Living Waters of Grace 01-27-2026

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.

You do witness betrayal. You do witness people who will

turn their backs on you. Everyone is not going to be in

favor of the way that we walk before the Lord.

Everyone's not going to be in favor of that.

And we have to be prepared for that and just know that we are

protected by Him. We are with Him, He's with us as

we go through these things, He is with us.

So he says yes, and all who will who desire to live godly in

Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

I think most people just want to live their lives.

I really do. For some people that means a

white picket fence, while for others it means chasing their

dreams, whatever they may be. But I don't think anyone ever

asks to live a life full of trouble and difficulty.

In Pastor Lewis's message today, he warns you that when you

choose to live for Jesus, you're going to experience difficulty.

The. Reward is worth it, but the

challenges are fierce. This life will be filled with

trouble, but heaven is waiting on the other side now.

Here's Pastor Lewis in the book of Romans Chapter 9 with today's

Romans 9 · chapter mention

edition of Living Waters of Grace.

So Paul does love. In fact, he loves so much that

in Romans Chapter 9 Paul said of his brethren.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

He said, I wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my

brethren, for my brethren. And then the 1st Thessalonians 2

and 8. He says we not only imparted the

gospel to you, but also our own lives because you became dear to

us. So Paul understood love, and he

definitely understood that it was necessary to have that agape

love that can only come through the Holy Spirit in order for him

to do what it is that God had called him to do.

And that's the same for us as well.

It's the mark of a Christian. That's why Jesus said that.

This is how you'll know that we're all Christians because we

have love one for another. When people come in this house,

I love the fact that people will say that, man, you know, you can

tell that they love each other and they should be able to say

that. They should be able to say that

and I know that I feel love when I come into this house.

I feel love. Thank God for that.

He goes on and he talks about the perseverance, you know,

being steadfast. Verse 11, he says the

persecutions, afflictions which happened to me at Antioch.

Paul was very clear about the fact that he did go through a

number of persecutions and sufferings that he did at

different places where he would preach the gospel.

When he went to Antioch, he taught the gospel there.

When he went into the synagogue's for a number of

people who believed. And as a result of that, the

unbelieving Jews, they wanted to stir up the people, stir up the

Gentiles that were there, and they ended up rising up in

persecution against Paul and his companions and they had to

leave. And they went into Iconium.

And when they went to Iconium, the very same thing.

He taught the Scriptures and Iconium, he taught the word of

God and he preached the gospel and there were many people who

heard the gospel and they listened and they became, and,

and they put their faith in Jesus Christ.

And as a result of putting their faith in Jesus Christ, they

began to gather together and, and, and, and, and have an

assembly themselves. Well, the people who lived there

who were not believers didn't like that either.

So they persecuted Paul and wanted to stone him and ran him

out of Iconium, Iconium. And then when Paul got the

Lystra, it was so bad that when Paul preached the gospel there

and I and Lystra, which is probably where Timothy heard the

gospel from Paul the first time, we understand that there was the

people from Antioch that got together with the people from

Iconium and all of them came down to Lystra and they began to

want to persecute Paul. That's how bad it was for Paul.

But in every situation, he continued to put his life on the

line to share the gospel because he believed that the one that he

believed in was able to keep him, was able to keep him, and

so he did what God called him to do.

It may be sometimes where it seems hairy or seems dangerous

for us to share the gospel or seem that it may cost us

something if we share the gospel.

But we have to believe that the one that we're serving is

greater than anyone else. And He's able to keep us.

He's able to protect us. He's able to deliver us from any

situation that we may run into as a result of being faithful to

him. So he gets to Lystra and there

he is stoned. So Paul witnessed that.

He witnessed being stoned in. And it's possibility, don't know

for sure because the Bible never really says so, but it's a

possibility that when he was there in Lystra and when they

stoned him and they thought he was dead, then they took him

outside of the city and their disciples gathered around him

and they suppose that he was dead, That it was a possibility

that maybe he was truly dead at that particular time.

And maybe we don't. Again, we don't know because the

Bible doesn't say that. But that could have been where

he actually had the experience of the 3rd heaven during that

particular time. He could have had that

experience at that particular time where he went into the 3rd

heaven and witnessed the things that he was not even able to

talk about, but he was stoned. He was thought to be dead.

But then he got up. And again, because of his

steadfastness or his perseverance, because of his

love and because of his faithfulness, Paul got up and

went right back into the same city that they had actually

stoned him and continued to do the work that God had called him

to do. What an example of

steadfastness. What an example of someone who's

just relentless to do what it is that God has called him to do.

Lord, give me that steadfastness.

Give me that relentlessness, that fearlessness in you,

Father, so that I can, under any circumstance, do your will.

And then in verse 12, Paul makes it clear to Timothy, I mean,

this is this is not something that you probably want to put on

your mirror or your refrigerator when you get up in the morning.

Verse 12, yes, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will

suffer persecution. That's probably not a good

motivation speech for those who you know or want to serve the

Lord. I mean, he you probably would

have thought that Paul or you know, will want to say something

a little bit more encouraging, but Paul was a straight shooter

and his attitude was I'm going to give you the truth because

you know what? Jesus Christ gave us the truth

when he talked about, you know, following him.

And if you go to the 10th chapter of Matthew just for a

2nd 10th chapter of Matthew, Jesus makes a very interesting

statement over here, Tim chapter over here in verse 16, He says,

behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, but

beware of men for they will deliver you up.

And this is his rallying speech to get them to be motivated to

go out and serve him. They're going to deliver you up

to councils. They're going to scourge you in

the synagogues. You will be brought before

governors and and kings for my name's sake.

He goes on and say you'll be delivered up, but don't worry

because we'll give you what to speak at that particular time

for it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak

for it is not you who will speak, but the spirit of your

father who speaks in you. And then in 21, he says, now

your brother will deliver you up to death or your father is going

to deliver his children up and children's going to rise up

against their parents. I mean, that's not what you

would call a real motivational speech, you know, to get someone

to serve you. But however, that is what

serving the Lord is about. You do witness portrayal.

You do witness people who will turn their backs on you.

Everyone is not going to be in favor of the way that we walk

before the Lord. Everyone's not going to be in

favor of that and we have to be prepared for that and just know

that we are protected by him. We are with him, He's with us as

we go through these things, He is with us.

So he says yes, and all who will, who desire to live godly

in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

But he also says, if you look at the verse before that, he says

and out of them all the Lord delivered me.

So even through all those things that Paul went through at the

bottom there at verse 11, he says out of them all the Lord

delivered me. So in spite of the fact that

we're going to suffer persecution, we serve the one

who was able and who will deliver us out of all of those

situations. And yeah, Paul came out of

almost every situation until the Lord was ready for him to come

home. And then in verse 13 we change

gears again and Paul says, but evil men and imposters will go

worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

And that is the reason why everyone who will live godly

will suffer persecution because men are evil, men are wicked and

they are imposters and they will.

And those imposters mean that they are swindlers or sorcerers

or, or they are men under demonic influence.

And, and they are going to grow worse and worse, deceiving and

being deceived. I mean, that's what we're going

to have to deal with. So we're going to feel

persecution to some degree. We're going to feel it.

Now there are countries, as Clark has talked about several

times, there are countries where people are being killed,

beheaded almost every day, you know, for their faith, for their

faith, imprisoned for their faith.

I mean, they have to hide to do what we're doing right now.

They got to put themselves in underground to do the things

that we're doing right now that we can do freely.

There will come a time where we will be suffering persecution.

In fact, the attack is on right now, particularly against our

kids. There's an attack on kids,

parents. There's an attack on parents

because you, if you do not take on the world's view of the

LGBTQ, transgender and all those things, if you don't take on the

world view, there are people who are putting bills in place that

will give consequences to parents who will not back that

ungodly stance. Let me read something to you.

Just did a little research on that and this came out just

recently. This is back in November of this

year. There was a woman who put

together a bill, a delegate from out of Virginia, Elizabeth

Gunsman of Prince William County, and she intended parents

to face abuse charges for not affirming their LGBTQ child.

And her bill would expand. Her bill would actually expand

the state's definition of child abuse and neglect to include

listen to this, to include parents who do not affirm their

child's gender identity or sexual orientation.

Here's the chilling part. One of the most crucial moments

of the interview. They interviewed this woman.

It came when a man by the name of Minoc posed this question to

Guzman. What could be the penalties of

the investigation or what penalties what the investigation

includes? If a parent is not affirming of

their LGBTQ child, what could be the consequence?

This is what she said. Well, first we would have to

complete an investigation. It could be a felony, it could

be a misdemeanor. But we know that ACPS and I had

to look up what that was Child Protective Services.

I guess if a person put on a child protective service,

anything inquiry into anybody, it's on your record, regardless

of whether it's founded or not, it's on your record.

So a Child Protective Services could mean or could harm your

employment, it could harm their education because nowadays many

people do a CPS database search before offering employment.

So what is based what they're basically saying is this, if Big

Brother or this LGBTQ or the government, if they can't find a

way to charge conservative parents with a felony, at the

very least the government and its partners in the professions

that mean social work counselors, psychologists and

all people who work with kids, those advocates between kids and

parents will see to it that you never work again.

Note clearly the threat of using even Acps investigation to ruin

parents. So that is exactly the attitude

right now. They are Rooney.

They want to scare parents into capitulating or into being

resigned to just follow whatever it is that their kids are

saying. And that's why Paul's saying,

look, you've watched me, you have seen me, you have heard my

doctrine. Don't sway from those things.

And he's saying it to us. He's encouraging us.

Don't sway from the word of God. He who is in US is greater than

He that is in the world, right? He that is in you is greater

than He that is in the world. He that is in you is greater

than He that is in the world. He that is in you and in you is

greater than He that is in the world.

We don't have to fall to that. God will keep us.

He will keep us. And he goes on and he says, but

you must continue. Paul's encouraging him now, but

you must continue on the things that you have heard and things

that you have learned and been assured of knowing from whom you

have learned them, knowing what you've learned, Timothy.

And it wasn't just Paul that Timothy has learned the word of

God from. Timothy has learned the word of

God from Paul. He's learned it first of all

from his grandmother Lois, from his mother Eunice.

He's learned the word of God. He's learned it from Paul and

from seeing it in action with Paul and silence and being able

to see other believers as well. Verse 15.

And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures which

are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which

is in Christ Jesus, the Holy Scriptures, or in other words,

the sacred writings, Timothy, you have known them from the

time that you were a child, and they're able to make you wise.

They're able to make you wise for salvation.

James. James chapter 1 in verse 2021

James 1 · chapter mention

says simply this. Therefore, lay aside all

filthiness and overflow wickedness, and receive with

meekness the implanted word which is able to save your

souls. There's power in the Word of

God. Now also keep in mind that as

he's talking to Timothy, Timothy only had the Old Testament

scriptures. They only had the Old Testament.

They had the New Testament this time.

So when he's talking about the Word of God that is able to save

your souls, he's talking about Old Testament scriptures.

Well, we know from history that people have been saved by just

listening to Old Testament scriptures.

In the book of Acts chapter 8, Philip left a huge revival in

Acts 8 · chapter mention

Samaria and was called by the Holy Spirit down to a lonely Rd.

going down from Jerusalem to Gaza where he found there a

eunuch, an Ethiopian eunuch. He gets up in the cart with this

Ethiopian eunuch who was reading the book of Isaiah that he

didn't even understand. Philip began to preach to him

right from the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah and preach

the gospel to this man and he got saved.

I also know another situation where the Old Testament was

preached and people got saved. Back in 1998, a pat, my late

pastor by the name of Reverend Archie Dennis Junior, he

preached A sermon from the book of Proverbs, chapter 6, and he

Proverbs 6 · chapter mention

began to preach on the strange woman or the unvirtuous woman,

the adulterous woman. And as he's preaching this

sermon, the Lord opened the eyes of not only myself, but also my

wife's eyes, opened our eyes, and we both stood up in

repentance. After hearing a sermon preached

on the book of Proverbs, chapter 6, God used those scriptures to

Proverbs 6 · chapter mention

open our eyes and to cause us to see that we were sinners in need

of a Savior. We put our trust in Jesus Christ

that day and we've never looked back.

And that was from the Old Testament Scriptures.

There is power not just in the New Testament, not just in the

Old Testament, but in the whole council of God.

In the whole council of God, all Scripture is given by

inspiration of God. That means all Scripture is God

breathed. It actually means all scriptures

God breathed. It's breathed out by God.

This is not just an ordinary book that some men got together

and wrote. This is a book that was breathed

out by God himself. That's why it's so powerful and

it is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction

and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete and

thoroughly equipped for every good work.

What he is saying is that the Word of God, this powerful,

powerful book, and I'll never forget when I heard of a friend

of mine who was a pastor and his father is a pastor.

This man threw the Bible out on the table and asked the young

preacher. He said, does that contain the

word of God or is that the word of God?

And everyone who said that it contains the word of God was not

ordained. It was only those who said that

this is the word of God that was ordained.

And that's exactly what this is. This is the word of God.

So when people try to convince you or anyone else in your

circle that, well, this is just a book that's written by men,

this is just a book that's written by, we don't know if the

interpretations are right. We don't know if this is right.

If that's right, this is God breathed.

It's God breathed. I don't care who he used to to

pen the Bible. I don't care who he used to pen.

He used the donkey to speak to a prophet.

So I don't care who he uses to pen this Bible.

This Bible is God breathed. The Bible has been written over

1600 years by 40 different men, 40 different men, 66 books.

And none of these books contradict each other.

None of them. And if people try to come up and

say, well, wait a minute, this contradicts that.

It's not the book that's the problem.

It's the understanding of the person that's reading is the

problem. Everything in the Word of God

can be explained through Scripture.

Now, there's some things we don't know.

There's some things we don't know about the word of God, and

I'm fine with that. We'll know when we see him.

But the word of God there is no contradictions.

It's written over 3 languages in three different continents.

This word is powerful. There's been many of people who

have tried to get rid of the Bible over many years.

No one has ever been able to do it because this word is living.

This is a powerful word of God itself, and it's good for, for,

for, for doctrine. That means it's good for

teaching. Teaching the true gospel is good

for reproof. It's good for pointing out error

or being able to refute error. It's good for correction.

It's good for fixing the error and being able to get us back on

the right path. And it's also good for

instruction and righteousness. That means it's good for us to

keep it right, to keep our lives in order to help us to do that.

It's the Word of God that can do that.

I have such a love for the Word of God because it was the word

of God that I had to hold on to in so many situations in my

life. It was the word of God that

helped me. It was the Word of God that

comfort me. It was the Word of God that

convicts me and will correct me when I'm off.

It's the word of God that does it.

No one can come to me and give me anything logical that could

help me to change, but the Word of God did when I was in my sin.

It wasn't my mother, it wasn't my my father, it wasn't my

sister who convinced me to turn my life around.

It was the Word of God and the power that was with the Word of

God when it was preached. And even now, it's the Word of

God that keeps me in line and causes me to repent.

When the Spirit convicts me of things that I do that are off

and I do, there are times that I am off and the word of God is

there to help me with those things just like it's there for

you. The Word of God, it's powerful.

It's powerful and the man of God.

Paul talks about the man of God with a man of God.

You know, Timothy is the only one that he referred to as the

man of God in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the man of

God was always referred to was just the prophets.

They called the prophets the man of God.

When the prophet came to town, all the man of God is here.

It was the prophets, but here twice in the book of first and

second Timothy, he refers to Timothy as a man of God.

Here in this scripture and also back in first Timothy chapter 6

1 Timothy 6:11

verse 11 refers to as the man of God.

And the man of God is a messenger, someone who brings a

message of God. And thank God that Paul, man of

God, was a good example for Timothy during the time when

Timothy needed a good example. Timothy's own father was not a

believer. His mother and his grandmother

was a believer, but his father wasn't.

Paul became his spiritual father, a spiritual father.

And that's why it's important for us to be able to have

spiritual children in the faith. If we're walking with the Lord

as adults, we should have spiritual children in the faith,

people that we can pour into. Bible says that from a child

Timothy knew the Scriptures because he was given to her from

his own mother and his grandmother.

It is so important that if you have young children to expose

them now to the Scriptures. Expose them now to the

Scriptures. Give it to them as often as you

can, as much as you can. When they get old, those things

don't go anywhere. Regardless of what decisions

they make, the Scripture is there.

The truth is there, and trust me, they do.

They get old and they make their own decisions.

And you wonder sometime, did you hear anything that I said to you

when you were younger? Did you hear anything?

But without a doubt the scriptures are real and they are

true and they are good to help one to find salvation, able to

make one wise for salvation and can save souls.

It's the scriptures that can do that.

Thank you for tuning in to Living Waters of Grace with

Pastor Lewis 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 win.

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. You 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.