Living Waters of Grace 11.28.25

This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark

Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,

County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he

continues teaching through God's Word.

I'm gonna say why? I thought you were a believer.

Why are you acting that way? I thought Christians were

different. Well, many times Christians

aren't different. We're just like everybody else,

right? Unless our eyes are on the Lord.

If our eyes are on him, then we're going to be OK.

The NLT says, I love this. I know the Lord is always with

me. Do you know the Lord is always

with you? Sometimes we forget.

Sometimes we don't feel him. We don't sense him, but he's

always with us. I will not be shaken, for he is

right beside me. Everyone has struggles in life,

no exceptions. It doesn't matter who you are,

where you're from, whether you're rich, poor, tall,

shorter, or whatever other distinction you might have to

claim to. Everybody has good days and bad.

Everybody goes through storms. In today's teaching, Pastor

Clark lets you know that even Christians struggle with things.

Yes, that's right. Being a Christian doesn't make

you immune to difficulty. But do you know what makes all

the difference? The Lord is with you now.

Here's Pastor Clark in the book of Acts Chapter 20 with today's

Acts 20 · chapter mention

edition of Living Waters of Grace.

Everyone needs to hear the importance of needing to repent

of their sin, and repentance means changing your mind.

You're used to going this way, which is a way toward hell.

The highway to hell, the road that leads to destruction is

broad, and many are those on that road heading toward the

Cliff where they'll eventually end up in hell.

Repentance is I'm not wanting to go there.

I got to stop this behavior. I need a savior.

I need someone to help me, not do what I keep doing over and

over and over again. I need a new life.

I need a change. I need a fresh start, and that's

repentance. Then you're turning to the road

that's narrow. The Bible says it leads to life

and few there are that find that road.

Most people are on the road, the broad road to destruction.

There's less people on the narrow Rd. that leads to life.

So Paul knew the importance is any pastor or teacher or

Christian should know. We need to let people know they

need to repent. Amen.

They need to get right with God today, not tomorrow, not next

week. Paul also said today is a day of

salvation. If you hear his voice, his

Spirit speak in your heart, this is the time when you say, Lord,

you're right, you got me. I know I need you now.

I know I'm a Sinner. Lord, forgive me.

Come into my life and save me for my sin and get me on this

path that leads to life, repentance toward God.

I've offended God of sinned against God and now my faith

needs to be in what Jesus Christ has done for me.

For Christ took your sin and my sin upon himself upon the cross,

and he took the punishment for my sin and your sin so that I

don't have to take it and you don't have to take it.

And he shed his blood. He died for us and he said he's

forgiven us of all our sin and all our unrighteousness.

It's the it's the best news anybody could ever have.

When we were at the movie theater and I was working with a

big fella from he was from Saint Vincent.

He was a football player. He graduated, wants to go into

law. And he was wondering like what's

this movie about and why these people come in here?

And I was helping him with the tickets because there was 2

theaters. There was one.

People bought Pandora, not Pandora.

But what's that? What is it called?

Fandango. Yeah.

And there was something like that.

But anyway, he's a good song. Fandango here.

Check that out. But anyway, so, you know, I'm

helping them and, and so, well, these people, you know, they got

tickets from Calvary, so they go to this theater and the other

one. And so as we were talking, I, I

was telling him about the movie. I said he had to come in and

check it out if you have some time.

He said what I'd really like to. He says I need, I need to get

back to God. He says, I've, I've gone to mass

a couple times up at the Seton Hill, but you know, just not

connecting or whatever. And, and I said, well, we're

going to come here. We've invited him here.

I was hoping he'd be here today, but this pray for this brother.

And you know, he said, well, I've, I've done too many bad

things in my life and I've really messed up and, and you

know, God's not going to want me.

I said that's the point. God wants you.

That's why he came. He came to die for people like

you and me that have messed up. We've all messed up.

And he will forgive you and there's no guilt.

He takes your guilt away and he takes your sin away and he gives

you a new conscience, a heart that's pure and a life that's

changed and transformed. And his eyes got real big.

And he says, was that? Is that really true?

I said, yes, it's true. That's what that movie is all

about. That's what the Jesus Revolution

is about. And Jesus Revolution started at

Pentecost, didn't it? And it continues until Christ

comes back again. And it's done through the

preaching of the gospel. And so all humility, Paul's

telling them this is what you do.

You testify, you give your testimony, and then you tell

people about their need to repent toward God and then to

put their faith in Jesus Christ. Whosoever shall call upon the

name of the Lord shall be saved. And then he said in verse 22,

and see now I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing

the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy

Spirit testifies in every city saying the chains and

tribulations await me. So he's heading to Jerusalem.

He's being warned by people and by the Holy Spirit that there's

going to be problems for him when he gets there.

Believe it's Agabus, a prophet that warned him that he the belt

that he wore was going to be representative of the bondage

that he would be put in and change when he gets to Jerusalem

and they were begging him not to go there.

This is this is Paul right and he understands what what he's

facing. But he says none of these things

move me nor do I count my life dear to myself so that I may

finish my race with joy and the ministry which I received from

the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel, the grace of God.

What a brother and the Lord. I mean, if I knew personally

today that there was a place that I'm being warned not to go

because if I go there, I'm going to have a lot of problems, my

first thought was I'm not going there.

I'm not going to go there. But the Holy Spirit override at

Paul's personal opinion, I'm sure worked in his heart, gave

him grace. Don't worry about it, Paul.

I'm going to use you there. And it was many years later

actually, when he actually did get martyred.

So this wasn't happening tomorrow, next week, but it was

an eventual thing he would definitely experience.

But he said he didn't count his life dear to himself.

He was living for one purpose and the only purpose he wanted

to be alive is that he might serve the Lord and and do the

ministry. And he said none of these things

move me. Wouldn't you like to be in a

place with God that no matter what happened in your life today

or tomorrow or next week, it's not freaking you out?

You just be calm and cool and collective.

We're not normally that way, are we?

We're freaking out. You don't believe what's

happening to me or this is going on or that's going on and this

isn't right and this isn't fair and you know, and we're all

worked up. But Paul had such peace by the

Holy Spirit's power. He said none of these things

move him. And the psalmist says in Psalm

168I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my

right hand. I shall not be moved.

I'm sure Paul memorized that verse.

He probably had it deep inside his heart and his conscience.

We need that kind of focus, having the Lord always before

us, no matter what, because he's at our right hand and we won't

be moved. That's King James, NIV says.

I keep my eyes always on the Lord, with Him on my right hand,

I will not be shaken. When your eyes are on the Lord,

you're not freaking out, you're not shook up, you're not

hopeless, you're not overwhelmed.

But I guarantee you, because I know when my eyes are off Jesus,

I am a mess. I'm whining, I'm complaining,

I'm feeling sorry for myself. I'm whatever, you know, emotion

you can get is a human being, a sinful human being.

My, my head needs, my eyes need to be on the Lord.

That's not like on Sunday or when I'm preaching or when I'm

teaching or when I'm being a dad or a grandfather, all these

different roles. You wear your son, son-in-law,

brother, uncle, you know, all these hats you guys all wear.

Every circumstance, every situation that we enter into our

lives, My eyes need to be on him because if they're not, I'm not

going to be effective for the Lord.

I'm going to be a bad example. I'm going to say, well, I

thought you were a believer, why are you acting that way?

I thought Christians were different.

Well, many times Christians aren't different.

We're just like everybody else, right?

Unless our eyes are on the Lord, if our eyes are on him, then

we're going to be OK. The NLT says, I love this, I

know the Lord is always with me. Do you know the Lord is always

with you? Sometimes we forget, sometimes

we don't feel him, we don't sense him, but he's always with

us. I will not be shaken, for he is

right beside me. And more than that, he dwells

within us and he promises us he will never leave us or forsake

us, no matter what we feel or what we think in our minds.

And so Paul was able to be stable and not freaking out.

And he, he always wanted to testify the gospel, the grace of

God, the grace of God. I want to have more grace in my

life. You want to have more grace in

your life. Grace is what enables you to

live a different life. Grace is what enables you to be

forgiving and not hating and judging.

Grace is what enables you to love God in a deeper way than

you've ever loved him before. Grace is what enables you to

turn from your sin and be saved. Grace is what gives you the

ability to to love your wife as Christ loves the church.

Grace enables the kids to follow the leading of their parents and

not rebelling. You know, grace is what gives us

the ability to live in a world that's in chaos right now and

still know that the Lord's on the throne.

Verse 25 And indeed, now I know that you all among whom I've

gone preaching the Kingdom of God will see my face no more.

That's a sad comment. They're not going to see him

again. Therefore, I testify to you this

day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.

What does he mean by that? He says, for I have not shunned

to declare to you the whole counsel of God.

Lewis and I will stand before the Lord one day and he will

deal with us based upon this verse.

Have we ever prevented you from hearing the whole truth and

nothing but the truth? So help us God, the whole

counsel of God from Genesis to Revelation.

That's what God requires of a shepherd to teach, to feed the

flock of God and to protect them from things that aren't in the

Bible and aren't biblical. That's a serious responsibility.

Matter of fact, it says we'll be judged with a stricter judgment.

Won't we, pastor? When we stand before the Lord,

then we do what it is that He told us to do.

And this is what Paul's telling the elders that he has done, and

he's expecting them to follow suit and do the same thing.

I've not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God,

Genesis to Revelation. Therefore, take heed to

yourselves. Look at our own hearts.

How are we doing? What are we doing?

And to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you

overseers, to shepherd the Church of God, which He

purchased with His own blood. We love you guys, we care about

you. We want you guys to know the

truth, to walk in the truth, to walk in the light.

And we're looking at our own heart as well.

And we're to give oversight, not control, not boss, not

manipulate, not roll in the sense of like, do what I say

kind of thing. No, do what the Lord says.

We're trying to encourage you as we're trying to encourage

ourselves. Be faithful to the truth of the

Lord and walk in the truth of the Bible.

God has made us overseers to shepherd His church.

It's the Church of God. It's His church, and it's so

much His church that He purchased it with His own blood.

He shed His blood for you and for me, for all of us here in

this church. This is His church.

And then he says in 29 for I know this, that after my

departure, savage wolves will come among in among you, not

sparing the flock. This happened in Corinth.

No sooner did he leave, leave false teachers are coming in and

he had to go back and deal with that.

The people didn't want to hear it.

I mean, there are so many false teachers out there today on the

radio and books and Airways and videos and YouTube.

I mean, I could spend a month just doing a study on false

teachers, but I'd rather focus on the the truth and the true

teacher, Jesus Christ and wasting time about false

teachers. They'll come and go.

But if any are infecting the church, we will definitely bring

it up and warn people and talk to people.

Someone was here about a month ago and they had a book and they

were talking about demons and curses and sins and generational

curse and, you know, just a lot of crazy stuff.

And this guy had this like in the book, this sort of procedure

of how to rebuke the devil and how to get, you know, and really

complicated stuff, you know? And I said, well, you know, she

said, what do you think? I said, well, I, I personally, I

wouldn't read that book. And I don't think it's biblical.

And, and #2 I said, why don't you just read chapter 6 of

Ephesians? For we wrestle not against flesh

and blood, but against principalities and powers in the

World of Darkness of this present age.

Be strong in the Lord in the power of his might tells us in

the scriptures resists the devil and he'll flee from you and he

gives all the armament of the symbolism of what it is we wear

spiritually and have the the sword of truth, the Bible and

the shield of faith which is able to quench the fiery darts

of the wicked one. That's the Bible.

I don't need some book by some guy telling me how to do that

when it's already in the Word of God, he said.

Also from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse

things to draw away disciples after themselves.

There's been occasions here and it never lasted too long where

someone came in, they had an agenda and wanted to have a

Bible study and they wanted to begin to teach stuff that wasn't

our spiritual DNA, which is the word of God.

And they had different views. Well, I got this new truth and I

want to tell people that there really isn't a hell.

I'll never forget this guy. He's telling me that he was

going to prove to me that, you know, there is no such thing as

everlasting punishment. So I took him to Revelation.

Whosoever was named name not found in the book of life was

cast in the lake of fire that this literal hell.

And and then when I showed him that, he says, well, maybe I

should, you know, you know, look at it differently or something,

I don't know. But fortunately he left and

didn't come back. But that was a perverse teaching

that would come in to draw away disciples after that particular

persons theories. Therefore watch and remember

verse 31 that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone

night and day with tears. Paul was so intense.

It wasn't like I'll just remind you one time and tell you and

warn you about some problems here.

You know, three years, night and day.

And he was so burdened that he he wept if people weren't

believing or following or relying upon the truth of the

word of God. So now brethren, I commend you

verse 32. This is his blessing to the

elders. I commend you to God and to the

word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an

inheritance among all those who are sanctified or set apart.

So this this beautiful blessing that he's praying on them and

and encouraging them with is that this word of his grace

which we're studying every time we gather is able to build you

up and you experience this inheritance that God has given

us because we belong to Jesus Christ.

You'll you'll have this reality of of spiritual health in your

life. Verse 33 I have coveted no one's

silver or gold or apparel. Paul wasn't in it for money.

He wasn't in it for himself. He was in it for the sake of

others and the glory of God. Yes, you yourselves know that

these hands have provided for my necessities and for those who

were with me. I have shown you in every way by

laboring like this that you must support the weak and remember

the words of the Lord Jesus that He said it is more blessed to

give than receive. What a blessing.

The Lord gives us the opportunity to give unto Him and

to be a blessing to other people, to help other people and

have the Holy Spirit speak to you about your resources, how to

use them for the sake of others and His Kingdom and people that

you run into in life sometimes that need a helping hand, that

you use what it is the Lord's entrusted you with secretly and

privately to help someone who's less fortunate.

And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed

with them all. Then they all wept freely and

fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for

the words which he spoke. And they would see his face no

more. And they accompanied him to the

ship. This had to be very, very

difficult for them. They loved him, they honored

him, they needed him. He impacted them greatly and now

he's moving on and they'll never see him again.

But he's given them everything they need to have to continue

the legacy that the Lord had given him.

And every generation, the Lord raises up new young people.

I think of the young kids in that room next door.

They're the future leaders of the church.

You parents are disciple and your children and teaching them

to how to walk with the Lord. Because one day Lewis and I

won't be here and it'll be a whole different group of people

and a different group of leaders.

And it's going to come from the Lord continually raising people

up from one generation to the next to.

Continually do and teach the things that Paul has taught us

thus far in the book of the Acts.

I remember whenever we had our last opportunity to be with

Pastor Chuck, he was dying of cancer and he met us at Sandy

Cove at the pastors conference about 12 years ago and he was

weak. He could tell they had to help

him get up in the pulpit. And I was thinking, I need to

pull up the archives and and review what the last things he

taught us at that time. But I'm sure it was along the

lines of what Paul is teaching here because Pastor Chuck was

the kind of guy that gave the ministry away.

And he loved raising men up and letting them be used in the

church. And then also men who were

called to plant churches, he would send them out and help

them do that, as you saw with Greg in the movie.

And you know, we we got to get pictures with them and hug them

and love on them as he loved us. We were like his kids, spiritual

kids. The Lord used him to raise up

1700 churches to this day called Calvary Chapel around the world,

just simply teaching the Bible simply.

And I had a chance to go up to him at the time.

And I said, Pastor Chuck, I said, I just want to thank you

for letting us hook our caboose your locomotive.

And because there's no way I'd be a pastor today, nor would

this church be here if it wasn't for his legacy impact.

And he just smiled at me, says great things God hath wrought.

Chuck never took any credit for anything.

He just wanted to see the Lord work.

And at that time, we didn't have this building at the time, but

we were making some degree of progress, slow progress, and

told about the radio station and he got biggest kick out of that.

We didn't even have it up. Then the low power and then we

finally got it up. And every day, 8:00 in the

morning, he comes on after my teaching and I hear him and I

say, Cindy, thank the Lord for this man's life and how he

impacted us as a couple and how he's impacted families all over

the world and continually does to this day.

And but it was sort of like this thing with Paul and the elders.

It was us and him because we understood the anointing that

God had on his life and what how he had impacted us.

It was funny, you know, when we first became pastors, we didn't

know how to do weddings. He'd give us videos how to do

it. We didn't know how to do

funerals. He'd give us videos how to do

it. And he did a great teaching and

acts the Lord how he builds a church, not church growth

methods and all the hype stuff that people get into.

But how does the Holy Spirit, you know, grow a church?

He provided all these resources and of course, to this day, word

for the day and Blue letter Bible.

You can go on and find his teachings if you want.

You can go through the whole Bible if you like with him and

and many other pastors. So we're grateful for what it is

that that God has done through Paul's life because Paul

continually impacts the Church of Jesus Christ to this day.

We need to pray that men will get back to the Bible and

churches, that they'll teach the whole council of God so that

believers can be healthy and know the truth and not be

confused. There's a famine for the word of

God right now, so we want to get this out more and more.

That's the purpose of the radio station.

What people are going to hear is what you've heard today.

Amen. Thanks for joining us on this

journey through Acts. On today's edition of Living

Waters of Grace, Pastor Clark shares that one of the most

remarkable things about the book of Acts is how it shows the

disciples transformation. The followers of Jesus we meet

here are very different from the often confused and fearful

disciples in the Gospels. After Jesus's death and

resurrection, and especially through the power of the Holy

Spirit, the apostles experienced a profound change in their

hearts and boldness. Their faith became unwavering,

and they moved forward with courage to spread the gospel

despite opposition and hardship. Max reminds us that the same

Spirit who empowered them is at work in US today, shaping our

hearts and giving us strength to live boldly for Christ.

Living Waters of Grace is a ministry of Calvary Chapel

Westmoreland. If you're in the Greensburg, PA

area, we invite you to join us this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E

Pittsburgh St. Unit 6B.

Visit calvarychapelonline.com For more information or you can

also join our e-mail list, submit prayer requests, give

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If you are in the Greensburg area, you can listen to Grace FM

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Send gifts to Grace FMPO Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601.

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We're so grateful that you joined us today in Acts.

TuneIn again soon for another edition of Living Waters of

Grace.