Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace 01.14.26
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.
- 0:37Boy, don't we all need that refreshing sometime.
- 0:40We need it from each other. We need it from the Holy Spirit.
- 0:43We just need a refreshing. Most of us are here right now to
- 0:46be refreshed, to sit under word, to have to get away from the
- 0:51toils of life Monday through Saturday and deal with all those
- 0:55pressures and all those turns, all the political stuff, all
- 1:00that. Get away from all that and let's
- 1:02just sit under the word of God and be refreshed.
- 1:06Be refreshed. Isn't that why you've tuned in
- 1:10to listen to Living Waters of Grace?
- 1:12You find yourself smack dab in the middle of the struggles of
- 1:15this life, working the 9:00 to 5:00, clawing to get those bills
- 1:19paid, striving to see that child walk in obedience to the Lord.
- 1:23I'll need refreshment in our souls and spirits.
- 1:27You need to hear the Word of God.
- 1:28Drink it in and truly experience the living waters of Grace.
- 1:34And there's nothing like it. There's nothing in this world
- 1:36that can compare to the refreshment that Jesus brings to
- 1:40us now. Here's Pastor Lewis in the Book
- 1:43of Second Timothy, chapter one with today's edition of Living
- 1:47Waters of Grace. Let's pray and then we'll get
- 1:50into the Word, Father God in Jesus name.
- 1:52Lord, we do thank You once again that we have the privilege of
- 1:59sitting under Your Word, Lord, and hearing Your Word, being
- 2:04taught Your word, not by me, Lord, but by Your Spirit and
- 2:09Father, I need Your spirit now. We all need a filling of Your
- 2:13spirit, regardless of what is said.
- 2:15Lord, how logical we may sound. You are the one who gives us the
- 2:21understanding, the revelation, the illumination of Your Word
- 2:25that comes from You. So Father, I pray as I give
- 2:29myself away to you and make myself available for you to use
- 2:32this broken vessel. I pray Father, that you would
- 2:38just fill me up with Your Spirit.
- 2:40Allow Your Spirit to be overflowed so that we all will
- 2:45be able to receive the seed of the Word in our hearts and that
- 2:50our lives will be changed by make us more like your Son,
- 2:53Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, in Jesus
- 2:57name we pray, Amen. So as we go back to chapter 1,
- 3:03the end of chapter 1 and we look at verses 13, we're going to
- 3:06review verse 13 again because it is significant.
- 3:09It's very significant, particularly as we go forward
- 3:13and what he says here, what Paul says here, and remember, this is
- 3:16Paul who is facing imminent death.
- 3:19I want to keep reminding us of that because this is not like
- 3:22it's just two men sitting and talking who have equal, you
- 3:27know, it's an equal place or in the same place.
- 3:30Paul is facing imminent death and he knows that.
- 3:33And the things that he is sharing with Timothy are the
- 3:35things that he's receiving from the Lord that's on his heart
- 3:38that Timothy will need. He's passing the mantle to
- 3:41Timothy and basically saying, Timothy, I'm not going to be
- 3:44here anymore. You are going to have to carry
- 3:46the mantle, brother, young son. So therefore we need, I need you
- 3:52to hear me. I need you to listen.
- 3:54And there's some things that I need to impart in you before I
- 3:58depart. So he goes in here, verse 13,
- 4:01and he says, once again, we talked about it last week.
- 4:04Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from
- 4:09me in faith and love what you're in Christ Jesus.
- 4:15So Paul is saying, it's not just the fact that you're hearing
- 4:19sound words from me and you just repeat what you hear, but it's
- 4:24important that you hold the form of the way that you're getting
- 4:28this. Hold the form.
- 4:30Don't change it, Timothy, and don't allow anyone else to
- 4:33change it. Don't add to it and don't take
- 4:35away from it. It's important that you hold the
- 4:38pattern of the Word just the way you're getting it, just the way
- 4:44you're getting it when you share the gospel.
- 4:48For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
- 4:53that whosoever shall believe on him shall not perish, but have
- 4:56everlasting life. That's the gospel.
- 5:01First Corinthians chapter 15, The Bible says that Christ died
- 5:06for our sins. He was buried and that he arose
- 5:10again according to the Scriptures.
- 5:12That's the gospel, Timothy. Don't change that and don't
- 5:15allow anyone else to change it. That's coming into your
- 5:18ministry. It's very important to hold fast
- 5:21the form of sound doctrine. But then he goes on and he says,
- 5:26do that in faith and love. We have to believe what we're
- 5:29teaching. So not only do we do it
- 5:31faithfully, meaning that we're holding the form of God
- 5:34faithfully, where we're being reverent to it, we're being
- 5:37faithful to what we've been taught.
- 5:39Not only are we doing it faithfully, but our lives are
- 5:42faithful to it so that the testimony in the presentation of
- 5:46the testimony has the backing of the power of God working through
- 5:50our lives. We cannot underestimate the
- 5:54power of God working in us to establish and to make clear the
- 6:01gospel and the power of God's Word when someone who knows you.
- 6:06Clark talks about this all the time because, you know, there's
- 6:10people, we're here, you know, we're here in Greensburg.
- 6:12And I'm sure there's people who knew him when he lived in Irwin.
- 6:15And Clark talks about his old hippie days and, and how the
- 6:18people knew him back when he was a hippie.
- 6:21So a lot of those people would probably say, wait a minute, he
- 6:24is a pastor of the church him. And if you were to go back to
- 6:29Stilton and Harrisburg and you would talk to people and say,
- 6:32yeah, Lewis is a pastor. He's a pastor.
- 6:35Are you sure, Lewis, that played here, that was here in Stilton,
- 6:40that's that's a pastor. There's no way they believe it.
- 6:43But it's only by the power of God who's able to change lives.
- 6:47And just like he's changed your lives, every one of us have that
- 6:50testimony. He's able to change lives.
- 6:53So he says, look, do it in faith, but also do it in love.
- 6:57When we speak, we speak the truth in love.
- 7:01We speak the truth in love. This gospel is saturated with
- 7:04love. It was love that took Jesus to
- 7:07the cross. It was love that had the the
- 7:10Father to send Jesus to die for our sins.
- 7:14That's all saturated in love. It's motivated in love.
- 7:19Everything Jesus did when He walked here on the earth for 3
- 7:221/2 years was motivated by love, right down to the giving of His
- 7:28own life. So when we speak the word, we
- 7:32should speak it in love. And this is in Christ Jesus.
- 7:36And then in verse 14, it says that good thing which was
- 7:39committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in you,
- 7:44that good thing, that deposit, that treasure, that treasure
- 7:50that was given to you, that was committed to you, it was
- 7:54entrusted to you When someone shared the gospel with you, I
- 7:58don't know if you knew it then, but know it now.
- 8:02They shared a treasure with you. It's valuable, more valuable
- 8:08than gold and silver. It's a treasure that you
- 8:12receive, and when you meditate on that word and you study that
- 8:16word, it's a treasure that's in you that now you can impart and
- 8:20share with other people. It's a treasure.
- 8:24And so he said that treasure, that deposit that was committed
- 8:28to you, he says keep it not by your strength, Timothy.
- 8:33Don't try to keep it by your strength.
- 8:35Don't try to keep it by your own will, but keep it by the Holy
- 8:40Spirit. The Holy Spirit, once again we
- 8:45see the significance and it runs through the entire Bible when we
- 8:48see the significance of the Holy Spirit.
- 8:51We cannot do this Christian walk without the Holy Spirit.
- 8:54And the more that we get into the study, because God is
- 8:58directing us toward understanding endurance as we
- 9:02move into chapter 2, but the more we move into this study,
- 9:05you will see that there's no way that we can do any of this
- 9:08without the grace of God through the Holy Spirit.
- 9:11There's no way we can do it. No way.
- 9:14So he goes on and he said, who dwells in us?
- 9:16Not what dwells in US, Who dwells in US?
- 9:20Holy Spirit is a person. Now this, you know, now he's
- 9:24changing gears here. He's changing gears and he says
- 9:28this, you know that all those in Asia have turned away from me,
- 9:32among whom are 5 jealous and homogenies Now that everybody
- 9:37turned away from Paul. I don't know.
- 9:39You know how I mean, sometimes as men we can be a little, you
- 9:42know, extreme. You know, you always do that.
- 9:46You say that all the time. You know, we can be a little
- 9:49extreme. Everybody turned away from me.
- 9:52I don't know if everyone turned away from Paul, but I tell you
- 9:55what, it's very clear that there are two men in particular that
- 9:58turned away from Paul. And these are obviously these
- 10:02were men who at one point were trustworthy men with him, men
- 10:07who were close to him, men that he probably imparted this
- 10:11treasure to. Phi Jealous and homogenies.
- 10:15He pointed them out. How would you like to be one of
- 10:18those people that know? Paul pointed out, and it's in
- 10:21the word of God now it's in the word of God.
- 10:23And everybody who will ever read this will know that you betrayed
- 10:27Paul, that you betrayed Paul. But Phi Jealous and Homogenies,
- 10:32among them are these two men who turned away from him.
- 10:36But he's also saying, but I want to be fair.
- 10:40I want to be fair to Phi Jealous into homogenies.
- 10:43At that particular time, they were going through tremendous
- 10:46persecution, tremendous. And if you weren't really rooted
- 10:51and grounded in the faith, if the Spirit was not in you, then
- 10:57it would be very, very difficult for you to be able to stay the
- 11:04course because the threat of death was always with you.
- 11:10The threat of death was always there.
- 11:11Just being associated with Jesus Christ being in the way is what
- 11:16they called it. It was the threat of that was
- 11:18always there, always there. And I'm sure there were many
- 11:21people, you know, who felt like, well, you know, I can't, I can't
- 11:25do this. I can't do this.
- 11:27I mean, my family, they want to cut off my head.
- 11:30They want to, you know, kill me. They want to torture me.
- 11:33They want to throw me in jail just because I'm following
- 11:36Jesus. I can't do this.
- 11:37I'm sure there's a lot of people who felt that way and they
- 11:40turned away. And this is probably some of the
- 11:41people that that Paul is talking about.
- 11:43But in particular, we're probably these two men who were
- 11:46close to him. They turned away, could not deal
- 11:51with it. And that's part of why Paul is
- 11:53going to be going into the whole endurance issue.
- 11:56But he does give Timothy a good example.
- 11:58He says, Timothy, don't be like these two guys, you know, who
- 12:01give up and give out and turn away, you know, begin to deny
- 12:07God and turn away from Jesus Christ and turn away from me.
- 12:10Don't want to be associated with me because it's dangerous to be
- 12:14associated with someone like Paul, you know, who the at that
- 12:17particular time almost an entire state wanted to kill.
- 12:21So he says don't be like them. But there is a good example that
- 12:25I have here, a Niciphoris, which is really interesting because
- 12:29Arnisiphoris, you know, was he was Ephesian, he was from
- 12:32Ephesus family and they all believed.
- 12:36They all believed his name actually means bringing prophet
- 12:40or to be useful. That's his name.
- 12:42That's what his name means. And he says here that Arnisor,
- 12:47he said the Lord grant mercy to the household of Arnisorus, for
- 12:52he refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.
- 12:57And that's exactly what the issue was.
- 12:59A lot of the other people were ashamed to be associated with
- 13:01Paul. And that a shame mean
- 13:03disappointed, disillusioned, like, Oh my God, I'm following
- 13:06this and this may be my end, this may be what I have to deal
- 13:10with, and they fall away. But this Unnisrius, he wasn't
- 13:16even from the Paul's in Rome at this time.
- 13:18Remember that Paul's in Rome at this time.
- 13:20Unnisrius is still in Ephesus. And as the Word says here, he
- 13:25came and refreshed Paul. Boy, don't we all need that
- 13:29refreshing sometime. We need it from each other.
- 13:32We need it from the Holy Spirit. We just need a refreshing.
- 13:36Most of us are here right now on Sundays.
- 13:38We come here every Sunday to be refreshed, to sit under word, to
- 13:42have to get away from the toils of life Monday through Saturday
- 13:47and deal with all those pressures and all those turns,
- 13:50all the political stuff, all that.
- 13:53Get away from all that and let's just sit under the word of God
- 13:56and be refreshed. Be refreshed.
- 14:01Have someone speak an encouraging word instead of
- 14:04someone talking a doom word or giving me a doomsday word.
- 14:08Oh, we're done. We're not.
- 14:10Oh, it's not going to get any better.
- 14:12This is it. Hopeless word.
- 14:16But we can come on Sunday and hear an encouraging word from
- 14:19the Lord. He refreshed Paul.
- 14:24I don't know how he refreshed him.
- 14:25I don't know if he refreshed him with clothing or refreshed him
- 14:27with with food or with drink, because I'm sure he didn't have
- 14:31that in abundance. So he refreshed him or did he
- 14:34just refresh him by his encouragement to Paul?
- 14:38Brother, hang in there man, hang in there.
- 14:41There's many people that you have blessed that you have
- 14:44shared the gospel with, Paul, and those people are living for
- 14:47the Lord. Hang in there, Paul.
- 14:51You're doing all right, brother. God is with you, Paul.
- 14:55He's holding you up. I'm here because God loves you.
- 15:00Isn't it awesome when you get a call from someone that you're
- 15:03not expecting to get a call from?
- 15:05Or you get a text or an e-mail from someone that you're not
- 15:08expecting to hear from and it's right out of time when you need
- 15:12it the most. Because maybe you were going
- 15:15through some challenges, going through some difficulties,
- 15:18having some time, struggling with your face, struggling with
- 15:22your circumstances. And all of a sudden your, your
- 15:25phone rings and you pick up the phone and there's someone
- 15:27calling with a message to encourage you, someone sending
- 15:30you an encouraging e-mail, sending you a scripture that's
- 15:34encouraging you. A thought or just to say, you
- 15:37know what I was thinking about you.
- 15:41I was thinking about you. Sometimes we can feel really
- 15:45alone and isolated in this walk with the Lord.
- 15:49But when someone can call you and tell you, I was thinking
- 15:53about you, that's of the Lord. That is of the Lord.
- 15:58And this is what initiatives, you know, he came and he, he
- 16:02refreshed Paul. He wasn't ashamed of the message
- 16:05that Paul was preaching, nor was he ashamed of his chains, Verse
- 16:0917 says. But when he arrived in Rome, he
- 16:12sought me out very zealously and found me the Lord.
- 16:16Grant to him that he find mercy from the Lord in that day.
- 16:21And you know very well how many ways he refreshed me from Rome.
- 16:26Now here if you have a King James Version, it'll say refresh
- 16:29me at Rome, but the translation of that is actually refreshed me
- 16:33from Rome. So even while Paul was in Rome
- 16:38on this wrist was sending and blessing him with with help and
- 16:43refreshing him and it but that wasn't enough.
- 16:46He actually came and searched out Paul.
- 16:49He came and he travelled and searched Paul out so that he
- 16:55could be a blessing to Paul, which again within itself was
- 17:00just a work of the Spirit. Because just to be associated
- 17:03with Paul, come looking for Paul, that means you're letting
- 17:06yourself be known that you're a Christian too.
- 17:09And that wasn't the best thing back at that particular time.
- 17:14So he goes on here. So now we're about to move in to
- 17:17Chapter 2. And this is going to make more
- 17:19sense to you covering it from where we just came from.
- 17:22Because you saw an example of men who gave up, gave out,
- 17:27turned away, betrayed Paul because they just could not deal
- 17:32with that anymore. Maybe even begin to give in to
- 17:35strange doctrine because he just couldn't deal with it anymore.
- 17:38So then here with Chapter 2, it says therefore, therefore that
- 17:42means based on what I said to you previously, Timothy, based
- 17:48on the fact that you got these two men, Homogenies and
- 17:51Fragilis, who turned away from me and betrayed me.
- 17:55And also you have a good example and omnisforous.
- 18:00Therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ
- 18:06Jesus. Be strong in the grace that is
- 18:09in Christ Jesus. So once again, Paul makes it
- 18:12clear to Timothy. Timothy, I know that you've been
- 18:16a little timid, sometimes a little fearful.
- 18:19We talked about that earlier in Chapter 1.
- 18:22He's been a little fearful, a little timid.
- 18:23We also know that Timothy, his health wasn't all that great.
- 18:28You know, Paul had told him a while back, look, I know your
- 18:30stomach's a little, you know, a little bad.
- 18:32So take some wine for your stomach.
- 18:34His health is not all that great.
- 18:35And then on top of that, he's young.
- 18:37So Timothy really needed a lot of encouragement.
- 18:41And he had a church that was right in one of the most Pagan
- 18:44cities in the world in Ephesus, and he was the pastor of that
- 18:50church. So he had to let Timothy know,
- 18:53Timothy, you're not going to be able to lean on your own
- 18:56strength, brother. So be strong in the grace that
- 19:02is in Christ Jesus, be strong in the grace that is in him.
- 19:06That grace is not only unmerited favor for Timothy that he would
- 19:11be able to be in a place to be able to do this ministry, or
- 19:15it's not just the fact that he's saved that we're all saved by
- 19:18grace. It's not even just that, but to
- 19:22be in the grace, to be strong in the grace that is in Christ
- 19:27Jesus. That grace is also the
- 19:29enablement for Timothy to be able to do all that the Lord has
- 19:34called him and assigned him to do your ministries.
- 19:38Whatever it is that God has given you to do your ministry,
- 19:43you'll never be able to fulfill it.
- 19:44If you try to depend on your own strength and your own power,
- 19:49you'll never be able to do it. You're going to give out.
- 19:52You're going to give out. You're going to get frustrated.
- 19:54We've all done it. We've all done it.
- 19:56You get frustrated. You know you have to deal with
- 19:59some opposition. That can wear you out.
- 20:03We have tons of pastors all the time that's giving up their
- 20:06churches because they can't deal with it anymore.
- 20:10And if you're trying to do this in your own strength, I don't
- 20:13care what your ministry is, You will not be able to do it.
- 20:17If you're dependent on your own strength, your own wisdom, your
- 20:21own logic, your own knowledge. You need the grace that is in
- 20:26Christ Jesus. You need to grace this in Christ
- 20:31Jesus. Pray for that grace, that
- 20:33enablement that gives us what we need to do the ministry.
- 20:38So he's saying to Timothy and these things, verse 2 and the
- 20:41things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit
- 20:45these to faithful men. And you know what, I love that
- 20:49because when you go back and really look at what Paul was
- 20:52talking about, these things that you heard from me.
- 20:55Well, let's look at first of all, who did Paul get it from?
- 20:58Right, Who did Paul get it from? If you go to the book of
- 21:02Galatians, because you see, one of the things that we have to
- 21:05learn is that the source of what is given to you or what is said
- 21:12to you is just as important as what is said to you.
- 21:16Kids got that down already. Kids got that down.
- 21:20If you have more than one kid, I guarantee you, you've heard this
- 21:23before, Johnny, cut off the TV and do your homework.
- 21:28Who said everybody can relate to that, right?
- 21:32If you got kids, you can relate to that.
- 21:34Who said it's time to come in Now it's time for The Who said
- 21:40it's always who said? Because kids understand that the
- 21:45authority is not in what's being said.
- 21:47The authority is in who's saying it.
- 21:50If it's just my brother that's saying it, I'm ignore that.
- 21:54But if they tell me mom or dad said it, OK, I'll do it.
- 21:59Who said? And that's exactly what we need
- 22:02to understand when it comes to doctrine, when it comes to the
- 22:06word of God, when we're being preached something.
- 22:09Who said, who said? Look at what he says here in
- 22:14Galatians. This is what he says here.
- 22:17Paul is letting Timothy know, just like he's letting us know
- 22:22that what Paul is giving to Timothy, he didn't just get it
- 22:24from man. See, when Paul got saved, he
- 22:26didn't just go right to the men and ask them to teach him the
- 22:29gospel. That's not what happened.
- 22:31Paul was taught the gospel directly from the revelation of
- 22:34Jesus Christ himself. Look at what it says here in
- 22:37Galatians chapter one, verse 11. But I make known to you,
- 22:41brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not
- 22:45according to man, verse 12 For I neither received it from man nor
- 22:51was taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus
- 22:55Christ. So Paul is saying what I'm
- 22:57giving to you, Timothy. I got it from Jesus Christ.
- 23:01This is legit. This is legit, this is for real.
- 23:06You don't have to worry about questioning it.
- 23:08So this is what I want you to share with other people.
- 23:11So now we go back here to Second Timothy chapter 2 right there in
- 23:15verse 2. And he says, and the things that
- 23:18you heard from me among many witnesses, commit these things
- 23:24to faithful men who will be able to teach others also, not just
- 23:28to men. Don't just commit them to men,
- 23:31but commit them to faithful men. Commit them to other men who
- 23:35will handle this word faithfully and who will handle it
- 23:38reverently. Other men who were faithful, men
- 23:42who were seeking the Lord, faithfully seeking the Lord
- 23:46themselves, Men who were sitting under the Word, Men who are
- 23:51receiving and being fed the Word just as much as they're being
- 23:54taught the word. This has been another
- 23:58encouraging edition of Living Waters of Grace.
- 24:02Pastor Lewis Harrell has shared some good reminders for us to
- 24:05learn and walk in today as he's teaching through the books of
- 24:09First and Second Timothy. There are useful practices and
- 24:14advice that the Apostle Paul offers to Timothy in these
- 24:17books. From a fellow pastor, Paul
- 24:20imparts some wisdom to Timothy about solid leadership and what
- 24:25some of the criteria should be for leadership.
- 24:28There are specific passages directed toward men and women,
- 24:32respectively. And All in all, there's much to
- 24:35gain in coming to an awareness of God's heart for each person
- 24:39and God's purposes for each one. We're happy that you've taken
- 24:43the time today to listen and invite you to come here, the
- 24:46next edition. In the meantime, when you have
- 24:49some time to spare today, go check out our website,
- 24:53calvarychapelonline.com. There you'll find additional
- 24:57messages as well as a variety of resources and information about
- 25:02how to meet with us in person. We're also on Facebook, so you
- 25:06can be a part of what we share there as well.
- 25:09You can stay plugged in with this ministry via YouTube to
- 25:13watch previous teachings or TuneIn to our live stream.
- 25:17Living Waters of Grace is a ministry of Calvary Chapel
- 25:21Westmoreland. Before we go today, we ask that
- 25:24you share this program with others and invite them to listen
- 25:28on Grace FM at 91.7. That's all we have for today,
- 25:33but we're so glad that you've been with us.
- 25:35There's more to dig into here in First and Second Timothy, so
- 25:40let's gear up for some more great teachings from Pastor
- 25:43Lewis next time here on Living Waters of Grace.