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.
If God said thou shalt not fornicate, you can't just go
move in with somebody because you say, well, when women we're
in love and we're going to get married, but then get married
and then move in and listen, I'm not standing here acting like I
haven't committed that sin. That was me.
When you know better, you do better.
You can repent, you can turn around, you can change.
When you know the Holy Spirit prompts you and lets you know
that what you're doing is wrong, you can turn from that sin and
play by the rules. Wow, that's pretty rare.
Pastor Lewis was just very vulnerable in sharing his own
struggles and living in obedience to God's Word.
And Pastor Lewis also said when you know better, you do better.
Would to God that this would actually be the case for each of
us as followers of Jesus when we come into a better awareness of
what God's Word teaches. May each of us be people who
obey what we learn. And honestly, that's the risk of
listening to teachings like this.
Once you've heard, you're accountable.
Now here's Pastor Lewis in second Timothy chapter one.
We have today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
Therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. Be strong in the grace that is
in Christ Jesus. So once again, Paul makes it
clear to Timothy. Timothy, I know that you've been
a little timid, sometimes a little fearful.
We talked about that earlier in chapter 1.
He's been a little fearful, a little timid.
We also know that Timothy, his health wasn't all that great.
You know, Paul had told him a while back, look, I know your
stomach's a little, you know, a little bad.
So take some wine for your stomach.
His health is not that great. And then on top of that, he's
young. So Timothy really needed a lot
of encouragement. And he had a church that was
right in one of the most Pagan cities in the world in Ephesus.
And he was the pastor of that church.
So he had to let Timothy know. Timothy, you're not going to be
able to lean on your own strength, brother.
So be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Be strong in the grace that is in him.
That grace is not only unmerited favor for Timothy that he would
be able to be in a place to be able to do this ministry or it's
not just the fact that he's saved that we're all saved by
grace. It's not even just that, but to
be in the grace, to be strong in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. That grace is also the
enablement for Timothy to be able to do all that the Lord has
called him and assigned him to do your ministries.
Whatever it is that God has given you to do your ministry,
you'll never be able to fulfill it.
If you try to depend on your own strength and your own power,
you'll never be able to do it. You're going to get out, you're
going to give out, you're going to get frustrated.
We've all done it. We've all done it.
You get frustrated, you know you have to deal with some
opposition that can wear you out.
We have tons of pastors all the time that's giving up the
churches because they can't deal with it anymore.
And if you're trying to do this in your own strength, I don't
care what your ministry is, you will not be able to do it if
you're dependent on your own strength, your own wisdom, your
own logic, your own knowledge. You need the grace that is in
Christ Jesus. You need the grace that's in
Christ Jesus. Pray for that grace, that
enablement that gives us what we need to do the ministry.
So he's saying to Timothy and these things, verse 2 and the
things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit
these to faithful men. And you know what?
I love that because when you go back and really look at what
Paul is talking about, these things that you heard from me.
Well, let's look at first of all, who did Paul get it from,
right? Who did Paul get it from?
If you go to the book of Galatians, because you see one
of the things that we have to learn is that the source of what
is given to you or what is said to you is just as important as
what is said to you. Kids got that down already.
Kids got that down. If you have more than one kid, I
guarantee you, you've heard this before.
Johnny, cut off the TV and do your homework.
Who said Everybody can relate to that, right?
You got kids you can relate to that.
Who said It's time to come in now It's time for The Who said?
It's always Who said? Because kids understand that the
authority is not in what's being said.
The authority is in who's saying it.
If it's just my brother that's saying it, I'm ignore that.
But if they tell me mom or dad said it, OK, I'll do it.
Who said, and that's exactly what we need to understand when
it comes to doctrine, when it comes to the word of God, when
we're being preached something. Who said, who said?
Look at what he says here in Galatians.
This is what he says here. Paul is letting Timothy know,
just like he's letting us know that what Paul is giving to
Timothy, he didn't just get it from man.
See, when Paul got saved, he didn't just go right to the men
and ask them to teach him the gospel.
That's not what happened. Paul was taught the gospel
directly from the revelation of Jesus Christ himself.
Look at what it says here in Galatians chapter one, verse 11.
But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which
was preached by me is not according to man, verse 12 For I
neither received it from man nor was taught it, but it came
through the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So Paul's saying what I'm giving to you, Timothy.
I got it from Jesus Christ. This is legit.
This is legit, this is for real. You don't have to worry about
questioning it. So this is what I want you to
share with other people. So now we go back here to Second
Timothy chapter 2 right there in verse 2.
And he says, and the things that you heard from me among many
witnesses, commit these things to faithful men who will be able
to teach others also, not just to men.
Don't just commit them to men, but commit them to faithful men.
Commit them to other men who will handle this word faithfully
and who will handle it reverently.
Other men who were faithful men who were seeking the Lord,
faithfully seeking the Lord themselves, men who were sitting
under the Word, men who are receiving and being fed the Word
just as much as they're being taught the Word.
It is so important to be in ministry and to continue to sit
under and be fed the Word of God and be fed the Word of God.
You know there's times when your hunger needs to be fulfilled and
your thirst needs to be quenched for the Word.
So this is a faithful man. This is a faithful man or
faithful woman and we have great teachers here.
We have great teachers that we have men who come here and teach
on Wednesday nights that that are just spirit filled women who
are teaching on Sundays, Spirit filled.
So many opportunities where the Word of God is being given out
in the same form and the right keep in the form of it and
keeping the pattern of it is being given out and that word is
also being given to others. Others are being taught.
Others are being taught because there's faithful men that are
receiving the word. If I am not ministering one
Sunday, or if I'm not ministering on a Wednesday
night, man, that is such an opportunity for me to come and
sit and receive because God still wants to speak to me.
I can't teach kids. I can't teach anybody if I'm not
being fed myself. I have to be fed.
So he says give it to faithful men who will be able to teach
others also. And that's able to teach doesn't
just mean able to communicate it able to teach also means able to
learn, able to learn or willing to learn, even more important,
willing to continue to learn. Then he goes on verse three.
You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier.
So he's saying here, if you look at it and we put it all in
sequence, we're saying here he says be strong in the grace that
is in Christ Jesus and the things that you have heard among
many witnesses, commit thou to faithful men.
So now from this point in the next couple verses, he is going
to explain to us what are some of the characteristics of a
faithful man, a faithful pastor, a faithful servant, a faithful
Christian. What are some of the
characteristics? And the first one, it's going to
give you 3 back-to-back. And the first one is here, right
here in verse three. He says you therefore must
endure hardship as a good soldier.
As a good soldier, you must endure hardship as a good
soldier. What is a good soldier?
A good soldier is someone, a soldier that is committed to his
mission. He's committed to his mission.
He is somebody who understands what he's called to do and will
fulfill that mission at all costs.
Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, as all of those, they all had
missions, they all had purpose and they had to be faithful to
that mission, be faithful to that purpose that helps keep our
country safe. And he's saying to Timothy,
Timothy, they must be able to endure hardships as a good
soldier. That endure hardships mean to be
able to share in the hardships, be able to take their place with
the hardships, you know, take their share of it, of the
hardship as a good soldier. And then he goes on, He says,
here no one engaged in warfare and tangles himself with the
affairs of this life. And it's interesting because
there he's basically looking at, let's separate what it means to
be a civilian from what it means, OK, to be in the
military. If someone's in the military,
they cannot live the way they live in the military like they
do in civilian life. Just like you can't live both
lives if you're a Christian, you can't live like the world, can't
live like the world. You can't be entangled in the
things of the world. And that entanglement means to
be twisted. It means to be twisted or to be
caught up. We can't be caught up or twisted
in the things of the world. We can't be involved in things
that's going to take our focus or our time away from the
gospel. If they do start to take our
time away from the gospel, that's a work of the enemy
trying to defeat us, trying to cause us to become ineffective.
We can't be both in the world and be a soldier for the Lord at
the same time. There's too many entanglements.
There's a lot of entanglements. Drugs is an entanglement.
Alcohol is an entanglement. Being overly involved and get
rich schemes are entanglements. Being involved in the cares of
the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other
things, as it says in Mark 419, those things are entanglements
and it really brings us into perdition and destruction.
It destroys us and it destroys our testimony.
Paul said, Timothy, you can't be involved in that.
Got to be separate from that. And at the end of that same
verse it says that he may please him who enlisted him as a
soldier. Jesus said at one time that I
only do what pleases my father. I only do what pleases my
father. I don't waste time on things
that don't please my father. I know who sent me, and I'm here
to do the will of him who sent me.
This is what Jesus says over and over and over again, and that's
where we have to be. We have to do what pleases Jesus
Christ. The one who called us, the one
who saved us, the one who justified us, the one who will
glorify us ultimately is Jesus Christ.
And we have to do what pleases Him and not what pleases the
world. And then in verse 5 here it
says, and also now this is the second illustration.
And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned
unless he competes according to the rules.
So he's now talking about comparing the Christian Walker
being a pastor to actually being an athlete.
There's a lot of disciplines in being an athlete.
They're disciplined about their workout.
They're disciplined about what they eat.
They're disciplined about what they do and how they do it.
And they got to play by the rules at this particular time
they were in the Olympic Games. You know, and Greeks and Romans
are very, very enthusiastic about sports, very enthusiastic.
And that's, and Paul uses the athletic or a sports analogy
quite a bit because they are, but they're also very stringent
about the rules. If you think about how many
people get disqualified from the Olympics, from breaking rules,
it happens all the time. Sometimes they disqualify before
they even get to the event. Sometimes they disqualify while
they're in the event because they break the rules.
And Paul was saying to Timothy, we got to play by the rules,
man. And this is Timothy.
This is the rule book. This is the rule book.
We play by these rules. I'm sorry, but we can't make up
our own rules in ministry. We can't make up our own rules.
If God said thou should not commit murder, then we can't
think that we can kill babies because we can cover our sins.
If God says that marriage is between a man and a woman, then
we can't think that we can go grab somebody with the same sex
and go live with them because we say we love them.
That's not the rules. That's not the rules.
If God said thou shalt not fornicate, you can't just go
move in with somebody because you say when women, we're in
love and we're going to get married, but then get married
and then move in and listen, I'm not standing here acting like I
haven't committed that sin. That was me.
When you know better, you do better.
You can repent, you can turn around, you can change.
When you know the Holy Spirit prompts you and lets you know
that what you're doing is wrong, you can turn from that sin and
play by the rules. And Paul's telling Timothy,
Timothy, play by the rules, man. Don't disqualify yourself by not
playing by the rules. So then the third illustration
is here in verse 6. The hard working farmer must be
first to partake of the crops. And that's true in a couple
sense because you have the ministry of the financial
aspect. You know the labor is worthy of
his wages. So that's one aspect of it.
But the other aspect of it is just in the word itself.
As we read and study the Word, we're first partaker of the
things that the Lord is saying to us.
When we come and we teach here from the sacred destiny, we
share the Word of God with you. And when you get convicted,
that's because we got convicted first as we were studying it.
We were convicted first. We were the first partake of
that conviction. The Lord dealt with us in
studying it. So we are first partaker of it.
And then here he also says here in verse 7.
Now consider what I say and the Lord will give you or in some
verses may say, may the Lord give you understanding in all
things, but it says here that Lord will give you understanding
in all things. Meditate on what was said
Timothy, think about all those things that I just said and then
I love how he finishes up here. That section of it in verse 8
when he says remember Jesus Christ, remember Jesus Christ.
King James Version says remember that Jesus Christ, but in a
number of the other versions says remember Jesus Christ.
And that's a spot that you can stay on for quite some time
because in ministry, sometimes Jesus Christ gets lost because
we get busy. We get busy, we get involved, we
get over involved, and then we start thinking the ministry's
about us, that the ministry is us.
I own the ministry and we're doing this now.
We're no longer doing it for Jesus Christ, but I'm doing it
now for results. I'm doing it now because I like
the way it feels. I'm doing it now because pride
is starting to kick in when people say, oh, you're doing
such. I mean, we got to remember Jesus
Christ. This is about Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself.
And we all have to be careful with that.
We all do. That's just something that the
enemy uses to try to get us derailed and try to get us to be
deflected from what it is that we're supposed to do.
So the Lord is saying that we have to be humble and remember
Jesus Christ. Look how he did ministry.
But it says here Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised
from the dead according to my gospel.
Paul said, listen, I'm doing all of this because I am sure that
almost goes back there to verse 12 and chapter 1.
When he says I am sure, I know, I'm persuaded of the one that
I'm doing this for. He is the Messiah.
He is the one who is of the seed of David.
He's the one who was raised from the dead just like it was
prophesied. He's the Messiah.
I'm not doing this for somebody that's going to take me to a
dead end. He's able to keep my life that
I've given to him. He's able to keep it.
So he says, remember Jesus Christ.
And then he goes on. He says, according to my gospel,
verse 9, for which I suffer trouble as an evil doer, even to
the point of chains, but the word of God is not chained.
Paul said I suffer and I go through all these persecutions,
these afflictions, these beatings, being in the deep,
almost drowned in, you know, I go through this when I go to
cities, They're constantly, you know, men are are taking
different oaths to kill me. I go through all that for the
gospel because of what I know to be true.
And even though they may chain me, they may put me in prison
and they may stop me from traveling around.
But the word is not chained, It's not constricted, It's not
confined over. In Acts 28, around verse 30 or
so, it talks about how Paul, he was in jail, but he was given
the freedom because he got favor from God.
So he was given the freedom to continue to receive and to teach
people who were coming to him while he was in Rome.
And that word was going out to other people and then from other
people, and then to other people and then to other people.
The Word of God is not confined. It is not in chains.
There are people who are sitting in hospital beds, laying in
hospital beds, sick. But when people come in, they're
not talking about their condition.
They're not talking about how bad they feel.
They're sharing the gospel. They're sharing the gospel of
Jesus Christ. And that word is going out,
nurses. And you know our brother Ron,
who end up passing of cancer, Ron, you go to visit him, you're
getting the gospel, you're getting the gospel.
You get a hello, maybe an embrace, but you're getting the
gospel. And everybody who comes in that
room, every nurse, they come into that room.
And there's other people that I've visited from here that when
someone walks in that room, I don't care if it's a doctor, a
nurse, a receptionist, they are hearing something about the word
of God and about the goodness of Jesus Christ.
The word is not confined. Paul said it's not confined.
And in verse 10, he says, and then he gives the reason why he
endures these things. He says therefore I endure all
things for the sake of the elect or the chosen, that they also
may obtain salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Paul says I do all this, I suffer all these things, I take
all these beatings, I take all the persecutions.
I'm dragged before council, pro councils, I'm dragged before
kings, governors beaten, taking slashes back, totally busted
open from being flogged. But Paul said, I do this for
those who need to hear the gospel, the ones who will hear
the gospel and believe. There are people out there that
will hear this gospel and believe.
We don't know who they are. We don't know who we are.
We walk down the street, we go into a grocery line, we pick up
the phone, we walk through our neighborhoods.
Lord gives us a passion to share the gospel.
We don't know if the people that we're sharing the gospel with is
going to be one of those who will believe.
We don't know. It's not our place to know that
God knows. We're just supposed to forecast
it. We're supposed to share it.
We put it out there and let the Holy Spirit does its work.
Let the Holy Spirit does it work.
He takes what we shared and it goes into the heart and the Holy
Spirit brings it to fruition. And they believe, Paul said.
I'm doing it for them. I'm doing it for them so that
they can obtain salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal
glory. Remember, the gospel is a
promise of life. So this eternal glory that he's
talking about is the coming Kingdom in which we will have no
more dying, no more sickness, no more crying.
He's going to wipe away every tear, not even night, because
God Himself is going to be our light.
We have it in Christ Jesus, Amen.
So Paul is encouraging Timothy as we are encouraging you state,
of course, don't give up. Don't give out what you're
doing. Regardless of whether you think
that you see results or whether you think that nothing's
happening at all. Continue to do what God has
called you to do. Stay faithful to the Word.
Stay faithful to the calling, to the mission, to the Co mission.
God is at work and He's using you.
He's using you, He's using me, He's using all of us to make a
difference according to His purpose.
Thank you for tuning in to Living Waters of Grace with
Pastor Louis Harrell. We're currently in the books of
First and Second Timothy. Some of the things included in
these New Testament letters from Paul are that the young and
newly established Pastor Timothy was being encouraged to hold
fast to what was true. He was challenged to confront
and address the false teachers that were rising up.
He was also reminded to accept his calling to the ministry with
gratefulness and to address the happenings going on in the
Ephesian church. Paul was imparting his
experience and knowledge to the next generation.
Timothy was receptive to learning and gleaning what he
could from Paul's wisdom. This is how it should be in
ministry across multiple generations.
Those who have lived a little more life should be open to
sharing their successes and also things they've learned along the
way. That we're not a wind.
The younger generations coming up can learn and appreciate much
from those ahead of them, and perhaps avoid some of the same
pitfalls that their mentors work through mentoring.
It's a beautiful relationship. When the hearts are in the right
place to learn and grow. You trust that you're in a
community where this is happening.
Older ones providing advice and wisdom, and each side learning
and growing from one another. This certainly was the case for
Paul and Timothy as they were comrades for the sake of the
gospel. For more information on where
this teaching came from, go to calvarychapelonline.com.
There you can also learn about our service times to join us in
person. This has been living waters of
grace.