Living Waters of Grace 11.11.25

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.

So these guys are in one of the most difficult places in their

lives. They don't know if they're going

to live or. Die instead of complaining,

they're praying, which we should do when we're in tough

situations that we don't like, we should pray.

Cause the power of prayer and power of praise is a releasing

power and delivering power from the things that are in our lives

that we don't like. And I'm sure you've experienced

that when you pray, when you're in tough situations, things

begin to change. This life is full of challenges.

More often than we'd like, we're faced with situations that are

too big for us to handle on our own.

But those times are opportunities for us to trust in

God and have faith that He has a solution for us that we couldn't

have seen coming for ourselves. In today's message, Pastor Clark

teaches you about how Paul and Silas praised God even when they

were put in prison. They didn't yet know how it was

going to happen, but they had faith that the Lord would set

them free. Now, here's Pastor Clark in Acts

Acts 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16 with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.

When you think about Paul and Barnabas and Timothy and Paul

was eventually martyred, we get like this inside.

Look at what it was like to live as these pioneers.

We get to read it and participate in it and for

reflect on it and meditate on it.

And perhaps somehow living in a small way in the areas that we

live and where we come from, because there's unreached people

group right in Greensburg, PA, There's people, believe it or

not that know nothing about Jesus Christ.

And you might say, well, how in America could you be here and

not know anything about the gospel?

What's because of where we are today as a nation, people and

these young people? When I grew up as a Pagan, at

least I knew that there was a God.

I believe that there was a Jesus.

I believe that the Bible was true, but I wasn't born again

yet. But I had that basic worldview.

Now you talk to young people. Do you know anything about Jesus

Christ or the Bible or God or the Trinity or the the cross or

the resurrection? They look at you like deer in

the headlight. They have no idea what you're

talking about. So you're starting back to

square 1 and it can be dangerous, especially now if you

aggressively proclaim the gospel.

There's beginning to be persecution in our country.

In Canada, pastors that preach out against abortion or same sex

marriages are being imprisoned. How soon will that be here in

our country? This is all involved in this

missionary vision. So Paul is going to go to

Macedonia now. And we continue in verse 11,

this woman by the name of Lydia, she's baptized at Philippi.

Philippi is a wonderful region, opportunity for a new church.

Not a whole lot of Jewish people.

There was no synagogue there because you needed ten men who

were part of the synagogue in order to have a legitimate

synagogue. So you'll see, it's interesting

here that there is no synagogue. They're meeting down by the

river. So therefore sailing from Troas,

we ran a straight course as a moth, and the next day came to

Neopolis and there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of

that part of Macedonia, a colony.

So they're in Greece now, and we were staying in that city for

some days, and on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to

the Riverside. Now, normally in the Sabbath

day, Paul and Silas and Timothy would have gone into the

synagogue to preach, but there was number synagogue there.

So they went out of the city to the Riverside, where prayer was

customarily made, and we sat down and spoke to the women who

met there. Now, the rabbi said it's better

to have the law burned and to deliver the Torah to women.

That's how discriminating and discussing the culture was

toward women at the time, especially in Judaism and the

rabbi's. There was a low level of esteem

for women, which Paul certainly doesn't have here.

And now a certain woman named Lydia heard us.

She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyrotyra, who

worship God. Thyrotyra is this community, the

city that's known for development of purple and dyed

material, garments and clothing. And so she's probably got an

office down here now in Philippi, following up that

she's a very successful businesswoman.

And they're down there worshipping God, but they're not

worshipping the truth about God yet because they don't know it,

But they're there in their religious form of trying to

develop this encounter with the living God of Abraham, Isaac,

and Jacob. And then it says the Lord opened

her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.

So Paul's preaching the gospel and all of a sudden she's

recognizing that there's something missing.

And her understanding of God and her heart became convicted, and

she began to become drawn to the gospel.

And the Lord opened her heart to heed, to obey, to follow the

things spoken by Paul. And it's like anywhere you go

here today, your home, your community, your workplace, you

share the Lord with people as you have opportunity to, and the

Lord opens doors for you. You can't make anybody believe.

You can't force anybody to understand the truth.

You have to have patience and you have to understand that only

the Lord can open the heart for people to believe.

That's our job. We're to pray and pray, Lord,

open the hearts of those who come here to hear your voice, to

believe Your word, to follow you.

And the Lord will do that. His word is not without power.

It's sharper than any 2 edged sword.

It's able to divide us under the soul and the spirit and is very

discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Even today your mind might be drifting.

You're thinking about all kind of things, but God will take

something from His Word and Pierce your heart with it.

Convict you, challenge you, make you think about Him more, make

you love Him more, make you want to follow Him more.

Maybe put a burden on your heart for someone you care about that

you want to tell them about what He's done for you.

A host of things that can happen, but the Spirit is the

one that interacts with the Speaker of the Word and the

Hearer of the Word. There's a divide between me and

you today. I'm speaking, you're listening,

but there's someone in between what's happening here today.

And that's God the Holy Spirit that knows what it is you need,

what it is I need. And He's the one will give you

what it is you need to know about the truth.

And this is what he did for Lydia here.

And she believed, and it says in verse 15, and when she and her

household were baptized, she begged us, saying, if you have

judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.

So she persuaded us. So a big party here.

All these people are baptized. She wants to bless them, and she

now wants to give of herself to them because they have given

themselves to her and her friends.

And now they're having this Christian fellowship.

And they stayed with her for a while.

And verse 16, now it happened as we went to prayer that a certain

slave girl possessed with the spirit of divination met us who

brought our masters much profit by fortune telling.

So in between the time of them staying at this home, there's

more work to be done, more ministry.

So they're praying, they get together and pray about, OK,

God, what's your plans? What's next?

What do we do next? Where do you want us to go?

And there was a certain slave girl, she's demon possessed.

And this is what she's doing in verse 17.

This girl followed Paul and us and cried out, saying these men

are the servants of the Most High God who proclaimed us the

way of salvation. And this she did for many days.

Now everything she's saying here obviously is true.

Even though she's demon possessed, the Bible says the

demons know the truth and they fear the truth because they know

it's the truth. But they've already committed

themselves to the Prince of the power of the air of the devil.

They're demonic beings that serve him.

But she's crying out saying these men are the servants of

the most high God, which is true, who proclaim to us the way

of salvation, which is true. But Paul and Silas and Timothy

weren't saying, boy, this is great, isn't it?

We have this marketing person here advertising for us, getting

everybody interested and crowds coming, that kind of stuff.

And she's doing this, this not once in a while, this like over

and over and over again. And then Paul, it says here, but

Paul greatly annoyed. It got to him so much.

I can't deal with this anymore. He turned and said to the

Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out

of her. And he came out that very hour.

So this woman no longer was going to be saying what she was

going to be saying. Obviously in her right mind.

Now the demon is not possessing her to cause her to 'cause this

rift in regard to what Paul's proclaiming in regard to the

power of the spirit versus demonic activity, she has no

ability to do this anymore. And so verse 19, when her Master

saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and

Silas and dragged them into the marketplace of the authorities.

These guys owned this woman and they made a lot of money because

of what she was doing. And so every time she's out

there, she's getting crowds for all kind of different reasons.

Now she doesn't have this spiritual power and influence

anymore. So they're upset, their profits

gone. So they grab Paul and Silas and

drag them into the marketplace of the authorities and they

brought them to the magistrates and said these men being Jews,

exceedingly trouble our city. And they teach customs which are

not lawful for us being Romans to receive or observe.

So they're basically accusing these missionaries as being cult

people, pushing lies, teaching things that aren't true.

Of course, Roman empires basically Pagan and they were

into mythology, they weren't into truth.

So anything that countered their worship of of Pagan gods would

be not received well. And so they're approaching this

from a legal point of view. They're saying this is not

lawful for this to be occurring. So the multitude rose up

together against them and the magistrates and tore off their

clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rod.

So this problem occurs. There's this insurrection of the

community and these magistrates, and they are not even listening

to anything Paul or Silas might say.

They automatically think these guys are evil and that they're

bad news and they need to be dealt with, so it says.

And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them

in the prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.

So not even a fair case here. This is just ridiculous.

And this is unfortunately what happens in many parts of the

world even today. People just genuinely caring

about the world, loving people, telling them about Jesus Christ

and the gospel. And this is the kind of

treatment that many people receive, missionaries,

especially in these countries that are Antichrist.

And so after they beat them, they throw them in jail.

Having received such a charge, verse 24, he put them in the

inner prison and fastened their feet in the stalk so they

couldn't even move around. They were stuck in one position.

But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying verse 25, and

singing hymns to God. What kind of guys were these

men? They weren't complaining, saying

I need legal justice, We're treated unfairly.

Get someone up here immediately. Take these stalks off of us.

We're uncomfortable, we're hungry.

This isn't fair. That's normally the approach

that most people would have, but they're singing and worshiping

the Lord, praying and singing hymns to the Lord.

So these guys are in one of the most difficult places in their

lives. They don't know if they're going

to live or die. Instead of complaining, they're

praying, which we should do when we're in tough situations that

we don't like, we should pray. Cause the power of prayer and

power of praise is a releasing power and delivering power from

the things that are in our lives that we don't like.

And I'm sure you've experienced that when you pray when you're

in tough situations, things begin to change.

But they're not any praying, they're they're singing and

worshipping God, singing hymns to God.

God inhabits the praises of his people.

I sense wherever we've been during the week, whatever

challenge, whatever adversity or difficulty we might be

encountering, when we're worshipping God and our eyes are

on the Lord and we're sensing the presence of the Holy Spirit,

things start happening inside of us that are supernatural.

They release strongholds, they break bondages, they deliver us

from sin. I mean, this wonderful healing

power because of prayer and worship.

And we want to be known as a church that teaches a word,

praise the Word, and worships the Lord so that we can all stay

in a place of spiritual growth and spiritual health and

spiritual development. And so what's happening though,

is they're doing this and they're not doing this to get a

show. You know, we don't like this,

but let's like, let's act like we like it or we're OK.

And maybe we can be a testimony here.

There was none of this stuff in their heads.

They were just doing what came to them by the work of the

Spirit, it says. And the prisoners were listening

to them. How about you and me?

When you're going through tough times, difficult things, things

that aren't fair or whatever, and people who know you or watch

your life or you know, examine how you handle things, keep in

mind that people are always watching your life and how you

handle what it is that you're going through.

And these prisoners, as they were listening to them,

something was happening to them as well.

Suddenly there was a great earthquake, verse 26, so that

the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all

the doors were open and everyone's chains were loose.

Now, how in the world can that happen except a miracle of God?

Right when you pray, things happen.

And the keeper of the prison, awakened from sleep and seeing

the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his

sword and was about to kill himself.

This guy's ready to commit suicide.

He knew that if this went down wrong and these people escaped,

he would be held responsible and they would end up killing him.

That would be worthy of a crime against the government.

But Paul called with a loud voice saying, do yourself no

harm for we are all here. This guy probably can't believe

it. I mean, if you're a prisoner,

all you're thinking about is escaping from jail, right?

You read about these guys have come up with these elaborate

ideas of how to dig tunnels and get special tools to take

handcuffs off or whatever and hide, you know, the hole that

they're making and work on it for months and months and

months. And finally they find a way to

get out. They get out.

They're usually caught again, but it's something inside a

prisoner's mind. They don't like to be

restrained. They're looking to get out.

This is what happened, the opportunity to get out.

And Paul says we're all here, So even these prisoners, no one

left. Then he called for a light and

he ran, and he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

And he brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be

saved? That's an interesting question

There. Was he asking them, what must I

do to be saved so that they don't come and kill me if these

people, you know, escape? Or is he genuinely asking the

clear question that every human being needs to ask that was

without Christ, without hope in the world, what must I do to be

saved? Aren't we glad that Paul didn't

say, well, first of all, you need to be circumcised, That's

not for me, I'm not interested. Paul certainly gave him the

truth of the gospel. He said believe on the Lord

Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

You and your household doesn't mean that the people that were

part of the family were automatically saved because this

guy became a believer. But what was going to happen was

the whole family was going to hear the gospel.

And according to this and the understanding of this is that

the whole family became believers in Jesus Christ.

These are adult people. This wasn't a, a special little

verse in here now that we're going to say, well, the babies

will be baptized and they'll be saved and all that kind of

stuff. No, there's one Lord, 1 faith,

one baptism, one God and Father who is above all and in all

through all. And you have the one baptism,

which is the water baptism that adult believers, people who are

at the age of accountability to understand their need of a

Savior. They're believing in Christ and

then obedience to the Bible and what Jesus said to baptize them

in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So this is a move of God's Spirit in this whole family.

And then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who

were in his house. So everybody got to hear the

gospel and he took them the same hour of the night and wash their

stripes. So this man was so thankful for

what Christ had done to save him that he wanted to, you know,

help this bleeding and bandage him up and clean, make sure

there's no infection and, and the beating that Paul and Silas

had received. And immediately he and all his

family were baptized. So after he ministered to Paul

and Silas, then Paul and Silas baptized the whole family and

the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, because now they

were part of the body of Christ. And now when he had brought them

into the house, he set food before them, and he rejoiced,

having believed in God with all his household.

And So what a beautiful thing it says.

This is the end of this chapter. And when it was day, the

magistrate sent the officer saying Let those men go.

So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul,

saying, the magistrates have sent to let you go now therefore

depart and go in peace. But Paul said to them, they have

beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans and have thrown us into

prison. And now do they put us out

secretly? No, indeed, let them come

themselves and get us out. These guys are freaking out.

It's a crime against the Roman Empire and the truth of the

Roman government that you do not beat Roman citizens.

And so they're already culpable of a crime.

These magistrates, Paul's making it clear now what you guys did

to us was unlawful. And he said, no, we want these

guys to come themselves and recognize their wrongdoing and

get us out. So the officers told these words

to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that

they were Romans. Then they came and pleaded with

them and brought them out and asked them to depart from the

city. So they went out of the prison

and entered the House of Lydia. So they didn't leave right away.

They want to fellowship more with Lydia at her house.

And when they had seen the brethren, they were with the

rest of the new believers. They encouraged them, and then

they departed. So I just find it so encouraging

to read these truths from the book of the Acts.

The work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the apostles and

the believers and the work of the Holy Spirit continues today

in your life and mine. God's called everyone of you for

a purpose, everyone of you, and you have the authority and the

anointing of God to do the ministry and the work of God

with the truth of the Word of God.

Because you have the Word of God in your hands, you have it in

your mind, you have it in your heart, and God is looking for

opportunities to use your life as you just step up and make

yourself available to Him. Amen.

Christianity is not a spectator sport, is it?

We're all to be active participants in the work of the

ministry. The purpose of the church is to

equip the Saints, and that's you guys for the work of the

ministry. You'll go out, you'll rub

shoulders with people. Many of them don't even know

what you know. Pray and ask the Lord to give

you an opportunity, an open door to plant a seed, to give a

testimony, to tell someone what the Lord's done for you.

And you never know what God might do.

He might open their heart like he did for Lydia and they might

become believers, right? And I'm sure most of you guys

have encountered that. You shared your faith with

someone and because of that, they've become believers in

Jesus Christ. So if you've never put your

faith in Christ, the word says to you, you can say the same

question, what must I do to be saved?

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, believe on him, and you

will be saved. Lord, I'm a Sinner.

I've messed up. I've done things I wish I

wouldn't have done. I'm still a Sinner and I still

mess up. But God Forgives us, doesn't He?

He forgives us. He's the only perfect one.

We're all imperfect, but God's perfect, and He chooses to use

imperfect people to accomplish His perfect will.

Isn't that awesome? You or I?

None of us have a right to stand up here and proclaim anything

about ourselves. We preach Jesus Christ and Him

crucified. Amen, because He's the 1:00 we

put our trust in. Thanks for joining us on today's

edition of Living Waters of Grace, a ministry of Calvary

Chapel, Westmoreland. Today, Pastor Clark is teaching

about the book of Acts. And as we learn more about Acts,

it becomes clear that the early church didn't miss a single

opportunity to share the gospel. In nearly every chapter, you see

apostles like Peter and Paul stepping into conversations,

crowds, and crises with boldness, ready to proclaim the

name of Jesus. Their example challenges us to

consider how we might step into gospel moments in our own lives.

What doors might God open this week for you to speak truth,

offer hope, or live out your faith in a way that points

others to him? The story of Acts reminds us we

are part of the same mission. Today, let's live with eyes open

and hearts ready to respond. We hope you are challenged by

today's message. If you're in the Greensburg, PA

area, we'd love to see you in person this Sunday at 10:30 AM

at 400 E Pittsburgh St. Unit 6B.

For more information, visit calvarychapelonline.com.

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