to be humbled and to be broken and to repent
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and to turn toward him. With these words from his
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general epistle, James, the brother of the Lord, reminds us
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that the various afflictions we encounter in our daily lives can
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be of great benefit. And we know, as Paul reminds us,
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that those who love God, all things work together for good in
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Romans 828. Now listen to this and see if
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this applies to you. I know it does to me.
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The demands of today's secular, humanistic, ego worshipping
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society, where personal comfort and pleasure reign supreme, have
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often caused many, if not most of us to take our focus off of
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striving to live the Gospel of Christ.
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Does that affect any of you guys?
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However, unlike Peter, who, having taken his eyes off of his
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Lord and having begun to sink into the sea, immediately cried
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out to Jesus to save him, we seem to be either unaware of or
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indifferent to the fact that we are focusing upon and sinking
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within the toward sea of this temporal life.
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And thus we become bait for the many demonic passions lurking
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therein, seeking to devour our souls.
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This is why God and His limitless love for us will
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permit us to experience various tribulations so that we will
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wake up and cry out to him for help, so that we can again fix
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the eyes of our souls upon Him. I believe we have to wake up in
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these days. The church is dead everywhere,
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the Church of Jesus Christ in these last days.
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The Bible says there's a great falling away.
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Men will be lovers of themselves rather than lovers of God.
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And we're living in those days and we're fighting against those
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days, all of us, for our families, for our marriages, for
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our children. And as I said earlier when we
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prepared for the Supper, the apostle John who wrote the Book
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of Revelation also says that if we say we have no sin, we
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deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
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So we're studying about all these poor people in the Book of
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Revelation today. Sometimes we read all these poor
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people. They refuse to repent of their
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sin. They won't acknowledge the
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Creator. They blasphemy the Creator.
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And many times I look and I look at the image of the Church of
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Jesus Christ today and I say, do we look any different than those
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who will have to face that eternity of hell?
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Are we the kind of people that are refusing to repent of our
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sins? Are we walking around in self
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righteousness saying I have no sin, I'm judging other people's
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sins, but I'm not judging my own sins.
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It says if we hate, say that we have not sinned, we make him a
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liar and His word is not in US. The purpose, one of the roles of
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the Holy Spirit, God, the Holy Spirit, is to convict you and me
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of sin. He does that perfectly well.
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He makes it very clear to my conscience and yours whenever
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we're behaving in an inappropriate way, when we're
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thinking things we shouldn't, when we're doing things we know
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we shouldn't. He makes it very clear about
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where we're at in our lives in regard to sin.
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First, Peter chapter 4 says for the time has come for judgment
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to begin. Where?
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At the House of God. Now we're studying about the
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judgment and revelation, right? Well, revelation hasn't
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fulfilled yet in the sense of the prophetical vision of John
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in the days ahead. It's going to come to pass, but
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I have to live right now. And so I'm thinking about
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judgment and revelation, but I first of all have to realize
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that judgment has to 1st begin with me and with this House of
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God. And if it begins with us first,
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what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of
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God? And that's what we read about in
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Revelation. What will be the end of those in
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that book who will not obey the gospel of God?
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It says there will be 9 of teeth.
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Now if the righteous 1 is scarcely saved, where will the
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ungodly in the Sinner appear? Peter asked that question.
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James tells us that we're to draw near to God and he will
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draw near to you. That's repentance.
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Repentance is turning away from walking away from God in my own
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path of destruction and selfish and foolishness and delusion and
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turning to the Lord, drawing near to Him.
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And if I turn from my sin and repent and draw near to God, God
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doesn't run the other way. I'm the one that's running the
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other way. Am I rebellious sin?
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Right? I'm the one that's running away
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from God. And I've been there and you've
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been there. And we got loved ones that are
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running from God. But whenever we come to our
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senses like the prodigal, and we turn and we know we want to go
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to the House of the Father, we turn towards God and he runs
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toward us. He comes to us and embraces US.
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Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
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And as we're drawing near to God, the responsibility that we
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have, James says we're to cleanse our hands.
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He says cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts.
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You double minded. The double minded person is
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going this way and going this way and going this way and going
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this way and going this way and going this way and we don't know
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which way we're going. We get nowhere.
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God's calling us. We know our conscience is
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affected, but the sin in us, we love that sometimes more.
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And we're going this way and, and, and we're like spiritual
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schizophrenics where we have no rest, we have no peace because
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we have this constant tension of holiness in our own desire for
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what we think we want and what's best for us.
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James also tells us that we're confess our trespasses, our sins
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to one another, and to pray for one another that you may be
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healed. The sin causes siritual
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sickness. It causes death.
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You know, sometimes we know what it's like to be obviously
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physically I'll. We get flu shots to protect
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ourselves from the flu. We get different inoculations.
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We take vitamins to protect ourselves from disease and
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illness. We try to eat properly so we
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have the proper nutrition so that we stay healthy.
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Not realizing, though, that that's all in vain if we're
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living a life of habitual sin. Because no matter how many
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inoculations you get and how many vaccinations you get, how
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many flu shots you get, how many vitamins you get intake and how
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so you try to eat and work out, the wages of sin is death.
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You're going to die. You can't stop that.
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You can't prevent it. You can't help yourself and you
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can't help anybody else from the process of physical death.
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The wages of sin is death. And so he calls the church, he
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calls Christians together and James that we get together and
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we pray for one another and confess our sins to one another
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that we might get the help that we need.
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There's nothing more tragic than a church that listens to a
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message and goes home and there's no confession, there's
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no repentance, there's no praying for one another.
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It's, it's, it's not even a church.
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It's an institution, it's a business.
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It's just, I don't know what you would call it.
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It's, it's nothing. It's dead.
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And if we go out without repentance, if we go out without
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confession, if we go out without praying for one another, we are
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walking out sick and we are walking out dead.
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James says sin causes spiritual sickness and death.
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This past Wednesday we had a wonderful Bible study and I
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encourage you if you can come on Wednesday's, occasionally come.
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It's different than Sunday's we, we gather together and there's
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different men that teach the word here that are gifted to
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teach the word. And at the end, we, we, we this
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last Wednesday, everybody came up and we we gathered together
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and we asked if anybody was afflicted because Steve was
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teaching us on the purpose of afflictions from Psalm 119 and
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Job, we shared with our struggles and different people
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stood up and crying out to God about what would they were they
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were struggling with, whether it was fears or broken heartedness
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or whatever. And, and, and as they asked for
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help, different people prayed for one another.
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And what was wonderful was is the people prayed for one
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another. The people were forgiven, the
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burdens were lifted and they were healed.
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One person told me today I said, how you doing?
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Because I knew Wendy was a rough night.
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She said to me today, I'm doing great.
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The Lord works through repentance and through humility
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and through prayer, and we got to get over our egos and our
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pride, acting like we have it all together and we don't need
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prayer. We all need prayer.
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And I need prayer more than anybody because I'm the pastor
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and I, God help me if I don't ask for prayer, if I don't get
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prayer, I have nothing to give to you.
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If I don't humble myself before the Lord and realize my own
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spiritual sickness and how I need God's grace to continually
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bring healing to my soul. So the purpose of the supper is
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a healing move of God's Spirit. We just don't take it as a
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ritual, the cup and the bread, and OK, we move on to the next
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thing. If we take an understanding what
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it is, Jesus said this is my body which is broken for you.
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The apostle Paul said this is the blood that was shed for you.
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If we take it examining ourselves and not taking in an
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unworthy manner, then we're not going to be weak spiritually.
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We're not going to be sick spiritually.
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We're going to have the strength of God in US.
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Repentance transforms us from living in sin to living in
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purity and holiness. John Morris taught us an immense
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study this morning the importance of living in a holy
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way, being holy as he is holy. Repentance changes us from
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having a propensity to be unholy, to be pure and to be
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holy. The Bible says without holiness,
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no man shall see the Lord. And so I'm going to say why pray
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to prayer? I asked Jesus that came into my
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heart and be my savior. Well, it it doesn't work that
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way. If we aren't following Christ,
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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 and I never knew you and we'll say, well, why?
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I 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 to 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, thinking I was OK
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and meanwhile having an unrest in my heart, having a sense of
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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 every
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one of us. And apart from the blood of
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Jesus Christ, every one 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.
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It's still within our hearts. That's why the psalmist said thy
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word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee?
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We don't memorize scripture to impress people of our great
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knowledge of the Scripture. If you memorize Scripture for
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no, no other reason, I pray This is why you memorize it, so that
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you are protected from sin. And that's a good enough reason
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to memorize it. Without the word of God, the
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enemy will Vanquish and capture you as a spiritual struggler.
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And some of you today, I'm sure, are being vanquished by the
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enemy. You're being beat down.
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You're struggling in your sin. You don't have the ability to
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overcome it because you don't. It's been so long since you've
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drawn near to God. You've been running from God.
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And it's been so long since you've drawn near to God, you've
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forgotten that if you draw near to him, he'll draw near to you.
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And without the word of God, the enemy will mess you up.
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He'll strip you of the divine weapons that God's given you.
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He'll drag your life into a horrible pit of sin, of sorrow,
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of heartache, of bondage and destruction.
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And as a pastor, that's what breaks my heart because I see
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people that come and go here that refuse to repent and they
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want to have life their own way and they don't realize that.
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They think they can get away with it, but eventually their
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life will tragically be destroyed by sorrow and
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heartache. The heartache that they'll
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receive themselves and the heartache that they're going to
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cause other people because of their bondage to sin and the
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destruction it has occurred in their life.
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I think sometimes Cindy and I, we pray for loved ones and
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people we care about, brothers and sisters and, and I and I'm
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learning to be patient and gone upon God.
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It might not be today that someone gets busted.
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It might not be next week, next month, next year, but they'll
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come a time when someone's going to call you up and say I need
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help. I got a bad medical report.
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My wife left me, my kids on drugs, I lost my job.
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I'm in the pits of despair and despondency.
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I don't know which way to turn. There'll come a time of crushing
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and breaking by the mercy of God that that person will then begin
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to say I'm waking up. There's got to be more to life.
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I want to get my house in order because the consequences of my
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life to this point, if I die today, I'm not real sure I would
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be with the Lord because of the way I've lived my life.
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All the distressing events and consequences that are occurring
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in this world today, in this human life, are the result of
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one purpose, one reason, and that's sin.
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When tragedy happens and adversity happens in people's
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lives, what's the first thing they do?
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They complain. God, why?
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They blasphemed, just like the people in Revelation.
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The sun's too hot, the sores are too painful.
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Why are you doing this? I hate you.
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Why don't you just get out of my life?
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Why don't you leave me alone? Why don't you leave all of us
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alone? Not understanding that the God
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of creation created us to be in communion, to have a life of
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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 of my life
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that I was asleep. I was not awake.
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I thought I was OK. The nominal Christian life is
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hey, show up for church once in a while, 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. In the Book of Revelation,
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Pastor Clark is taking us through all kinds of events and
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happenings that are predicted for the future, but for those
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who believe and follow Jesus, there's much to look forward to
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in heaven with 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 and was cast out, Satan will try to
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convince people on earth that he is the triune God to be
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worshipped 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.