Living Waters of Grace 11.25.25

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.

Idolatry is fashioned in many ways today.

We don't have shrines and temples of of some ridiculous

Pagan deity around our necks. At least I hope we don't.

But idolatry is in the form of a lot of other things.

It can be our material wealth. It can be something we own that

we love and that every time we see it, we just smile and say

that's mine, you know? And I'm going to give hours a

day to whatever I think is important.

That's mine. It could be making sure you see

every football game possible on Sundays, or maybe it's never

missing a single CrossFit session.

You have ATV show that you claim as yours.

Or maybe you own a car that you can't stand to have any

scratches on. Pastor Clark makes it clear

today that idolatry in today's time is different than Bible

times. And yet it's kind of the same.

It's giving your heart and your devotion over to something other

than God. So take some time and think

about this. What or who are you worshipping

now? Here's Pastor Clark in the book

of Acts Chapter 19 with today's edition of Living Waters of

Acts 19 · chapter mention

Grace. Acts chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

We're going to look at the verse 18 before we go into today's

text. And many who had believed came

confessing and telling their deeds.

Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their

books together and burned them in the sight of all.

And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled 50,000

pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew

mightily and prevailed. Verse 21.

And when these things were accomplished, then Paul's going

to begin to talk about what's next in his life.

This is a big deal. And what happened here and what

we read about Whenever the Holy Spirit works in our lives, there

is a transition from one way of living to a new way of living.

And I loved it when Pastor Lewis was teaching us in First

Thessalonians because there's a verse there that really ties

into what happened to these people in Ephesus.

Same thing with the Thessalonian believers in First Thessalonians

19. It said what manner of entry we

had to you. In other words, the apostles are

saying how the Word impacted him and how you turn to God from

idols to serve the living and true God.

So conversion or repentance or belief in faith in Jesus Christ

is just not like this mental thing we we do.

So we go to heaven. I mean, that's a good thing that

we go to heaven if we trust in Christ.

But it's much deeper than this believing so that we might have

a better life. Now, the purpose of coming to

Christ is a term from the old way of life, the way we used to

live and the way we used to be wired in other, in other words,

and how we thought about life and what we did in our lives,

the things we regret now that we're Christian.

So true repentance is always a change of mind.

You change the way you're living.

And even to this day when I study the Scriptures and when I

pray and I have my time with the Lord, I'm always open.

I want him to show me things in my life that He wants to still

change. It's not like once we become

Christians, we don't need to change, right?

There's this continual transformation by the Holy

Spirit to conform us more to the image and likeness of Jesus.

So when I whenever I'm talking to the Lord and and thinking

about things I say to him, is there anything in my life right

now that isn't the way it should be that you want to change, that

you want me to to look at differently and respond to you

differently. And there's never really a time

where he doesn't share something with me that's helpful to help

me want to be more like him and to let go of some things that

sometimes get in the way of my relationship with him.

And that's that intimacy, that relationship we have with Jesus.

And as we were worshipping, I, I was thinking back there that

it's so incredible that each of us can have a personal

relationship with the Lord that I've never physically, outside

of a spiritual touch, touch the Lord.

I, I haven't seen him as, as a human being other than the lives

and the writings of the Scripture.

I don't see him like I, I see you physically at this point in

time, but one day I will see him.

The Bible says we'll see him face to face and we will see him

and we shall become like him because we shall see him as he

is. He truly is.

So one day we will have that privilege of physically

encountering Jesus as a man and as a as a risen savior when we

go to heaven. But what's incredible for you

and I, when we think about this privilege we have to have this

communion with the Lord, is that we can talk with him moment by

moment, That we can lay our head down in the pillow at night when

we're troubled and, and talk to him and he listens and he

responds to us when we're overwhelmed by life and this

having difficulty with whatever we might be going through, we

can ask for his help and he'll help us.

He's he's always near. I love what it tells us in

Hebrews that we don't have a high priest who cannot be

touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, our infirmities, but

was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

And then the writer says that we can have boldness to enter into

the holy place by the blood of Jesus, this relationship of

Christ shed blood that enables sinners to go into the presence

of God and not be rejected. And we can go into that throne

room of grace and find mercy and help in our time of need.

Isn't that wonderful? You don't have to come to church

in your time of need. You can go right to Jesus

wherever you are, in your car, in your house, in your

apartment, in your bedroom, and you know, your leisure time.

You, you can go to the Lord 24/7.

And how privileged we are to have that relationship.

And I hope and I trust that you're taking advantage of that

relationship. The Lord has provided for you

through his death, burial, and resurrection, that you can have

a real conversation with God and he'll have a real conversation

back with you. That's priceless.

And this is something that the world doesn't know about.

We see the headlines this past week of this tremendous,

horrific assault on this young man who didn't do anything other

than run, and he was assaulted and brutalized and murdered for

no good reason. And this is just a tippity

iceberg. We get the the news all the

time. I mean, I'm reading about

husbands shooting wives, wives killing husbands, riots, mobs,

you know, fighting, you know, out in the streets and trying to

force us as Christians to accept godless ideologies and, and, and

basically wanting to shut us up and to tell us that our opinions

don't matter and, and in regard to marriage or sexuality or

whatever. And so we're living in times

when you study this with me today, understand that this is

going on today too, Not to the degree that it was an Ephesus in

America. Pray that it never will been in

Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Emirate Republic,

Pakistan, India, you know, China, all these places in the

world, people are being brutally tortured for their faith in

Jesus Christ. And so as we study this, we have

to understand the courage that Paul had.

Paul was not afraid of a fight. God gave him the strength to

persevere. He always had this desire to

take the gospel to wherever he could take it.

And he always had a great attitude.

He was always positive, he was always joyful.

He had his time of struggles. He talked about despairing of

life itself at times and being brutalized himself and people

throwing rocks at him and that kind of stuff.

But it never stopped him from what it was that God called him

to do. And I think about your call as a

Christian mind. As a Christian, God has certain

purposes for your life and relationships He wants you to

have with people. And lots of times those

relationships will end up in conflict because of your

position regarding who Jesus Christ is and how you live.

Some people will reject you, some people won't like you, some

people want to argue with you, some people want to slander you

or whatever. At this point in time, you know,

they might even want to fight you or beat you or whatever.

I, I, I pray that's not the case in our time.

But we have to be ready for whatever may come down the road.

And we have to be willing to stand as the apostle Paul stood

and those who served with him in this particular time.

So Paul is purposing in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit speaking

to Paul about the next goal that the Lord had for him.

That is, he's beginning to complete his ministry after a

couple years in Ephesus. He's been teaching for two years

in that Bible school. The school tyrannis 8 hours, 6

hours, 8 hours a day for six days a week for two to three

years. If you were in that place with

him, you would be out on the streets sharing what it is you

have learned because it was just so living and so fresh and so

alive and so anointed of God. People's lives are being

transformed to the degree and it was impacting the commerce of

this Pagan city in a very negative way.

And it says when he had passed through Macedonia and Arcade to

go to Jerusalem, saying after I've been there, I must also see

Rome. So already Paul has got his eyes

on other opportunities to minister, and so it says in

verse 22, so he sent into Macedonia two of those who

ministered to him, Timothy and Rastus, but he himself stayed in

Asia for a time. Now, there's a lot of things

that go on when we study the Bible.

You sort of have to be willing to look at some other passages

in order to have some things make sense because he's talking

about a lot of geography here. But if you looked at these maps,

you would see how, how close these different places were and

how you were able to get to these different places in a

period of days or weeks or whatever, using boats or donkeys

or walking, whatever. And so there was no part in that

known world at the time that Paul wasn't anxious to get to to

do the ministry. And so this this issue here of

these different places he's mentioning, Paul wrote to the

Corinthian church from the city of Ephesus.

And the Corinthians is another book in the Bible we'll get to

eventually. He also wrote from Rome to

Ephesus. So why was he interested in

going to Rome? And I want to look at Romans

Romans 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15 for a minute. And this all ties together with

Paul's great heart of missions. It says in the heading there

plan to visit Rome. For this reason I also have been

much hindered from coming to you.

But now I'm no longer having a place in these parts and having

a great desire of these many years to come to you whenever I

journey to Spain. So not any was he planning on

going to Rome, but he eventually wanted to get to Spain.

I don't know if he ever got there or not.

We don't have any indication he did or didn't.

But that was a plan. He says I shall come come to you

for I hope to see you on my journey and to be helped on my

way there by you. If first I may enjoy your

company for a while. So Paul not, and he liked

teaching, but he liked being around people like us so he

could have fellowship with them because we would encourage him.

But now I'm going to Jerusalem to minister to the Saints.

Now, Jerusalem was in a time of famine and poverty.

And so whenever we know about people who are in crisis,

through missions, our own missionaries that we support, or

through Calvary Chapel, that lets us know about different

things that are going on in the world.

We have the ability to budget part of what it is.

It comes in through the offerings to go help people in

crisis, even though we're not going to physically be there.

And so Paul's going to Jerusalem to minister to the Saints for

it, please those from Macedonia and IKEA to make a certain

contribution for the poor among the Saints who are in Jerusalem.

So Paul sending Timothy and Erasus to these places to

receive the offerings that these cities had stored up for the

help of those who are suffering in Jerusalem.

And it says it pleased them indeed, and they are their

debtors. For if the Gentiles have been

partakers of the spiritual things, so in other words, they

became believers because of Paul and the ministry and the Word

and the gospel. Their duty now is also to

minister to the people that helped them in material things.

Therefore, when I performed this sealed to them this fruit, I

shall go by way of you to Spain. But I know that when I come, I

shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of

Christ. So here we are reading about

things an ethicist, but Paul spiritually multitasking like

you and I do, you're thinking about maybe later what you're

going to do and you know, is a Bengals going to win or the

Chiefs and all these things are thinking about today, right?

Really important stuff I must say, right?

Depending on who you want to win, right, But you know, you're

thinking about next week and family and people that you wish

would come to church with you that haven't yet or people that

you love that don't know the Lord yet.

You have all these thoughts and you're thinking, well, I take

this trip to this place one day and I see these friends or

relatives or these coworkers. I'm going to tell them more

about my faith and what Christ did for me.

That's that's a good thing that the Holy Spirit is always

putting things in our heart that we can think about doing in the

days ahead, the further the gospel.

But Paul, even though he's an Asian Ephesus, at this time,

he's already thinking about all these other things that need to

be accomplished. And 1st Corinthians is also

tying into this. If you turn there, First

Corinthians 16, I read verses one through 4 and Pauls talking

about this collection that they're going to take to

Jerusalem. Now concerning the collection

for the Saints, as I've given orders to the churches of

Galatia, so you must do also on the first day of the week, let

each one of you lay something up aside, storing up as he may

prosper, that there be no collections.

When I came, when I come, and when I come, whomever you

approve by your letters, I will send to bear your gift to

Jerusalem. But if it is fitting that I go

also, they will go with me. So, So these churches work

together and obviously they gave offerings like we do, you know,

monthly or weekly or however we do it online or anything

offering boxes outside. So that like if there's a big

issue here, and I've never had to do this, nor has Lewis not,

nor do we ever want to do it. We're not interested in begging

for money or asking for money. You guys give liberally as God

is purpose in your heart for God loves a cheerful giver.

He doesn't want to manipulate any of us.

He doesn't want to force us. That's a privilege that we give

what it is that the Lord prospers us with.

But whenever we have a need or a missionary rights us or we have

something in our heart of benevolence or crisis in the

church, we don't have to say, well, this family has this

problem. We're going to take a special

offering today so we can help this family or help these

missionaries. Everything that comes into the

church is put in a a general fund for George, who's the

financial guy here to help us determine what it is we can

budget and how we can help. And so the Lord has never not

had funds in the storehouse for us to be able to use things for

people and missionaries and struggles and people in in

crisis and that kind of stuff. And this is all taught

throughout the New Testament. So as Paul is working in

Ephesus, he already has a heart in his mind.

He's serving the believers in Ephesus, but he's concerned

about the church in Jerusalem and he's also wanting to go

visit these other places to see how they're doing since the

churches have been established. That's a beautiful, beautiful

thing to, to see how these things are all weaved together

in the Scriptures. And, and about that time in

verse 23, as as he's thinking and planning and and talking

about the things ahead, there arose a great commotion about

the way. The way was considered the name

of the new group of followers of Jesus Christ.

Yeah, The way represented John 14-6, where Jesus said I am the

way, I am the truth. I'm the life.

No man comes to the Father but through me.

The way is the only way. There is only one way, right?

His way. And he said, it's so clear.

Aren't you glad he didn't say, well, I'm one of the ways, or

this is something you should consider?

There are other ways. No, he was real clear so we

wouldn't be confused. Jesus is the only way, and we're

not bigoted. We believe what he said and we

know it's true because we found the truth in regard to our

salvation is only wrought in the person, in the work of Jesus

Christ. He's the only one that has

conquered the grave. He's only the one that's

overcome death. He's the only one that's

sinless. He's the only one that's

perfect, and He's the only one that could die on the cross to

redeem us and save us and atone for our sins.

And so these people are uptight about this issue of the way a

lot of people are getting aggravated and why Verse 24 for

a certain man named Demetrius, the silversmith who made silver

shrines of Diana brought no small profit to the Craftsman.

So this guy made his livelihood from making idols out of silver

and crafting these little mini miniature gods, replicating the

temple of the person of Diana the high priestess, if you may.

And it was really a weird image and multi breasted woman.

And the temple prostitutes at this temple of Diana would go in

their short skirts and and have one breast exposed to represent

the the deity of this Diana temple prostitutes.

All kind of Pagan rituals and occultic things going on.

I mean, the whole thing was crazy.

What's happening is Paul and his preaching in the school at

Tyrannis. People like us are there and all

of a sudden maybe we had these little idols in our house or

warm around our neck. Some people did that.

All of a sudden we're hearing the word of God and the truth

regarding Jesus Christ, and all of a sudden we want to get rid

of these things, right? And that was the purpose of the

fire and burning those things and throwing them away.

This being free from it. Well, as a result of this

happening in the community in the city of Ephesus, there was

less people buying these things. So if you made good living by

making these things, maybe you're selling, you know, 1000 a

week or something. And all of a sudden you look at

your numbers and now they're 600 a week and then they're 400 a

week and then they're three. You know, you're, you're

starting to get bothered, right? Because you know that what's

happening in the city now is impacting your livelihood.

So this is the purpose of why Demetrius is beginning to get

this crowd together, because he made these silver shrines of

Diana and it brought a lot of money to the Craftsman who were.

Involved in it, it says in verse 24 he called them together with

the workers of similar occupation.

So he's getting all the people in the union together to tell

them about what's going on and why the numbers are down and why

the revenue is a lot less than what it once was.

Because they probably didn't really quite grasp the impact

that Christianity was having in the city of Ephesus.

So he calls them together and he says, man, you know that we have

our prosperity by this trade. This is how we make our

livelihood. Moreover, you see in here that

not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this

Paul has persuaded and turned away many people saying that

they are not gods which are made with hands.

Now, Paul never once picketed in front of the temple of Diana.

There's no indication that he was there with signs and, and,

and telling everybody, don't go in there and don't do this.

Don't do that. He was just teaching the word.

And whenever you teach the word, it has an impact on lives.

It it changes your thought process, it changes your

worldview. It changes what your priorities

are and what you invest and spend your money on you.

If you're doing things that aren't right, the Holy Spirit

convicts you and speaks to your heart inwardly and says, you

know this isn't cool. You know, you know, you really

need to let this go. You need to move away from this,

this idol or whatever it might be.

An idolatry is fashioned in many ways today.

We don't have shrines and temples of, of some ridiculous

Pagan deity around our necks. At least I hope we don't.

But idolatries in the form of a lot of other things.

It can be our material wealth. It can be something we own that

we love and that every time we see it, we just smile and say,

that's mine, you know? And I'm going to give hours a

day to whatever I think is important.

That's mine. And so we begin to become

consumed and controlled by metal and, and, and leather and tires.

And those cars are the biggest idols for all of us.

When you first get it, you know, you're excited and there's

nothing wrong with having a nice car, but it can really overcome

you, can't it? Especially when someone wrecks

into it. You just bought it.

Like it happened to me. I'm in Philadelphia and someone

knocks my mirror on my Sienna and I'm like, you got to be

kidding me. You know, it's just like, I just

got this thing the Lord said, Clark, it's just a piece of

metal and it's a means to an end.

It's how you make your livelihood.

It's how you stay safe and drive around.

But I, I had to, I had to sort of like repent a little bit.

John's an auto body guy. He likes it when we wreck.

That's good for you, your prosperity.

But you know, I had to think like, well, you know, it's just

a car, right? But things can control our

hearts at times, can't they? How about our houses?

Nothing wrong with having nice houses, but when they begin to

have problems, how can it begin to make us depressed or upset or

uptight? Or, you know, it's, it's

interesting. I love sports.

Many of you do too. But if my whole life was like,

well, you know, I'm not going to go to church today because I'll

miss the kickoff. And, and I actually did that

when I was younger. The Steelers were kicking off at

like 12, man, I was, I was the first one out the door at 11:30.

Cindy, come on, we got to go. Where are we going?

The game is starting at that. Pastor's going to go on and on

and on. Let's get out of here.

One pastor, he like tortured us. He'd have an Alder call,

especially in a big stealer day. And I knew man, we were going to

miss like at least 1/2 an hour to have the game.

We're so glad you joined us today on this edition of Living

Waters of Grace. Pastor Clark is teaching through

the Book of Acts, which is the only book that chronicles the

history of the early church immediately after Jesus's

ascension. It gives us a front row seat to

how the Gospel began to move outwards, starting in Jerusalem

and reaching into the heart of the Roman Empire.

In just three decades, a small group of frightened ordinary

believers became a bold, spirit empowered movement that

transformed the known world. Acts is not just a history

lesson. It's a reminder of what God can

do when His people are surrendered, obedient and filled

with the Holy Spirit. Their perseverance still

inspires us today. May we follow their example and

live faithfully for Christ in our own time.

We hope today's message encouraged you.

Living Waters of Grace is a ministry of Calvary Chapel,

Westmoreland. If you're in the Greensburg, PA

area, we'd love to have you join us in person.

Our Sunday service begins at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.

Unit 6B. Be sure to visit

calvarychapelonline.com to confirm times and learn more.

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

on the new 91.7 frequency. Please pray about supporting

this outreach. Gifts can be sent to Grace FMPO

Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601. Stay connected through Facebook,

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Join our e-mail list, submit prayer requests, and give online

all at calvarychapelonline.com. Thank you for tuning in and

spending this time in God's Word.

Be sure to join us again for Living Waters of Grace.