Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace 02.06.26
Transcript
- 0:04This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
- 0:08Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
- 0:12County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
- 0:16continues teaching through God's Word.
- 0:37They should have a deep respect for the things of God to the
- 0:41point where they show godliness or demonstrate godliness in
- 0:46their own life. And these are men who should be
- 0:49men of honor in the community. Men should respect them.
- 0:52And I remember even the neighborhood I grew up in, there
- 0:54were people who went to church. And even if you didn't go to
- 0:57church, you respected these people because you watched their
- 1:00life. You heard how they talked to
- 1:02you. You saw how they treated their
- 1:04wives and how they treated their children and how they conducted
- 1:07themselves. These days, we're so quick to
- 1:10look up to people whom we have little to no knowledge of what
- 1:13their lives are really like. We idolize celebrities and
- 1:17social media influencers based on an image of themselves that
- 1:21they've catered to us. Today.
- 1:24In Pastor Lewis's message, he tells you that men of God should
- 1:27have a reputation for fearing God and it should show in their
- 1:31everyday lives. Can that be said of you?
- 1:34Do those around you recognize you as someone who cares deeply
- 1:38about your personal godly character?
- 1:40Now here's Pastor Lewis in Titus Chapter 2 with today's edition
- 1:45of Living Waters of Grace. His closing remarks here in
- 1:48Chapter 1 are tough, he said. You're abominable.
- 1:52You're disobedient and disqualified for every good
- 1:55work. I mean worthless and unfit for
- 1:58good work. And, and, and when you look at
- 2:01that, what he's basically saying is that even the things that you
- 2:05do that appear to be good works, even that is defiled because of
- 2:10what's in your heart, because your motives are impure.
- 2:13You're unfit to do good works. You can't do a good work.
- 2:17And I'll be honest with you, there was a point in my life
- 2:19when that was me because the things that I there was some
- 2:22things that I used to do that even though it looked like it
- 2:26was for the good of somebody else, ultimately it was for my
- 2:30own good. I mean, that started when we
- 2:33were young with all of us, right?
- 2:35You ever get up? I mean, I used to get up early
- 2:37in the morning and mop the bathroom clean, you know, clean
- 2:40the bathroom, go run the vacuum sweeper before my mom would get
- 2:43up out of bed, you know, because she worked late night before.
- 2:47And I would do all these things to make it look like that.
- 2:49I'm being obedient. I'm doing, I'm doing you a
- 2:51favor, mom. You know, I'm, I'm clean helping
- 2:54to clean the house. But the reason why I was doing
- 2:56is not because I was trying to be in obedience to her.
- 2:59The reason why I was doing it because I knew I was going to
- 3:01ask her for something later. I wanted to go out with my
- 3:06friends later. And I knew that if I would do
- 3:09all these things to have a show of goodness, to have a show of
- 3:14obedience that maybe that she would give.
- 3:16Oh, well, you did do this this morning.
- 3:17So here, here's some money and go have fun with your friends.
- 3:21It was all of it was a racket. It was a racket.
- 3:26And that's just being honest about it now and then.
- 3:28You know, unfortunately, when we get older, that doesn't stop.
- 3:31That doesn't stop. It gets more mature.
- 3:34You know what I mean? It gets more dignified, but it
- 3:39doesn't stop, unfortunately, And this is what Paul is saying
- 3:42here. Worthless, unfit for good works
- 3:46because of their heart. So as Paul usually does, he he,
- 3:51he begins by doing a contrast. I'm going to talk about what you
- 3:55shouldn't be and what you shouldn't do.
- 3:58I'm going to talk about the false teachers and the things
- 4:02that they do that you don't want to do if you're setting things
- 4:05in order. So now we're getting into
- 4:07Chapter 2. We're going to crack.
- 4:09You're going to crack the seal on Chapter 2 here.
- 4:12And now you're going to see the first word is but and that first
- 4:15word says, and that lets you know that we're changing course.
- 4:18We're getting ready to change course.
- 4:20And you know, we all love the butts in the Bible, right,
- 4:23Because the butts in the Bible always let us know that we're
- 4:25about to change course. So we're going to go from these
- 4:29false prophets and these false teachers, and we're now going to
- 4:33go into the qualities of what makes a sound church or a good
- 4:38church. And he said, but As for you, but
- 4:43As for you. And he begins to talk about this
- 4:46contrast, this behavior of things that we shouldn't do.
- 4:50He already talked about that what we shouldn't do.
- 4:52And now we're going to talk about some things that Paul is
- 4:55going to instruct Titus on what the church should look like and
- 4:59what we should do. And in doing this, he's going to
- 5:01look at 4:00 or I'm sorry, five different groups of people that
- 5:05are in the church. He's going to look at the, he's
- 5:07going to look at the older men first and the things that they
- 5:11should do. And he's going to look at the
- 5:12older, you know, the, the older women.
- 5:14And then he's going to describe the things or, you know, the,
- 5:17the good works of a younger man and a younger woman.
- 5:22And he's going to eventually talk about even the things that
- 5:25a servant or slave, because back in those times, a lot of people
- 5:29were willing slaves. A lot of those people were
- 5:32working and worshipping with their masters.
- 5:36So he says, what should they do? What should their behavior be
- 5:39like? So here in verse 1 of chapter 2,
- 5:43he says, but As for you, speak the things which are proper for
- 5:48sound doctrine. Speak the things that are
- 5:50appropriate or fitting for sound doctrine, for healthy doctrine.
- 5:55Healthy doctrine is supposed to produce healthy life.
- 6:01It's healthy life. When you feed in the healthy
- 6:04things, then you're going to produce things that are healthy.
- 6:08And it's supposed to produce a healthy life.
- 6:11Healthy works. And then he goes on to talk
- 6:14about the first group he talks about is going to be the older
- 6:17men. Now, these older men for Paul,
- 6:20older men or back at this particular time, older men were
- 6:22men that were over 50, OK. Because men who were like 50 and
- 6:26under, they were actually considered young men.
- 6:30They're actually considered young man.
- 6:31Timothy was about 30 years old or so when he went on his
- 6:35missionary trip with Paul, and Paul wrote him.
- 6:38When Paul wrote the letter and sent him back to Ephesus, he's
- 6:41about 30 years old. So he was young, a very young
- 6:44man in a very aggressive church. Titus, on the other hand, is
- 6:49about 40 years old at this time and he is the pastor of Crete
- 6:54and he's actually helping to set things in order.
- 6:57And not just the one church in Crete, but there are many
- 7:00churches in Crete. And just as a side note, it's
- 7:04not it's not necessarily clear that Paul actually started all
- 7:09the churches in Crete because at Pentecost there were men that
- 7:14was there, OK, in the upper room that were from other places.
- 7:21And Crete was one of those places that these men were at.
- 7:25So they were men who witnessed the Holy Spirit.
- 7:29I'm sure some of these men became believers, went back to
- 7:32Crete and possibly started churches even before Paul got
- 7:36there. So Paul probably didn't start
- 7:37all these churches, but while he was there, he was able enough to
- 7:40see that not only church that he started, but also the other
- 7:44churches were in need of setting things in order.
- 7:48So he was there to. So he sent Titus there to clean
- 7:51it up. So he said, let's look at the
- 7:53behavior of the older men. Now, these are the men who
- 7:54should be mature in the faith because they're older.
- 7:57And he said they should be sober or in other words, clear minded.
- 8:02They should be clear minded men, men who were able to think
- 8:06clearly and have good judgment. They should be reverent.
- 8:10They should have a deep respect for the things of God to the
- 8:15point where they show godliness or demonstrate godliness in
- 8:19their own life. And these are men who should be
- 8:22men of honor in the community. Men should respect them.
- 8:25And I remember even the neighborhood I grew up in, there
- 8:28were people who went to church. And even if you didn't go to
- 8:31church, you respected these people because you watched their
- 8:34life. You heard how they talked to
- 8:35you. You saw how they treated their
- 8:37wives and how they treated their children and how they conducted
- 8:40themselves. And these men were men of honor.
- 8:43They were revered in our neighborhood.
- 8:45If we needed counsel, if we really needed direction, we will
- 8:48go to these men. We will go to these men.
- 8:51It was customary in our in our neighborhood that there were
- 8:54certain men that you would go to if you really needed good
- 8:58counsel because these men were respected.
- 9:00Temperate. That means having a life of
- 9:03being under control, a life of self-control.
- 9:07Sound in faith and the sound in faith is impossible.
- 9:11I've always learned when I was learning about being sound in
- 9:14faith or learning about being in the faith, I was always taught
- 9:18that you should know who you believe, know what you believe
- 9:21and know why you believe it so that you'll be able to give an
- 9:24answer for the reason for the hope that is in you.
- 9:28But you first need to know who you believe.
- 9:32You need to know why you believe it.
- 9:34And you and you definitely need to know what you believe.
- 9:36Because if you come upon someone who wants to try to trick you
- 9:39up, you need to know what you believe.
- 9:42You need to know exactly what it is you believe.
- 9:43And this is what these men are supposed to be.
- 9:45Men who are sound in faith. They should be sound in love.
- 9:49They should be sound in patience.
- 9:53So these are men who should be able to understand what it's
- 9:56like to go through affliction and not waver in their faith,
- 9:59but to have patience even in their affliction, even in their
- 10:05their trials, even in their persecutions.
- 10:08They should have faith and have patience in it.
- 10:11And then he said the older women, he said older women
- 10:14likewise, that they be reverent in, in behavior, not slanders.
- 10:20And it's not slanders mean not devils because the word slanders
- 10:23actually mean devils, because it's devils who actually say
- 10:26lies about people and damage their reputations and damage
- 10:31their reputation. So it's like being little devils
- 10:33out there, being in the the congregation of believers.
- 10:38And it causes obviously it, it sows seeds of discord and it
- 10:43causes division. So he said, you know, older
- 10:46women, you should not be slanderers, should not be
- 10:51slanderers, but you should also be reverent in your behavior.
- 10:54And then he says, you know, obviously you shouldn't be
- 10:56gossips and not giving too much wine.
- 11:01It wasn't proper for women to be intoxicated.
- 11:05You know, women shouldn't be intoxicated.
- 11:06They shouldn't be under the influence of much wine.
- 11:11You know, sometimes when women get under the, you know, these
- 11:13women who were back in Crete, you know, some of these women
- 11:16were probably drinkers, you know, at one time before they
- 11:19came into the faith, they were probably a pretty heavy drinkers
- 11:22and, you know, louder inhibitions to be lowered.
- 11:25And they probably said a lot of things that they, you know,
- 11:29probably wanted to say, but probably wouldn't say under or
- 11:31unordinated circumstances or do things that they probably
- 11:35wouldn't do under ordinary circumstances.
- 11:37So they said that the women should not be given too much
- 11:41wine, should be under control of that, and that and they should
- 11:45be teachers of good things. And this really caught my
- 11:48attention, teachers of good things.
- 11:51And I had to think about teachers of good things.
- 11:55Now, first of all, we all understand that good things
- 11:58begin with what it is that God says we should do.
- 12:02That's where good things began. If I want to teach my kids good
- 12:06things, I'm going to start with the word of God.
- 12:09I'm going to start there. And then everything else builds
- 12:14from that. So I was just thinking about,
- 12:19they should be teachers of good things.
- 12:22And I, I, I made some phone calls because I really wanted to
- 12:25get some perspective. I grew up as a teenager in the
- 12:2970s. I have a sister.
- 12:31I have two sisters that are older than me who grew up as
- 12:34teenagers in the 60s. And I wanted to find out what
- 12:38are the things that my grandmother and my mother taught
- 12:42my sisters about being women, about being godly women, about
- 12:49being women worthy of respect? What did they teach you?
- 12:55What did she teach you? What did she say to you?
- 12:58What kind of things did she make a standard in your life?
- 13:03And then I called some other friends who were not as old, and
- 13:06I wanted to find out from them. And these are, you know, people
- 13:10who actually came out of godly homes as well.
- 13:14What did your parents say to you?
- 13:16And it was very interesting because when I look at the kind
- 13:20of things that the older parents talked about, they talked about
- 13:23dress, they talked about, you know, you know, how to carry
- 13:27yourself, how to conduct yourself around men in mixed
- 13:30company, how to conduct yourself, you with your
- 13:31girlfriends. But you know how that's a
- 13:33difference and how to, you know, how to clean your homes, how to
- 13:37clean your house, you know, how to cook meals, learn how to cook
- 13:40and all those kind of things. And then as the as the ages got
- 13:46closer to where we are now, those kind of things are not
- 13:49happening. Those kind of things are not
- 13:51necessarily being taught in that way.
- 13:55So when we look at the women, women are to be teachers of good
- 14:00things here in the church. Women are important in this
- 14:03church. You women are important because
- 14:07you are the one that God is calling to teach other women
- 14:11good things. And the good things that he's
- 14:14saying that you teach them are the things that follow he said,
- 14:17admonish them or advise them how to love their husbands.
- 14:22And this is not just a romantic love.
- 14:25Yes, you should love your husband romantically.
- 14:28But this is it's not just talking about how they
- 14:30romantically love your husband. This is also talking about how
- 14:33to be committed to his welfare and well-being.
- 14:38How do I commit? How do I build up?
- 14:41How do I support this man of God that I'm married to?
- 14:45How do I bless his ministry? How do I support him in his
- 14:49ministry? And I have to brag about my wife
- 14:52when it comes to that. If you would give me just a
- 14:55second, Clark and I rotate teaching.
- 14:59He teaches 3 weeks. I teach three weeks.
- 15:02When it's my turn to teach, my wife takes things off my plate
- 15:07that I don't have to worry about.
- 15:10When it's time for me to put time into preparing to teach,
- 15:15there's things I don't have to worry about.
- 15:17She prepares the house in a way that my office becomes like my
- 15:22sanctuary, and she does that not only in that, but in other
- 15:27areas. Even where my business is
- 15:28concerned, she comes alongside of me and helps me in a quiet
- 15:33way, helps me in areas where I need help.
- 15:39You women are the ones who build up your husband's if he's
- 15:44successful in anything. Part of that is because of how
- 15:47God used you. You younger women who are
- 15:51growing up kids in a godly household with a godly husband.
- 15:56You husbands don't have to worry about how your kids are being
- 16:00taught if your wife is at home teaching your kids.
- 16:08They are building the founder the fundamental building blocks
- 16:11for what they believe that begins with mom and dad at home.
- 16:16But while dad's out hunting, right, hunting and bringing in
- 16:19the food, you know, paying the bills, he's out doing what a
- 16:23father should do, right. Mom who chooses to stay at home,
- 16:29who chooses to stay at home and take care of the kids, take care
- 16:33of the home. What an important job.
- 16:37And I just don't want, I just, I mean, because I know we live in
- 16:39a time in society where it's popular for a woman to go out
- 16:44and create their own way and to be professional when to, you
- 16:48know, be in corporate America. And if women who like to do
- 16:52that, that's fine. But I just don't want the women
- 16:55who have made a decision to stay at home and take care of the
- 17:00home. I don't want you to feel like
- 17:02you're any less valuable because you are not.
- 17:07You are very valuable. Very so teach them how to be
- 17:11chased, how to be discreet homemakers, good obedient to
- 17:17their own husbands and that's important that women need to
- 17:21know that you are you know you you are to come under the
- 17:24authority or come into the oath under the authority of your own
- 17:28husband. That's not men in general, it's
- 17:32your own husband and that the word that the word of God may
- 17:36not be blasphemed. When you see a godly woman who
- 17:41understands how to undergird her husband, how to be a help meet
- 17:45to her husband. Just like we dwell with them
- 17:50with understanding, they dwell with us with understanding also.
- 17:54In fact, they probably understand us more than most.
- 17:58And then verse 6, he talks to the young men and he says,
- 18:01likewise exhort the young men to be sober minded in all things.
- 18:06Exhort the exhort them to be sober minded.
- 18:09That means then it's interesting that he had the shortest amount
- 18:12of things for the young men to adhere to.
- 18:14And the reason why is because the young men are really
- 18:18supposed to pursue the traits of the older men.
- 18:22They're supposed to pursue those things.
- 18:24So they should be men who are watching the godly older men to
- 18:29become godly. How to be reverent, how to be
- 18:32sober minded and how, you know, how to do the things that are
- 18:36mentioned here. You know, what was the other
- 18:38thing here? How to be temperate and sound in
- 18:40faith and sound in love, those things they're supposed to
- 18:42pursue, you know, as they minister and as they watch the
- 18:47older men. I wish that when I was younger I
- 18:50had those kind of role models, someone who helped me to go
- 18:54through things like this, to understand these kind of
- 18:57scriptures. And This is why I love the word
- 18:59of God, particularly in these particular epistles, because
- 19:03there's so much instruction, direct instruction.
- 19:07And this is what we really want when we come together.
- 19:10We want to hear the heart of God and these and this is what this
- 19:13is giving us, this true instruction.
- 19:15So he said, likewise exhort the young men to be sober minded.
- 19:20That means self-control because what really stumbles a young man
- 19:27and basically wipes all those other things the way that he
- 19:30should be is his lack of control.
- 19:34Young men are always battling with this inner self-control,
- 19:40you know, how to bring those things under control, you know,
- 19:44and the only way we can do that is through the power of the Holy
- 19:47Spirit, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
- 19:50And then he goes on in here and he says verse 7, it says in all
- 19:54things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works.
- 19:58Now this is his advice to Timothy, to I'm sorry, to Titus
- 20:01directly. He said look Titus as pastor, as
- 20:06a leader in this church. You have to show yourself to be
- 20:10a pattern of good works, and that's to be a pattern of good
- 20:14works. That is just not to just do good
- 20:15works, but your life must be. It must show a pattern of good
- 20:21works. That's who you are, man.
- 20:23That's who you are. You're spending time with the
- 20:26Lord. You're spending time in the word
- 20:27of the Lord. Let this word get in you.
- 20:31Let as much of this word get in you as you're getting in the
- 20:33word and come unto come under the authority of it.
- 20:38Be obedient to it so that it becomes your way of living.
- 20:44So when people see that, they see an example.
- 20:47Listen, whether me and Clark want to know, want to believe it
- 20:49or not, or every leader here, not just me and Clark, but every
- 20:52leader in this house, whether we want to or not, we are examples.
- 20:57Our lives are to be examples. If we're standing up here
- 21:00teaching it, we got to be far, you know, first partakers of it.
- 21:04Our life are supposed to be examples.
- 21:06And that's that's one of the reasons why James says that it's
- 21:09the, you know, it's teachers that have the stricter judgment
- 21:14because our lives must be an example as much as it is that we
- 21:19understand and declare the word of God.
- 21:23So he says, make your life a pattern of good works and
- 21:28doctrine, showing integrity, reverence and incorruptibility.
- 21:32Show yourself of not being able to compromise and not being
- 21:37corruptible or corrupted in anything that you're teaching or
- 21:41anything that you're doing anything that you're doing.
- 21:45And then we're going to close with this last line here.
- 21:47It says sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an
- 21:53opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say about you.
- 21:58So in other words, people are listening to what you say, and
- 22:02if you're teaching the Word of God, then that can't be
- 22:05resisted. They know that that can't be
- 22:07resisted. You can take them to the Word of
- 22:09God and show that this is truth of what you're saying.
- 22:12But what's even more important is the opportunity that you have
- 22:17to show through your life that you're above reproach as well.
- 22:22And this is what we're asking the help of God for.
- 22:25Let us show in our lives that we're above reproach so that the
- 22:28world see us. They can't point this thing at
- 22:30us or that thing at us and say how you teach that that doesn't
- 22:33mean nothing because look how you live.
- 22:35That's bringing a reproach against the job.
- 22:36We don't want to bring. We don't want to be blasphemed.
- 22:40And a good example of that is Daniel.
- 22:42Daniel's a good example of that over back in Daniel chapter 4,
- 22:47when Daniel had a conspiracy against him.
- 22:51He was a governor and he was about to be over all governors
- 22:55because of how excellent he moved in his work.
- 22:58The Bible says that he had a spirit of excellence and it was
- 23:01pointed out. So those who were jealous around
- 23:04him, they decided, well, we got to do something to bring him
- 23:06down. They looked at his life, they
- 23:08looked at how consistent he was and doing righteous things.
- 23:11They couldn't find anything. They look at how he did his job.
- 23:14He didn't take bribes, he didn't do anything that would be a
- 23:17reproach against what he was supposed to do job wise.
- 23:21So they couldn't find anything. So what they did was took.
- 23:23Now listen to this and tell me this doesn't sound like today.
- 23:26They took the good that he does and made it bad.
- 23:30They were actually able to take what he does that was good and
- 23:34turn it into something bad. That's exactly what the church
- 23:38is dealing with today. Couldn't find anything else
- 23:40against us. So now they have taken what we
- 23:43believe, what the Bible says and turns that around now to be bad.
- 23:50And that's exactly what was happening there.
- 23:51But the Bible says let them not be able to speak any evil
- 23:54against you. This has been Living Waters of
- 23:59Grace, a ministry of Pastor Lewis Harrell of Calvary Chapel,
- 24:03Westmoreland. Today's message has been on the
- 24:06book of Titus. This book is a master class in
- 24:09how Christians should live in modern culture.
- 24:12Titus was ministering to the people of Crete, an island off
- 24:15the coast of Greece, but he was facing many challenges.
- 24:19The Cretans who came to know Jesus seemed to assimilate Jesus
- 24:23into their existing culture instead of allowing themselves
- 24:27to be transformed by the Holy Spirit inside of them.
- 24:31Others were fully devoting themselves to Jesus but shutting
- 24:35themselves off from the world around them.
- 24:38The apostle Paul encourages Titus to help his audience find
- 24:42a middle ground where they can live in this world while still
- 24:46following a different way of life in Jesus.
- 24:49If you would like to learn more about what it means to
- 24:52faithfully follow the teachings of Christ in a world full of
- 24:55darkness, we'd love to get connected with you in person.
- 25:00If you are in Greensburg, PA, we'd love to invite you to join
- 25:04us at Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.
- 25:07We meet every Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
- 25:12Ste. 6B. Also, if you visit us at
- 25:16calvarychapelonline.com, you'll find links to our mobile app,
- 25:21our giving page, and our contact form where you can leave a
- 25:25prayer request if you have one. Before we go off the air for
- 25:29today, we ask you to invite someone to tune in next time
- 25:33right here on Grace FM 91.7 or streaming online at Grace Radio
- 25:40dot FM. Word of mouth is the best way to
- 25:43spread the good news of the gospel with those who are hungry
- 25:47to hear. Until next time, this has been
- 25:50another edition of Living Waters of Grace.