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