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Living Waters of Grace 09.11.25

Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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  1. This is living. Waters of Grace, the teaching

  2. ministry of Lewis Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary

  3. Chapel of Westmoreland County in Greensburg, PA.

  4. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he continues teaching through God's

  5. Word. Those who don't believe and

  6. those who do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ or unbelievers,

  7. false teachers, the only thing they have to look forward to is

  8. His judgment. We are the preserved in Jesus

  9. Christ, those who are believers or the preserved in Jesus

  10. Christ. So for Him we will experience

  11. His mercy to escape the wrath to calm.

  12. We're going to experience His. His mercy to be kept from the

  13. hour of trial. Mercy to receive salvation and

  14. not judgement and hope of eternal life.

  15. When you look at the Bible as a whole, it tells a complete

  16. story, one that reflects the history of what God has done out

  17. of his love for you. Because God loves you, he

  18. doesn't leave you in uncertainty as you wait for his return.

  19. Instead, He reveals exactly what will happen.

  20. In today's message, Pastor Lewis wants to encourage you by

  21. reminding you that God is coming back for his family.

  22. One day, God will restore everything to its intended

  23. state, a world without sin, pain, sorrow, or death, but

  24. filled with joy by his side. Now here's Pastor Lewis in the

  25. book of Jude chapter 1 as he continues his message building

    Jude 1 chapter mention

  26. up yourselves and others. It will cause divisions, It will

  27. go against what the Word of God teaches, and it will cause

  28. divisions among the people. And then the last four words

  29. says this, not having the Spirit.

  30. And that's what tells us these people weren't saved.

  31. They're not saved. They professed it.

  32. They try to make us believe it. They try to act like it.

  33. They talk like it. I was with this guy for I don't

  34. know how long, you know, watching him worshipping God,

  35. watching him read his Bible and talking about, I was about for

  36. how long? And now you really get a chance

  37. to hear what's in his heart. And there's no spirit not saved,

  38. not saved. That's why our prayer is that we

  39. be unified here, that we be unified so that we would be able

  40. to watch after each other, to be able to hang with each other,

  41. spend time with each other and be able to hear what's going on

  42. in each other's hearts as we pray together.

  43. Not allow the enemy to come and try to separate us and try to

  44. catch us isolated and try to overtake us.

  45. But in order to get to my brother here, you got to go

  46. through me because I'm going to be I'm going to be ministering

  47. to him and praying for him and in to get to her.

  48. You got to go through me because I'm going to be ministering to

  49. her and praying for her. We pray for each other as

  50. brothers and sisters. We minister to each other's

  51. brothers and sisters and we build each other up.

  52. And it's a lot harder for Satan to come in and bring these lies

  53. when we are being reminded of the word of God.

  54. Verse 20 says, but you OK, he just got finished talking about

  55. the ones who were not saved, right, Because they said that.

  56. And verse 19 says these are sensual persons who cause

  57. divisions, not having the spirit.

  58. These people aren't saved but you, beloved, but you, the ones

  59. that he said back in chapter 1 who are called because you're

  60. the church, you're the called, you're the beloved, or you're

  61. the sanctified and you are the preserved or you're the ones

  62. that's kept in Christ Jesus. That's what he told us back in

  63. verse 1 of this very same book. You are the called, you are the

  64. beloved, you are the sanctified, you are the ones who are kept by

  65. Jesus Christ. But you, you love it.

  66. Building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the

  67. Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the

  68. mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

  69. He's now giving instruction. This is why I like books like

  70. this or letters like this, because it gives us some

  71. practical instructions on how we can avoid these things and not

  72. just saying, you know, he's not just saying to us.

  73. They look, watch out for those false seizures and leaving it

  74. there. He's given us instruction on how

  75. we watch out for these, for how we prepare ourselves and we

  76. protect ourselves from heresy. And how do we do it?

  77. He says, building yourselves up on your most holy faith.

  78. What does that mean? That means studying the word of

  79. God, reading the word of God. And we're on our on a frequent

  80. basis continually to keep the truth in front of you, in front

  81. of you. Somebody once asked Kobe Bryant,

  82. why do you do the same drills all the time?

  83. Kobe Bryant used to do drills where he would come into the gym

  84. sometimes at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning.

  85. He would come into the gym and it may be almost an hour before

  86. he ever touches a basketball because he's first working on

  87. fundamentals, footwork, setting screens and all this is without

  88. a ball and without anybody else there but just him.

  89. And he's going through these things over and over and over

  90. again. They're fundamentals.

  91. One of the greatest players, probably one or two greatest

  92. players that we've ever seen in the NBA.

  93. And he does the same things over and over and over again because

  94. it's the building blocks of everything else that he does.

  95. So we get up in the morning and we read our Bibles or whenever

  96. it is that we get a chance to read our Bibles and we go in and

  97. we read it with the intention to hear from God.

  98. When you come here, we do it with the intention to hear from

  99. God. We build ourselves up on our

  100. most holy faith, most holy faith.

  101. And in doing that we we are constantly keeping the word of

  102. God before us. David said Your word have I hid

  103. in my heart, so I won't send against you.

  104. Your word that I keep before me all times, even on my right

  105. hand, so I won't send against you.

  106. Having the word of God as a constant reminder in our lives

  107. helps us to not be deceived by false teachers.

  108. It will help us to know it right away.

  109. The red flags will go up immediately because we're in the

  110. Word of God and the Holy Spirit is revealing truth to us

  111. constantly. So we're building up ourselves

  112. on a most holy faith. That's exactly what they did in

  113. the old church back in Acts chapter 2.

    Acts 2 chapter mention

  114. That's what they did back in Acts chapter 2 around verse 42.

    Acts 2 chapter mention

  115. It says that steadfastly. They continued steadfastly and

  116. the apostles doctrine steadfastly, continuously,

  117. frequently in the apostles doctrine.

  118. They weren't reading magazines and things coming from that

  119. place and things coming from somewhere else.

  120. They were in the apostles doctrine.

  121. They kept that before them all the time, steadfastly.

  122. And not only were they in the apostles doctrine together, but

  123. they were also fellowshipping together.

  124. So now I'm taking what I learned in the apostles doctrine, and

  125. you and I are talking about this thing.

  126. You're showing me how it applies to your life.

  127. I'm showing you how it applies to my life.

  128. And we're building each other up in these things.

  129. Not only that, but they also broke bread together.

  130. You get a lot done over a meal. You get a lot done over a good

  131. meal. That's why we like to eat.

  132. We don't mind church going. Folks don't mind eating.

  133. It's spiritual to eat. And I'm just joking.

  134. I'm not I'm that's not in the word.

  135. That is not in the word, but it's a blessing when we can

  136. fellowship with each other over food and break bread.

  137. They did it on a consistent basis in the early church.

  138. And of course, the other thing they did together was pray, was

  139. pray. They were an apostle doctrine.

  140. They fellowship with one another.

  141. They broke bread with one another and they prayed with one

  142. another. That's why it was very difficult

  143. for somebody to bring in a heresy.

  144. And just like it should be here, very difficult for somebody to

  145. bring in a heresy. Amen.

  146. Building ourselves up in our most holy faith.

  147. And not only do we build ourselves up as we, as we study

  148. the central word of God, but we also add to our faith.

  149. Peter said We don't just be comfortable with the fact that

  150. we're saved, but while we are saved, we continue to grow in

  151. our faith and we add to our faith over and over.

  152. In second Peter chapter 1, starting at verse 5, he says add

    2 Peter 1 chapter mention

  153. to your faith, add virtue, that moral excellence, add that to

  154. your faith and then you add knowledge.

  155. Learn more about this God that we that we're serving.

  156. Learn more about it. Add that to your faith.

  157. Add self-control. Learn how to control yourself.

  158. Control those fleshly urges. Learn how to control those

  159. things. Control our temper, control our

  160. attitudes, control those things that are moved by our flesh.

  161. self-control He's to add perseverance.

  162. You know, you got to be able to endure because it's going to get

  163. rough. The circumstances are going to

  164. be tough. The enemy's going to throw

  165. different things before you and try to stumble you, but you got

  166. to endure with perseverance, perseverance after perseverance.

  167. You got to add godliness, Godliness, God likeness.

  168. We got to walk this thing out the way.

  169. He does obey the word of God, not just be hearers, but doers

  170. of it. And as we do that, we begin to

  171. become godly. As opposed to what he says here,

  172. they were walking to a according to their ungodliness because God

  173. wasn't in there. He wasn't in their speech, He

  174. wasn't in their hearts, She wasn't in their actions.

  175. But we add godliness. So godliness comes out of our

  176. conversation. Godliness comes out of our out

  177. of our heart and the things that we do, it's our actions, our

  178. godly actions. Our thoughts are more godly

  179. thoughts. Now.

  180. We need the Holy Spirit to help us with these things.

  181. These are things we can do on our own.

  182. But then he also says to the godliness, you got to add

  183. brotherly kindness. We got to care about each other

  184. and treat each other kind, treat each other kind.

  185. And when we don't treat each other kind, the Holy Spirit lets

  186. us know that. Let's go back immediately and

  187. make it right. Brother, I'm sorry.

  188. I said something to you the other day and the Lord brought

  189. to my attention that it was wrong, it was offensive.

  190. Or if he comes to me and tell me, you know what, man, you said

  191. something to me the other day that really offended me.

  192. I'm sorry, brother, I'm sorry. Let's take care of those things

  193. immediately. Let's not let them fester.

  194. We need brotherly kindness. We got to treat each other kind,

  195. treat each other kind with kindness.

  196. He said by loving kindness have I drawn you.

  197. And then we add to our brotherly kindness, we add love.

  198. That is the big foundation, the umbrella under which everything

  199. else comes. If I love you, I am not going to

  200. hurt you. Not purposely.

  201. Not purposely doesn't mean that I want to offend you.

  202. Because there may be things that I do or say that may offend you,

  203. and I'm not even aware of it. That's why you got to love me

  204. enough to let me know it. Speak the truth to me in love.

  205. Don't come and snatch me up, you know?

  206. Hey, looks, I got something to say to you, brother, You know,

  207. you know, let's be kind, Let's be kind.

  208. Let's love one another so we add to our faith and that helps us

  209. to be built up in our most holy faith.

  210. But then he tells us, he says praying in the Holy Spirit, that

  211. praying in the Holy Spirit be means being LED, being LED in

  212. prayer by the Spirit. Be led by the Spirit.

  213. Sometimes that could come in moans and groans that you can't

  214. even utter. I mean, you don't even know what

  215. you're saying. You just moaning and groaning.

  216. You know, you, you, you know, you have a heart for God, but

  217. you just can't put it in the words what you want to say to

  218. him. And the only thing you can do is

  219. just lay on your on your face or on your knees and you just moan

  220. and groan. But the Holy Spirit searches all

  221. things, even the deep things of God.

  222. He knows because your spirit bears witness with his Spirit.

  223. He knows what's being said and then sometimes it could be

  224. praying in tongues. Now I know that that gets abused

  225. and people don't like to talk about praying in tongues, but

  226. tongues is a legitimate gift. It is a legitimate gift.

  227. Then people that are in the in the church that does expository

  228. teaching, they don't run away from talking about the tongues,

  229. but it is done decently and in order.

  230. If I'm in the church service with all these people, I'm not

  231. going to stand up here and start talking in tongues because I'm

  232. going to confuse most of you, going to confuse myself.

  233. I won't even know what I'm saying.

  234. And without an interpreter, it's not clear.

  235. But if I'm praying by myself in my own prayer closet, I can pray

  236. in tongues as much as I feel the Holy Spirit leading me.

  237. Paul said, hey, listen, there's nothing wrong with praying in

  238. tongues. I wish you all spoke with

  239. tongues, He said however, but to prophecy is better and

  240. prophesying just simply means sharing the word of God, He said

  241. it's that's better because prophesying we can do that with

  242. knowledge. We know what's being said.

  243. We couldn't understand what's being said.

  244. But if someone is praying in tongues, we don't know what's

  245. being said, Paul said. I'd rather I'd rather speak 5

  246. words with understanding than 10,000 words in tongues.

  247. You can find that over in First Corinthians chapter 14.

    1 Corinthians 14 chapter mention

  248. He talks all about speaking in tongues, but it is a legitimate

  249. gift and it should not be neglected.

  250. However, we do all things decently and in order.

  251. So it could mean praying in tongues.

  252. And then he says looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ

  253. unto eternal life. So that's looking for the return

  254. of Jesus Christ coming back and His mercy that He shows us.

  255. You see, we as God's people, those who are believers, when He

  256. comes back, we're looking for the mercy of Him because we're

  257. going to get mercy when He comes back.

  258. Those who don't believe and those who do not obey the gospel

  259. of Jesus Christ or unbelievers, false teachers, the only thing

  260. they have to look forward to is His judgement.

  261. We are the preserved in Jesus Christ.

  262. Those who are believers are the preserved in Jesus Christ.

  263. So for Him, we will experience His mercy to escape the wrath to

  264. come. We're going to experience his,

  265. His mercy to be kept from the hour of trial, mercy to receive

  266. salvation and not judgement and hope of eternal life.

  267. And that's why I pray that there are those who or may have be a

  268. false teacher or those who may have confessed Christianity, but

  269. in their hearts they know that it's not real.

  270. We can still repent. We can turn and repent and ask

  271. for God's salvation, ask for God's forgiveness of sins if

  272. we're caught in them. That's the mercy of God.

  273. Once we humble ourselves and we speak, we confess our sins and

  274. our need for Him, which is really what it comes down to is

  275. confessing our need for Him. He hears us and He forgives us.

  276. So now we go on 22 and on. Some have compassion, making a

  277. distinction, but on others saved with fear, pulling them out of

  278. the fire, hating even the garment, defiled by the flesh.

  279. So now Jude is talking about different people who may have

  280. been persuaded or deceived by these false teachers or false

  281. Christians. Some of these people who when he

  282. says that they, you know, they're making a distinction

  283. that means that they're wavering, they've heard some

  284. things and they're questioning their faith.

  285. So they're now wavering. They're doubting their faith,

  286. doubting what they believed for years because they've heard some

  287. things that they felt logically goes against it.

  288. And their flesh says, well, I'd rather believe that than to

  289. believe this. But you said with those, the

  290. church is full of different people mature in different ways

  291. in the church, they mature different levels.

  292. Everybody doesn't mature in their faith at the same rate.

  293. So with those who may need a little bit extra care because

  294. they're wavering in their faith, because they've been deceived or

  295. because they're now doubting, we need to be compassionate with

  296. them. Have compassion.

  297. Not just judge them, not just be condemning, but to have

  298. compassion and lovingly and patiently walk them through the

  299. Word of God, disciple them, but not make them feel like they're

  300. already judged and condemned. And he said with some pulling

  301. out with fear, and maybe these may be those who have slipped

  302. back into sin and they're now practicing sin again.

  303. You know, with those we have to be like a, a fireman going into

  304. a burning building and snatching people out even when they don't

  305. want to come out. I think about lot when the

  306. angels came to lot to take him out of to take him out of Sodom

  307. and Gomorrah, God was ready to burn that place up and lots

  308. tiptoeing around, oh, wait a minute, I got to go do this.

  309. Wait, I got to go do this. Some angels say, man, come on,

  310. get your get out of here. It's time to move.

  311. It's time to go now. And sometimes with people who we

  312. see that they're on that path because they've now been sinking

  313. into sin and they're on that path to, to hell.

  314. Sometime we have to be like the angels or we got to be like

  315. those firemen and just basically snatch them out of the flames.

  316. We got to be more aggressive with our approach with them to

  317. really just give them truth. Look, this is leading you into

  318. judgement, man. And to be very direct, but

  319. loving, hating even the garment. But we got to do it.

  320. That means that we do it with fear, and that fear means that

  321. we do it cautiously because you might have some people that's

  322. caught up in a sin that may be a sin that you used to be caught

  323. up in, a sin that you may have been weak to at one time.

  324. So when you go to rescue them, you got to make sure and be

  325. cautious that you yourself don't get caught up.

  326. Or as the Word of God said, when you do it, you do it with

  327. meekness. But considering yourself, unless

  328. you get caught up in that sin. Look, if you weak the drinking,

  329. you know, don't go to somebody and sit in the bar with them and

  330. try to talk to him about about the word.

  331. If you if you're into sexual immorality, don't go into a a a

  332. strip club and sit down and want to talk to him about the word of

  333. God. If somebody is is into gossiping

  334. and you weak the gossiping, you know, don't sit around at the at

  335. the table and then listen to them gossip for an hour and

  336. didn't want to talk to him about the word of God.

  337. We have to be able. To be cautious when we pull them

  338. out of the fire and then we come to the close here says now unto

  339. him who was able to keep you from stumbling.

  340. He's not only able to keep you from falling, he's able to keep

  341. you from even stumbling. You know, we listen to some of

  342. these things and and and and people get deceived and they

  343. start to stumble and to move closer and closer to that sin.

  344. But he says, look, I'm even able to keep you from stumbling.

  345. Not even falling, but just from stumbling period.

  346. Praise and worship team, please come forward.

  347. Proverbs 323 says you will walk safely in your way if you listen

  348. to wisdom and knowledge and your foot will not stumble.

  349. He able to keep us from stumbling and present you

  350. faultless before the presence of his glory.

  351. What a beautiful picture that is.

  352. What a beautiful picture that is over in the book of Ephesians in

  353. chapter 5, he talks about how the husband or Jesus Christ

  354. presents the church faultless before him and how the man of

  355. God, you know, when he's when he's the the husband or he's

  356. the, the head of his household as the man of God, we present

  357. our wives faultless, blameless before Christ.

  358. And we do that with the washing and the cleansing of the Word,

  359. not with the beating and the, and the, and the controlling of

  360. the word, the washing, the cleansing and the sanctifying of

  361. the Word. And here he, he gives that

  362. picture that Jesus himself is able to present you faultless

  363. before the presence of his glory.

  364. Are we faultless? No.

  365. Are we blameless? No.

  366. But because we're covered by the blood of Jesus, when God looks

  367. at us, he sees us as being faultless.

  368. Blameless just as he did with the children of Israel and the

  369. Passover. All of them weren't faultless,

  370. but because of the blood that was attached to the door, the

  371. Bible says the death Angel went past them because they were

  372. covered with the blood. And so are we.

  373. So are we. We're covered with the blood of

  374. Jesus. What a blessing that is.

  375. And he does that with joy to God our Savior.

  376. And in the Hebrew, or I'm sorry, in the Greek, it's the only God

  377. our Savior or the true God, who alone is wise.

  378. Be glory and majesty be glory. Glory is the sum total of

  379. everything God is and all that he does.

  380. It's glorious. It's glorious.

  381. I know in my life when I look at the things that He's done, it's

  382. been glorious. The things in here that He's

  383. done has been glorious. I see it in your own lives, the

  384. things that He's done in your lives has been glorious.

  385. And it says the majesty that means the greatness and his

  386. magnificence there is none greater than He is none greater.

  387. And dominion, that's His sovereign rule over all things.

  388. His rule over all things because of how small or large they are.

  389. He's ruled over heaven and earth and everything in them.

  390. There's nothing that he doesn't have rule over.

  391. He has authority over everything.

  392. He can speak a word and whatever He wants to be done is done.

  393. And power, that's his authority and the right to use his power.

  394. He has the right always to use His power, both now and forever.

  395. Amen. You've been listening to Living

  396. Waters of Grace with Pastor Lewis Harrell at Calvary Chapel

  397. Westmoreland in Greensburg, PA. As Pastor Lewis continues to

  398. preach through the book of Jude, he wants you to realize that you

  399. can't be a part time Christian. You're going to follow Jesus.

  400. He is going to ask for your undivided loyalty.

  401. If you try to serve your own interests while following Jesus,

  402. you find that you can't do either one successfully.

  403. But if you run after Jesus with everything you have, you'll be

  404. amazed at how He provides for you and sustains you on the

  405. journey, even when you have no idea of where your provision

  406. will come from. If today's message has

  407. encouraged you, we'd love to hear your feedback.

  408. You can visit [email protected]

  409. where you'll find our contact information as well as links to

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  412. Waters of Grace at 91.7. Grace FM continues to minister

  413. to our community in Westmoreland County.

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