Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace - 01.09.26

Transcript

Living Waters of Grace - 01.09.26 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

0:04
This is living. Waters of Grace, the teaching
0:07
ministry of Lewis Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary
0:10
Chapel of Westmoreland County in Greensburg, PA.
0:15
Now here's Pastor Lewis as he continues teaching through God's
0:18
Word. I love the fact that we can send
0:39
out a text or ask someone to do something and it's done and they
0:45
don't do it because of what He asked me or she had.
0:47
They do it because they're serving the Lord.
0:50
And whenever you're serving the Lord, doing anything, it's not a
0:53
job, it's not inconvenient. All you got to do is think about
0:57
all He done for you. It's very easy to go out and do
0:59
something for the Lord. Love agape, love unconditional
1:04
sacrificial love. Seek to give, not to gain.
1:08
What turns a simple task into an act of worship?
1:12
In today's message, Pastor Lewis celebrates the joy of seeing
1:16
someone serve the moment they're asked.
1:18
They don't move because a person asked.
1:20
They move because they're serving the Lord.
1:23
When you truly see all Jesus has done for you, no request feels
1:28
inconvenient. It's no longer a job.
1:31
It becomes an offering. Love like His makes service a
1:35
delight, not a duty. How do you turn everyday tasks
1:39
into offerings of love for Jesus?
1:43
Now here's Pastor Lewis in First Timothy Chapter 6 with today's
1:47
edition of Living Waters of Grace.
1:50
Those who desire to be rich, they fall into temptation and a
1:54
snare. And we know that those things
1:56
all have to do with what's going on the inside of us.
1:59
And the snare are pitfalls that we fall into.
2:01
And it says and have fallen to many foolish and harmful lusts
2:05
which drown men in destruction. Now it's a picture of a man
2:11
being taken down underwater, being taken down and held down,
2:16
weighted down by destruction by their lust and by perdition, by
2:23
their lust. They got so many things that
2:25
they're lusting for. It's like a weight on them
2:28
because they can never attain it all.
2:30
So it's just constant, constant worrying and constant striving
2:34
for something that they can never really achieve and be
2:36
satisfied with. And it's like a weight that
2:39
takes them down and holds them and drowns them in it.
2:43
And then it says here in verse 10, And this is a very well used
2:47
Scripture, but probably one of the most quoted scriptures that
2:52
we have in the New Testament. It says for the love of money is
2:57
a root of all kinds of evil. Now money is not evil.
3:03
God created money. Money is not evil.
3:07
He said the love of it is what's evil, because once we develop a
3:12
love for money, it becomes an idol and we put it in a position
3:17
that's even higher than we put God, and we begin to do all the
3:23
kind of things in order to obtain money because of our love
3:28
for money. And it said it is not the root
3:31
of all kinds of evil. The Bible says it is a root of
3:35
all kinds of evil. There are many different paths
3:38
and ways to end up on an evil path.
3:41
Money is just one of them. Money is just one of them.
3:44
But it is indeed a way to end up on an evil path.
3:48
The love of money, for which some have strayed from the faith
3:53
in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many
3:58
sorrows. The love of money.
4:01
And what is so sad about that? Because the love of money leads
4:05
men into many, many ways of error.
4:10
Many ways of error. The desired riches are traps, it
4:14
leads us into bondages and it causes the Word of God to become
4:18
unfruitful, being choked out the cares of this world and the
4:23
deceitfulness of riches and the desires of other things.
4:26
That's the word speaks about in Mark chapter 4, verse 18, which
4:30
in the parable to solar, it chokes out the truth of the word
4:34
and instead people focus on the cares of this world and the
4:38
deceitfulness of riches, and riches are deceitful and the
4:42
desire for other things. These foolish and harmful lusts
4:46
will take us down. And it has destroyed many of
4:49
people. It's the love of money that has
4:51
destroyed marriages. It's destroyed companies, it's
4:55
destroyed relationships, it destroys families.
4:59
Someone gets a trust or something and and you know,
5:02
someone passes and when it's time to go read the will, Oh my
5:05
goodness, people begin. I mean, they stop speaking
5:11
because they got more than they got.
5:15
It breaks up families. People stop speaking for years
5:19
over money and the bad thing about it and I've watched this
5:24
happen before when it says here for some have strayed from the
5:29
faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with
5:33
many sorrows. There are so many people that
5:38
I've seen I've witnessed myself that has a gift given by God to
5:45
either sing. There are great musicians or
5:50
very gifted communicators of the Word of God, and they may start
5:55
out using that gift to serve the Lord.
6:00
They start out using that gift to serve the Lord.
6:03
But as the love of money creeps into their hearts, because
6:07
somebody said to them, you could be making so much more money.
6:11
You could be driving so much of A better car.
6:14
You could be living in such a bigger house, You could be
6:16
having so many more things at your disposure.
6:21
And they begin to leave the faith and begin to sing for the
6:26
world. And I've watched people as their
6:30
lives crumble as a result of that, their lives crumble.
6:36
You could probably name many artists that are very popular
6:41
who have started off in the gospel, ended up singing for the
6:45
world, and made shipwreck of their faith and of their life.
6:51
Made shipwreck. Guard your ministry.
6:57
Guard the anointing that God has given you.
7:01
Don't use it frivolously. It cannot be shared in the world
7:06
and with the faith. It's to serve God.
7:12
It is to serve God. He gave it to us for that
7:14
purpose and they pierced themselves through.
7:17
And that's like a picture of a bait.
7:20
Somebody hangs up bait over an open pit and a wild animal
7:25
comes, and because he's so driven by wanting that and the
7:30
love for that flesh, he's so driven by that.
7:33
He takes a leap for that bait and he falls into the pit, which
7:41
has a stake that he falls onto and pierces himself through.
7:47
But he was deceived by the bait, and that's exactly what the love
7:52
of money is. It's like a bait.
7:54
People who sit in casinos all night long gambling because of
7:59
love of money. People become drug dealers
8:02
because of the love of money. People become liars in business
8:07
and fraud because of the love of money.
8:10
Cheat on insurance, Medicare, fraud and so many other things
8:14
because of the love of money. They choose the love of money
8:20
over family. So the family never sees them
8:23
anymore because they're spending all their time chasing money.
8:28
It's a very sad thing. So then we go on to verse 11.
8:31
It says, but you old man of God, flee these things.
8:35
And I love the way Paul makes that change.
8:37
He makes that difference. He was initially talking about
8:41
ungodly people and people doing ungodly things, but he said, but
8:46
not you, Timothy, man of God, you're not going to do that.
8:53
Timothy. I want you to flee these things.
8:56
Flee what things? All the things that we just got
8:58
finished talking about. Flee the love of money, flee
9:02
false doctrine. Flee these arguments and these
9:06
debates over over empty things. Flee those things.
9:10
Flee the desire to be rich, Timmy, flee from those things.
9:14
The Bible tells us that we should flee from youthful lust,
9:19
flee those things, run away from those things.
9:21
The title of this message was actually flee, follow, and
9:25
fight. Because throughout our entire
9:28
Christianity, throughout our entire journey through this life
9:33
of being a Christian, we're going to have to flee from some
9:36
things, follow after the right things, and fight to stand on
9:42
what God has given us to stand on.
9:45
It can all be summed up in those three things, but in this one he
9:48
says flee, flee. That means get out of there,
9:52
flee away from those things, turn from those things, go the
9:54
opposite direction of those things.
9:58
And then he says and pursue. And he's going to talk about now
10:01
what to pursue. Pursue righteousness, pursue
10:06
godliness. Righteousness is a right
10:08
standing in Christ and personal integrity, godliness, living
10:13
holy, having a conduct that displays Jesus Christ, that
10:19
witnesses with Jesus Christ faith, which is faithfulness,
10:23
being dependable in the faith and being trustworthy.
10:27
I love the fact that we can send out a text or ask someone to do
10:32
something and it's done and they don't do it because of what he
10:36
asked me or she had. They do it because they're
10:38
serving the Lord, and whenever you're serving the Lord, doing
10:42
anything, it's not a job, it's not inconvenient.
10:45
All you got to do is think about all He done for you.
10:47
It's very easy to go out and do something for the Lord.
10:51
Love agape, love unconditional sacrificial love.
10:55
Seek to give, not to gain. According to Warren Weirsby.
10:59
Seek to give and not to gain. That's what godliness does.
11:03
And also patience. Patience is that endurance, that
11:07
perseverance, that steadfastness even through the tough times of
11:12
testing and suffering and affliction, He says have
11:16
patience through those things because when you get to the end
11:18
of those things, God have a blessing.
11:21
He's adding things to you. He's adding things, adding
11:25
things that will help you to be able to live the Christian life.
11:30
Hebrews 1036 says for you have need of patience, that after you
11:34
have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.
11:37
And then gentleness or meekness, which is power under control.
11:41
It's a form of self-control. Those are the things that he
11:46
says that we should be following after.
11:50
And then he says here in verse 12, he says fight the good fight
11:55
of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also
11:58
called and have confessed the good confession in the presence
12:02
of many witnesses. He says lay hold on eternal
12:06
life, lay hold on the Christian life, on all of these values, on
12:10
all of these things that pursue godliness.
12:13
He said lay hold on those things, grab on to them, grab on
12:16
to those things. Let that be our life, even in
12:20
Timothy as you have confessed the good confession in the
12:23
presence of many witnesses. Verse 13 says I urge you and
12:27
what he's saying here is I charge you or I command you in
12:30
the sight of God who gives life to all things and before Christ
12:35
Jesus who witnessed a good confession before Pontius
12:38
Pilate. So it's not just us that he sent
12:41
and have made a good confession. Jesus Christ himself is our
12:46
example of one who made a good confession in the face of all
12:52
death and evil. When he stood before Pontius
12:55
Pilate back in Matthew chapter 27, verse 11, and Pilate asked
13:00
him, are you the King of the Jews?
13:03
Are you the King? Jesus said, you've said right,
13:07
You said correctly. He didn't dodge it, He admitted
13:12
it. He made that confession before
13:14
Pilate. You have said right.
13:18
So he said, make that that good confession that even Jesus
13:21
Christ gave before Pilate. And then in verse 14, he said
13:24
that you keep this commandment without spot blameless until our
13:31
Lord Jesus Christ appearing now. So when you talk about making a
13:35
good confession, we have to think about what is it that
13:39
would stop us from making a good confession before the world?
13:44
What is this that stop us from making our profession our
13:46
proclamation? Is there anything that pushes
13:49
you off to the edge and closes your mouth and causes you to be
13:53
quiet or to hide who you are or to deny who you are?
13:58
Is there anything that the world could threaten or anything that
14:01
the world could put before you that could cause you to not lay
14:06
hold on what the Lord has given you this life?
14:13
And those are the things that we pray about.
14:15
Lord, I'm weak in this area. Help me, Holy Spirit, help me.
14:21
This is an area, Lord, that causes me to fear.
14:24
Lord, strengthen me, strengthen me.
14:28
We can go to him for any of those things and He'll give it
14:31
to us because we're his children.
14:34
He loves us. He wants us to have a good
14:36
confession before the world, but sometimes we don't.
14:42
We don't have to feel condemned because we fall short of that.
14:45
We go to the Lord and we ask him for it.
14:50
So then in verse 15, I love this part.
14:52
It's probably my favorite part because Paul basically ain't
14:54
doing him a worship in here. He's just worshipping straight
14:58
up worship. He's preaching and I love to
15:00
hear Paul preach. He says which he will manifest
15:04
in his own time, meaning Jesus Christ.
15:07
He will manifest his own presence in his own time.
15:11
He who is now listen to this, listen to this doxology here.
15:16
He who is the blessed and only potentate, that means the only
15:21
sovereign. He's a sovereign and we don't
15:25
have to be afraid of kings because Jesus Christ is the King
15:28
of kings and Lord of Lords. He's telling Timothy, don't be
15:34
afraid of whoever's in power there in Ephesus.
15:38
Don't be afraid of that, because you serve the King of Kings and
15:43
you serve the Lord of Lords. Who you answer to is much higher
15:50
and greater than anybody that those who are above you answer
15:54
to. We should remember that and
15:58
rejoice on that. Even if we know we're on the job
16:02
and someone's trying to do us harm.
16:04
I don't have to worry about that.
16:05
You are not the king. You are just a king.
16:10
I serve the King of Kings and we can go to him.
16:15
And then he goes on. In verse 16 he says who alone
16:19
has immortality? He's preaching.
16:21
He alone has life. He there is no death in him.
16:24
He's alpha and Omega. He's beginning and he is the
16:27
end. He's the 1st and he is the last.
16:30
He's everlasting. He's everlasting.
16:34
He alone has immortality. Dwelling in unapproachable
16:38
light, whom no man has seen or can see, to him be honor and
16:46
everlasting power. Amen.
16:49
Unapproachable light. The Bible says that God is
16:56
light, and in him is no darkness at all.
17:02
Not that there's some darkness in some areas.
17:05
He said there's no darkness at all.
17:06
There's nothing that taints the glory of God.
17:10
Nothing contain it. He's pure light.
17:15
And then he goes in verse 17, he says command those who were rich
17:19
in this present age not to be halty nor to trust in uncertain
17:25
riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things
17:32
to enjoy. So we don't trust in uncertain
17:35
riches, but we trust in the living God.
17:38
But he says those who were rich, now, as we hear that, we're
17:42
probably thinking around here, we're probably thinking, well,
17:45
wait a minute, that's not us, because I sure ain't rich.
17:48
You know that ain't me. So this must be for somebody
17:50
else. Actually, when you think about
17:54
it, those of us that are in this country are much more rich than
17:59
what most people are in other places around this world.
18:04
Just about everybody here has a house.
18:07
Just about everybody here has a car, clothing, shoes on our
18:11
feet. Just about everybody here can
18:13
walk to a refrigerator and get something out of it to eat.
18:17
Just about everybody here can at the very least go to McDonald's
18:20
or Burger King and get whatever they want to eat.
18:23
Just about everybody here, there's no one that's that
18:27
destitute here. So when he's talking about the
18:30
rich, that's pretty much all of us, because compared to other
18:35
people who live in ways that you can't even imagine, we are rich.
18:42
We are rich. So he goes on, he says here, nor
18:47
to trust in uncertain riches. Anything that's temporary,
18:52
anything that's temporal is uncertain riches.
18:54
Money is uncertain riches. You can have money today and not
18:57
have it tomorrow. People can come in and steal
19:01
your money, take your assets. People can take.
19:03
You can't trust in that. You can't trust in those things.
19:10
Bible says that that we have to make sure that what we trust in
19:17
are things that have eternal value.
19:20
Those are the things that we trust in.
19:23
And then he said he who gives richly all things to enjoy.
19:27
God gives us things to enjoy, but not to abuse and not to
19:32
worship, but He gives us all things richly to enjoy.
19:39
Let them do good that they may be rich in good works.
19:42
Now this is the true, this is richness and this is what God is
19:46
asking for us to do good and good works, ready to give,
19:51
willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for
19:57
the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life over in
20:03
Matthew chapter 6. Verse 19 to 20 says do not lay
20:07
up for yourself treasures on earth, where the moth and rust
20:10
destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
20:13
But lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where
20:16
neither the moth nor the rust destroys, and where the thieves
20:20
do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is,
20:23
there your heart will be also. Those are treasures in heaven
20:27
that are eternal. They're not temporary.
20:30
So we don't have to trust in anything that doesn't last.
20:34
And then over in verse 20, we're about to finish you up.
20:37
He says, O Timothy, guard what was committed to your trust,
20:43
avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of
20:47
what is falsely called knowledge.
20:50
He says, guard what is committed to your trust.
20:53
What was committed to Timothy's trust was his ministry, the word
20:57
of God, the gospel, just like it was committed to Paul.
21:00
Paul said this word was committed to me back in chapter
21:04
1, and here he's saying it's committed to your trust,
21:07
Timothy, because I've given it to you.
21:09
And Timothy, I've given it to you just the way it was given to
21:12
me. It's in the same condition.
21:15
You know, it's always a blessing when someone gives you something
21:18
and you can give that to someone else and it's in the same
21:21
condition as the way that you received it.
21:22
That's how we should receive the Word of God.
21:25
We should receive the Word of God, the doctrines of God, when
21:28
we give it to somebody else. We should give it the same way
21:32
it was given to us, as completely, as full with grace,
21:36
mercy and righteousness as it was given to us, avoiding the
21:42
profane of idle babblings. Forget those empty things, those
21:44
worldly empty words, Timothy. Stay away from those things.
21:47
Avoid those things and what is so falsely called knowledge.
21:52
Now back in that particular time, there was a heresy called
21:55
narcissism that was starting to to get into the church, trying
21:57
to make its way into the church. And narcissism is basically just
22:01
a belief that all matter is evil and and that people can be saved
22:05
basically through knowledge. And that's why all these
22:08
theories and things were coming up.
22:10
Stay away from that because the Bible tells us that we are saved
22:13
by grace through faith in Christ Jesus alone.
22:18
That's how we are saved, not through just knowledge of things
22:22
that has empty value. 21 By professing it, by professing
22:26
those empty things, those things, the science or falsely
22:29
called knowledge, by professing those things, some have strayed
22:34
concerning the faith. People got into those things, it
22:38
started to get into them, and next thing you know, they have
22:40
strayed away from the faith. They're not preaching the gospel
22:43
anymore. They're preaching a facsimile of
22:46
the gospel, something that's not even connected to true faith.
22:51
And then these last four words are very powerful.
22:53
Grace be with you. Amen.
22:56
Grace, this is not just the unmerited favor of God, but this
23:00
is the power of God to be able to do all those things that Paul
23:05
has given Timothy instructions to do.
23:07
We all need grace to be able to walk out the things of the
23:12
gospel we need grace to do. We can't do it in our own
23:14
strength. We can't do it.
23:16
You can have a whole list of things and you can try on your
23:18
own strength to go out there and live it on your own.
23:20
It won't work. We need the power of the Holy
23:23
Spirit to enable us to do these things.
23:26
And this is what Paul was telling Timothy.
23:28
Be with you, and that's plural. That means to be with you all.
23:33
So as we prepare, I just want us to know and remember the fact
23:37
that Jesus Christ gave up the glory that he had in heaven and
23:43
sacrificed his life to bring us this gospel truth, to bring it
23:48
to us so that we can walk it out, to bring it to us, so that
23:51
we can live it out. He gave it to us to do.
23:57
Thank you for tuning in to Living Waters of Grace with
24:00
Pastor Lewis Harold. We're currently in the books of
24:03
First and Second Timothy. Some of the things included in
24:07
these New Testament letters from Paul are that the young and
24:11
newly established Pastor Timothy was being encouraged to hold
24:16
fast to what was true. He was challenged to confront
24:20
and address the false teachers that were rising up.
24:23
He was also reminded to accept his calling to the ministry with
24:27
gratefulness and to address the happenings going on in the
24:31
Ephesian church. Paul was imparting his
24:35
experience and knowledge to the next generation.
24:39
Timothy was receptive to learning and gleaning what he
24:42
could from Paul's wisdom. This is how it should be in
24:46
ministry across multiple generations.
24:49
Those who have lived a little more life should be open to
24:52
sharing their successes and also things they've learned along the
24:56
way that we're not a win. The younger generations coming
25:00
up can learn and appreciate much from those ahead of them and
25:04
perhaps avoid some of the same pitfalls that their mentors
25:08
worked through mentoring. It's a beautiful relationship
25:14
when the hearts are in the right place to learn and grow.
25:17
You trust that you're in a community where this is
25:20
happening. Older ones providing advice and
25:23
wisdom and each side learning and growing from one another.
25:27
This certainly was the case for Paul and Timothy, as they were
25:31
comrades for the sake of the gospel.
25:34
For more information on where this teaching came from, go to
25:38
calvarychapelonline.com. There you can also learn about
25:42
our service times to join us in person.
25:45
This has been Living Waters of Grace.