Living Waters of Grace - 01.09.26

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. I love the fact that we can send

out a text or ask someone to do something and it's done and they

don't do it because of what He asked me or she had.

They do it because they're serving the Lord.

And whenever you're serving the Lord, doing anything, it's not a

job, it's not inconvenient. All you got to do is think about

all He done for you. It's very easy to go out and do

something for the Lord. Love agape, love unconditional

sacrificial love. Seek to give, not to gain.

What turns a simple task into an act of worship?

In today's message, Pastor Lewis celebrates the joy of seeing

someone serve the moment they're asked.

They don't move because a person asked.

They move because they're serving the Lord.

When you truly see all Jesus has done for you, no request feels

inconvenient. It's no longer a job.

It becomes an offering. Love like His makes service a

delight, not a duty. How do you turn everyday tasks

into offerings of love for Jesus?

Now here's Pastor Lewis in First Timothy Chapter 6 with today's

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

edition of Living Waters of Grace.

Those who desire to be rich, they fall into temptation and a

snare. And we know that those things

all have to do with what's going on the inside of us.

And the snare are pitfalls that we fall into.

And it says and have fallen to many foolish and harmful lusts

which drown men in destruction. Now it's a picture of a man

being taken down underwater, being taken down and held down,

weighted down by destruction by their lust and by perdition, by

their lust. They got so many things that

they're lusting for. It's like a weight on them

because they can never attain it all.

So it's just constant, constant worrying and constant striving

for something that they can never really achieve and be

satisfied with. And it's like a weight that

takes them down and holds them and drowns them in it.

And then it says here in verse 10, And this is a very well used

Scripture, but probably one of the most quoted scriptures that

we have in the New Testament. It says for the love of money is

a root of all kinds of evil. Now money is not evil.

God created money. Money is not evil.

He said the love of it is what's evil, because once we develop a

love for money, it becomes an idol and we put it in a position

that's even higher than we put God, and we begin to do all the

kind of things in order to obtain money because of our love

for money. And it said it is not the root

of all kinds of evil. The Bible says it is a root of

all kinds of evil. There are many different paths

and ways to end up on an evil path.

Money is just one of them. Money is just one of them.

But it is indeed a way to end up on an evil path.

The love of money, for which some have strayed from the faith

in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many

sorrows. The love of money.

And what is so sad about that? Because the love of money leads

men into many, many ways of error.

Many ways of error. The desired riches are traps, it

leads us into bondages and it causes the Word of God to become

unfruitful, being choked out the cares of this world and the

deceitfulness of riches and the desires of other things.

That's the word speaks about in Mark chapter 4, verse 18, which

Mark 4:18

in the parable to solar, it chokes out the truth of the word

and instead people focus on the cares of this world and the

deceitfulness of riches, and riches are deceitful and the

desire for other things. These foolish and harmful lusts

will take us down. And it has destroyed many of

people. It's the love of money that has

destroyed marriages. It's destroyed companies, it's

destroyed relationships, it destroys families.

Someone gets a trust or something and and you know,

someone passes and when it's time to go read the will, Oh my

goodness, people begin. I mean, they stop speaking

because they got more than they got.

It breaks up families. People stop speaking for years

over money and the bad thing about it and I've watched this

happen before when it says here for some have strayed from the

faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with

many sorrows. There are so many people that

I've seen I've witnessed myself that has a gift given by God to

either sing. There are great musicians or

very gifted communicators of the Word of God, and they may start

out using that gift to serve the Lord.

They start out using that gift to serve the Lord.

But as the love of money creeps into their hearts, because

somebody said to them, you could be making so much more money.

You could be driving so much of A better car.

You could be living in such a bigger house, You could be

having so many more things at your disposure.

And they begin to leave the faith and begin to sing for the

world. And I've watched people as their

lives crumble as a result of that, their lives crumble.

You could probably name many artists that are very popular

who have started off in the gospel, ended up singing for the

world, and made shipwreck of their faith and of their life.

Made shipwreck. Guard your ministry.

Guard the anointing that God has given you.

Don't use it frivolously. It cannot be shared in the world

and with the faith. It's to serve God.

It is to serve God. He gave it to us for that

purpose and they pierced themselves through.

And that's like a picture of a bait.

Somebody hangs up bait over an open pit and a wild animal

comes, and because he's so driven by wanting that and the

love for that flesh, he's so driven by that.

He takes a leap for that bait and he falls into the pit, which

has a stake that he falls onto and pierces himself through.

But he was deceived by the bait, and that's exactly what the love

of money is. It's like a bait.

People who sit in casinos all night long gambling because of

love of money. People become drug dealers

because of the love of money. People become liars in business

and fraud because of the love of money.

Cheat on insurance, Medicare, fraud and so many other things

because of the love of money. They choose the love of money

over family. So the family never sees them

anymore because they're spending all their time chasing money.

It's a very sad thing. So then we go on to verse 11.

It says, but you old man of God, flee these things.

And I love the way Paul makes that change.

He makes that difference. He was initially talking about

ungodly people and people doing ungodly things, but he said, but

not you, Timothy, man of God, you're not going to do that.

Timothy. I want you to flee these things.

Flee what things? All the things that we just got

finished talking about. Flee the love of money, flee

false doctrine. Flee these arguments and these

debates over over empty things. Flee those things.

Flee the desire to be rich, Timmy, flee from those things.

The Bible tells us that we should flee from youthful lust,

flee those things, run away from those things.

The title of this message was actually flee, follow, and

fight. Because throughout our entire

Christianity, throughout our entire journey through this life

of being a Christian, we're going to have to flee from some

things, follow after the right things, and fight to stand on

what God has given us to stand on.

It can all be summed up in those three things, but in this one he

says flee, flee. That means get out of there,

flee away from those things, turn from those things, go the

opposite direction of those things.

And then he says and pursue. And he's going to talk about now

what to pursue. Pursue righteousness, pursue

godliness. Righteousness is a right

standing in Christ and personal integrity, godliness, living

holy, having a conduct that displays Jesus Christ, that

witnesses with Jesus Christ faith, which is faithfulness,

being dependable in the faith and being trustworthy.

I love the fact that we can send out a text or ask someone to do

something and it's done and they don't do it because of what he

asked me or she had. They do it because they're

serving the Lord, and whenever you're serving the Lord, doing

anything, it's not a job, it's not inconvenient.

All you got to do is think about all He done for you.

It's very easy to go out and do something for the Lord.

Love agape, love unconditional sacrificial love.

Seek to give, not to gain. According to Warren Weirsby.

Seek to give and not to gain. That's what godliness does.

And also patience. Patience is that endurance, that

perseverance, that steadfastness even through the tough times of

testing and suffering and affliction, He says have

patience through those things because when you get to the end

of those things, God have a blessing.

He's adding things to you. He's adding things, adding

things that will help you to be able to live the Christian life.

Hebrews 1036 says for you have need of patience, that after you

have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.

And then gentleness or meekness, which is power under control.

It's a form of self-control. Those are the things that he

says that we should be following after.

And then he says here in verse 12, he says fight the good fight

of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also

called and have confessed the good confession in the presence

of many witnesses. He says lay hold on eternal

life, lay hold on the Christian life, on all of these values, on

all of these things that pursue godliness.

He said lay hold on those things, grab on to them, grab on

to those things. Let that be our life, even in

Timothy as you have confessed the good confession in the

presence of many witnesses. Verse 13 says I urge you and

what he's saying here is I charge you or I command you in

the sight of God who gives life to all things and before Christ

Jesus who witnessed a good confession before Pontius

Pilate. So it's not just us that he sent

and have made a good confession. Jesus Christ himself is our

example of one who made a good confession in the face of all

death and evil. When he stood before Pontius

Pilate back in Matthew chapter 27, verse 11, and Pilate asked

Matthew 27:11

him, are you the King of the Jews?

Are you the King? Jesus said, you've said right,

You said correctly. He didn't dodge it, He admitted

it. He made that confession before

Pilate. You have said right.

So he said, make that that good confession that even Jesus

Christ gave before Pilate. And then in verse 14, he said

that you keep this commandment without spot blameless until our

Lord Jesus Christ appearing now. So when you talk about making a

good confession, we have to think about what is it that

would stop us from making a good confession before the world?

What is this that stop us from making our profession our

proclamation? Is there anything that pushes

you off to the edge and closes your mouth and causes you to be

quiet or to hide who you are or to deny who you are?

Is there anything that the world could threaten or anything that

the world could put before you that could cause you to not lay

hold on what the Lord has given you this life?

And those are the things that we pray about.

Lord, I'm weak in this area. Help me, Holy Spirit, help me.

This is an area, Lord, that causes me to fear.

Lord, strengthen me, strengthen me.

We can go to him for any of those things and He'll give it

to us because we're his children.

He loves us. He wants us to have a good

confession before the world, but sometimes we don't.

We don't have to feel condemned because we fall short of that.

We go to the Lord and we ask him for it.

So then in verse 15, I love this part.

It's probably my favorite part because Paul basically ain't

doing him a worship in here. He's just worshipping straight

up worship. He's preaching and I love to

hear Paul preach. He says which he will manifest

in his own time, meaning Jesus Christ.

He will manifest his own presence in his own time.

He who is now listen to this, listen to this doxology here.

He who is the blessed and only potentate, that means the only

sovereign. He's a sovereign and we don't

have to be afraid of kings because Jesus Christ is the King

of kings and Lord of Lords. He's telling Timothy, don't be

afraid of whoever's in power there in Ephesus.

Don't be afraid of that, because you serve the King of Kings and

you serve the Lord of Lords. Who you answer to is much higher

and greater than anybody that those who are above you answer

to. We should remember that and

rejoice on that. Even if we know we're on the job

and someone's trying to do us harm.

I don't have to worry about that.

You are not the king. You are just a king.

I serve the King of Kings and we can go to him.

And then he goes on. In verse 16 he says who alone

has immortality? He's preaching.

He alone has life. He there is no death in him.

He's alpha and Omega. He's beginning and he is the

end. He's the 1st and he is the last.

He's everlasting. He's everlasting.

He alone has immortality. Dwelling in unapproachable

light, whom no man has seen or can see, to him be honor and

everlasting power. Amen.

Unapproachable light. The Bible says that God is

light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Not that there's some darkness in some areas.

He said there's no darkness at all.

There's nothing that taints the glory of God.

Nothing contain it. He's pure light.

And then he goes in verse 17, he says command those who were rich

in this present age not to be halty nor to trust in uncertain

riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things

to enjoy. So we don't trust in uncertain

riches, but we trust in the living God.

But he says those who were rich, now, as we hear that, we're

probably thinking around here, we're probably thinking, well,

wait a minute, that's not us, because I sure ain't rich.

You know that ain't me. So this must be for somebody

else. Actually, when you think about

it, those of us that are in this country are much more rich than

what most people are in other places around this world.

Just about everybody here has a house.

Just about everybody here has a car, clothing, shoes on our

feet. Just about everybody here can

walk to a refrigerator and get something out of it to eat.

Just about everybody here can at the very least go to McDonald's

or Burger King and get whatever they want to eat.

Just about everybody here, there's no one that's that

destitute here. So when he's talking about the

rich, that's pretty much all of us, because compared to other

people who live in ways that you can't even imagine, we are rich.

We are rich. So he goes on, he says here, nor

to trust in uncertain riches. Anything that's temporary,

anything that's temporal is uncertain riches.

Money is uncertain riches. You can have money today and not

have it tomorrow. People can come in and steal

your money, take your assets. People can take.

You can't trust in that. You can't trust in those things.

Bible says that that we have to make sure that what we trust in

are things that have eternal value.

Those are the things that we trust in.

And then he said he who gives richly all things to enjoy.

God gives us things to enjoy, but not to abuse and not to

worship, but He gives us all things richly to enjoy.

Let them do good that they may be rich in good works.

Now this is the true, this is richness and this is what God is

asking for us to do good and good works, ready to give,

willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for

the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life over in

Matthew chapter 6. Verse 19 to 20 says do not lay

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

up for yourself treasures on earth, where the moth and rust

destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

But lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where

neither the moth nor the rust destroys, and where the thieves

do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also. Those are treasures in heaven

that are eternal. They're not temporary.

So we don't have to trust in anything that doesn't last.

And then over in verse 20, we're about to finish you up.

He says, O Timothy, guard what was committed to your trust,

avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of

what is falsely called knowledge.

He says, guard what is committed to your trust.

What was committed to Timothy's trust was his ministry, the word

of God, the gospel, just like it was committed to Paul.

Paul said this word was committed to me back in chapter

1, and here he's saying it's committed to your trust,

Timothy, because I've given it to you.

And Timothy, I've given it to you just the way it was given to

me. It's in the same condition.

You know, it's always a blessing when someone gives you something

and you can give that to someone else and it's in the same

condition as the way that you received it.

That's how we should receive the Word of God.

We should receive the Word of God, the doctrines of God, when

we give it to somebody else. We should give it the same way

it was given to us, as completely, as full with grace,

mercy and righteousness as it was given to us, avoiding the

profane of idle babblings. Forget those empty things, those

worldly empty words, Timothy. Stay away from those things.

Avoid those things and what is so falsely called knowledge.

Now back in that particular time, there was a heresy called

narcissism that was starting to to get into the church, trying

to make its way into the church. And narcissism is basically just

a belief that all matter is evil and and that people can be saved

basically through knowledge. And that's why all these

theories and things were coming up.

Stay away from that because the Bible tells us that we are saved

by grace through faith in Christ Jesus alone.

That's how we are saved, not through just knowledge of things

that has empty value. 21 By professing it, by professing

those empty things, those things, the science or falsely

called knowledge, by professing those things, some have strayed

concerning the faith. People got into those things, it

started to get into them, and next thing you know, they have

strayed away from the faith. They're not preaching the gospel

anymore. They're preaching a facsimile of

the gospel, something that's not even connected to true faith.

And then these last four words are very powerful.

Grace be with you. Amen.

Grace, this is not just the unmerited favor of God, but this

is the power of God to be able to do all those things that Paul

has given Timothy instructions to do.

We all need grace to be able to walk out the things of the

gospel we need grace to do. We can't do it in our own

strength. We can't do it.

You can have a whole list of things and you can try on your

own strength to go out there and live it on your own.

It won't work. We need the power of the Holy

Spirit to enable us to do these things.

And this is what Paul was telling Timothy.

Be with you, and that's plural. That means to be with you all.

So as we prepare, I just want us to know and remember the fact

that Jesus Christ gave up the glory that he had in heaven and

sacrificed his life to bring us this gospel truth, to bring it

to us so that we can walk it out, to bring it to us, so that

we can live it out. He gave it to us to do.

Thank you for tuning in to Living Waters of Grace with

Pastor Lewis Harold. 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

worked 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.