Living Waters of Grace 01.15.26

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.

If God said thou shalt not fornicate, you can't just go

move in with somebody because you say, well, when women we're

in love and we're going to get married, but then get married

and then move in and listen, I'm not standing here acting like I

haven't committed that sin. That was me.

When you know better, you do better.

You can repent, you can turn around, you can change.

When you know the Holy Spirit prompts you and lets you know

that what you're doing is wrong, you can turn from that sin and

play by the rules. Wow, that's pretty rare.

Pastor Lewis was just very vulnerable in sharing his own

struggles and living in obedience to God's Word.

And Pastor Lewis also said when you know better, you do better.

Would to God that this would actually be the case for each of

us as followers of Jesus when we come into a better awareness of

what God's Word teaches. May each of us be people who

obey what we learn. And honestly, that's the risk of

listening to teachings like this.

Once you've heard, you're accountable.

Now here's Pastor Lewis in second Timothy chapter one.

We have today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.

Therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ

Jesus. Be strong in the grace that is

in Christ Jesus. So once again, Paul makes it

clear to Timothy. Timothy, I know that you've been

a little timid, sometimes a little fearful.

We talked about that earlier in chapter 1.

He's been a little fearful, a little timid.

We also know that Timothy, his health wasn't all that great.

You know, Paul had told him a while back, look, I know your

stomach's a little, you know, a little bad.

So take some wine for your stomach.

His health is not that great. And then on top of that, he's

young. So Timothy really needed a lot

of encouragement. And he had a church that was

right in one of the most Pagan cities in the world in Ephesus.

And he was the pastor of that church.

So he had to let Timothy know. Timothy, you're not going to be

able to lean on your own strength, brother.

So be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Be strong in the grace that is in him.

That grace is not only unmerited favor for Timothy that he would

be able to be in a place to be able to do this ministry or it's

not just the fact that he's saved that we're all saved by

grace. It's not even just that, but to

be in the grace, to be strong in the grace that is in Christ

Jesus. That grace is also the

enablement for Timothy to be able to do all that the Lord has

called him and assigned him to do your ministries.

Whatever it is that God has given you to do your ministry,

you'll never be able to fulfill it.

If you try to depend on your own strength and your own power,

you'll never be able to do it. You're going to get out, you're

going to give out, you're going to get frustrated.

We've all done it. We've all done it.

You get frustrated, you know you have to deal with some

opposition that can wear you out.

We have tons of pastors all the time that's giving up the

churches because they can't deal with it anymore.

And if you're trying to do this in your own strength, I don't

care what your ministry is, you will not be able to do it if

you're dependent on your own strength, your own wisdom, your

own logic, your own knowledge. You need the grace that is in

Christ Jesus. You need the grace that's in

Christ Jesus. Pray for that grace, that

enablement that gives us what we need to do the ministry.

So he's saying to Timothy and these things, verse 2 and the

things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit

these to faithful men. And you know what?

I love that because when you go back and really look at what

Paul is talking about, these things that you heard from me.

Well, let's look at first of all, who did Paul get it from,

right? Who did Paul get it from?

If you go to the book of Galatians, because you see one

of the things that we have to learn is that the source of what

is given to you or what is said to you is just as important as

what is said to you. Kids got that down already.

Kids got that down. If you have more than one kid, I

guarantee you, you've heard this before.

Johnny, cut off the TV and do your homework.

Who said Everybody can relate to that, right?

You got kids you can relate to that.

Who said It's time to come in now It's time for The Who said?

It's always Who said? Because kids understand that the

authority is not in what's being said.

The authority is in who's saying it.

If it's just my brother that's saying it, I'm ignore that.

But if they tell me mom or dad said it, OK, I'll do it.

Who said, and that's exactly what we need to understand when

it comes to doctrine, when it comes to the word of God, when

we're being preached something. Who said, who said?

Look at what he says here in Galatians.

This is what he says here. Paul is letting Timothy know,

just like he's letting us know that what Paul is giving to

Timothy, he didn't just get it from man.

See, when Paul got saved, he didn't just go right to the men

and ask them to teach him the gospel.

That's not what happened. Paul was taught the gospel

directly from the revelation of Jesus Christ himself.

Look at what it says here in Galatians chapter one, verse 11.

But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which

was preached by me is not according to man, verse 12 For I

neither received it from man nor was taught it, but it came

through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So Paul's saying what I'm giving to you, Timothy.

I got it from Jesus Christ. This is legit.

This is legit, this is for real. You don't have to worry about

questioning it. So this is what I want you to

share with other people. So now we go back here to Second

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

Timothy chapter 2 right there in verse 2.

And he says, and the things that you heard from me among many

witnesses, commit these things to faithful men who will be able

to teach others also, not just to men.

Don't just commit them to men, but commit them to faithful men.

Commit them to other men who will handle this word faithfully

and who will handle it reverently.

Other men who were faithful men who were seeking the Lord,

faithfully seeking the Lord themselves, men who were sitting

under the Word, men who are receiving and being fed the Word

just as much as they're being taught the Word.

It is so important to be in ministry and to continue to sit

under and be fed the Word of God and be fed the Word of God.

You know there's times when your hunger needs to be fulfilled and

your thirst needs to be quenched for the Word.

So this is a faithful man. This is a faithful man or

faithful woman and we have great teachers here.

We have great teachers that we have men who come here and teach

on Wednesday nights that that are just spirit filled women who

are teaching on Sundays, Spirit filled.

So many opportunities where the Word of God is being given out

in the same form and the right keep in the form of it and

keeping the pattern of it is being given out and that word is

also being given to others. Others are being taught.

Others are being taught because there's faithful men that are

receiving the word. If I am not ministering one

Sunday, or if I'm not ministering on a Wednesday

night, man, that is such an opportunity for me to come and

sit and receive because God still wants to speak to me.

I can't teach kids. I can't teach anybody if I'm not

being fed myself. I have to be fed.

So he says give it to faithful men who will be able to teach

others also. And that's able to teach doesn't

just mean able to communicate it able to teach also means able to

learn, able to learn or willing to learn, even more important,

willing to continue to learn. Then he goes on verse three.

You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier.

So he's saying here, if you look at it and we put it all in

sequence, we're saying here he says be strong in the grace that

is in Christ Jesus and the things that you have heard among

many witnesses, commit thou to faithful men.

So now from this point in the next couple verses, he is going

to explain to us what are some of the characteristics of a

faithful man, a faithful pastor, a faithful servant, a faithful

Christian. What are some of the

characteristics? And the first one, it's going to

give you 3 back-to-back. And the first one is here, right

here in verse three. He says you therefore must

endure hardship as a good soldier.

As a good soldier, you must endure hardship as a good

soldier. What is a good soldier?

A good soldier is someone, a soldier that is committed to his

mission. He's committed to his mission.

He is somebody who understands what he's called to do and will

fulfill that mission at all costs.

Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, as all of those, they all had

missions, they all had purpose and they had to be faithful to

that mission, be faithful to that purpose that helps keep our

country safe. And he's saying to Timothy,

Timothy, they must be able to endure hardships as a good

soldier. That endure hardships mean to be

able to share in the hardships, be able to take their place with

the hardships, you know, take their share of it, of the

hardship as a good soldier. And then he goes on, He says,

here no one engaged in warfare and tangles himself with the

affairs of this life. And it's interesting because

there he's basically looking at, let's separate what it means to

be a civilian from what it means, OK, to be in the

military. If someone's in the military,

they cannot live the way they live in the military like they

do in civilian life. Just like you can't live both

lives if you're a Christian, you can't live like the world, can't

live like the world. You can't be entangled in the

things of the world. And that entanglement means to

be twisted. It means to be twisted or to be

caught up. We can't be caught up or twisted

in the things of the world. We can't be involved in things

that's going to take our focus or our time away from the

gospel. If they do start to take our

time away from the gospel, that's a work of the enemy

trying to defeat us, trying to cause us to become ineffective.

We can't be both in the world and be a soldier for the Lord at

the same time. There's too many entanglements.

There's a lot of entanglements. Drugs is an entanglement.

Alcohol is an entanglement. Being overly involved and get

rich schemes are entanglements. Being involved in the cares of

the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other

things, as it says in Mark 419, those things are entanglements

and it really brings us into perdition and destruction.

It destroys us and it destroys our testimony.

Paul said, Timothy, you can't be involved in that.

Got to be separate from that. And at the end of that same

verse it says that he may please him who enlisted him as a

soldier. Jesus said at one time that I

only do what pleases my father. I only do what pleases my

father. I don't waste time on things

that don't please my father. I know who sent me, and I'm here

to do the will of him who sent me.

This is what Jesus says over and over and over again, and that's

where we have to be. We have to do what pleases Jesus

Christ. The one who called us, the one

who saved us, the one who justified us, the one who will

glorify us ultimately is Jesus Christ.

And we have to do what pleases Him and not what pleases the

world. And then in verse 5 here it

says, and also now this is the second illustration.

And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned

unless he competes according to the rules.

So he's now talking about comparing the Christian Walker

being a pastor to actually being an athlete.

There's a lot of disciplines in being an athlete.

They're disciplined about their workout.

They're disciplined about what they eat.

They're disciplined about what they do and how they do it.

And they got to play by the rules at this particular time

they were in the Olympic Games. You know, and Greeks and Romans

are very, very enthusiastic about sports, very enthusiastic.

And that's, and Paul uses the athletic or a sports analogy

quite a bit because they are, but they're also very stringent

about the rules. If you think about how many

people get disqualified from the Olympics, from breaking rules,

it happens all the time. Sometimes they disqualify before

they even get to the event. Sometimes they disqualify while

they're in the event because they break the rules.

And Paul was saying to Timothy, we got to play by the rules,

man. And this is Timothy.

This is the rule book. This is the rule book.

We play by these rules. I'm sorry, but we can't make up

our own rules in ministry. We can't make up our own rules.

If God said thou should not commit murder, then we can't

think that we can kill babies because we can cover our sins.

If God says that marriage is between a man and a woman, then

we can't think that we can go grab somebody with the same sex

and go live with them because we say we love them.

That's not the rules. That's not the rules.

If God said thou shalt not fornicate, you can't just go

move in with somebody because you say when women, we're in

love and we're going to get married, but then get married

and then move in and listen, I'm not standing here acting like I

haven't committed that sin. That was me.

When you know better, you do better.

You can repent, you can turn around, you can change.

When you know the Holy Spirit prompts you and lets you know

that what you're doing is wrong, you can turn from that sin and

play by the rules. And Paul's telling Timothy,

Timothy, play by the rules, man. Don't disqualify yourself by not

playing by the rules. So then the third illustration

is here in verse 6. The hard working farmer must be

first to partake of the crops. And that's true in a couple

sense because you have the ministry of the financial

aspect. You know the labor is worthy of

his wages. So that's one aspect of it.

But the other aspect of it is just in the word itself.

As we read and study the Word, we're first partaker of the

things that the Lord is saying to us.

When we come and we teach here from the sacred destiny, we

share the Word of God with you. And when you get convicted,

that's because we got convicted first as we were studying it.

We were convicted first. We were the first partake of

that conviction. The Lord dealt with us in

studying it. So we are first partaker of it.

And then here he also says here in verse 7.

Now consider what I say and the Lord will give you or in some

verses may say, may the Lord give you understanding in all

things, but it says here that Lord will give you understanding

in all things. Meditate on what was said

Timothy, think about all those things that I just said and then

I love how he finishes up here. That section of it in verse 8

when he says remember Jesus Christ, remember Jesus Christ.

King James Version says remember that Jesus Christ, but in a

number of the other versions says remember Jesus Christ.

And that's a spot that you can stay on for quite some time

because in ministry, sometimes Jesus Christ gets lost because

we get busy. We get busy, we get involved, we

get over involved, and then we start thinking the ministry's

about us, that the ministry is us.

I own the ministry and we're doing this now.

We're no longer doing it for Jesus Christ, but I'm doing it

now for results. I'm doing it now because I like

the way it feels. I'm doing it now because pride

is starting to kick in when people say, oh, you're doing

such. I mean, we got to remember Jesus

Christ. This is about Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself.

And we all have to be careful with that.

We all do. That's just something that the

enemy uses to try to get us derailed and try to get us to be

deflected from what it is that we're supposed to do.

So the Lord is saying that we have to be humble and remember

Jesus Christ. Look how he did ministry.

But it says here Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised

from the dead according to my gospel.

Paul said, listen, I'm doing all of this because I am sure that

almost goes back there to verse 12 and chapter 1.

When he says I am sure, I know, I'm persuaded of the one that

I'm doing this for. He is the Messiah.

He is the one who is of the seed of David.

He's the one who was raised from the dead just like it was

prophesied. He's the Messiah.

I'm not doing this for somebody that's going to take me to a

dead end. He's able to keep my life that

I've given to him. He's able to keep it.

So he says, remember Jesus Christ.

And then he goes on. He says, according to my gospel,

verse 9, for which I suffer trouble as an evil doer, even to

the point of chains, but the word of God is not chained.

Paul said I suffer and I go through all these persecutions,

these afflictions, these beatings, being in the deep,

almost drowned in, you know, I go through this when I go to

cities, They're constantly, you know, men are are taking

different oaths to kill me. I go through all that for the

gospel because of what I know to be true.

And even though they may chain me, they may put me in prison

and they may stop me from traveling around.

But the word is not chained, It's not constricted, It's not

confined over. In Acts 28, around verse 30 or

so, it talks about how Paul, he was in jail, but he was given

the freedom because he got favor from God.

So he was given the freedom to continue to receive and to teach

people who were coming to him while he was in Rome.

And that word was going out to other people and then from other

people, and then to other people and then to other people.

The Word of God is not confined. It is not in chains.

There are people who are sitting in hospital beds, laying in

hospital beds, sick. But when people come in, they're

not talking about their condition.

They're not talking about how bad they feel.

They're sharing the gospel. They're sharing the gospel of

Jesus Christ. And that word is going out,

nurses. And you know our brother Ron,

who end up passing of cancer, Ron, you go to visit him, you're

getting the gospel, you're getting the gospel.

You get a hello, maybe an embrace, but you're getting the

gospel. And everybody who comes in that

room, every nurse, they come into that room.

And there's other people that I've visited from here that when

someone walks in that room, I don't care if it's a doctor, a

nurse, a receptionist, they are hearing something about the word

of God and about the goodness of Jesus Christ.

The word is not confined. Paul said it's not confined.

And in verse 10, he says, and then he gives the reason why he

endures these things. He says therefore I endure all

things for the sake of the elect or the chosen, that they also

may obtain salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Paul says I do all this, I suffer all these things, I take

all these beatings, I take all the persecutions.

I'm dragged before council, pro councils, I'm dragged before

kings, governors beaten, taking slashes back, totally busted

open from being flogged. But Paul said, I do this for

those who need to hear the gospel, the ones who will hear

the gospel and believe. There are people out there that

will hear this gospel and believe.

We don't know who they are. We don't know who we are.

We walk down the street, we go into a grocery line, we pick up

the phone, we walk through our neighborhoods.

Lord gives us a passion to share the gospel.

We don't know if the people that we're sharing the gospel with is

going to be one of those who will believe.

We don't know. It's not our place to know that

God knows. We're just supposed to forecast

it. We're supposed to share it.

We put it out there and let the Holy Spirit does its work.

Let the Holy Spirit does it work.

He takes what we shared and it goes into the heart and the Holy

Spirit brings it to fruition. And they believe, Paul said.

I'm doing it for them. I'm doing it for them so that

they can obtain salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal

glory. Remember, the gospel is a

promise of life. So this eternal glory that he's

talking about is the coming Kingdom in which we will have no

more dying, no more sickness, no more crying.

He's going to wipe away every tear, not even night, because

God Himself is going to be our light.

We have it in Christ Jesus, Amen.

So Paul is encouraging Timothy as we are encouraging you state,

of course, don't give up. Don't give out what you're

doing. Regardless of whether you think

that you see results or whether you think that nothing's

happening at all. Continue to do what God has

called you to do. Stay faithful to the Word.

Stay faithful to the calling, to the mission, to the Co mission.

God is at work and He's using you.

He's using you, He's using me, He's using all of us to make a

difference according to His purpose.

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. 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.