1 Timothy 1:5-8 | Episode # 1195

May 15. 2026

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

1 Timothy 1:5-8

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for over 25 years. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse-by-verse and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Hope Alive, where we apply God's Word to our daily life. My name is Chad Harrison. I'm first a husband, a father and a grandfather. I'm also the teaching pastor at Lake Community Church in Dadeville, Alabama, on beautiful Lake Martin. I've been serving as a pastor for over 30 years. I also serve as the Tallapoosa County District Judge. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse by verse through the Bible and to find his purpose and will for your daily life. If you would like sponsor this podcast, go to the Show Notes, where there's a link where you can make a donation. I pray in the name of Jesus that God would open his word to you, allow you to see him and to know him, so that you would know his will and his way for your life, that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today. Word of God, please speak to the hearers of your voice today in the name of Jesus. Amen. He says now the perfect. The purpose, by the way, which is in the. He uses it again. The noun, the faith. Pistis P I s T I s. All right. In the faith. Which means there is a. There is a whole truth that can be known, which is the faith. Make sense. All right. Now, the purpose of the commandment is what? Love. The purpose of the word, God's call, His revelation. The purpose of it is that he loves you and he wants you to know Him. Which means I can't know him outside of His Word. I can't know him outside of His Word. The purpose of this is love. Now, I want you to hear me. Not the way the world describes love. Not a worldly description of love, a biblical description of love. You gotta. You gotta hear that. The purpose of this is God loves you and wants you to know Him. He says here. He says here, from a pure heart. Meaning. Meaning. Meaning God's doing this. It's from. It's not manipulative. I'm not trying to make you do something. Look, I'm an excellent manipulator. I come from a long line of them. You know what I'm talking about. I'm excellent at that. I figured out that that's a waste of time. I. If I manipulate you into something, you'll manipulate yourself right on out of it. And I know I made this point, but it's. It's an important point. By the way, if God has said something to you, you can be mad all you want to if I say it to you. You don't know it came from God in the end. You don't know when you said, no, you will try to put my picture up there. You know what I'm saying? You know, Pastor Chad said this. Now, deep downside. I know it was God said it, but it wasn't, you know, but he said it. So I'm mad at him. But the truth is, when you get to the end of the line, I'll be out of the story. When you get to the end of Won't matter. I love the scene. And maybe y'. All. Maybe y'. All. Many of y' all have not seen this. There's a movie out there, and it's not always. It's not completely historically true, and it does have some issues, but it really is a beautiful movie. It's Kingdom of Heaven. It's about the kingdom of Jerusalem. And one of the. Well, first of all, the hospitaller, in his conversations with the young man is. The hospitaller's an angel figure that also seems like a knight. Okay? And when I say he's an angel figure, he literally is an angel. You could tell it in the movie if you watch it very closely. The angel's telling him what God says to him, and he says he's outside the grace of God the whole time. And the whole story's about, how could these things be if you were outside the grace of God? So he's denying who he is. And who is he? Well, he's the child of a. He is the mumser of a knight, and his mom was not married to the knight. Okay? And one of the great conversations is the conversation he has with the king of Jerusalem, who at that time, and if you've never studied this, he had leprosy, and he wore a mask over his face because the leprosy was beginning to take its toll on him. In fact, that king defeated the greatest army in Islam at that time with 500 Knights and great story in history. But his conversation with him gets down to when he's talking. Remember, this is a king. He says a king can move all the pieces he has, but only a man can be moved by the heart of God. I can force your body to do things, but I cannot force your conscience. Okay? And that's a great. The conversation he has with him is far more beautiful than I just described. But that conversation is the true conversation. Humans can move physical things. Only God can move the heart. All right? And so that understanding is really, really important. And that's what Paul's trying to get across to Timothy here. Not Only for his own life, but also for his leadership. All right? He said, he says from a pure heart. That's the word cardia. It means your, his emotions. All right? It's from a pure emotion. It's from a good conscious. And that's that idea that you know that you exist and that there's something beyond the physical world. All right? It's the part of you that science can't and will never ever be able to explain because it is an asp. It's the aspect of who you are that there is no physical evidence that it should exist. You have consciousness. And when you have a pure, pure emotions which are always born of love and a good conscience, meaning you have allowed God to refine your conscience so that you can know him. Then you can have what is a sincere faith. Third time he's used this as a noun. Faith most of the time in Scripture is used as a verb. Okay, Notice Paul has used this three times with Timothy as a noun. Okay. Why? Because there is a way that is God's way. There is a way that's God's way, he says, from which some have strayed and if turned aside to what? Idle talk, Arguing about stuff that don't matter. Worried about stuff that don't matter. I, I, I, I realize when I'm dealing with people oftentimes, especially people who have any religious training, which can be a very good thing, and it can be a huge hindrance, okay, to your, to your life. All right? Sometimes they're trying to always categorize me. Do you know what I'm talking about? Well, is he a Pentecostal? You know, is he, is he a Calvinist? Is he? And you just start going up, coming up with these terms. Let me, let me, let me in the sense in the New Testament that there are spiritual gifts that have not passed. I'm not a secessionist. Yes, I'm a Pentecostal. Now, does my wife wear the long blue jean dress and the tennis shoes? No. Okay, so I'm not that kind of Pentecostal. And why did I bring all that up? Well, because those are things that don't matter. Okay, if you said, well, Pastor, are you a Calvinist? Well, I would just be honest with you about that. Where Calvin's is teaching the Bible. Yeah, yeah, I am. And you know, I'll be real with you if I am. I didn't get it from him because he is boring to read. Okay? I've tried to read him a couple of times. He is just super boring. I'm Just being real with you. It's boring. Okay. And Calvinism, Systematic theology, and I'm not into systematic theology. Okay. And why am I not into systematic theology? Well, the reason I'm not in systematic theology is because God presented His Word in His way of presenting His Word. I don't need a system to tell me how he presented His Word to me. Are you following me? I don't need that. That's an extra layer that I had to dig through to get to the Word where God can speak to my heart. Now, is systematic theology good? Yeah. I mean, it's not wrong, you know, if you're going to have a theology of the Holy Spirit or you don't have the doctrine of the saints or the doctrine of the Trinity or the doctrine of this or the doctrine of that. Remember, doctrines or teachings, are they all biblical? Yeah, mostly. Yeah. Yeah. And you can study all those doctrines. Okay. Yeah. A lot of times we'll inhibit revelation. That's exactly right. Because what you're doing now, you're studying the doctrine. So I'm studying something that's talking about what God said. Revelation is what God said. Okay. And so if you said, chad, do you believe in systematic theology? The answer is no. Chad, do you believe in Calvinism? No. Do you believe in Arminianism? No. Do you believe in Pentecostalism? No. Do I believe in baptisms? No. Okay? No, I'm not those things. Why? I am purely Bible based. I believe in the Bible. Okay? And if it seems like Calvinism to you at a certain point in time, well, that's fine, okay? If it seems like Pentecostalism, that's fine. If it seems like I'm an Episcopalian sometimes, that's fine, okay? But you are making the box. I'm not in the box. And I would teach you that the Bible doesn't teach you to be in a box, okay? God speaks to the heart. Remember? It's a pure heart and a good conscience. Okay? It's a pure heart and a good conscience. And he's wanting to speak to you one on one. Now listen, is there anything wrong with studying a book with your wife to have a better marriage? No. But I can promise you this. If the book's got any value to it, eventually it's going to lead you to working it out in a relationship with each other. Okay? So if it is a good book, or if it is a good counselor, or if it's. It is a good anything, eventually that person is going to, you know, tell you the truth. They just gonna Disciple you. I mean, they just gonna help you be like Christ in that context, whatever the context is. So, I mean, that's. That's. That's. That's just the way it works. And so are there tools out there that help with that? Absolutely there are, but don't get caught up in the tool. Get caught up in the altar of the faith and allow the tool to be helpful. Allow the tool to be helpful, but don't allow the tool to be the. The object of the faith. That's why he said in Revelation, we studied Wednesday night. The angel came to him and said, worship God. Worship God. Nobody else. Nothing else. Worship God. Amen. He says here, some have strayed and have turned aside, too. And remember, idle talk can be good stuff, but good stuff is one. Oh, too much. We want God's stuff, not good stuff. Okay. Notice God considers it idle talk. Desiring. Notice these people are desiring to be. What are they desiring to be? Teachers of the law. The law. The law, not the faith. Now let's hear me. Relationships function and can look like rules, But the life of a relationship is not the rule. It's the relationship. Are you following me? The reason God had to write the Ten Commandments on a stone is because the people wouldn't come and let him tell them in person. His nature and his law is written on your heart, on every human being's heart. Did you know that? His truth is written on every human being's heart, but that doesn't mean they have a relationship with him. So you can have the law and not have God. What you have is a knowledge of him, but you don't have him. Make sense? How many. How many of y' all grew up and. And. And was around a teenage girl that knew everything about Bon Jovi? Some of y'. All. Elvis. Okay, you got that. You got that, Kathleen. It was Duran Duran. Just letting y' all know. All right. Hungry Like a Wolf. She liked that. I. I don't even know what that means. In fact, if you ever listen to a Duran Duran song, at the end of it, you have no idea what they were talking about. But it sounds good. It was really good. They just pick words that are really cool and really good, and they put them all together. All right. And just sang them. All right. I mean, the Africa song. I have no idea what that's about. It's not about Africa. I know that. Is that toto? It was the same genre. Same group. Same group, same genre. It's not the same. Same. Same genre. All right. It's not the same. Not the same. The toto wasn't the same. I. But listen at them. They've been throwing them out there. But, but, but, but they, they knew everything about them. They had posters of them. They had, you know, pull outs and all that stuff. They had it. But did they know them? No, they didn't know them. Did they have a relationship with them? You thought they would. They did, right? That was for the Internet too, by the way. I mean, if you didn't have the phone number, you ain't even talk to them, okay? You couldn't even message them on Face Chat or Snapbook or whatever. Okay, I know the difference. All right. It says desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things they affirm. Why? Because if you don't know God, you not saying anything. They don't. He's saying if you get off into idle talk about stuff that's not biblical, or you try to be a teacher of the law, meaning you're trying to teach your form of legalism. And let me tell you something, the church moves to that all the time. People say all the time. Well, you know, the Catholic Church a terrible Catholics. And I'm sitting there going, well, you know why the Catholic Church is terrible? Because it's existed for 2,000 years. So we've had 2,000 years to mess that rascal up. Okay? If you took any other group of folks and let them be in charge for 2,000 years, that Catholic's probably doing great compared to them. Probably doing great. Okay, what am I, what am I trying to explain to you? Well, I'm trying to explain to you that, look, you can get into all the. Eventually, eventually, if you're not teaching Jesus, you are in the law and you get to where you begin to set up rules. Are you following me? I mean, the whole point of Pentecostalism was to be set free from the law. And then 50 years later we got women having to have long hair and, and what's up with the denim dresses, right? And hairs and bun. I'm, I'm not being. We've got people that come from that background. Y' all know that, right? Let me, let me tell you something. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that you gotta wear tennis shoes. They didn't have tennis shoes, they had sandals. Okay, now I'm using that. I'm not. A lot of great Pentecostals love Jesus the whole nine yards, right? But you can for, you know it. You get this church in 10 years, will have some rule that somebody will think is the rule for this church. You know, you've got to have. If you're going to have church and worship, you can't have any chair that matches any other chair. And that's the only way to do it, right? I mean, that's really. You know what I'm talking about. I mean, we're doing that. I mean, you can come up with rules. Before you know it, you will have. You will put. It will be the quickest thing you do. If you're leading people, you'll get to. Because you realize if they don't change by God, if God doesn't change them, then they don't get changed. And if they're not changing as fast as you want them to, you just abandon all hope and figure out some rules. I mean. And let me tell you something, as a pastor, I've been there. Look, I tried to teach y' all spiritual things. You wouldn't do it. So this is the rule now. And you know how much the rule works? None. It don't work. The rule don't work. Why? Because if God doesn't do. Don't work. If God doesn't do it, it doesn't matter. If God doesn't do it, it doesn't matter. You mean I gotta wait on God? I think that's in the Bible, yeah. You have to wait on God. Even as a leader. I thought I was supposed to lead. Sometimes leading means sitting there. You ever been in the army? Hurry up and wait. That's for generals. All the way down to privates, right? The greatest general in World War II by far. By far is Patton. How many times they tell him stop? All the time. You know why they told him stop? Didn't tell him stop. The Lord be over too quick all the time. Over and over again. You come up with rules. You come up with rules. But we know that the law is good if it's used lawfully. Well, what does that mean? Well, he's saying that the law is not wrong. He's saying the law is good, but you gotta be lawful. That makes me think of young guns. The sheriff that comes in says, I do things long way, y' all know, and then they send him out looking like Indian. Everybody in town shoots him. They realize they shoot him. And y' all hadn't seen the movie. It's okay. All right. What I mean by that? You got to do it lawfully. Well, Sermon on the Mount. You've heard said, thou shalt not commit adultery. That's one of the rules. One of the big ones, right? Big ten. So one of the big ten he says, but I say unto you, any man who looks on woman with lust in his heart has already committed adultery. All right? I'm telling you, every man I know, adulter, all of them. What is he saying? If you don't do law, you got to do it law way, all the way. Now, I want you to hear me. In our legal system, if you get accused of a crime, okay, I'm going to use burglary as a crime. It's entering the dwelling place. Now, it's the car or it's entering a space that's owned by another, used to be entering the dwelling place of. Of another at night for the purpose of committing a felony therein. That's what burglary is, okay? Now don't you hear me? It's entering. You go, what is entering? Well, if they've left the window open and you reach in to grab something off the counter, you entered the residence. Cause you broke the seal of the residence. Did you know that? All right? It's entering the dwelling place. Nowadays, cars, business, anything of another, meaning it's owned by somebody else. Which means if I reach into my house and take something from my house that's not mine, that somebody else's, I didn't commit burglary. It might have been theft, but it wasn't burglary. Why? Because it's my house, all right? Entering the dwelling place of another in order to commit a felony therein. If I break into your house to sit there and watch tv, then I'm not burglarized your house. I've broken and entered, okay? Why didn't I burglarize your house? Because I didn't do it to commit a felony therein. Now, you hadn't told me what you're watching, you might have committed a felony. I don't know. You know what I'm talking about. I mean, if you're watching, you know, a Christmas movie from Hallmark, I consider that almost a felony to watch those, okay? Just letting you know that's what I consider a felony. But you know, that's not what everybody considers a felony, all right? I mean, it's definitely a crime. It's definitely a crime, okay? For you to keep making the same movie with the same storyline over and over and over again and selling it like you've done something new. It is definitely a crime, okay? Against humanity, all right? But why am I telling you all this? Because if you'll notice, there's elements to the crime. And what do you have to have? All the elements. You got to have all the elements. If you don't have all the elements, it's not a crime. Makes sense. Not the law. Not the law. Not the law. The Bible says if you trespass one part of the law, you are a trespasser of all the law. So if you're going to do it law way, well, law way means you got to do it perfectly. How many of y' all want to do the law way? I don't, because I. I'm quite sure I'm. I'm. We're not having confessional here, but I'm quite sure I broke something today. One element of God's character I did not live up to in some way today. I know I did. I'm not going to write down everything. That's why. That's why you can't confess all of your sins. Because you are by definition sin. You can't confess them all. Now, when I confess my sin to God, what I'm doing is I'm taking the thing that he's revealed to me. That's a big problem. And. And I'm saying to him, this is a problem, Lord. Now, I put myself in a position to be changed. Right? All right. Man, it is raining, ain't it? It's raining. So the law is good if it's used. What lawfully is that us. As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.