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Living Waters of Grace 01.05.26 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
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Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
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County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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Our walk our lives should demonstrate what we believe, our
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lifestyle, our behavior, all that should demonstrate what we
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believe or not. Be one who proclaim to know God,
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but then our behavior disqualifies us or our behavior
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cause us to look like. We deny Him because of the way
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that we behave, but we should walk in obedience to the Lord.
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Our example is Jesus Christ, who loved us so much that he died
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for us. What do people really see when
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they watch how you live? In today's message, Pastor Lewis
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reminds us that our walk must match our talk.
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The way we live, the choices we make, and the love we show
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should clearly demonstrate what we say we believe.
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No one should hear us claim to know God while our behavior
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looks like we deny Him. Your lifestyle is the loudest
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sermon you'll ever possibly preach.
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How does your daily behavior show the world that you truly
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belong to Jesus now? Here's Pastor Lewis in the Book
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of First Timothy, chapter 4, with today's edition of Living
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Waters of Grace. It is important that we give
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thanks to God when you know, I love when I'm sitting in a
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restaurant and there's another family that's there and we see
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them praying together before they eat.
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I love seeing that. I love seeing that.
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I love seeing young kids who understand that I don't eat
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anything off this table until I give thanks.
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That's a wonderful thing, a wonderful thing.
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Give thanks. So then in verse 6, he goes on,
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he says if you instruct the brother in these things and what
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things and all the things we just got finished talking about
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instructor brothers about these bad false teachers, instruct
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them about how to look out for these doctrines of demons and
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these deceiving spirits. Instructor brethren about
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setting things apart for the Lord's purpose and doing all
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things unto the Lord. He says, if you do that, then
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you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ.
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Nourished. I love this word nourished in
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the words of faith. That word nourished.
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It's a powerful word. It means actually need to be
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sustained, sustained by the words of faith, to be supplied
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with everything that's necessary for my life, for life and living
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and health is all. And my spiritual growth is all
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supplied to me, and I'm sustained through the words of
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faith to the words of faith. Studying the Word of God has
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impact on our lives in so many different areas.
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Obeying the Word of God has impact in our lives in so many
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different areas. It sustains us.
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It sustains us. And then he says it's a good
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minister of Jesus Christ who is sustained by the words of faith.
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It's a good minister that has supplied everything that is
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necessary for life through the Word of God.
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And it's important for pastors. No Pastor Clark is able to sit
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in here today and be fed. He feeds us so much.
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He feeds us so much, but he understands that it's important
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for him to also be fed. There's ways that you can
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actually know, spend so much time and be so focused on
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feeding everybody else and you die of starvation.
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It's important for us to be fed as Christians.
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We go out and we share Christ. We share the word of God with
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people, we share it with our families, we share it with our
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friends, we share it with our Co workers and we're always giving,
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sharing it and distributing. But it's also important that we
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be fed so we can be nourished, so that we can have what's
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needed to be able to give out. It's so important and then here
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in verse 7 and verse 7 he says, but reject, reject profane an
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old wise fables and exercise yourself toward godliness.
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Verse 8 says for bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness
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is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life
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that now is and of that which is to come.
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This is a faithful saying and worthy of acceptance.
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Paul saying here, he's addressing the whole issue of
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physical exercise, which was important in Greek culture
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because remember, they put a lot of emphasis on physical activity
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and physical fitness. That's why we get the Olympic
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Games and some of these other athletic events.
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They come, most of those come out of Greece because they put a
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lot of emphasis on that. They see physical fitness as
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being a self-discipline, self-discipline.
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They see it as being medicinal. It's good for my health, my
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physical health, it's good for the mental health.
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And they see that. So they really look very highly
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valued. They really highly value people
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who give themselves to physical fitness over there in Greece.
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And you know what, we used to do it here.
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You know, we do it here. Remember during the time when
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physical fitness started to get real popular and gyms were
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popping up everywhere physical, you know, fitness facilities
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were popping up everywhere. You got LA Fitness, you got at
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one time they had, what was it called, Scandinavian, whatever.
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I can't remember the name of that now, but that was a
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fitness. They had all kind of fitness
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centers, neighborhood fitness centers, you name it, and people
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were just gone involved in. If jogging was popular at one
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time, then it wasn't. Tennis was popular at one time,
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then it wasn't. Racquetball.
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Remember racquetball that was popular at one time, then it
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wasn't, you know, weightlifting. All the men were in the
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weightlifting and, and building up their bodies and being
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physically strong. All those things are popular at
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one time and then it wasn't, I remember even for myself that I,
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I know you can't tell by it now, but there was a time that I used
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to work out probably six days a week.
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I was really into physical fitness, I mean really into it.
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And I thought that if I didn't work out at least an hour, 2
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hours a day or what not, that man, I was terrible.
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I was the worst thing in the world.
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I wasn't saved then. I had many hours of physical
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fitness, 0 hours in the word of God, 0 wasn't even going to
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church, Wasn't even going to church.
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And what I'm saying here is that not that physical fitness is a
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bad thing, it is still a good thing to be physically fit.
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But when your body becomes your God, that's when it becomes a
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bad thing because now you've turned it into an idol.
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I did that. My body became my idol.
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I spent much more time worshipping that in front of a
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mirror, right? You train, They got mirrors all
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over the place so you can see what you look like.
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You're worshiping, worshiping. And I spent many times, many
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hours doing that on my own body. 0 hours with the Lord.
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And I think about what the Lord said in the garden with Peter.
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Peter, you couldn't watch with me for one hour, for one hour in
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my life, in our lives. Do we give God at least one hour
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as a minimum? Do we give him at least one
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hour? Not that it's a religious thing.
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Not saying that if you don't do it, then you're not as righteous
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as the person that does do it. That's what he's saying at all.
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What he's saying is where is God in our lives?
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Is he a priority? It's just us thinking about
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that, putting him in perspective.
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Is he a priority? So Paul's saying here, yeah,
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physical exercise here in verse 8.
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It does profit, but it profits a little.
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It profits a little. It's only profitable for here
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while we're here. It does not take you beyond the
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grave. And even those that are
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physically fit, they will die of something if Jesus Christ don't
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come back first. But he is saying here that it
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does profit a little, but the profit is minimum.
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There's a limited profit, but godliness, young son Timothy,
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Godliness is profitable for all things.
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It's not just profitable for you being here, but it's profitable
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for later on, and it's also profitable in eternity.
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It's profitable for all things. It's profitable for mind, body
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and soul, Timothy, and that's what he said to us.
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The word of God and pursuing godliness is profitable in all
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things, not just some, not just some.
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And the important thing is that though we must suffer because he
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says here, he says here having the promise of life that now is
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and that which is to come. And he said that that is a
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faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance.
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That means it's, it's a trustworthy word.
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But then verse 10, he says for to this end, or in other words,
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for this reason, Timothy, we both labor or we strive and we
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suffer reproach. Why for godliness.
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We do it for godliness because it is profitable not only for
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now and it's also profitable for the life that is to come.
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So we strive for godliness, we seek godliness, we pursue
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godliness, and we suffer reproach.
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We suffer the shame, we suffer the mocking, we suffer the
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persecution. We do all that, and we do it
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because we trust in the look at what he says.
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He doesn't just say we trust in God, He says we trust in the
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living God, the living God not trusting in the idols that the
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Ephesians trusted in, not trusting in those statues that
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they did, the statue of Diana and the other statues, not
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trusting in those we're trusting in the living God and his
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promises are sure. We have hope, and that's what
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we're trusting in. That's what we're trusting in.
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And I pray that we put our trust in the right thing.
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We put our trust in the right thing, put our trust in Jesus
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Christ who gives us all things, but most of all he gives us the
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hope of salvation which we have and eternity which we have.
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And then he goes on, He says, who is the Savior?
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Meaning, meaning Jesus Christ who is the Savior of all men,
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especially those who believe He's a preserver.
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This is not a universality or universalism.
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He's not talking about everyone's going to be saved.
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That's not what he's saying. What he is saying is that he is
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the one who created all men. He is the one who preserves all
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men. He's the one who died for all
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men. Over here chapter 2 over in
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verse 4, he says who desires, meaning God desires all men to
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be saved, all right. And then over here in verse 6,
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chapter 2, verse 6, it says who gave himself a ransom for all,
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so he died for all and his desires that all get saved.
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But he realizes that it's only those who puts their faith in
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Jesus Christ. Only those who believe on Jesus
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Christ, only those who have repented and trust in Jesus
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Christ for their salvation will be saved, will have the benefits
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of salvation, which is eternal life.
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But yes, He died for everyone. Everyone has the opportunity to
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get saved and then he goes on and this is when this is the
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meat of it right here. And after this we'll start to
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wind down. But in verse 12, this is my
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favorite part because this is really direct instruction and it
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gives us exactly what we need to go into every single day.
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This is what we strive for as Christians.
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He says let no one despise your youth but be an example to the
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believers and this be an example to the believers or it could be
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be an example of the believers in both words fit in the Greek
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text, but it's being an example to the believers where examples
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to those who are in the church to our brothers and our sisters
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who are in the church. But it also says of the
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believers, that means that when we're out in the world, we're to
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be an example of believers to the world or to those who are
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not saved. And he goes and he says, what is
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it that we should be examples for?
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He gives us six things. Now, other manuscripts, there's
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only 5. The one that's missing in other
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manuscripts is Spirit. We'll talk about that when we
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get to it. But in this version, it gives us
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6. He says we should be an example
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in Word. in Word, our speech should be honest and loving
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towards each other. We shouldn't have speech that
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we're talking down to each other or mocking each other or being
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disrespectful to each other. We shouldn't be slanderous to
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each other. Our speech should be honest and
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be loving. The Bible says even when we
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confront each other, if we have to confront each other with an
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issue, we still speak the truth and love.
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According to Ephesians 4 and 15, our speech should not be corrupt
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or shouldn't be filthy or slanderous, but it should be
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edifying. It should be encouraging to each
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other. I was listening to my brother
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Tom on Wednesday night and he was talking about being around
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people who are encouraging, being around encouraging people
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and how it makes you feel or how it impacts you.
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When you're around someone that's encouraging and when
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you're around someone that's encouraging, it does have a
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positive impact on you. It builds your help build your
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faith for one thing, but it also causes you to look at things a
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little differently, look at things a little differently.
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It's not that self defeated attitude that we may have walked
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into when we first saw them, but we leave there.
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We just feel better and that's what happens with people who are
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encouraging. So our communication should be
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encouraging, it should be edifying, you know, as it says
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in Ephesians 4 and 29. Let no corrupt word proceed out
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of your mouth but that which is for the necessary edification,
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that it may impart. Grace to the hears, not
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condemnation. Not more toil, you know, but but
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grace to the hears. Our speech should not be
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condemning to others, but it should always be with grace.
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When Jesus Christ came, he came full of grace and truth, and we
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should be examples of that grace and truth here in the earth
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realm. We should be examples of that.
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And even in Colossians 4 and six, he said, let your speech
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always be with grace, with grace.
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And then also he says that the word, we should also have this
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word, not just that we should our speech should be sanctified
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or should be edifying or encouraging, but we should also
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have knowledge of the word. So that the word when we speak
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to people and we share the word of God, we should do it from a
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place of knowledge. So that's when he's talking
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about growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior
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Jesus Christ. And then in conduct, he said we
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should be an examples in conduct, our walk, our lives
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should demonstrate what we believe, our lifestyle, our
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behavior. All that should demonstrate what
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we believe or not be one who proclaim to know God.
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But then our behavior disqualifies us or our behavior
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cause us to look like we deny him because of the way that we
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behave. But we should walk in obedience
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to the Lord. Our example is Jesus Christ who
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loved us so much that he died for us.
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That's love. Our faith is motivated through
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love. The things that we do or the
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motivation for anything that we do in ministry or even towards
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each other, it should always be love.
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It should never be because of what I can get for myself.
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It should never be because then I look more positive if I do
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this. It should never be with through
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selfish ambition. It should be through love.
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And then he says in spirit, in spirit.
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In other words, have an attitude that reflects the spirit of
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Jesus Christ. One of the greatest examples
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that I always referred back to is back in Luke Chapter 9 and
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verse 55 when they were going through Samaria.
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Jesus Christ and the disciples were going through Samaria
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trying to get to Jerusalem, and the Samaritans denied them from
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going through. They denied them and his
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disciples got upset about it. They said, Lord, do you want us
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to just call down fire from heaven and have them burned up
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the way Elijah did it? And what was Jesus's response?
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There was a loving response. He said no, no, no.
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You don't know what spirit you are of.
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You don't know what spirit you. That's not my spirit.
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He said the Son of Man didn't come to destroy man.
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I came to save man. I came to save man.
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When we have interactions with people, we may want to destroy
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them, but we got to remember that's not the spirit we are of.
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We want to get them back. We want them to know that they
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offended us, and you can't do that to me.
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But we're not here to destroy man.
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We are here to save man. So then he says also we should
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be examples in faith. Faith leads to faithfulness.
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Someone who was a Christian, someone who was involved in
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Christianity should always be a person that's faithful, which
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means trustworthy. When we trust, we adhere to, we
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rely on Jesus Christ. We should be examples of that.
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Our faith leads to faithfulness. When we say we're going to do
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something, people should have confidence in the fact that
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we're going to do it and we should do it.
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And then of course, the last one is impurity.
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And Paul was very clear, and there's a reason why he wanted
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him to be impurity because he was in Ephesus.
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Ephesus was a city that was highly charged in sexual
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immorality, just like it is here, you know, in our country,
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in our world, you know, there, there's, I mean, there's so much
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temptation and so much immorality around us.
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It's so easy to get taken up into that.
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And Timothy was a young man. He was only about 30 years old
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around this time. So it was very easy for him to
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be tempted. And Paul said, no, we, you have
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to be an example, Timothy, you got to be an example for
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believers even in your purity. First Thessalonians chapter 4,
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it talks about, he said, this is the will of God for you.
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Even your sanctification, our purity, that's God's will for
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us. That's how we demonstrate who we
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belong to and Timothy, and that's why Paul told Timothy in
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First Timothy chapter 5 verse two.
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He told Timothy. He said listen, admonish or
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encourage. I'm sorry.
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He says encourage the young women in the church as sisters.
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We need to be in here. We see women, one of you, either
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one of you, one or the other. If I ain't married to you, then
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you're my sister. I treat you as my sister.
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If I'm married to you, then you're my wife.
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And this is what he's telling Timothy.
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I have to be pure. Timothy, you have to be pure.
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You have to be pure. And then he goes on and he says
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verse 13. He says till I, till I, till I
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come, give attention to reading, to exhortation and to doctrine,
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to reading. He's talking about public
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reading, reading the word of God publicly and exhortation.
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He's talking about preaching the word of God, encouraging people
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to do what the word of God says to do, encouraging people to
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obey that and in doctrine, which is the systematic teaching of
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different doctrines of the faith.
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For example, there's the doctrine of creation or
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salvation or the end times to systematically teach these
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things. He said Timothy, till I come
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give attention to those things. And then in 14, he says,
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Timothy, don't neglect the gift that is in you, which was given
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to you by prophecy with the laying on of hands by the
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eldership. Timothy had a gift, and that
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gift it was imported to. Timothy, through the laying on
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of hands, now God doesn't have to use other people to impart a
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gift. God can just give people.
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But that's one of the ways sometimes that people are
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commissioned, that people are sent out.
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The elders will come and they'll lay hands on them and they'll
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send these people out. That's one of the ways that he
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does it. And he said, Timothy, don't
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neglect that gift that was given to you.
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And apparently he did at one time neglected.
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So in Second Timothy chapter 1 and 6, he said, listen Timothy,
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stir up the gift that was given to you.
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Don't let that gift lay dormant. And there's a lot of ways that
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we can neglect the gift. We can neglect it by misusing
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it, or we can neglect it by abusing it.
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One way or the other, we can neglect that gift.
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We shouldn't have talents that we hide or that we bury.
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We should use the gifts that the Lord has given us.
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And then the 15 says, meditate on these things.
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Give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be
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evident to all. When you're spending time with
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the Lord, when you're studying the Word of God more, when
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you're spending more time seeking God, the evidence of
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that becomes obvious to other people.
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They can see it in you when you are spending more time with the
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Lord, your progress becomes evident to everybody and we all
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want to continue to progress in the Lord.
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And then in verse 16, he says, take heed to yourself and to
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your doctrine, continuing them for doing this you will say both
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yourself and those who hear you. So he says, OK, you give
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yourselves to your ministry and to the seeking the Lord.
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You give yourself to that and your progress will be evident.
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But then, he says, also remember to take heed to yourself from
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time to time. Take heed to yourself into the
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doctrine. In other words, where am I in
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the faith? Where am I am I lining up with
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what the Word of God is telling me to do?
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As it says in Second Corinthians chapter 13 and five, examine
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yourself as to whether you are in the faith.
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Am I lining up? Am I lining up?
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Am I where I need to be? Are there things that I need to
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give to the Lord that I have not surrendered myself to yet?
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Are there things I need to give to the Lord?
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What am I trusting Lord to change in my life and in my
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heart? And am I really trusting and
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seeking Him to do it? Acknowledging those things and
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we need to understand that when we do those things, we both save
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ourself and we save those who hear us.
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When we are good examples to the Lord, people who see us then
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want what we have and those people get saved.
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They come looking to the Lord. A good example of that was Paul
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when he and Silas was in jail in Philippi, when they were in jail
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because of the way they behave themselves, being under
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persecution, being tormented, beaten in stocks, because of the
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way they behave themselves, the jailer came to them and said
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what must I do to be saved? May our lives be that way, that
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people see our conduct in every area of our lives and it be
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something that's sought to them. They want, they want it, they
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want it. What must I do to be saved?
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So Paul says, look, we have to preach the Word, we have to
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practice the Word, and we have to progress in the Word.
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Timothy. That's what a good minister
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does. This is what Paul is saying to
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Timothy, because when we do these things, then we build up
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ourselves, but then we also help win the loss when we do those
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things. Amen.
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God bless you. Thank you for tuning in to
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Living Waters of Grace with Pastor Lewis Harrell.
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We're currently in the books of First and Second Timothy.
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Some of the things included in these New Testament letters from
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Paul are that the young and newly established Pastor Timothy
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was being encouraged to hold fast to what was true.
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He was challenged to confront and address the false teachers
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that were rising up. He was also reminded to accept
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his calling to the ministry with gratefulness and to address the
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happenings going on in the Ephesian church.
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Paul was imparting his experience and knowledge to the
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next generation. Timothy was receptive to
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learning and gleaning what he could from Paul's wisdom.
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This is how it should be in ministry across multiple
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generations. Those who have lived a little
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more life should be open to sharing their successes and also
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things they've learned along the way.
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That we're not a wind. The younger generations coming
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up can learn and appreciate much from those ahead of them, and
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perhaps avoid some of the same pitfalls that their mentors work
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through mentoring. It's a beautiful relationship
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when the hearts are in the right place to learn and grow.
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We trust that you're in a community where this is
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happening. Older ones providing advice and
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wisdom, and each side learning and growing from one another.
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This certainly was the case for Paul and Timothy as they were
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comrades for the sake of the gospel.
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For more information on where this teaching came from, go to
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calvarychapelonline.com. There you can also learn about
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our service times to join us in person.
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This has been living waters of grace.