This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
You never want to see anybody in here walking up to you asking
you for money or pushing money. That's just not something we do,
and ministry shouldn't be about that.
That's like having a covetous pastors who are always looking
to make more money. There's some pastors who are
involved in schemes outside of the church to try to make more
and more money for themselves. Well, if you're focused on that,
it's very hard to be focused on shepherding the flock.
As we continue considering the qualifications for an elder in
the 3rd chapter of First Timothy, we learned that money
can't be a focal point for an elder.
Now, this doesn't mean that an elder is called to live a
destitute life and not be responsible.
It just means that an elder is not someone who is fixated on
wealth. Money and the pursuit of money
can't be the focus of a biblical elder's life.
Maybe you're listening and you sense God is calling you to be
an elder in the church. How is your relationship with
money now? Here's Pastor Lewis in the Book
of First Timothy, chapter 3, with today's edition of Living
Waters of Grace. He says that a pastor is a man
of he's, he's a man. He's the, he's the husband of
one wife. Every husband I know is a man
and every wife that I know is a woman.
So it's not a position that's opened up for a woman.
Now, there's other ministries in the church where women are
definitely able to feel and function in, but the pastor or
the elder position is not one of them.
And here in Calvary Chapel, we don't have women pastors and
women elders. We don't have them.
We have women teachers who teach other women, who teach children,
but we don't have pastors and elders who are women.
So he goes on and he says not given to wine.
I'm sorry, before we get to not to the wine part.
I don't know why I ran there first.
But anyway, he said he must also be temperate, OK, temperate.
So that means that he must be vigilant or have self-control.
He must be a sober someone who is sober.
He's his mind is not clouded. He's not someone who is given to
extremes. You know, he's not someone who
has these drastic mood swings, quick tempered person, but he's
under control. He can control himself, his
temper and also his passions. He's a temperate man.
He's reliable, trustworthy. He keeps his head in all
situations and then he goes on. He says he must be sober minded,
which is very similar to being temperate.
But he approaches the work of the ministry with a seriousness.
This is someone who understands the value of ministry.
He understands the value of being a leader of a
congregation, the leader of sheep.
He understands what that means. Now, that doesn't mean that
he's, you know, always, you know, a stern and ever laughs or
you can't hold a regular conversation with them.
That's not what this is. What he's saying here.
What he's saying here is that he understands that the ministry
that he is called to is a ministry of seriousness about
souls. It's about winning souls and
teaching people who have given their lives to Christ the way of
the way, the way of Christianity, to give
instruction on instructional teaching on how to walk and live
as a Christian. And that's serious.
That's serious. So he understands the validity
of that. So he upholds the gospel message
with seriousness. And again, doesn't mean that he
has to lack a sense of humor. You know, some of the funniest
men that I know are pastors. You know, they're your sense of
humor. Sometimes it could be a little
dry, but it's still funny. You know, it's they're they're
very pleasant to be around. Very pleasant to be around.
Let's see the next one goes into now we're able to talk about the
the good behavior. And this is really important
because Paul almost talks about the person being a person of
good behavior, almost the way that he talks about the women
and the way that they dressed over in first Timothy 29 over
first Timothy 29. If you just turn back there just
for a second here, it says in like manner also that the women
adorn themselves in modest apparel with a propriety and
moderation, not with braided hair or gold pearls or costly
clothing, but which is proper for women professing godliness
and good works. Paul's also is almost making
that same distinction with the behavior of a pastor, and he is
saying that just as a woman has to be modest in her dress, she
has to be a woman who dresses in good taste.
That it doesn't draw attention to her and doesn't deflect
attention away from God. Neither should the man of God
behave behave himself in a way that distracts or deflects the
attention from God or the gospel and keeps his attention on him.
He shouldn't be boisterous. He shouldn't be loud and
obnoxious. He shouldn't be someone who is
rude. He shouldn't be someone who is
disgraceful or does disgraceful things.
So he should do nothing to deflect the glory of God,
reflect off the glory of God for people who are looking at him,
but they should see Christ in him and in his behavior.
He should be a person of good behavior.
Then he goes on into hospital. He should be hospitable.
And I remember when I was younger and always refer back to
that because the church was just so was kind of different than
the way it is now. And I'm sure a lot of you can
relate to that. But when I was younger, when it
came to hospital, you know, hospitality, there would be
times when other churches would come into the area to attend
services at our church and they would bring in, you know, bus
loads of people. And a lot of those people didn't
have anywhere to stay. So the Christians in that town
that was going to the church, they would open up their homes
for these people to stay. They would open up their homes.
They are being hospitable. I know here when people come
here to visit to, whether it's the teach here or the
missionaries come to give their reports and to share with us
there, we always accommodate them.
We accommodate them. We set them up in a place to, to
be either rather it's in someone's house or we pay for
the accommodations at a, at an inn.
We pay for their meals, we take care of it, make sure that
they're fed and that they have what they need.
You know, we're hospitable toward people who come and
visit. And that's really important
because we have to be willing. A pastor should be willing to
open up their home. Now, that term hospital
literally means loving the stranger.
That's what literally means loving the stranger.
So it's loving somebody that you don't really know anything
about. Now, these people are
Christians. We're talking about Christians,
other Christians, but they may be coming from other areas and
you are hospitable to them. But we're also hospital to
people who have need, who have not given their lives to Christ.
We have helped people in that way as well.
We've helped people have find housing or or help people
accommodate them for a couple nights in a inn for a couple
nights if they're homeless. So we have been hospitable
towards both those that are inside the church and those who
have been outside of the church. Romans 12 and 13 says it talks
about the distributing to the needs of the Saints and being
given to hospitality. Hebrews 13 and two says that you
we're not to forget to entertain strangers for by so or for by
doing so we unknowingly entertain angels.
So we need to also look at being hospitable.
How important that is. Now there was a case in 3rd John
where the atrophis was a man who was not hospitable.
In fact, he refused to receive the missionaries and actually
denied or did not permit anyone else in his church to receive
them. So Paul said that this person
would be dealt with. That is not the way of the Lord.
That is not the Christian way is to deny hospitality to a brother
or a sister. So we should be hospitable.
And then of course #7 says we got to be able to teach.
We got to be able to teach. Now, that able to teach is not
just to be skilled in teaching, for there's a lot of people who
are able to stand up here and project words with clarity or
communicate in a way that's eloquent.
There's a lot of people were able to do that.
But when he's talking about being able to teach, he's
talking about being able to teach the word of God, to study,
to show yourself approved someone who is a student, a
careful student in the Word of God, but not in their own
strength. Again, it has to be someone who
is willing and who knows that the teaching power does not come
from themselves, but it comes from the Holy Spirit.
You have to be someone that's given to prayer, someone that is
always calling on the help of the Holy Spirit to help you to
teach the Word of God. That's where the power is.
It's not the words that come out
of my mouth by myself, but it's when the words that come out of
my mouth is empowered by the Holy Spirit.
That's what touches hearts. That's what touches hearts.
So we have to be able to teach. And you know what, every pastor,
you know, everyone who teaches does not necessarily have to be
a pastor there. You know, we have teachers in
the church that are not pastors. They're teachers.
They're teachers, good teachers, qualified teachers, able
teachers, but every teacher is not a pastor, but every pastor
has to be a teacher. Every pastor has to be able to
teach the word of God. And we go on here and it says
that I also a pastor, must not be given to wine.
Now we get to the wine part. Pastor has to be not given to
wine. And what that means is not under
the control of wine. The Bible actually does not
teach that we should be abstinent, Total, total
abstinence from wine. The Bible does not teach that.
But what the Bible does teach on is that it teaches against
drunkenness. It teaches against the excess
use of wine. It teaches against that.
So a man of God is not prohibited from drinking wine.
Wine was a big part of the culture back in the Jewish
culture. It's a big part of that.
And part, and the reason, well, the main reason was actually is
because the water was so bad. The water was so bad.
I mean, it was, it had microorganisms in it that would
cause people to get sick. And it had all kind of things in
it. And, and actually, they would
put a little wine in the water to purify the water.
Wine actually helped to purify the water.
So that's what they would drink wine.
Now, it wouldn't be strong. It would be, you know, just a, a
weak amount of wine in the water just to be able to purify so
that they can drink it. So it wasn't always used for
ceremonial celebrations and things of that nature.
But we are clearly taught that we are not to use wine to access
or we're not to use it to the point where we're becoming
drunk. And in fact, some versions of
this may actually say, you know, that we're not to be drunkard.
So we don't use that term a whole lot, but that's exactly
what some of the term, maybe someone has that version where
it says that, you know, we're not to be drunkards, not to be
drunkards. We also know that wine could be
used for medicinal purposes. First Timothy 5 and 23, Paul
tells Timothy, look, take a little bit of wine for your
stomach. You having issues with your
stomach, Drink a little wine for that stomach, you know, so it
can be used for medicinal purposes.
But we've also seen wine used in a way that could cause damage,
like if you go back into the day of Noah, for example, Noah, the
excess use of wine caused his his son to sin, his son to sin,
his son Ham that caused the sin Lot drank too much wine and he
became the father of two very Pagan nations, Moab and Ammon.
And it was after he had gotten drunk.
It was actually incest. And I know we talked about that
here before, but it was incest. He fathered two children to his
two daughters while he was on the influence of wine.
So like I said, the Bible does not teach that you have to
totally abstain from drinking, but it doesn't encourage that
you drink either. Doesn't encourage it as well.
A pastor should be aware of the type of message that he is
sending when he's drinking. Got to be aware of the fact that
he is. An example could cause someone
to stumble. Romans 1421 says it's good to
neither eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your
brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.
And then he also says that we shouldn't be strikers or
nonviolent. We should be nonviolent.
We shouldn't be people who are easily pushed into a physical
fight. You know, it's probably not a
good look if you walk out the door one saying I'm on the
corner beating somebody up, you know, I mean, you know, getting
into an argument with somebody and I just start throwing
punches, you know, because I'm, you know, because I get that
that's probably not a good look. Probably not.
You probably wouldn't want to hear from me again up here.
So we really should not be easily provoked into fighting.
We shouldn't be fighting. All right.
So this is what Paul is saying and the reason why he said this.
You know, I mean, it might sound like it's kind of wild, but, you
know, back in the day, you know, some of those prophets and some
of those teachers back in the days, they would get physical
with the posers. They would pull out patches of
hair from the beards and strike them and hit them with sticks
and things of that nature because they weren't in
agreement with what they were teaching or that they were
sinning. They would actually strike
people. So it wasn't, you know, far off
that Paul talks about this. But we should not be verbally or
physically contentious. We shouldn't be contentious with
anybody and always looking for a fight, shouldn't be quick
tempered in that way at all, shouldn't be prone to that type
of violence. And then ten, he says, not
greedy for money, not greedy for money.
And you would think that this is something that you shouldn't
have to talk about. But you know, the desire to
obtain more and more money can happen before you know it.
You know, when money starts to be an object for you, before you
know it, almost everything that you do is geared around you
getting money is geared around you getting money.
You know, people talk about is it unlawful to gamble or to do
things of that nature? But when you think about it,
when someone is given to that to the point where they're losing
control, it's because the money has become almost, it's come
like an idol and they're constantly seeking more and more
and more of it. We also understand that the, you
know, the people who are in the ministry for money, you know,
are, are, are in it for the wrong reason.
I mean, if a person goes in to be a pastor because they're
trying to be rich, then they're going into it for the wrong
reason. We shouldn't run our churches
like corporations where we care more about revenue than we do
about souls. We can't do that.
It's about sharing the gospel and getting the gospel message
out for to win souls. And once those souls are one, to
teach them in the ways of the Lord to disciple those souls,
not to make money, not to make money.
We don't even like pass around plates and things of that
nature, you know, trying to get, you know, money or push people
to get money. I have been in churches where
people have taken multiple offerings because they didn't
get what they wanted the first time.
So they take multiple offerings to get what they want.
I've seen that happen, but in this church I've never seen
money be the main issue. Won't teach about money as being
the main issue. If we feel like the week before,
well the offering was a little low.
So this week I'm a teach on money.
I've seen churches to do it so thank God we don't do that.
We don't even have offerings in here.
You never want to see anybody in here walking up to you asking
you for money or pushing money. That's just not something we do,
and ministry shouldn't be about that.
That's like having a covetous pastors who are always looking
to make more money. There's some pastors who are
involved in schemes outside of the church to try to make more
and more money for themselves. Well, if you're focused on that,
it's very hard to be focused on shepherding the flock.
It's going to be hard to take time to study and to be in
prayer. If you're always thinking about
your next scheme to make money, it takes over.
It takes over. And the more you get, the more
you want. That's just the trap of the
devil. That's the trap of the devil.
And that's something that we have to try to avoid so that we
don't get in that trap. And we it's, it's circular.
It just keeps you moving and going and going and going.
And first Peter, in first Peter chapter 5, chapter 5, it says
the elders who are among you. I exhort I am a fellow elder and
a witness of the suffering of Christ, and also a partaker of
the glory that will be revealed. He says, shepherd the flock of
God, which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion,
but willingly, not by dishonest gain.
That means trying to do things to bring money in so that I can
gain more money, but eagerly, nor as being Lords over those
entrusted to you. So we should not be always given
to looking for and trying to accumulate more and more money.
Calvin had an interesting quote. He says, I repeat, that the man
who will not bear poverty patiently.
And willingly will inevitably, inevitably become the victim of
mean and sordid covetousness. So we become victims to
covetousness when we do not allow ourselves to just trust in
the Lord, to make him our Jehovah Jireh.
And I can tell you by doing that here that Lord has been
faithful. He has been faithful.
He's taking care of this house, He's taking care of the house
and the needs of the house. As long as we, I've heard, you
know, years ago, I was always taught that when we take care of
God's business, he'll take care of ours.
And I found that to be true. I found out to be true.
So we go on. He says 1.
He says not dumb, he said not greedy for money, but gentle.
He should be gentle. You know, not someone who is
impatient or someone who is not approachable, but he should be
gentle. It should not be a problem to
approach a pastor. He should be able to listen to
others and listen to others opinions, listen to criticisms,
opposing views without overreacting or reacting in a
defensive or an aggressive manner.
But to be gentle with people, be gentle with each other, be
gentle with the flock. He also says that you have to
allow others to serve in the church.
And this is one of the things that I really love about here at
Calvary Chapel that we give those who we see that God is
putting a passion on your heart for ministry.
We give you the room to be able to go and to serve in that
ministry. And not only do we not interfere
with your serving, but we are a covering and not a lid.
We support you and encourage you in that ministry, but we don't
stunt your growth in that ministry.
We don't stunt how big that ministry can grow to or the
things that you can do in that ministry.
We don't stunt the growth of your ministry.
We encourage you long as it's a blessing.
It lines up with the Word of God.
People are being blessed by it. Souls are being touched by it.
People are getting into the Word of God through it.
We have no issue. Only want to know what can we do
to help, how can we assist you? What resources can we give you?
But we're not going to be a lid and try to stop your
progression. And then in #12 says that he's
not quarrelsome. The man of God shouldn't be
caution. We talked about that a little
bit, and that's talking about fighting.
But this is more verbally fighting, always being
contentious with someone, verbally getting into arguments
and things of that nature. And that, that's, that that's,
that's kind of prideful. You know, when, when, when a man
of God is always being defensive and getting into arguments with
people, whether it's about the word or about something that's
happening here, you know, like we can't listen to hear.
If you feel like you have an idea about how to do something a
little better than what we're doing it, you know, absolutely,
of course, through prayer, through much prayer and
supplication, that's when we actually move on doing things.
But absolutely, we listen and hear what people want to share,
what people want to share. We want to do that so we're not
being argumentative, but the people who are being
argumentative always getting into disputes that nature, that
can be a problem. Wheresby says this, he says
short tempers do not make for long ministries.
You know, you got a short temper, you'll probably have a
short ministry as well. In verse three, he says do not
be covetous. And we talked about that.
And that has to do with someone who was a lover of money.
This has been another encouraging edition of Living
Waters of Grace. Pastor Lewis Harrell has shared
some good reminders for us to learn and walk in today as he's
teaching through the books of First and Second Timothy.
There are useful practices and advice that the Apostle Paul
offers to Timothy in these books.
From a fellow pastor, Paul imparts some wisdom to Timothy
about solid leadership and what some of the criteria should be
for leadership. There are specific passages
directed towards men and women, respectively.
And All in all, there's much to gain in coming to an awareness
of God's heart for each person and God's purposes for each one.
We're happy that you've taken the time today to listen.
We invite you to come here the next edition.
In the meantime, when you have some time to spare today, go
check out our website, calvarychapelonline.com.
There you'll find additional messages as well as a variety of
resources and information about how to meet with us in person.
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ministry of Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.
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That's all we have for today, but we're so glad that you've
been with us. There's more to dig into here in
First and Second Timothy, so let's gear up for some more
great teachings from Pastor Lewis next time here on Living
Waters of Grace.