Living Waters of Grace 12.26.25

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.

We're not living a double life. None of us are totally sinless.

No, I realize that we all realize that none of us are

totally sinless. We all fall, we all all come

shorter of the glory of God sometimes.

But when we do, because our hearts are given to the Lord, we

repent for those things and we turn back to the Lord.

But even though we're not sin less, but we should sin less,

right? We should not sin as much as we

did before we gave our hearts to the Lord, because it gives place

to the devil. If you didn't listen carefully a

moment ago, you might have gotten the wrong impression from

Pastor Lewis. You might have thought he said

that we have to be sinless as followers of Jesus.

We all know that is completely impossible.

No, Pastor Lewis said that we should sin less, meaning we

should not sin as much as we used to.

If your life looks the same as it did when you said you

received Jesus, maybe that's all you did, just received Him.

But you never made him Lord and master of your life.

If you did, your life would look different now.

Here's Pastor Lewis in the Book of First Timothy, chapter 3,

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.

We've talked in first in chapter 2.

Paul gave some instructions to his young pastor Timothy, who

has been left in Ephesus to take over the Ephesian church, to

pastor the Ephesian church. And Paul has given him

instructions that he should pass on to them.

And I just want to emphasize that in chapter 2, the first

thing that he mentions and emphasizes is the need for

prayer. And in that need, he talks about

praying for a number of things. He talks about the intercessions

and he praying in terms of the supplications and things of that

nature. But there's so much to be prayed

for in the church. So he starts off the teaching,

talking about prayer. And as we move over into chapter

3, we see the need for prayer. In fact, we as a church

emphasize prayer as well. And the reason why is because

it's through prayer that the church moves.

It's through prayer that the church comes in order.

It's through prayer that we can be good examples of the

Christian faith and the things that the Lord is raising up in

us to do that we would be that light, you know, that light

doesn't come, but through prayer.

It comes through the the power of the Holy Spirit.

And it's when we have the Holy Spirit on the inside of us, we

have a light that can shine. Without the Holy Spirit, we

don't have a light. It's dim, it's dark, but it's

the Holy Spirit that brings light to our life.

Jesus says I am the light of life.

And as long as he's in the world, we have light.

But when we I leave, you know, then it will be darkness.

But we have light because we have that spirit on the inside

of us and thank you Jesus that we have it because that is what

helps us to live the Christian life.

So what we're going to be talking about today is going to

be the example of why it's so important to have the Holy

Spirit to live the Christian life.

So in starting in verse 3 here, verse 1, he says this is a

faithful saying. If a man desires the position of

a Bishop, he desires a good work.

So he said this is a faithful saying, this is a trustworthy

saying. This is a saying that you can

count on. This is a saying that you can

believe in. This is a trustworth you can

trust this that if a man desires the position of a Bishop, he

desires the good work. So the word Bishop here and it,

and you know, it's used here in the New Testament, Paul uses it

and it's, it's a little different.

I think we should talk about it just for a second because it's a

little different than what we may have understood a Bishop to

be. And I know when I was growing

up, when I heard the word Bishop, I'm thinking of some

powerful person walking in the church with this garb on that

just looks untouchable. You know, he, he, he's like all

powerful, all knowing and just like really like he's God's

second cousin or something. You know, it was, it was, it was

that kind of an attitude almost with these, these bishops in the

New Testament church. And, and they had all this

oversight and all this power. But the word Bishop here, when

Paul uses it, it's the Latin word Episcopal.

And the word Episcopal actually means overseer.

So the word Bishop just basically means overseer.

In fact, in the Word of God, the word Bishop, the word pastor,

and the word elder, all three of those are used interchangeably.

Often in the Word of God. They all refer to being an

overseer. It's an overseer.

I just want to take us to a couple of scriptures where

you'll see all three of those terms are used.

And the first one I'm going to go to is going to be to the book

of Acts. If you'll go with me to the book

of Acts, chapter 20, Chapter 20. In the book of Acts Now right

Acts 20 · chapter mention

there in verse 17, he starts and he says from the leaders he sent

to Ephesians and called for the elders of the church.

And then when you go over to verse 28, he says, therefore

take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the

Holy Spirit has made you overseers and and to shepherd

the Church of God. Now this overseer is what we're

talking about as being a Bishop and the shepherd is actually

pastor. A shepherd is a pastor.

He pastors the flock. He he shepherds the flock and

that's exactly what the overseer does.

I'm going to take you to one other, if you'll go with me to

first Peter chapter 5. First Peter chapter 5.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention 1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

Again we see these three titles mentioned in one place.

You'll see first First Peter chapter 5, verse one.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

It says the elders who are among you.

I exhort, So he uses the word elders there and then he says,

and I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the suffering of

Christ and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed,

verse 2, shepherd the flock. In other words, pastor the

flock, oversee the flock, oversee the flock, pastor the

flock, which is among you serving as overseers.

So again, you see those 3 terms used, interchange, They all mean

the same thing. Overseer, one who overseas, one

who governs the flock, takes care of the flock.

So this is what Paul said. I wanted to spend time doing

that because here in Calvary Chapel, we don't necessarily

have bishops. We don't have bishops.

We, we, we, we have pastors and we have elders and we do have

deacons also, but you know, but we also have pastors, but the

ones who are like the spiritual oversight of the church is, is

generally under the leadership of the pastors and the elders.

So that's what a spiritual oversight of the church comes

from. So then he says that if he

desires a good, he desires a good work.

If he wants to be a pastor, what that means?

It's a noble work. It's an honorable work.

It's a work of good reputation. Now, here in Calvary Chapel, we

have three that serve as elders and pastors.

OK Clark and I are the pastors of the church.

And we have George and John who are the elders, and they all

give oversight and to the leadership of the church.

We work together to give oversight.

We pray together to give oversight to the Church, but we

don't have someone who comes in with a mitre on and call him

Bishop. We don't have that.

We don't have that. So he says that it is a

trustworthy and faithful saying. And then and he says that it is

a good work to desire the work of a Bishop.

But then he says a Bishop then must be blameless.

And I emphasize the word must be.

He doesn't say that a Bishop can be, should be, might be, want to

be. He says a Bishop must be

blameless. And what does he mean by

blameless? He means that, you know that

nothing to take hold of. That means that there's that

he's above reproach. This is a man who was above

reproach. There is nothing to take hold

of. There's nothing that people can

point to or that people can criticize him for in his life.

He's not a man that's living a double life.

He's not a man that's here on Sundays and then when he leaves

here, he's going to the local bars to hang out, to do all the

things that the worldly people do.

He is a blameless. The people couldn't come in if

the world was to come in or if unsaved people was to come in.

They could not point to him and say how is he the pastor?

Because I just saw him the other day or the other night doing ABC

or D. How is he your pastor?

That brings a reproach or shame upon the ministry and it brings

shame upon him as a church leader.

So he must be blameless. You know, we know that Satan

will always try to put people in a position to do things

disgraceful or to do things shameful.

Satan will always try to do that, to tempt, to tempt us and

to put us in situations where we have to make a decision to do

the right thing. And so we we want Satan to be

cast out so that we can do those things that are approvable to

the Lord. We're not living a double life.

None of us are totally sinless. Or I realize that we all realize

that none of us are totally sinless.

We all fall, we all all come shorter of the glory of God

sometimes. But when we do, because our

hearts are given to the Lord, we repent for those things and we

turn back to the Lord. But even though we're not sin

less, but we should sin less, right?

We should not sin as much as we did before we gave our hearts to

the Lord, because it gives place to the devil.

This is an interesting illustration of one who is

blameless or one who is above reproach.

And he says simply this. It's like a boxer, like a boxer,

the word pugilist, you know, or a boxer, one who gets in,

defends himself in a ring. A skillful pugilist or a

skillful boxer is one who can defend himself in such a way

that he gives the enemy absolutely no chance to hit him.

There's no way you can hit him. No, he's defended.

He's defended, so defended that he's not open for a hit anywhere

to take a blow. And that's exactly what the life

of a Christian or a Christian leader should be.

It should be one who lives his life in a way that although we

know that the devil is a accuser of men, we know that, but

doesn't mean that those accusations have to be true.

So there's no way that he can land a blow upon our character.

This is what the thought here. I remember when I was younger

and I watched the, I watched the young man and an old man.

The, the young man was about 18 years old and the older man was

about, I think he was like in the 70s and he was boxing.

He gave a boxing demonstration and I'm watching these two guys

in the ring and this young guy is trying everything he can to

land a blow on a 70 year old man.

And it wasn't that he was so fast or quick or anything.

He was just so well defended in the way that he held his body,

the way that he held his hands, in the way that he defended

against the blows. The young man could not land one

blow and this 70 year old was getting a standing ovation

because even though he didn't throw any blows, he didn't

receive 1. It was interesting.

So as I was reading this, I'm studying this, I'm thinking

about this. That's exactly what Paul's

saying, that we should, that we should be, we should be like

this pugilist, this boxer who does not lend ourselves to take

a blow from the enemy in any way or from people in the community

in any way. So he goes on here.

He says, so the Bishop must be blameless, but he also must be

the husband of one wife, the husband of one wife.

And it speaks to the faithfulness of a pastor.

It speaks to his his faithfulness, his him giving

himself all of himself to his wife and not having other wives

on the side or he's not polygamous or anything of that

nature. He has one wife.

Now, it also does not mean Paul is not necessarily saying that a

pastor elder has to be married or that he has to have children.

He's not saying that he has to. But if he does, then he should

be the man of one wife, one wife.

He should be the man who, if he does, if his wife passes, if,

you know, if he becomes a widower or something, he can

remarry. This is not saying that he can

never marry again if his wife passes.

You know, if he becomes a widower, he can be married

again, but if his wife is not past and he just divorces his

wife, that is said in the word of God to disqualify him as an

elder or a pastor. So Paul continues his point

back. You know, that he that he talked

about back in 212 when he talked about the fact that, you know,

this should be the position of a man.

And by clarifying that further here in verse 2, 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. And so he goes on and he says

not given to wine. I'm sorry, before we back, 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. It's 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 dress 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 adorned 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 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.

Deflect 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. We 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,

busloads 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. 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 them, 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

will 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 who are 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. You've been listening.

To Pastor Lewis Harrell here on Living Waters of Grace, we're

digging into all that Paul shared with Timothy in the books

of First and Second Timothy. Timothy was commissioned to do

the following 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.

Timothy would be carrying on what Paul had taught him and

continuing on in ministry even though Paul knew that more

hardships would come for Timothy.

This is the Christian life. It's not glamorous.

It's not some celebrity status. It's hard fought.

It's gritty, it's unpopular, but it's worth it.

Do you believe that today? Are you willing to fight the

good fight even at the cost of earthly pleasures?

Living the life of a follower of Jesus will have its heavenly

rewards. To be a part of a community

that's looking forward to that heavenly reward, we invite you

to join us at Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.

If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, come be with us this

Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.

Ste. 6B. Check out Calvary Chapel

online.com For more information on directions and any other

details you might want to know. You can also download our mobile

app from our website thatscalvarychapelonline.com.

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15601. Thanks for prayerfully

considering this, and thank you for listening to Living Waters

of Grace.