Westminster Calvary Chapel

Today, our concluding study underscores the big picture of what we’ve learned over the last 2-years. We’ve seen the promise of Holy Spirit enabling the early believers to take the gospel message to the ends of the earth, all the way through the end of the book where Paul finally takes the gospel message to Rome. Here’s the main idea, if you never learned any more about serving God except for what...

In Exodus 14 God is now leading his people out of Egypt. Instead of leading them the shortest route through the area of the Philistines, He lead them out and around through the desert. Some may think this was a mistake, but it was a planned detour to teach the people about His faithfulness! As the Israelis were fleeing they began to realize the Egyptian army was following them. To make matters wor...

 Today we see Paul’s final mission take shape and this chapter records his journey to Rome. It’s been about three years since God told Paul of his final mission. In (Acts 25:12) we read of the natural steps that put this mission in motion, and Paul was finally on the way Rome. This is what the route looked like…

Tonight we see the Next Steps God gives the Children of Israel and how these steps inspire faith in us today. God speaks to Moses about how to lead His people, The Israelites, and He tells Moses to relay this message: Consecrate yourselves! In other words, Moses tells the people their obedience to God looks like this; it’s a life of faith where your home (children) and your work (animals) are dedi...

The Gospel of Luke highlights the humanity of Christ and in this section we’re studying today, we see Jesus speaking to religious criticism. Jesus teaches those who are with him by using an illustration that highlights the lack of love thru a critical spirit. Critical people often come from the backgrounds of verbal abuse or emotional abuse and become deeply selfish, which is what we see of Simon...

In the final chapters of Acts we learn how to advance the gospel personally. Today the scene continues from where we left off last week with Paul in jail. He was brought into a Roman Court by Festus (Governor) who wanted a second opinion from his buddy King Agrippa II as to what should be done with Paul. Paul didn’t violated any Roman Law, but he was a nuisance to the religious leaders of Judaism...

As we continue studying thru the Old Testament, we’ve come to the final plague – death of the firstborn. God was passing over Egypt and delivering His final blow to those who resisted Him. This 10th plague is the most devastating of all plagues – death! So far, God has been patient with people for an extended period of time, but He systematically toppled all the god’s of the Egyptians. At each exc...

As we near the end of our study in Acts, we see the conclusion of a life lived for Jesus. Paul got caught up in the legal system and from his perspective it was hinder his ministry. Yet, as we discover in scripture present set backs are often the breeding ground for next steps. Remember Paul was in custody in Caesarea waiting for his court case to be heard. His accusers were the religious elites t...

When we say, “God’s in control and working everything out in the world.” Many times that comes across as meaningless. We simply don’t understand it fully! God was patient with Pharaoh but the time came for judgment. Here’s a few simple applications as we look at a A safe country, a declining country, and where’s my country. 

Paul was a hard charging man but it wasn’t according to his human desire. The Holy Spirit placed a strong desire in Paul to get to Jerusalem. Yet in all the lead up to get to Jerusalem, Paul’s friends were telling him that it was dangerous, and jail & suffering were ahead! And they were alright! But they were missing God’s purpose. God was moving Paul forward into the next phase of his ministry. W...

As we continue to navigate thru the OT we’re working our way thru the 10-Plagues of Egypt; A series of judgments poured out by God. At the end of each of these plagues Pharaoh become more resistant and refused to give God His people! God says He had two purposes for these plagues, to show unbelievers His power (v.1) & To provide a deliverance story for His people (v.2) A Memorable moment to pass o...

In our modern culture we have a strong dislike around the thoughts of judgment! Many have embraced the sacred-secular, which views judgment as the ultimate sin and labeling judgment as an enemy of “my feelings” that guide me to what I want! “This makes me feel good… so don’t tell me it’s wrong.” Yet, in an honest reading of the Bible we learn God’s motivation behind judgment. It’s to awaken humani...

Today we enter the last segment of Paul’s Mission in the book of Acts. Paul completed his 3rd Missionary Journey and he’s headed back to Jerusalem to drop off a financial donation from the Gentile Churches. However, along his travel route believers were warning Paul what would happen to him in Jerusalem! Paul was being warned of the difficulty ahead. In this section of verses, we see his arrival i...

The Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt for about 400 years and it seems that they had lost faith in God’s promise to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. No doubt they believed God existed AND went thru the motions of worshipping. However, they doubted He could, or would, set them free from the difficult circumstances of their lives in Egypt. In the Church Age we read the Gospels and how Jesus came with...

2 Timothy was written by Paul in a jail cell in Rome and was sent to Timothy to help him lead the church. Because his tendency was to be timid when opposition hit. So he encourages him to be strong and to raise up faithful men who can add to the ministry team. Paul then gives three examples to illustrate how Timothy and the church were to move forward in the last days. 

God taught Moses that His Name was sufficient no matter what he faced! We learned this is a spiritual lesson all followers of God go thru. Because God wants us to trust Him. However, with the natural eye, Moses was 80-years old. He had spent the last 40-years of his life as a shepherd, and now God was calling him to go before the head of state – Pharaoh, to demand the immediate release of the coun...

As we continue our study through the book of Acts, we cover the last segment of Paul’s 3rd Missionary journey before he heads to Jerusalem. He leaves some final instructions to the Elder’s leading the Church in Ephesus. Paul begins the discussion by highlighting how he modeled perseverance against the obstacles in ministry, and he gives the key points to church leaders starting in (v. 28). He give...

God had called Moses to take a message to Pharaoh which was to let His people go. But after this demand things immediately got worse for the Israelites. God was moving behind the scene, but on the surface things got worse, and Moses was getting cold feet! Moses needed a right perspective that only God could give. So He speaks to Moses by making His power known. God reveals His name which reveals H...

It was in Ephesus a city of spiritual darkness that the Gospel was having a massive impact! People burned their magic books, their little handmade idols of Diana were being ditched by people, and it was causing an impact upon the economy. Here’s the point… When the Gospel is being advanced by the people of God, light shines into very dark places and breaks people free! We are the distributors of G...

We’ve learned of the expansion of faith is a work of the Spirit and not of man. We’ve seen this demonstrated thru the New Testament. The supernatural work of God’s Holy Spirit is needed in our time just as much as it was 2,000 years ago! Many people in the Church today are suffering from a lack of what Jesus offers because they’re spiritually unhealthy! Jesus has taught us that desperate people ha...

As we’ve read about Moses’ story we see that God had a plan for his entire life. God has repeatedly attempted to connect with Moses and God has been patient with Moses. Chapter 5 opens with the fact that God was on the move! So why did the conditions get worse? Satan loves to sift us as we step out in to trust God. He brings discouragement, pressure and attacks to make us want to give up and go ba...

Going deeper with God can be scary because our human mind often thinks in terms of limitations and not of abundance. This is why anything done for God has to be done by faith in God. As we learn to see the person of God and the power of God we release our self to walking by faith. However, in Exodus 4 we see the hindrances of faith as Moses wrestled with God and gave excuses to not falling God’s l...

Paul’s second ministry journey is coming to a close and we are getting the picture of what’s happening in his ministry as he makes his way back home. This isn’t some modeless journey that he’s on, rather it’s intentional and calculated. Let's look at some practical take-aways that we can apply to our lives today!

God has prepared a man – Moses – for 40-years and the Lord commissions him in this chapter. We can understand, no matter how long you have walked with the Lord He still has work for you to do. No one is too old OR too young to be used by God. The question is will I be ready to listen when you’re called, and will I walk by faith!?! You may struggle to recognize God’s voice at first. But that’s not...

Today we’ll see the up’s and down’s of ministry. Here in Acts 18, God provided Paul with other ministry partners while he was waiting for Silas and Timothy. There’s a simple principle here… always do ministry two-by-two.