Living Waters of Grace 02-02-2026

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

Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland

County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he

continues teaching through God's Word.

Paul is in this prison. You know, he's not eating well,

and I'm sure he probably doesn't have a whole lot of physical

strength at this point. And I'm sure they try to weigh

him down as much as possible, try to wear him out.

But the truth of the matter is, Paul says that at one point he

felt strong. Even though his outward man was

perishing, his inward man was being renewed.

He felt strong in the Lord at one point, and even to the point

where he was bold enough to stand up and in front of the

rulers of a Pagan nation. Have you ever felt inadequate

for the task in front of you? Sometimes it can give you

butterflies in your stomach. Maybe it's a physical task that

you just don't know how you're going to get it all done.

Maybe you have to make a presentation in front of people

where there's a lot hanging on the outcome.

In today's message, Pastor Lewis shares with you that even when

you don't have the strength in yourself, God will strengthen

you. When God calls you to a task,

his Spirit will empower you to do it.

Now here's Pastor Lewis in the Book of Second Timothy, Chapter

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

4, with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.

That is not of the Lord. When two people or how,

regardless of how many people, have contentions for extended

periods of time and they're never resolved, that is not of

the Lord. That is not the Spirit of

Christ. He was denied by Peter three

times, yet after his resurrection he said go get

Peter and bring him with you to Galilee.

Don't leave him out. I'm not casting him out.

I'm not forgetting about him. Go get him and bring him with

you. I'm reconciling with Him.

I want Him to know I've forgiven him and that's what we should be

doing with each other. Either I need to call you or you

need to call me, but we need to reconcile.

We need not to be allowing this thing just to last forever and

ever and ever. You talking to your people about

what happened and somebody else talking to their people about

what happened. Let's sit down and talk with

each other and let's love on each other the way Christ

intended so that we can do the work of the ministry.

And that's exactly what happened.

Paul is basically saying, he said I need, I have need of him.

I have use for him for ministry. And that's exactly, and this is

what gives the devil a black eye, because the devil knows

that we have use for each other that we add to each other's

ministry. Just the evil one knows that,

our enemy knows that. And So what he's going to try to

do is to keep us separated so that your ministry can't bless

me and my ministry can't bless you, and we can't serve together

to be a blessing to whomever the Lord has sent us here to be a

blessing too. Paul says I have need bring him

to me. I have need of him for ministry.

But it took him a while to realize that.

Let us not take us that long to realize that we need each other.

So let's reconcile. Let's reconcile quickly.

Is that one of the things that we would do today if we knew

that we were short and we didn't know how long we would live?

Well, guess what? We don't, we don't.

We can reconcile quickly. And then he goes on.

He says in in Tychicus, I have sent to Ephesus, Tychus.

Tychus also was a beloved brother.

He was a ministry, very faithful man in the ministry with Paul

and he sent him to Ephesus. And the reason why he sent Ticus

to Ephesus is so that he could free up Timothy to come to Rome

to be with Paul. So Tychus would go to Ephesus

and deal with the with the church at Ephesus, while Timothy

would be traveling to be with Paul because Paul wanted Timothy

with him. Paul needed Timothy to be with

him. He had things he wanted to say

to Timothy. He had things he wanted Timothy

to understand before he left this world.

And, and what's amazing about that is that he wrote this

letter. The reason why he even wrote

this letter in the 1st place was just in case Timothy didn't get

there in time. So Timothy would have a record

of the things that he wanted to say to him, to the things that

he wanted to encourage him in, in the faith.

This is a record. And then after he, he talked to

about tigers, he sent him. But the amazing thing is all the

men that Paul had access to because he had discipled these

men, he has spent time with these men.

So now he had a number of men that he was able to distribute

into place in different places so that they could minister and

they can go on with the work that Paul had began.

It's one of the things that Clark is doing here in this

church with us. And my heart is that there be

men that continue to be raised up by the Lord so that in

different places they can be distributed, be assigned to do

the work that the Lord wants to do here.

It blesses me on Wednesday night when there's a rotation of men

who teaches because that ministry is not dependent upon

just one man being there. We have many men who can teach

on a Wednesday night and teach us well, and that's our heart is

that men be raised up for ministry, women be raised up to

do the ministry that they do, and that there's depth with that

ministry, but there's many who can do it, many that can do it.

Whatever the ministry is, God give us more men and women who

can step up and take over if need be.

And this is what Paul was doing. It's a blessing that he had all

these men that he had discipled. And then in verse 13, he says,

bring the cloak that I left at car what I left with carpets.

Bring it. He said he left.

He left some things with with carpets when he was at tro ass,

he said bring those things with me.

And the things that he left, he left books and he left his cloak

and he left parchments. Now his cloak, now as you know,

cloak is a covering. It's around the circular

covering. And it, you know, he's going to

need it because, you know, he was in the maritime prison.

And it is a, it's very bad conditions in this particular

prison in Rome, very bad conditions.

It was actually an old cistern of some sort and they turned

into a prison. I think it's only like 2 cells

or two blocks in that whole particular prison.

I think there's a lower cell and an upper cell.

I think it's only like 2, but the conditions are just

terrible. Basically, they sent you there

when they know they're going to execute you.

So that's probably one of the other reasons why Paul knew he

probably wasn't going to come out of there alive.

But he says bring my cloak because it's damp there.

It's wet there. And you know, those are probably

just a milder conditions that he has to deal with there in that

particular prison. But he says bring my cloak and

also bring books in the parchments.

Now books are going to be Old Testament scrolls and things

that he has there that in the Old Testament and he probably

left urgently. He probably left quickly.

He's probably arrested there Troas and taken, you know, or

taking the after he left Troas, he probably went to Roman, was

arrested there, you know, but something caused him to leave

all of these personal things. They're a troas and he said

these books, these Old Testament scrolls.

He wants those. You know, Paul has, I mean, my

goodness, he wrote, you know, we know now that he wrote half of

the, the, the, the, the New Testament, but yet he continues

to want to be kept up in study. He wanted to continue to study

the word of God. But I can imagine some of the

things that he wanted to read out of the Old Testament sitting

there in that prison. He probably wanted to read those

scriptures that men wrote, that God inspired men to write, that

would that would help him, that would comfort him, that would

give him some sort of relief, some sort of hope.

I would imagine he probably wanted to read some of the

Psalms that were written by David and some of the other

psalmist because these Psalms offer comfort.

Can you imagine if he was just sitting there?

He probably wanted to read Psalm 27.

The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my

life. Of whom shall I be afraid?

He probably wanted to read that. He probably wanted to read Psalm

46. God is my refuge and strength.

He's a very present help in trouble.

I'm sure those things will comfort him in that particular

time. And he probably wanted to read

Psalm 62. Truly, my soul silently waits

for God. From Him is my salvation.

For He only God only is my rock and my salvation.

He is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved.

These are probably some of the things that he wanted to read to

encourage his heart while he sat there in that dingy dudgeon

prison, cold, damp. And like I said, those are the

milder conditions that I would mention in this particular

place. But he said bring nose.

But then he said also bring the parchments.

And those parchments are animal thin animal skins that were used

for notebooks. And Paul probably has some

things that he wrote out that he probably didn't even publish

that didn't put them out there yet to everybody.

Just some thoughts that he would have in different places that

he's been. And he probably wanted him to

bring nose as well, Bring those parchments.

And then he gets to verse 14. He says Alexander the

coppersmith didn't me much harm. May the Lord repay, repay him

according to his works. Can you see how Paul will go

back and forth? There are those that were a

blessing to him even though he was still by himself.

But there were those who were a blessing to him.

And then there were those who he remembers did him harm.

But unlike me, sometimes when people do me harm, I want to get

back out of myself. I feel like I have a right to

get back out of myself because I feel like I can, at the very

least, I can get even. Because this is what we're

taught in the world, right? Get even, you know, get back at

people. Don't let people do that to you.

Don't let people walk over you like that.

You, you, you, you get back at them.

Get even. But that's not what the Word of

God says, because if you look in Romans 12, round verse 19, the

Bible says avenge not yourselves, avenge not

yourselves, but give place to wrath.

And I always fill that in and say give place to godly wrath

because we don't want to give place to our own fleshly wrath,

our own, you know, human wrath, because we go overboard.

God does it justly. He's the only just judge.

He judges righteously. And then he says, you know, for

vengeance is mine. Vengeance doesn't belong to me,

although I think it should. I may think it should sometimes.

Lord, did you see what they did to me?

I don't have the right to respond to that.

He says vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord.

Says the Lord. Not Says Joe or Johnny says the

Lord, so that's why we obey that and Paul did just that.

Now some people get kind of stumbled with this one verse

when he says may the Lord repay him according to his works.

Paul is not he's not praying a a prayer of a curse upon, you

know, Alexander the coppersmith. He's not praying that Lord judge

him and and and and and just bring down fire upon him and and

just do him in Lord. I mean, give him your best

judgement. That's not what he's doing.

He's actually giving it over. He's doing exactly what the

verse tells him to do and give it over to the Lord.

He's giving place to godly wrath, not his own.

And that's what we should do. It's hard.

It's very hard, and it's the Holy Spirit that helps us to do

that. But that is what we are intended

to do. That's what God intends for us

to do. Now, one of the reasons why he

says Alexander Coppersmith had harmed him or did a lot of

things to harm him is because, you know, it's believed that it

was Alexander Coppersmith was actually one of the witnesses

for the prosecution. So he probably gave some very

damaging witness against Paul, probably caused Paul.

Some people didn't believe that he was the reason why Paul got

arrested was because of this Alexander Coppersmith.

But he also opposed the teachings of Paul and that was

probably even worse. He opposed the teachings of

Paul. He went against it.

He was one of the ones that they mentioned earlier in the, in

the, in first Timothy, second Timothy mentioned earlier when

he said that there were people, you know, who were, you know,

teaching blasphemy over here in first Timothy chapter one, verse

20, I believe it is, he mentions the fact that it was Alexander,

it was him. Now he believes that this is the

same person. Some people say it might not be,

but he believes that it is. But here in verse 20, he says

that he's the one that made shipwreck of his faith.

Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may

learn not to blaspheme. So obviously they were teaching

some things that were contrary to the teachings of the true

faith, contrary to the teachings of the gospel, is what they're

saying here. So he did Paul a lot of harm and

he warned Paul, warned Timothy against that.

He said you must be, you must also be aware of him, for he has

greatly resisted our words. And then in verse 16, I think

things get really interesting. Paul says here, he says at my

first defense, no one stood with me, but all forsook me.

No one stood with me at my first defense.

Now we first read that. We say, oh, poor Paul.

You know, he was, he was in a room with all Pagan Roman

leaders. Everyone that was in that room

was actually considered to be an enemy of Paul because they all

wanted to see him dead. The people that they brought in

as witnesses against them, the Roman leaders, Neo, you know,

wanted to see these people, wanted to see him dead.

Nero wanted to see him dead. And yet Paul says, no one stood

with me. Could you imagine going to court

and no one testifying on your behalf?

Everybody's testifying against you.

You don't have nobody there that can even say, hey, he's actually

a good guy. No one can even do that.

So Paul's in this room and he's before all of the leaders of the

Pagan world, of one of the biggest nations of the Pagan

world. But then Paul says may it not be

charged against them. No one came to identify

themselves with Paul. No one came to associate with

Paul. Again, probably out of fear if I

will come and identify myself, then I'm next, I'm next, I'm

going to be executed next after Paul.

So no one came to do that. But he says may it not be

charged against them. Just as when when Jesus was

forsaken and when he was on the cross, he said forgive them for

they know not what they do. He interceded on behalf of the

people. Stephen also interceded on

behalf of his persecutors when they were stoning him.

Stephen said forgive them for they know not what they do.

And Paul is saying the exact same thing here.

He's saying, look Lord, may it not be charged against them.

He had the right to be angry, but he wasn't.

But he wasn't and it actually opened up a door for Paul

reading verse 17, he says with the Lord stood with me and

strengthened me. That's interesting because you

say, wait a minute, Paul is in this prison, you know, he's not

eating well, and I'm sure he probably doesn't have a whole

lot of physical strength at this point.

I'm sure they try to weigh him down as much as possible, try to

wear him out. But the truth of the matter is

Paul says that at one point he felt strong.

Even though his outward man was perishing, his inward man was

being renewed. He felt strong in the Lord at

one point, and even to the point where he was bold enough to

stand up and in front of the rulers of a Pagan nation, he

stood up and shared the gospel. So maybe it was better that no

one came because he had time to do all the talking and he took

it. The Lord gave him a window, he

said, But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me so that the

message might be preached fully through me.

He didn't just mention parts of the gospel, he said it was

preached fully through him. He was able to preach the whole

gospel to these unbelievers. What a blessing.

If you have a desire to have an opportunity to teach the gospel,

to share the gospel, to to speak with someone about Jesus Christ,

He will give you that divine appointment.

He will give you an opportunity to do it if you really want to

do that, because He knows that that is a desire that you have

and it is surely His desire that you share the gospel.

So we go, we, we, we get, we get to the point we're closing to

the end now. And he says here that the gospel

was preached to that all the Gentiles might hear it.

And I also was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

He wasn't executed that day because of what he taught the

people were thinking on those things and they were able to get

more time. And then in verse 18, he says,

and the Lord will deliver me. He was delivered from the lion

at that particular day, meaning symbolic for he was delivered

from Nero and from those who wanted to take his life.

He was delivered from those and he says in 18, and the Lord will

deliver me. That was just like the three

Hebrew boys right back in the book of Daniel where he said,

look, you know, I'm not going to bow before your golden, your

golden image. I'm not going to bow before you.

And even if you throw me in this, if you throw us in this

fiery furnace that you're threatening us with, even if you

throw us in there, it don't matter because God is able to

deliver us. I want you to know he's able to

do it. But even if he chooses or he

wills not to, I am. We are still going to be

delivered from you. Rather we delivered in life or

in death, we will still be delivered.

That is a blessing of the Lord. And he said he will preserve me

or he will keep me for his heavenly Kingdom, and then he

goes down. Paul went into a praise and

worship service right there. He started saying glory to God

forever, you know, to him be glory forever and ever, Amen.

He he, he himself began to feel the spirit raising up in him.

And then in verse 19 he talks about, you know, come before

winter. He says Greek Prisca and Aquila,

they are from Ephesus and they worked with Paul.

They were Akeelah was a tent maker just like Paul was a tent

maker. And they met with each other and

they were blessed by each other's ministry.

He says give them, give them a greeting from us and the

household of Onisphorus. Onisphorus back in chapter 1

again, Onisphorus was one of the people who zealously came from

Ephesus and sought out Paul, so that while Paul was imprisoned

there in Rome. Artnisophus was one of the

people who came and ministered to him, kept him company,

blessed him. Erastus was actually one of the

other Co laborers with Paul and he end up staying in Corinth.

The Bible know what we learned about him is that he is actually

a treasure. He works on the treasury in

Corinth. And then there's Trufflemis.

Trufflemis was it was another Gentile who was with Paul.

He was actually one of the reasons why there was this big

anarchy back in Jerusalem. You know, the riot that actually

led to Paul being forced out of there was because of Trophimus,

he said, but he left him in Malita's because he was sick.

OK, so this young man was sick and he needed healing.

So Paul left him in a place where he was able to get care.

And then in verse 21, he says do your utmost to come before

winter, Timothy. Do your utmost.

Do as much as you can to try to come before winter.

And the reason being is because the the the ships were in harbor

in the winter, they couldn't go out.

It was too dangerous for ships to travel over the winter.

So they harbor the ships in the winter.

So if Timothy didn't come before winter, he would not get there

before Paul would be executed. It would delay his coming.

And then he says also Ubilis greets you as well as Putin's

Linus, Claudia and all the brethren.

And then he goes into his farewell.

This is the last line that he goes into.

He says, the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Again, it goes back to the same thing we were talking earlier.

If this was your last day, what would be your parting line?

What would be your parting line to someone that you cared about?

What would be the line that you would give?

What would you say? Well, Paul's heart was toward

them. He say, may the Lord, may the

Spirit, may the Lord be with your spirit.

And then just as he started his letter, and just like every

other letter, he started with grace and he ends it with grace.

Just as we started our journey with the Lord and grace, by

grace we are saved through faith.

We start this journey with grace and when we end, we will end in

God's grace and everything we do in between.

The time that we start and the time that the Lord gracefully

takes us out of here, everything that we do in between will be by

his grace. So grace be with you all.

Amen. I just wanted to say imparting,

just wanted to mention that as we think about this last letter,

Paul's last time ever being able to talk with Timothy, ever being

able to to be any kind of help to Timothy.

Paul is just emphasizing one thing.

He's saying look, finish, finish what the Lord has given you to

do finish. He said, I have fought the good

fight. I've I've finished the course.

I finished and I kept the faith. Paul is just saying finish,

finish, finish strong. If you need help, a body of

believers is of good help. People can pray with you, people

who can encourage you, people who can help build you up.

That's the way you want to finish.

You want to finish faithfully, finish the race that is set

before us. That's what Jesus Christ did.

He finished. In fact he said at the end of in

his prayer to the Father, he said, I have finished the work

that you have given me to do. I finished it.

Thank you for tuning in to Living Waters of Grace with

Pastor Louis Harrell. We're currently in the books of

First and Second Timothy. Some of the things included in

these New Testament letters from Paul are that the young and

newly established Pastor Timothy was being encouraged to hold

fast to what was true. He was challenged to confront

and address the false teachers that were rising up.

He was also reminded to accept his calling to the ministry with

gratefulness and to address the happenings going on in the

Ephesian church. Paul was imparting his

experience and knowledge to the next generation.

Timothy was receptive to learning and gleaning what he

could from Paul's wisdom. This is how it should be in

ministry across multiple generations.

Those who have lived a little more life should be open to

sharing their successes and also things they've learned along the

way that we're not a wind. The younger generations coming

up can learn and appreciate much from those ahead of them and

perhaps avoid some of the same pitfalls that their mentors work

through mentoring. It's a beautiful relationship

when the hearts are in the right place to learn and grow.

We trust that you're in a community where this is

happening. Older ones providing advice and

wisdom and each side learning and growing from one another.

This certainly was the case for Paul and Timothy as they were

comrades for the sake of the gospel.

For more information on where this teaching came from, go to

calvarychapelonline.com. There you can also learn about

our service times to join us in person.

This has been living waters of Grace.