Living Waters of Grace 12.29.25

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 never want to see anybody in here walking up to you asking

you for money or pushing money. That's just not something we do,

and ministry shouldn't be about that.

That's like having a covetous pastors who are always looking

to make more money. There's some pastors who are

involved in schemes outside of the church to try to make more

and more money for themselves. Well, if you're focused on that,

it's very hard to be focused on shepherding the flock.

As we continue considering the qualifications for an elder in

the 3rd chapter of First Timothy, we learned that money

can't be a focal point for an elder.

Now, this doesn't mean that an elder is called to live a

destitute life and not be responsible.

It just means that an elder is not someone who is fixated on

wealth. Money and the pursuit of money

can't be the focus of a biblical elder's life.

Maybe you're listening and you sense God is calling you to be

an elder in the church. How is your relationship with

money now? Here's Pastor Lewis in the Book

of First Timothy, chapter 3, with today's edition of Living

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

Waters of Grace. He says that a pastor is a man

of he's, he's a man. He's the, he's the husband of

one wife. Every husband I know is a man

and every wife that I know is a woman.

So it's not a position that's opened up for a woman.

Now, there's other ministries in the church where women are

definitely able to feel and function in, but the pastor or

the elder position is not one of them.

And here in Calvary Chapel, we don't have women pastors and

women elders. We don't have them.

We have women teachers who teach other women, who teach children,

but we don't have pastors and elders who are women.

So he goes on and he says not given to wine.

I'm sorry, before we get to not to the wine part.

I don't know why I ran there first.

But anyway, he said he must also be temperate, OK, temperate.

So that means that he must be vigilant or have self-control.

He must be a sober someone who is sober.

He's his mind is not clouded. He's not someone who is given to

extremes. You know, he's not someone who

has these drastic mood swings, quick tempered person, but he's

under control. He can control himself, his

temper and also his passions. He's a temperate man.

He's reliable, trustworthy. He keeps his head in all

situations and then he goes on. He says he must be sober minded,

which is very similar to being temperate.

But he approaches the work of the ministry with a seriousness.

This is someone who understands the value of ministry.

He understands the value of being a leader of a

congregation, the leader of sheep.

He understands what that means. Now, that doesn't mean that

he's, you know, always, you know, a stern and ever laughs or

you can't hold a regular conversation with them.

That's not what this is. What he's saying here.

What he's saying here is that he understands that the ministry

that he is called to is a ministry of seriousness about

souls. It's about winning souls and

teaching people who have given their lives to Christ the way of

the way, the way of Christianity, to give

instruction on instructional teaching on how to walk and live

as a Christian. And that's serious.

That's serious. So he understands the validity

of that. So he upholds the gospel message

with seriousness. And again, doesn't mean that he

has to lack a sense of humor. You know, some of the funniest

men that I know are pastors. You know, they're your sense of

humor. Sometimes it could be a little

dry, but it's still funny. You know, it's they're they're

very pleasant to be around. Very pleasant to be around.

Let's see the next one goes into now we're able to talk about the

the good behavior. And this is really important

because Paul almost talks about the person being a person of

good behavior, almost the way that he talks about the women

and the way that they dressed over in first Timothy 29 over

first Timothy 29. If you just turn back there just

for a second here, it says in like manner also that the women

adorn themselves in modest apparel with a propriety and

moderation, not with braided hair or gold pearls or costly

clothing, but which is proper for women professing godliness

and good works. Paul's also is almost making

that same distinction with the behavior of a pastor, and he is

saying that just as a woman has to be modest in her dress, she

has to be a woman who dresses in good taste.

That it doesn't draw attention to her and doesn't deflect

attention away from God. Neither should the man of God

behave behave himself in a way that distracts or deflects the

attention from God or the gospel and keeps his attention on him.

He shouldn't be boisterous. He shouldn't be loud and

obnoxious. He shouldn't be someone who is

rude. He shouldn't be someone who is

disgraceful or does disgraceful things.

So he should do nothing to deflect the glory of God,

reflect off the glory of God for people who are looking at him,

but they should see Christ in him and in his behavior.

He should be a person of good behavior.

Then he goes on into hospital. He should be hospitable.

And I remember when I was younger and always refer back to

that because the church was just so was kind of different than

the way it is now. And I'm sure a lot of you can

relate to that. But when I was younger, when it

came to hospital, you know, hospitality, there would be

times when other churches would come into the area to attend

services at our church and they would bring in, you know, bus

loads of people. And a lot of those people didn't

have anywhere to stay. So the Christians in that town

that was going to the church, they would open up their homes

for these people to stay. They would open up their homes.

They are being hospitable. I know here when people come

here to visit to, whether it's the teach here or the

missionaries come to give their reports and to share with us

there, we always accommodate them.

We accommodate them. We set them up in a place to, to

be either rather it's in someone's house or we pay for

the accommodations at a, at an inn.

We pay for their meals, we take care of it, make sure that

they're fed and that they have what they need.

You know, we're hospitable toward people who come and

visit. And that's really important

because we have to be willing. A pastor should be willing to

open up their home. Now, that term hospital

literally means loving the stranger.

That's what literally means loving the stranger.

So it's loving somebody that you don't really know anything

about. Now, these people are

Christians. We're talking about Christians,

other Christians, but they may be coming from other areas and

you are hospitable to them. But we're also hospital to

people who have need, who have not given their lives to Christ.

We have helped people in that way as well.

We've helped people have find housing or or help people

accommodate them for a couple nights in a inn for a couple

nights if they're homeless. So we have been hospitable

towards both those that are inside the church and those who

have been outside of the church. Romans 12 and 13 says it talks

about the distributing to the needs of the Saints and being

given to hospitality. Hebrews 13 and two says that you

we're not to forget to entertain strangers for by so or for by

doing so we unknowingly entertain angels.

So we need to also look at being hospitable.

How important that is. Now there was a case in 3rd John

where the atrophis was a man who was not hospitable.

In fact, he refused to receive the missionaries and actually

denied or did not permit anyone else in his church to receive

them. So Paul said that this person

would be dealt with. That is not the way of the Lord.

That is not the Christian way is to deny hospitality to a brother

or a sister. So we should be hospitable.

And then of course #7 says we got to be able to teach.

We got to be able to teach. Now, that able to teach is not

just to be skilled in teaching, for there's a lot of people who

are able to stand up here and project words with clarity or

communicate in a way that's eloquent.

There's a lot of people were able to do that.

But when he's talking about being able to teach, he's

talking about being able to teach the word of God, to study,

to show yourself approved someone who is a student, a

careful student in the Word of God, but not in their own

strength. Again, it has to be someone who

is willing and who knows that the teaching power does not come

from themselves, but it comes from the Holy Spirit.

You have to be someone that's given to prayer, someone that is

always calling on the help of the Holy Spirit to help you to

teach the Word of God. That's where the power is.

That's where the power is. It's not the words that come out

of my mouth by myself, but it's when the words that come out of

my mouth is empowered by the Holy Spirit.

That's what touches hearts. That's what touches hearts.

So we have to be able to teach. And you know what, every pastor,

you know, everyone who teaches does not necessarily have to be

a pastor there. You know, we have teachers in

the church that are not pastors. They're teachers.

They're teachers, good teachers, qualified teachers, able

teachers, but every teacher is not a pastor, but every pastor

has to be a teacher. Every pastor has to be able to

teach the word of God. And we go on here and it says

that I also a pastor, must not be given to wine.

Now we get to the wine part. Pastor has to be not given to

wine. And what that means is not under

the control of wine. The Bible actually does not

teach that we should be abstinent, Total, total

abstinence from wine. The Bible does not teach that.

But what the Bible does teach on is that it teaches against

drunkenness. It teaches against the excess

use of wine. It teaches against that.

So a man of God is not prohibited from drinking wine.

Wine was a big part of the culture back in the Jewish

culture. It's a big part of that.

And part, and the reason, well, the main reason was actually is

because the water was so bad. The water was so bad.

I mean, it was, it had microorganisms in it that would

cause people to get sick. And it had all kind of things in

it. And, and actually, they would

put a little wine in the water to purify the water.

Wine actually helped to purify the water.

So that's what they would drink wine.

Now, it wouldn't be strong. It would be, you know, just a, a

weak amount of wine in the water just to be able to purify so

that they can drink it. So it wasn't always used for

ceremonial celebrations and things of that nature.

But we are clearly taught that we are not to use wine to access

or we're not to use it to the point where we're becoming

drunk. And in fact, some versions of

this may actually say, you know, that we're not to be drunkard.

So we don't use that term a whole lot, but that's exactly

what some of the term, maybe someone has that version where

it says that, you know, we're not to be drunkards, not to be

drunkards. We also know that wine could be

used for medicinal purposes. First Timothy 5 and 23, Paul

tells Timothy, look, take a little bit of wine for your

stomach. You having issues with your

stomach, Drink a little wine for that stomach, you know, so it

can be used for medicinal purposes.

But we've also seen wine used in a way that could cause damage,

like if you go back into the day of Noah, for example, Noah, the

excess use of wine caused his his son to sin, his son to sin,

his son Ham that caused the sin Lot drank too much wine and he

became the father of two very Pagan nations, Moab and Ammon.

And it was after he had gotten drunk.

It was actually incest. And I know we talked about that

here before, but it was incest. He fathered two children to his

two daughters while he was on the influence of wine.

So like I said, the Bible does not teach that you have to

totally abstain from drinking, but it doesn't encourage that

you drink either. Doesn't encourage it as well.

A pastor should be aware of the type of message that he is

sending when he's drinking. Got to be aware of the fact that

he is. An example could cause someone

to stumble. Romans 1421 says it's good to

neither eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your

brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.

And then he also says that we shouldn't be strikers or

nonviolent. We should be nonviolent.

We shouldn't be people who are easily pushed into a physical

fight. You know, it's probably not a

good look if you walk out the door one saying I'm on the

corner beating somebody up, you know, I mean, you know, getting

into an argument with somebody and I just start throwing

punches, you know, because I'm, you know, because I get that

that's probably not a good look. Probably not.

You probably wouldn't want to hear from me again up here.

So we really should not be easily provoked into fighting.

We shouldn't be fighting. All right.

So this is what Paul is saying and the reason why he said this.

You know, I mean, it might sound like it's kind of wild, but, you

know, back in the day, you know, some of those prophets and some

of those teachers back in the days, they would get physical

with the posers. They would pull out patches of

hair from the beards and strike them and hit them with sticks

and things of that nature because they weren't in

agreement with what they were teaching or that they were

sinning. They would actually strike

people. So it wasn't, you know, far off

that Paul talks about this. But we should not be verbally or

physically contentious. We shouldn't be contentious with

anybody and always looking for a fight, shouldn't be quick

tempered in that way at all, shouldn't be prone to that type

of violence. And then ten, he says, not

greedy for money, not greedy for money.

And you would think that this is something that you shouldn't

have to talk about. But you know, the desire to

obtain more and more money can happen before you know it.

You know, when money starts to be an object for you, before you

know it, almost everything that you do is geared around you

getting money is geared around you getting money.

You know, people talk about is it unlawful to gamble or to do

things of that nature? But when you think about it,

when someone is given to that to the point where they're losing

control, it's because the money has become almost, it's come

like an idol and they're constantly seeking more and more

and more of it. We also understand that the, you

know, the people who are in the ministry for money, you know,

are, are, are in it for the wrong reason.

I mean, if a person goes in to be a pastor because they're

trying to be rich, then they're going into it for the wrong

reason. We shouldn't run our churches

like corporations where we care more about revenue than we do

about souls. We can't do that.

It's about sharing the gospel and getting the gospel message

out for to win souls. And once those souls are one, to

teach them in the ways of the Lord to disciple those souls,

not to make money, not to make money.

We don't even like pass around plates and things of that

nature, you know, trying to get, you know, money or push people

to get money. I have been in churches where

people have taken multiple offerings because they didn't

get what they wanted the first time.

So they take multiple offerings to get what they want.

I've seen that happen, but in this church I've never seen

money be the main issue. Won't teach about money as being

the main issue. If we feel like the week before,

well the offering was a little low.

So this week I'm a teach on money.

I've seen churches to do it so thank God we don't do that.

We don't even have offerings in here.

You never want to see anybody in here walking up to you asking

you for money or pushing money. That's just not something we do,

and ministry shouldn't be about that.

That's like having a covetous pastors who are always looking

to make more money. There's some pastors who are

involved in schemes outside of the church to try to make more

and more money for themselves. Well, if you're focused on that,

it's very hard to be focused on shepherding the flock.

It's going to be hard to take time to study and to be in

prayer. If you're always thinking about

your next scheme to make money, it takes over.

It takes over. And the more you get, the more

you want. That's just the trap of the

devil. That's the trap of the devil.

And that's something that we have to try to avoid so that we

don't get in that trap. And we it's, it's circular.

It just keeps you moving and going and going and going.

And first Peter, in first Peter chapter 5, chapter 5, it says

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

the elders who are among you. I exhort I am a fellow elder and

a witness of the suffering of Christ, and also a partaker of

the glory that will be revealed. He says, shepherd the flock of

God, which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion,

but willingly, not by dishonest gain.

That means trying to do things to bring money in so that I can

gain more money, but eagerly, nor as being Lords over those

entrusted to you. So we should not be always given

to looking for and trying to accumulate more and more money.

Calvin had an interesting quote. He says, I repeat, that the man

who will not bear poverty patiently.

And willingly will inevitably, inevitably become the victim of

mean and sordid covetousness. So we become victims to

covetousness when we do not allow ourselves to just trust in

the Lord, to make him our Jehovah Jireh.

And I can tell you by doing that here that Lord has been

faithful. He has been faithful.

He's taking care of this house, He's taking care of the house

and the needs of the house. As long as we, I've heard, you

know, years ago, I was always taught that when we take care of

God's business, he'll take care of ours.

And I found that to be true. I found out to be true.

So we go on. He says 1.

He says not dumb, he said not greedy for money, but gentle.

He should be gentle. You know, not someone who is

impatient or someone who is not approachable, but he should be

gentle. It should not be a problem to

approach a pastor. He should be able to listen to

others and listen to others opinions, listen to criticisms,

opposing views without overreacting or reacting in a

defensive or an aggressive manner.

But to be gentle with people, be gentle with each other, be

gentle with the flock. He also says that you have to

allow others to serve in the church.

And this is one of the things that I really love about here at

Calvary Chapel that we give those who we see that God is

putting a passion on your heart for ministry.

We give you the room to be able to go and to serve in that

ministry. And not only do we not interfere

with your serving, but we are a covering and not a lid.

We support you and encourage you in that ministry, but we don't

stunt your growth in that ministry.

We don't stunt how big that ministry can grow to or the

things that you can do in that ministry.

We don't stunt the growth of your ministry.

We encourage you long as it's a blessing.

It lines up with the Word of God.

People are being blessed by it. Souls are being touched by it.

People are getting into the Word of God through it.

We have no issue. Only want to know what can we do

to help, how can we assist you? What resources can we give you?

But we're not going to be a lid and try to stop your

progression. And then in #12 says that he's

not quarrelsome. The man of God shouldn't be

caution. We talked about that a little

bit, and that's talking about fighting.

But this is more verbally fighting, always being

contentious with someone, verbally getting into arguments

and things of that nature. And that, that's, that that's,

that's kind of prideful. You know, when, when, when a man

of God is always being defensive and getting into arguments with

people, whether it's about the word or about something that's

happening here, you know, like we can't listen to hear.

If you feel like you have an idea about how to do something a

little better than what we're doing it, you know, absolutely,

of course, through prayer, through much prayer and

supplication, that's when we actually move on doing things.

But absolutely, we listen and hear what people want to share,

what people want to share. We want to do that so we're not

being argumentative, but the people who are being

argumentative always getting into disputes that nature, that

can be a problem. Wheresby says this, he says

short tempers do not make for long ministries.

You know, you got a short temper, you'll probably have a

short ministry as well. In verse three, he says do not

be covetous. And we talked about that.

And that has to do with someone who was a lover of money.

This has been another encouraging edition of Living

Waters of Grace. Pastor Lewis Harrell has shared

some good reminders for us to learn and walk in today as he's

teaching through the books of First and Second Timothy.

There are useful practices and advice that the Apostle Paul

offers to Timothy in these books.

From a fellow pastor, Paul imparts some wisdom to Timothy

about solid leadership and what some of the criteria should be

for leadership. There are specific passages

directed towards men and women, respectively.

And All in all, there's much to gain in coming to an awareness

of God's heart for each person and God's purposes for each one.

We're happy that you've taken the time today to listen.

We invite you to come here the next edition.

In the meantime, when you have some time to spare today, go

check out our website, calvarychapelonline.com.

There you'll find additional messages as well as a variety of

resources and information about how to meet with us in person.

We're also on Facebook, so you can be a part of what we share

there as well. You can stay plugged in with

this ministry via YouTube to watch previous teachings or tune

into our live stream. Living Waters of Grace is a

ministry of Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.

Before we go today, we ask that you share this program with

others and invite them to listen on Grace FM at 91.7.

That's all we have for today, but we're so glad that you've

been with us. There's more to dig into here in

First and Second Timothy, so let's gear up for some more

great teachings from Pastor Lewis next time here on Living

Waters of Grace.