Living Waters of Grace - 01.06.26

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.

We could never write a check that would be sufficient for

everything our parents did for us throughout our whole lives.

We would never be able to write a check that would be

sufficient. But there's an opportunity that

we get at some point where we can give back to them when

they're older and we can now support them, take off some of

the financial burden that they have, help them physically be a

support for them the way they were for us.

And sometimes that can be difficult because a lot of

parents don't want to give up that control.

But we do it out of love. What debt could you ever pay to

the One who gave His life for you?

In today's message, Pastor Lewis shows that no gift, no

sacrifice, no amount of effort could ever be enough to repay

what Jesus did. Yet He gives you a lifetime to

respond with love. When you serve Him, you're

simply returning love to the One who first loved you.

It's not about earning anything. It's about honoring the Lord who

paid a debt you could never settle.

How do you live each day as a thank you to Jesus for

everything He's given you? Now here's Pastor Lewis in the

Book of First Timothy, chapter 5, with today's edition of

1 Timothy 5 · chapter mention

Living Waters of Grace. The Word of God is precious,

Amen. And he gives us this word from

Genesis to Revelations, that we have the word of God.

And it's such a privilege to be able to hear the word of God.

And he gives us this word. We get this word because he, you

know, we are to heed the word of God.

And when we do heed the word of God, then we are protected.

We're protected. The word of God is for the

purpose of protecting us. The Bible says that your word is

a strong tower that the righteous run into and are safe.

When we are hidden under the wings of the Lord under His Word

and we heed His word, man does it help us to avoid so many

snares and pitfalls that the world has and the things that

the enemy, the traps that the enemies have set forth to be

able to to try to trip us up. It's the Word of God that is our

light as it's been spoken. The Word of God is a lamp unto

our feet and a light unto our pathway.

It lights those things. It causes us to be aware of

where it is that we're walking and what we should avoid, what

we should go around, what we should stay away from.

It's all in the Word of God. And when we read this as it is

from the Word of God, not the person standing here speaking

it, but as we read it as it is the Word of God, and we heed

that word, our lives benefit. And not only our lives, but the

lives of others who we're around benefit when we heed the Word of

God. So as we go into this 5th

chapter of Timothy, we understand that this is Paul the

evangelist. I call him the Gospel

Globetrotter. But Paul the evangelist who has

gone around, admitted his mission to go around everywhere

and to plant churches and to share the gospel into and to

allow people to know about this saving faith that has changed

his life so drastically and dramatically.

And he has, he has adopted a son in the spirit, Timothy, who is

his spiritual son. And, and this is like, I like to

picture things when I'm reading. I like to picture how what's the

setting? And and even though Paul wrote

this letter, it's almost like he's sitting in front of Timothy

in a chair and just giving him direction and instruction.

Son, heed this son, listen to this son do this that way.

And this is the way he reads this.

This is what this letter reads like a, it's an instruction.

And even though it's written, I mean, the title of this is, you

know, orders for widows and elders.

And even though that's the title, that doesn't mean that if

you're not a widow or if you're not an elder that you can just

check out. It doesn't mean that you can

just get up and leave or it's not for me.

I'm not a widow and nor am I an elder.

So it's not for me. It's for everybody.

It's for everybody. And the Lord made it possible

that we could all have it. Even though it was written

directly to Timothy, he made it possible that we could all have

it because he had Timothy put this in a letter.

And now we all have the benefit of reading this and feeding from

the table of all this wisdom. So this is the word of God.

Every word in the word of God is inspired by God.

Everything that's written in this word is inspired by God.

So let's start reading. We're going to start with the

first 3 verses here. Actually, we're going to start

the 1st 2:00 and then we're going to make comment.

It says do not rebuke an an older man.

Some versions may say elder, but exhort him as a father, younger

men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as

sisters with all purity. Let's just stop there for a

second. So we know that in first Timothy

315, the Bible clearly says that you ought to know how to act in

the House of God, which is the House of the living God.

Well, Paul talks about this like the House of God is a family

because it's a family that lives in a house.

So Paul wants to give the impression, he wants to give the

picture to Timothy and to us that a church family is just

that, a family. We're all family, Paul said.

Let's refer to each other as brothers and sisters.

I mean, when I was younger, every church, it was brother

this, sister that mother. You tell me.

That's all you would hear, Brother this Brother Harold,

brother that sister. How you know?

I mean, that's just the way it used to be.

And then we had mothers that were in the church and their

name was Mother Johnson or Mother Susie or whatever it

would be, because it was a family.

It was a family. But in this particular verse,

he's saying something even more striking.

He says do not rebuke. And that word rebuke here means

do not strike at, do not strike at.

So if I have to correct, if you have to correct an older person,

Timothy, if it's an older man that you have to correct, do it

with respect. Do it with reverence.

Don't just strike at them. Don't talk to them with a level

of respect. They're not your employees.

They're your brothers and your sisters and they are your

family. So speak to this older man with

respect and he says, but exhort him as a father.

Talk to him like you would talk to your father, Timothy.

And it's hard if you're a younger guy and you're trying to

correct. I don't know if any of you ever

had that experience. I'm sure you have had that

experience where you've had to correct someone that was older.

Maybe you've even had to have conversations with your parents

sometimes or with someone. I remember the first time I had

to have a hard conversation with my father to correct them or

with my mother. I mean, it was like, oh God, how

in the world do I how do you do that?

You know, I mean, it's, but Paul is saying do it with grace, do

it with respect, do it with care to correct them.

Because the correction is just like when the Lord corrects us.

It's out of love. It shouldn't be from any place

else. It's out of love.

Same way we correct our kids. But if our kids have to come.

And sister. Daddy, you were wrong about this

one. Really.

Yeah, Dad, you were wrong about this.

This is the way it happened. And that's what happened.

Oh, but it's with a level of respect.

But my kids going to say, damn, you're wrong.

What's wrong with you? Now that's a whole nother

conversation. OK, so we correct with respect.

We correct with respect. So anyway, he goes on and he

says, let's exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers.

So let's treat everybody like their brothers and sisters here,

older women as mothers. And then there's a change here.

There's a caveat here because now he's talking about younger

women as sisters and this is a message that and he, he's

talking to Timothy. So he's talking to a young male

and he says when you talk to the women in the church, Timothy,

the young women, talk to them or deal with them, encourage them

as sisters. And that is so important.

Brothers, young men, the young women that are in our church,

they are your sisters. So we should not speak to them

in with words of flirtatiousness or words that are enticing or

provocatively. We don't speak to them that way.

They are our sisters. We respect them, we cover them.

They're our sisters. Now if the relationship

progresses and it becomes your wife, then that's a different

story. You still respect them.

It's still a pure relationship, but now it's your wife.

So in the church you have sisters and you have wives.

You don't disrespect the women in the church by the way you

treat them to speak to them. They are your spiritual sisters.

We don't try to entice them because we don't commit

spiritual incest, right? We don't ever want to commit

spiritual incest, so we don't try to entice them.

They're our sisters. And Paul makes sure he puts that

caveat in there where he says with all purity.

That means without any impropriety.

It means that our motives when we talk to our sisters is pure.

We're not hiding any agendas or things that we're trying to do.

It's pure and it should be that way the other way around.

Sisters, young men in the church are your brothers are your

brothers. So then anyway, he goes on in

verse 3, and this is when we start getting into the real meat

of what it is that Paul wants to talk about from three on.

And he says here, honor widows who are really widows, honor the

widows who are really widows. But if any widow has children or

grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and

to repay their parents, for this is good and acceptable to God.

So Paul's saying here, as he, you know, is basically reaching

back into the Old Testament where it talks about protecting

widows. God protects widows.

God always does protect widows. He covers widows.

He takes care of widows. He wants widows to be taken care

of. Now, back in the Old Testament,

they didn't have social service systems that take that took care

of widows. They didn't have pension plans

or anything like that. SSI or whatever it is that the

older people would be able to get to take care of them, but

they had community and God would encourage the community to take

care of their widows, orphans and the fatherless.

Those are the ones that God wanted the people to take care

of. So here he says honor widows who

are really widows, which means that Paul is making a

distinction between a person who is a widow and a person who

would qualify for support of the church.

And we're going to get into that to find out exactly what that

is. It doesn't mean to see you have

young women who may we want to get into this, but it has young

women who husband may die unexpectedly.

You're young, but you're young enough to and they have

resources that they maybe they can take care of themselves.

But then there's older women who can't take care of themselves

who are widows and they may have been widows for a long time and

they need support to take care of themselves.

But we want to explain that. So let's talk about first when

it says, but if any widow has children or grandchildren, some

versions may say nephews, but it's really grandchildren.

Let them first show piety or reverence or respect at home and

repay their parents for this is good and acceptable.

Before God, we know that we could never write a check that

would be sufficient for everything our parents did for

us throughout our whole lives. We would never be able to write

a check that would be sufficient.

But there's an opportunity that we get at some point where we

can give back to them when they're older and we can now

support them, take off some of the financial burden that they

have, help them physically be a support for them the way they

were for us. And sometimes that can be

difficult because a lot of parents don't want to give up

that control. But we do it out of love.

So we help our older parents. And it's a privilege to be able

to do that, to be able to give to your parents after all

they've given to you. You know what it's like to be

able to take your parents out for dinner and you pay for it

because there's so many times, right, that they had to pay for

it, right? But then you're in a position

that you can take them out to dinner and you can pay for it.

That's a blessing. That's a blessing.

So he's saying here that if they have children or grandchildren

in the church, the grandchildren or the children are to be the

first to take care of these widows.

They shouldn't be the responsibility of the church for

that kind of support. That falls on the children and

grandchildren first and that's acceptable before God.

And then in verse 5, he says now she who was really a widow.

So in it, Paul, what do you mean really a widow?

How do you describe Paul who's really a widow?

He tells us, look at what he says.

She's left alone. That means there is no one

living or she doesn't have any children or either all her

children are gone. Like in a situation with Naomi,

all of her children are gone. There was no one else to take

care of her. So he says, well, you know, in

that situation where the she's left alone and she trusts in God

and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.

So this is a true widow who has decided that OK, my husband has

died, so for the rest of my life I'm going to give it to the

Lord. I'm dedicating the rest of my

life to the Lord. I'm committing everything,

Everything I have my prayers, my supplications, my service.

It's all going to the Lord. I'm not looking to remarry.

I'm not looking to get back into another marriage and have to be

responsible to someone else again.

I just want to be with the Lord for the rest of my days.

Paul is saying this is a true or the real widow.

This is the person that the church will support.

And then in verse 6, he says, but she who lives in pleasure is

dead while she lives. She who lives in pleasure is

dead while she lives. What is he saying here?

So if there's a widow, she dies and she has resources and

instead of her spending those resources taking care of her

bills, taking care of her home, you know, taking care of the

things that need to be taken care of, she spends those things

on herself, papering herself. She spends them maybe drinking

or she spends them maybe buying bunch of things that she really

doesn't need. She's spending them on the

pleasure, fulfilling the desires of her flesh, living in

pleasure. Paul said these women are dead

while they live. Why?

Because they are living outside of the will of God, because a

lot of things that they're doing, living in pleasure is

also seeking physical pleasure as well.

So then he goes on in verse 7 and he says, and these things

command that they may be blameless.

We have a biblical example of a true widow, and it's back in

Luke chapter 2, verses 36, and it's Anna who was a prophetess,

Luke 2:36

who was a widow. She's been a widow for over 84

years. And this is a woman who decided

to, after her husband died, she was going to go into the temple

and give all of her resources, her prayers, her supplications,

all those things are going to be given to the Lord, going to be

given to the Lord. Anna's a true example of that.

So then we go to verse 7, it says, and these things command

that they may be blameless. But in verse 8 it says, but if

anyone does not provide for his own and especially for those of

his household, he has denied the faith and is worse, is worse

than an unbeliever. Paul is saying, Timothy, listen,

if you have people in your church that are Christians,

they're believers and they have widows in their home and they're

not taking care of them, what kind of a testimony is that to

people outside of the home? He said it's worse than being an

unbeliever because even some unbelievers would take care of

their own families. That's in the house with them.

Plus the Scripture says in the book of Exodus, it says honor

thy father and thy mother that your days will be long upon.

It's the first commandment of promise.

Honor your father and your mother that your days will be

long upon the earth. It does not say honor the good

ones. It doesn't say honor the good

parents. It doesn't say honor the parents

who were good to you. Honor the parents who raised you

correctly, who was always there. Doesn't say that.

It says honor your father and your mother's, that your days

will be long. Sometimes you have to find it in

the spirit of God to go back to a parent who may have been

abusive, a parent who may have been lived the wildlife and

maybe did not take care of you the way that they should have,

didn't give you the attention that you should have received.

Paul say, you got to look beyond, you got to forgive and

you got to go back and you have to honor your father and your

mother. And that's something that God

will honor. When we can do that, God will

honor that. He loves it when we reconcile

and we seek reconciliation. We seek peace.

And I know for some people that's hard because there's some

real stories. I'm not ignoring that.

There's some real stories. There's some situations where

people have gone through some really tragic things with

parents. I realize that, but God is

calling us to honor them anyway, to honor them.

And maybe through what they see in you, their lives may change.

They see God in you, they see Christ in you, their lives may

change. So he goes on and he says here

in verse 9, do not let a widow under 60 years old be taken into

the number and not unless she has been the wife of one man.

So what Paul's saying here is that, OK, these are the

qualifications. He started to talk about the

qualifications again of a true widow and he said first of all

she needs to be over 60 years old because the widows who were

younger. Well, they don't need to be

taken into the number and that number you talk about the

enlisted number that a church puts together, a number of

enrollment where the church puts together a list of the widows

that they will support or the ones that they will help

financially. OK, He puts together a list.

They put together a list and he's saying that those who are

under 60 should not be on that list.

And it says not unless she has been the wife of one man.

So that's the other stipulation, that a widow must be over 60 and

be the wife of one man. So this is a widow who does not

get remarried and then get remarried again and remarried

again. Well reported for good works.

This is a widow. This is a woman who has given

her life to good work, serving in the community, serving in her

neighborhood, maybe serving in the church, helping out wherever

she can. She's given her life to good

work. She has a reputation for good

works, not a reputation for running in and out of bars and

hanging out and looking for pleasure.

We're talking about women who are serving the Lord and serving

him in the House of God or in the community or wherever.

But she has a reputation, a well reported.

That means a reputation for good works.

If she has brought up children. If this is a woman who has

raised children, even though they may be gone now, but maybe

she's raised them. Maybe she's taken in orphans

before. Maybe she's taken in a friend's

kids who end up passing and didn't have anybody to take care

of them. This woman, this widow took the

children and raised them. I've seen those kind of things

happen before. And it says if she has large

strangers, hospitality, you know, the true widow is a woman

who has a heart of hospitality. So she'll take in strangers

because, see, back in these days, you know, they used to

travel quite a bit. Men used to travel or other

people used to travel, and it was dangerous in the streets to

be out there late at night. They need to find somewhere to

lodge and somewhere it was. And sometimes it was hard to

find safe places to lodge. Well, this widow would take them

in, this widow would take them in, take in strangers.

And even now, like when I think we talked about it before, that

churches may travel around and, and they come to visit.

People come to visit. We get missionaries sometime to

come to visit. And everybody don't know who

these missionaries are. But the widow was the one that

would say, well, if they don't have anywhere to stay, I'll take

them to my house. I got room, I got space.

They'll take them in their house or other, you know some of the

other people that may travel with them.

I'll give them somewhere to stay.

Hospitality, they have a spirit of hospitality goes on.

If she has washed the Saints feet.

Now washing the feet is something that we don't

typically do. That doesn't happen that much in

the church. There are some churches now I

want to say there are some churches that still do that.

They will wash feet. They'll have what they call a

foot washing ceremony. Not sure what that looks like,

but they do that and they'll wash feet.

But what Paul's talking about here is being a humble servant,

being able to do or be willing to do menial things, things that

maybe other people wouldn't want to do or see themselves above

doing it. Paul said, you know, this widow,

a widow, a humble servant will do those kind of things.

And then he goes on and he says, I love this one.

If she has relieved the afflicted, this is a woman who

is truly, truly filled with the spirit of mercy.

If there's an affliction, she goes to help.

If someone is afflicted, she goes to help.

Here on Living Waters of Grace, we're in the books of First and

Second Timothy. Pastor Lewis Harrell is walking

us through these letters written from Paul to Timothy.

Toward the end of these letters, Paul is anticipating that his

time here on earth is coming to a close.

He's giving some final words of advice to his mentee.

Paul writes in Second Timothy 4, verse seven.

I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race.

I have kept the faith. Wherever you are in your journey

of faith with God, our hope is that you have the willingness to

fight for what's true. Not compromising, but holding

fast to the Word of God. Paul was reminding Timothy of

this, and it's a good reminder for you and for me today, too.

For helpful input throughout this series, why not listen to

all of these teachings from first and Second Timothy on our

website? Go to calvarychapelonline.com to

access teachings, download our app, and more.

If you'd like to visit us this weekend, we'd be delighted.

Living Waters of Grace is a ministry of Calvary Chapel

Westmoreland in Greensburg, PA Come to our service held at

10:30 AM on Sundays. We're located at 400 E

Pittsburgh St. Ste. 6B.

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teachings. We thank you for tuning in today

and ask that you come back for more solid and biblical teaching

from Pastor Lewis right here on Living Waters of Grace.