Living Waters of Grace 12.23.25

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.

Your boss, the owner of your company, Pray for them.

How much time do we spend criticizing?

I don't like what's going on in the country.

Then we need to pray more. I don't like the conditions at

work. Then we need to pray.

God is able to change any and everything, any and everything.

Talk more to God about them than you do to them, or even about

God. Pray now that is a powerful

exhortation. If you spend any time online,

you know it is a sea of opinions.

Facebook is littered with posts about disgruntled employees

ranting about how awful their bosses are.

My hope and prayer is that wasn't just describing you.

Pastor Lewis will encourage you to stop being a person who is

always complaining and start being the person who prays.

What can I actually do to change the things that are wrong in my

life that are outside of my direct control?

Pastor Lewis says pray now. Here's Pastor Lewis in the Book

of First Timothy, chapter 2, with today's edition of Living

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

Waters of Grace. We are in the 2nd chapter of the

book of First Timothy, and I would remind you that in the 1st

chapter, Timothy had come. Paul Heck written Timothy a

letter basically giving him instruction and direction.

Paul left Timothy in Ephesus to plant a church and after that

church was planted, he left Timothy there to give them

instruction, to give them commandments as to how that

church should function. We should also remember that as

we go through this, that Ephesus is a Pagan city, much like

Chicago or much like New York. It's a Pagan city.

So we have to remember that it was important for him to give

instruction on how to function in a Christian Church.

They were no longer going to be going to the Temple of Diana,

whatever, going to be doing sacrifices to idols and having

church their way. They were no longer going to be

doing that. They were now going to be in the

Church of God, which is the Church of the living God, the

pillar and and ground of truth. Amen.

So it was important for them to be able to get instruction.

And the first verse starts with therefore.

So because it starts with therefore, let's go back and

look at what He is therefore about and we live.

We would look at verse starting at verse 18 of the 1st chapter

of Timothy. It says this I charge, this

charge I commit to you. This charge I commit to you, son

Timothy. Timothy, this is what I want you

to do, according to the prophecies previously made

concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,

having faith in a good conscience, which some, having

rejected concerning the faith, have suffered shipwreck.

So we understand that he's telling Timothy that it's

important. He already told him earlier that

teach that you ought to teach no other doctrine and you ought to

pass that word on to the elders there.

Teach no other doctrine other than the doctrine that I gave

you, Timothy, other than the doctrine that the other apostles

gave, the doctrine of Jesus Christ that's grounded and

rooted in the Word of God, that doctrine, the true doctrine, the

gospel of Jesus Christ. Teach no other doctrine other

than that. So he goes on here and said that

those who have swayed from that and that have gotten away from

that doctrine, they have suffered shipwreck.

They've suffered shipwreck of whom?

Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan, that they

may learn not to blasphemy. Therefore, Timothy, I exhort

you, or I urge you, I am strongly directing you, Timothy,

first of all, that supplication, prayers, intercessions, and

giving of thanks be made for all men.

So he is saying, Timothy, this first of all, doesn't mean that

on the list of things that I have to tell you to do, this is

number 1. And then this other thing will

be #2 that's not what he's saying.

He's talking about priority. First of all, the most important

thing, the most significant thing that you do with this

church is that they are to pray. So this section, this first

section is going to be geared toward the significance of

prayer. So as he's talking about prayer,

he said that there's four different ways to initiate or to

and count engage in prayer. And the first one, he said

supplications. And the supplications just

basically it emphasizes the urgent need.

It's a personal or urgent need, request for my urgent needs.

That's the supplication. We give supplications to the

Lord. And then he said prayers was

just an overall umbrella, which basically talks about worship.

Prayer is a is an act of worship.

Prayer is an act of worship. It's speaking to God with

reverence in our hearts and not just expression of wants and

needs, but it is an act of worship.

It's also an act of submission. It's an act of humility as we

come before the Lord in prayer. Those who are proud will not

pray. It's those who are humble who

will pray. So he says all prayers are

supplications, prayers and intercessions.

These intercessions have to deal with the expression of petition.

To put a a petition before a superior, That's what they call

intercessions. And that intercession can be on

behalf of myself or yourself or be on behalf of someone else.

Inter sessions. It it it's coming before the

Lord with a, a confidence. It's a fellowship before the

Lord. It's inter sessions.

I can ask of these things because I know you are God and

you're able to do it. You're able to do it.

So I intercede on behalf of myself where I intercede on

behalf of someone else. You know, he says, when you come

to God, you should believe that he is God.

So when we make intercession, we're coming with a confidence

that the one that we're praying to is able to do it.

So he said come with with supplications and inner and

intercessions. And then he says also he says

also Thanksgiving. Now Thanksgiving should be a

part of every prayer. But I want to also admonish or I

want to encourage you that there are times that we can pray when

it's just for Thanksgiving. Sometimes we can go before the

Lord and say, Lord, I don't want to ask you for nothing today.

I just want to thank you for everything that you've already

done. I don't want to ask you for

anything. I just want to thank you for

what you have done. We need to always have our

Thanksgiving and included with our prayers, but sometimes we

can just go before God and just have a prayer session of just

Thanksgiving. Lord, thank you, thank you,

thank you, thank you, thank you. Lord, thank you.

I would dare you to try to run out of things to thanking for.

You can't do it. You can't do it, Lord.

Thank you for waking me up this morning.

Thank you for the roof that's over my head.

Thank you for the shoes that's on my feet.

Thank you, Lord, for the food that's on my table.

Thank you for your protection, Lord.

Thank you for your wisdom. Thank you for your knowledge.

Thank you for helping me to get around the snares of the enemy.

Thank you for saving me. Thank you for redeeming me.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I dare to try to run out of ways

or things to thank him for. You can't do it.

So Thanksgiving should always be a part of our prayers.

Who do we pray for? He says here in the bottom of a

verse 1, he says pray for all men, all men.

That's male and female. That's not just men in general.

It's male and female. But pray for everybody.

Those we know, Pray for those we don't know.

Pray for those who like us, Pray for those who don't like us.

Jesus was on a cross and he said, Lord forgive them for they

know not what they do and they're trying to kill him.

Stephen did the exact same thing.

They were stoning him. He was near death and he said

forgive them for they know not what they do.

Pray for all men. But then he gets specific here

in verse 2 and he says for kings and for all who are in

authority, pray for kings and all that are in authority, that

we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness

and reverence. So he says here, pray for kings

and all who are in authority. I was recently convicted.

After I started studying this, I was convicted and I was

convicted because I was not obeying this.

I was not praying for my president.

I was not praying for this Congress.

I wasn't praying for people that I consider had an ungodly

platform. I wasn't praying for them.

But as I started studying this, it came to my heart that how in

the world could we ever expect, How can we ever think, how can

we ever, how can we ever think that these people are going to

change on their own except that the Lord comes in and changes

their heart? How much can it happen?

And the way that that happened is through prayer.

Us praying, us interceding on their behalf, us putting

supplications before them, us coming with hearts of

Thanksgiving and prayers to them, Praying for even the

people that we think are ungodly presidents or ungodly leaders.

He says pray for all leaders and everyone that's in authority.

He's not just talking about church leaders, but please pray

for us. Please pray for us.

Pray for church leaders. Pray for leaders that are head

of other ministries. Pray for those who are in

Congress. Pray for your manager at work,

your boss, the owner of your company.

Pray for them. How much time do we spend

criticizing? I don't like what's going on in

the country. Then we need to pray more.

I don't like the conditions at work.

Then we need to pray. God is able to change any and

everything, any and everything. Talk more to God about them than

you do to them, or even about God.

Pray. And he's telling us here that we

should pray for our pastors and pray for church leaders, for

parents, for teachers. Pray for the secular people,

Pray for believers and pray for unbelievers, people who are

close to you. Pray for people who are far away

from you. He says pray for all men.

And when we do that, then we can lead a quiet and peaceable life.

Quiet meaning that we, we, we have a, a calm life, a life

that's not causing division or, or disruption.

It's a life that allows us to not care about getting in

someone else's issues or someone else's concerns or someone

else's business. It's, it's, it's a, it's a quiet

and peaceable life. And then he says peaceable,

meaning a life without contentions, a life without

being quarrelsome. It's a peaceable life.

That means it's a calm, not only calm within us, but also calm

around us. We pray for that.

We pray for that. You see, we are told actually in

the book of Matthew that we should be peacemakers.

And in order to be peacemakers, to be peace, we got to live

peaceable. If we're going to be

peacemakers, we first of all got to be peaceable.

And we pray to become peaceable. And then in verse 4, verse

three, first of all says, for this is good and acceptable in

the sight of God our Savior. And I think I remember telling

you the last time, the reason why he's emphasizing God our

Savior is because we must remember that Nero was actually

the the, the emperor at this particular time.

And he was requiring, he was requesting for people to call

him Savior. That's why they needed to pray.

That's why they needed to pray. And he said, who desires all men

to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth?

All men to be saved. That means justification.

Now keep in mind, he's saying he desires all men to be so He

desires all men to be saved. That doesn't mean that he has

willed or decreed or determined all men to be saved.

He is. He said he wants all men to be

saved or he will have all men to be saved.

Some you may have that translation instead of he that,

you know, desires all men to be saved.

But the point here is that being emphasized is that God wants, he

would like for everybody to be saved.

But we also understand that everybody is not going to be

saved. There are some people who are

not going to accept the truth of the gospel.

There's some people who are going to refuse to believe, but

he would like for all people to be saved.

Very clear here. He said it's not his desire that

any should perish, but that all coming to repentance.

He doesn't want people to go to hell.

But will people go to hell? Yes.

Will people not be saved? Yes.

But it's not because he doesn't want all people to be saved.

So this isn't a decree because some people might think, well,

if he desires or if he wills for all people to be saved, then how

come everybody's not saved? He doesn't decree that he wants

that to happen. Now also please keep in mind,

because no, like, like Paul is saying here, you know, teach no

other doctrine. So we got to be true to the

doctrine that's being taught. There are people out there that

take this verse and start preaching a universal salvation.

See, there it is right there that proves it.

God wants everybody to be saved. So everybody eventually is going

to be saved. Everybody.

Ain't nobody going to hell. Everybody's going to be saved.

No, not so not so. It's clear that there are going

to be people who will not be saved.

Even Jesus himself said whoever believes shall not perish.

Whoever believes or whoever will be saved with those who believe,

all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Everybody's not going to do that.

Everybody's not going to do that.

So when he says all men, you know, be saved, this is not

saying that all men, as in all men without exception, will be

saved. That's not what he's saying.

He's saying that he, he desires that all men without distinction

be saved. This is all men without

distinction. That means he doesn't care if

you're a Jew, if you're a Gentile, if you're a woman, if

you're a man, if you're black or if you're white, if you're a

Pagan, A Gentile Jew. He doesn't care about that.

Oh, man can be said, the gospel goes out to everybody.

It goes out to everybody. So it's not a distinction by

what a person is. Doesn't matter if it's man or

woman, everyone, the gospel is there for them to be able to

believe and receive. That's all men.

And then he says and come to the knowledge of the truth after you

get saved, then we need to be sanctified, right?

We need to move on and grow in, in God.

We need to grow in God sanctification.

That means we, we're, we're working toward being set apart

for God, for the use of God. It's our growth.

It refers to the Christian growth after being saved to

become a disciple of Jesus Christ and not to be LED astray

by the false doctrines of false teachers, the doctrine of false

teachers. We can't be LED astray by that

if we are growing in Christ. Second Peter 318.

It tells us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and

Savior Jesus Christ. So why are we doing that?

Why are we doing that and how and how and what is the means to

be saved? Well, he says that in the next

line. Look at verse 5 for this.

For there is one God and one mediator between God and man,

the man Christ Jesus. So what is the means for all men

to be saved? Or what does it mean for men to

be saved? First of all, because of one

God. We have one God.

We don't have many gods. There's one God, one true God,

one true and living God. A lot of people like to say God,

and then he, they talk about all these things that God is not.

If it's not the God of this, the God of the Bible, then he's not

a true God. It's an idol.

This is the one and true God, the living God.

And he gave us his word so that we know who he is.

He wants to be found of us when he says seek me and and you'll

find me because he wants to be founded.

But he's not hiding from us. He's not planning hide and go

seek from us. He wants to be found of us.

He wants us to know him so that we're not LED astray.

So he says, so he says here, first of all, there is one God

and one mediator. Now, there may be some people

out there that might even agree with us and say, yeah, there's

one God. But when you say there's only

one way to God, when you say there's only one mediator

between man and God, there's only one way that you can get to

that God, that's when you have problems.

People hate us for that. People call us names for that.

People ridicule or they slander us because of that.

They call us intolerant because of that.

Narrow minded. We're narrow minded by thinking

it's only one way. How fair is that?

It's true, there's one way, and that way is Jesus Christ the

man. And he said the man because the

reason why he said the matter is because he's truly God and he's

truly man. He's fully God and he's fully

man. But we but he's the mediator

between God and man, the man Jesus Christ, because it was the

you humanity of Jesus Christ that died for us on the cross.

It was in his humanity that he died.

And in his humanity he was yet without sin.

That's why he was the accepted sacrifice.

He was a man without sin. And he's the only mediator

between God and man. There is no other.

There is no other. I don't care what argument they

try to make to try to make it seem like there's other ways to

the Father, there is none. Jesus Christ himself said it was

only one way. He said and John 14, six, I am

the way, the truth and the life. And John 10/7, he says I am the

door. And then in Hebrews 9 and 15, he

said the Bible says he's the only mediator of the new

covenant, the only mediator of the new covenant, the man Jesus

Christ. And how is it that this mediator

works? What is the work of this

mediator? Look at what he says here in

verse. In verse 6 he says Who gave

himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time he gave

himself a ransom of all. That word is actually in the

Greek called anti lutron, anti lutron.

The word anti actually refers to the substitutionary.

It's the substitute. And of course, Lutron refers to

the fact that it is the ransom or the price of freeing a slave

anti Lutron and, and, and, and that's how he is the work.

That's the work of the mediator. The fact that he gave himself,

he died for our sins. He paid the cost of what we

could not pay. So He was the full cost to

substitute for us for sin. Galatians 313 say that it tells

us that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.

The law held us captive in its in its condemnation.

And no one but Jesus Christ could have paid the price to

free us from that bondage. No one but Him.

Thank God for that. Huh?

That He sent his Son to die for us?

That was costly. That was costly.

And we talked about on Wednesday night that, you know, that this

was not just, it was not a pretty crucifixion, it was a it

was a true sacrifice. A true sacrifice, just like all

the animals in the Old Testament was a sacrifice.

And how bloody those sacrifices were.

That's how bloody the cross of Jesus Christ was.

It's not the cute little pictures that we see where He

has a little blood on his around his head or a little bit of

blood on his hands. Little bit.

No, it's not that. We're talking about a brutal,

brutal sacrifice. He took on the sins of the whole

world. He paid the sins of the entire

world, of everybody. You want a reason to be

thankful? There's another one.

Think about Him on the cross and then think about the fact that

it was meant for you. Because we were guilty.

He wasn't even guilty. We were guilty of the same.

Bless your name. 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 toward 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 and

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

TuneIn to our live stream. The 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 Grades.