Voice of the Nazarene 1-7-24

Voice of the Nazarene 1-7-24

Transcript

Unknown: 0:00

I'm coming to you from North Central Ohio, we share with you the voice of the Nazarene. A week by week venture into the Word of God sponsored by the Bucyrus, Ohio Church of the Nazarene. We join our Pastor Reverend Ray LaSalle. And the voice of the Nazarene. I'm starting a series this month and it's on prayer. As you might notice, that I'm hoping that by the end of the month, all of us will know a little bit more and on how to band together and let's be a praying, people. I've invited a guest for one of those Sundays to speak I had heard him speak on prayer. And I loved it. And I thought it fits so well here that I invited him and I'm kind of building around that. So don't miss I'm not telling which Sunday, but you don't want to miss hearing that message. I've got Buck Owens is opening for me this morning. Is that all right? Maybe. It's out of Acts, chapter three, verse one. Now Peter and John went up together again, into the temple at the hour of prayer. There's something special about together. I believe the devil wants to always divide. He wants to divide your marriage, your home, divide you up on the workplace, divide churches, divide nations. God wants to bring us together. We need one another, I need you, you need me and we're just better together. I've seen some marriages, just they were so good together. I'd like to share with you what Paul had to say to the church at Colossae. But let me lay a little bit of groundwork. First of all, there is a book called The Book of Colossians. And here's the reason why over in Acts chapter 19. A church was established down at Ephesus. Apollos fluent speaker, Apollos was anointed and and he was gifted and he was a bit of an orator. And he came into Ephesus when no one else could get his church started and established a church. Now, one of the converts at that church, his name was a Papyrus. And Papyrus was a Gentile. He became a friend to the apostle Paul, they were fellow prisoners at one time but he was from this little town called Colossi. It's 100 miles East of Ephesus. It's his hometown, and he goes back to his native town. And he establishes the church, he gets the church going. And then it begins to have some problems there in the church. You know, anytime you have people, you're going to have problems. Some people would give an aspirin a headache. I've had pastors tell me, I've just resigned, I say, Well, why did you resign? Well, we had problems in the church. I said, did you have people there? Yes. Well if you have people you are going to have problems, just get real. People, problems just kind of works that way. And I want you to look now what the Bible says, to this church that's having problems and Paul is writing. And he says to us about this church and Colossi here in Colossians, one nine for this cause we also since the day we heard it, heard about the problem. Do not cease to pray for you. We pray, when there's problems, and a desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom, and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience, and long suffering with joyfulness. Giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Did you know that we do prayer better together. It's an amazing thing where one or two are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them. When any two are agreed on any one thing, as touching any one thing. Being in agreement being together, you notice the praying hands and I don't know how much you know about that picture. It took place about 500 years ago, there in Nuremberg. Right outsider a little town and in that town was a family called the Durham's. And that couple had 18 children, 18, did I mention 18. My mind is messed with 18 children. To me, that's about what 16 more than I can handle. I'm not sure I can handle the other two. Now the youngest of this very, very poor family, the rather the two oldest, they were brothers. One's name was Albrecht and the others name was Albert. And as they grew up, they both had an interest in drawing and they would sit around and they would draw pictures, and they were gifted at it. And their dream was to go away to college at Nuremberg right nearby and study to become artists and painters. Being they were poor they didn't have much money they conspired, how they could pull this off. And finally, they agreed that one would stay back in the town and work in the mines for four years and put the other one through college. And when they graduated college, they in turn, would come home and work in the mines and the other would go for their four years of college. So they flipped a coin. And Albrecht won the toss. So he goes away to college begins to study painting and artistry and all of that and the other brother goes into the mines working in those back dark, musty coal mines, terrible working conditions. Now the years went by and when Albrecht came to that senior here he was so good that his paintings begin to sell all over the city. People drove for miles to see those pictures and they gave high dollar, he begin to make money. He returns home and they have a big dinner celebration. He's the first ever to graduate college for the entire family. And they celebrate, they celebrate him. And then he stands up and he said I want to make a toast to my brother, Albert. He said we tossed a coin and I won and I went away to college and now I'm come home. I'm going into the mines to work and he said Albert, it's your turn to go away to college. It was quiet around the table. And suddenly Albert burst out crying. And he said no, no, no. No, he said, I'll never go to college. I'll never become an artist. I'll never be a painter. And he held up his hands and he said you see these fingers. Every bone in my fingers nearly have been either crushed or broken, working the mines. He said there's no way I can hold a painter's brush. He said I've got so much arthritis in my right hand that I can't even hold the glass up to toast you. He said I'll never go to college. Then he bowed his head and began to weep. And he put his two hands in front of him and began to pray. The image of that was so strong in Albrecht's mind that he sat down and he begin to trace with a pencil those hands as he can remember it in his thinking. And he put it together this picture that you're looking at. And he called it the hands. But his word of it began to spread across Germany and around that part of Europe. They called it praying hands. It's a reminder of how one brother's love and sacrifice for his other brother, it's how one we're reminded how one cares about others. And may I just simply say to you today that life is better together. Me sacrificing for you, you're sacrificing for others. And together we're better. And one area in which we need to be better is together in prayer. See, the Bible says in John chapter five, verse 16. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another. Why? He said that you may be healed. We want healing in our church and healings in our relationships. We need to pray one for another. Now, here's what's interesting. God tells us to pray one for another but then he gives us handles. What do you mean by handles? God tells us what to pray for, for each other. What I'm to pray for, for you and what you are to pray for, for me. And Paul said he was praying for this church in Colossi they're having problems. And by the way, Paul never ever went to Colossi. Paul had never been to Colassi. But sometimes there are places in our life that we'll never be able to reach out to, in the physical, but we can reach there in prayer, thank God for prayer. And Paul said that these five things that he lists here, you're to pray for. And I'm saying, if you're a wife, and you've got a husband, these are the five things that you need to be praying over your husband. And if you're a husband, and you love your wife, these are five things that you can pray for your wife, you can pray over your close friends, these five things, you can pray these five things for your children. Now, why would we be praying these five things, and it's not my philosophies, right out of the pages of the Bible, things that we ought to be praying for. Number one, pray God's will for them, God's will. Look at verse nine, look at what it said, That they may be filled with a knowledge of his will. God's got a will and a plan and a purpose for our lives. And let me say something. Do you know what the universal will of God is for every one of us, you over here and you and you and the rest of you and me. You know what the universal will of God is? Well it's found in Second Peter chapter three, verse nine, the Lord's not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but as long suffering to us word, not willing that any should perish. The will of God is that no one would miss heaven, that every one of us wouldn't be a Christian. If you got the idea that God is predestined, some folk, you have to go to hell and determine others have to go to heaven, and you're kind of good so we're gonna let you go to heaven, and you've been kind of a bad boy and a bad girl, and you twenty we want you to just go on to hell. I don't know where we came up with that kind of sloppy preaching. But it's filling a lot of pulpits these days. But God never predestined anybody to have to go to hell. The Bible said that he wanted none should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so we're to pray the will of God, the perfect will of God for every person to become a Christian, it's the will of God, that you know, Christ. And any mother here and you're pregnant, you're carrying a child, I believe it would be in the will of God for you to pray for that child, that light will come as they are born, and they come into this world and begin to grow up that God will deal with their heart and there'll become a Christian. I believe it's a part of the perfect will of God. God loves everybody so much, that he wanted that none should perish. Now, there was a man named George Mueller. Mueller live way back hundreds years ago, in another century, maybe not much to look at, but he was a wonderful, godly man. He was a man of prayer. He cared for in his lifetime, for more than 100,000 orphans. Back when a disease had ripped through that part of Europe, and parents had died by the hundreds and the 1,000s. And little kids left without anybody to care for them. And he opened up 117 orphanages, he was a man of prayer. And he was a man of journals, he would write down in his journals he even wrote out prayers. I think you can pray vocally but it doesn't hurt to write a prayer God can read. If you didn't know that God gave us a book. So he must not be against something being written down. And there's some prayers in here. And Mueller would write his prayers. He had all kinds of needs to try to feed all of these children and try to get staffing and no money and no government assistance whatsoever. He was always in prayer about the needs that he had. Now, what was his secret? You see, after he died, they found all of these prayer journals, and they sit down and begin to look through them and they were amazed. They counted more than 50,000 instances in which he prayed. And God answered those prayers. Now his secret was this. When he had a tremendous need. He would look in the Bible and he would find a promise and he would put his finger on it and he would claim it and said God, you did it for them then. And you can do it for us now, and God would answer prayer. And when Mueller got saved, he had five friends that he was very concerned that they would come to know Christ as he knew Christ, he began to pray for them to find the will of God for their life and become Christians. So they wouldn't perish. And within months, one of them was saved. He continued to pray, and within 10 years, two more were saved. 25 years pass and the fourth one came to know Christ. 52 years passed, and the fifth one found Christ at Mueller's funeral and knelt by his casket. God answered his prayer. And I'm trying to say to you that the will of God for us in our prayer life is to pray God's will, over you and one another. A second thing, pray a godly walk for them. Verse 10, says that they may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, pray that they might walk worthy. You know, it's not just enough to come to know the Lord, it's important to move on from that and begin to walk a worthy Christian life. By that word, Christian, it's only mentioned three times in divine writ. Every time it uses the word Christian about somebody, it wasn't that person calling themselves a Christian. It was somebody else looking on at their life and they call them a Christian because they saw in their life, someone that was walking worthy of the will of the Lord. And the only way you can walk worthy of the Lord, according to Galatians 5:16 is to walk in the Spirit. Now, this is what I've found. That church has a lot of people that just want fire, escape insurance, something to keep them out of hell. But God is not only interested in keeping you out of hell, God wants to get the hell out of you. God wants us to walk worthy, walk worthy. We've got a new philosophy that's floating around the church world, and I'm a little tired of it, that we need to be like the world and look like the world and talk like the world and dress like the world in order to reach the world. Well, God has made us to be a different people. And we will never make a difference until we are different. We're in a world in contact but we're not to be in the world in conduct. God has made us a different people, we ought to have a godly walk. And when the world sees something different about us, then they will start desiring what we have. Why do I need to pray over people? He said, I'm gonna pray the will of God for them, I'm to pray that they'd walk worthy. And thirdly, he says pray they discover their work and do and use that ministry. Verse 10 and being fruitful in every good work. Now, what is your life's work? If you want to find out what you're to do in life, begin to ask God help me to find what my gifts are, where my talents lie, what I have a passion for, and begin to direct me in that direction and I'll work it while I'm on Earth. Because first

Peter 4: 18:33

10 says every man has received the gift even so, Minister, that same one another in other words, you work it. You're gifted and God has worked for you to do. Now it may not be preaching and it may not be leading worship. That's only a couple but God has many different works and gifts for us. I believe Christians ought to make an impact on the world and they on the arena around us. Don't step away when you can be a light and be a salt in your community and make a difference.

John 15: 19:08

8 says here is my Father glorified that you may bear much fruit. So shall you be my disciple. You say pastor, what am I supposed to do? You're supposed to be a fruit bearer. We're to live a life the produces fruit. I made my way up to Mr. Kroger. I didn't find him. But he had a whole area back there of vegetables and fruits and I bought some last night. I like fruit. You can see fruit, it's there on the counter. And if you're producing and you're bearing fruit, people will be able to see that in your life. And many of us instead of being fruit producers, we're fruit consumers. We're looking for some kind of a church thats got just our kind of music and a place for our kind of kids and a place for this place for that and what we can consume upon ourselves. And something worse than just being a fruit consumer is being a fruit inspector. Have you met them? Makes me think of Sherlock Holmes with his little detective cap on and running around with his magnifying glass and looking, you know, to inspect everybody else. Everybody else has committed the crimes and we're looking for him. And we do that sometimes around the church we're fruit inspectors. Why did they preach so long? And why did they use songs that I've never even heard the words of? And I never will get it together and on and on and we inspectors fruit. And I think the only thing worse than that is a fruit fly. You say I don't know what a fruit fly is. Well, wherever there's a stink that's where the fruit fly is. Drama mamas. That's what I'm saying. You remember when Jesus asked that individual will thou be made whole? I believe what he was saying, Would you like to be better? You want to get your life fixed? Do you know a lot of us spend time working on people that don't want to be fixed. And we squander a lot of energy and effort and and time on folks that don't want fixed. You gotta want to get better with that be made whole. So as I said in the early service, I've met a lot of fruit consumers and a few fruit inspectors and a few fruit flies. Pastor 31 years at the same place, you'll meet a lot of fruit loops to. Let's just move on. That's not a shouting point. What should I be praying for? Well, Paul tells us pray they have a widening development, a deepening growth. Notice verse 11, and increasing in the knowledge of God, want to grow up. You know, if a baby stayed in the crib, that's cute and all of that we like to rock them and burp them and give them a little milk and, and throw a toy or two to them. But by the time they're 20 years old, and they're still in the crib, there's something wrong. Now I've met people that have been in around the church for 20 years, and supposedly, were born again 20 years ago, and they're still got the same habits messing with the same thing and acting like a big baby. Not here, of course, but case you visit some of the church. And he saying in first

Peter 2: 22:40

2 as newborn babies desire the sense of milk, the word that you might grow, widening in your vision. And in

Second Peter 3: 22:51

18, but growing grace and the knowledge of our Lord, and First Corinthians 13:11. And when I was a child I, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away those childish things that nipple and that sugar tin, and that milk bottle and that stroller and that crying over spilt milk, I put it away, I grew up. Somebody said, there are four stages that God brings all of us through stage number one, the Give Me stage that's babyhood. You ever notice a baby said, mine, mine, mine, they're always reaching over and don't take mine. That's mine. That's my toy. You ever watch kids? Babies, everything's mine. And the baby stages give me give me give me give me and in the next stage in life that God has to get us through us, the USE me Stage, God I'm trying to grow up and then you give me some talents. You gifted me here. And I want you to use my life if you want. The third stages is themake me stage. For God begins to make us into His image. The prodigal son when he was just a kid, like a big baby, he said, Give me what comes to me and he laughed and squandered it. And when he came back home to the Father, he said, Would you make me conform me into the image of your son? And of course, the fourth stage is search me. Psalm 139, verse 23, Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts. But here's the last one I want to mention to you. Were to pray over others pray for them to be welcoming. Welcome means receive gladly. When they said, Let us go to the house of the Lord. The Psalmist said I was glad when they said that we welcome the things of God we welcome to light we welcome one another. It's that great gratefulness stage. Fact of the matter, verse 12, says giving thanks under the father. I was reading R.A Torrey the other day. I like studying some of these old preachers if I can find the time to do it. He was in the yesterday's. And he was preaching somewhere to a large congregation. And he went for an illustration about a guy by the name of Edward Spencer. Steamship up on Lake Michigan was crossing the waters with about 300 I think and 78 passengers, and out of the fog came another ship and hit that steamship and broke it open and people were throwing in all directions, wintertime, icy cold water, people out there, dying in the water, drowning, and people trying to find debris to ride on. And over on the shore they heard the steamship being hit and they watched it capsized and people screaming for help, but nobody knew what to do. But there was a Bible college student by the name of Edward he and his brother William were attending bible school studying for the ministry. And they say that Edward was kind of frail, but he was a great swimmer. And Edward Spencer, Torrey said, literally jumped in the water and swam for the nearest survivor and turned him over on his back, put his arm around his neck and under his chin and with his other hand swam back to the shore and delivered him and grabbed a rope and tied the rope around his waist and swam out again. For six hours, he rescued 17 people that would have drowned. While, R.A. Torrey is telling the story somebody in the audience spoke up and interrupted him and said, Mr. Torrey, Edward Spencer is in the audience right now. And Torrey stopped and he said, Edward Spencer would you stand I've never met you. And this guy stood frail looking guy. He said, would you come up on the platform? I'd like to talk to you. And he walked up before the crowd and R.A Torrey said to Edward Spencer, is it true that for six hours, you worked to save 17 people? And he said yes. Others were trying to save them too. He said, Is it true that when you finished that you collapsed and passed out? He said yes. Is it true that your health broke? And you've never been the same? You had to drop out of college and you never got to go on into ministry? But you gave your best. Yes. Can I ask you a question? Edward Spencer nodded his head to the old veteran preacher. Torrey asked, what is the most significant thing that you gained from that experience? And Spencer's eyes clouded up with tears and he looked up and he said, Dr. Torrey, the most significant thing is the fact that after saving 17 people, no one ever said thank you. No one ever said thank you. And I'm telling you today there needs to be a sense of gratefulness, of welcoming and showing our respect to others when they're good to us. Anytime my life was getting kind of messed with, always do a checkup from the neck up. And if I get to thinking that I'm a victim, rather than a victor and I begin to look around and what I don't have and get dissatisfied with what I do have, I take inventory and say, God, you've been good, and I'm grateful. And I want you to know just how grateful that I am. And thank you, Lord, for your kindness to me. Fact of the matter, the poet said when I realized from the date of my birth to the writing of the hearse, things are never so bad that they couldn't be worse. And what are we to be praying over people. Paul said you pray that they'll be grateful. We need one another. If you'll notice you get a bulletin passed out to you about every Sunday morning as you're coming through. If you'll open the bulletin, you'll also notice that there are names mentioned under the prayer requests area. We can pray for people find out needs and just simply pray over them. Oswald Chambers said no one has time to pray. We have to take time from other things that are valuable in order to understand how necessary prayer is. I want to shift gears. Let's leave this Earth for a moment and in your mind, make our way into heaven. Did you know in Heaven is praising God and Heaven is a place of worship. Read about it, it's in the Bible. Fact of the matter, there are seven consecutive chapters, all talking about what is happening in Heaven about praising the lamb, every eyes focused on him, he's the light of that city and he's the savior of the universe and how everyone is nodding toward Him and praising Him and honoring Him and worshiping Him. But there's something mentioned in all of that worship that's taking place. It says in Revelation chapter eight, that suddenly there's a silence that falls across Heaven. And for the next 30 minutes, not a sound is heard, total silence, hears all of this praising happening and all of his worship going on, and suddenly, silence. And in the midst of that, in chapter eight, suddenly, an angel appears carrying a golden sensor. And in that sensor is insense that's burning and the smokes rising, and he pours it out on the altar, and it continues to rise. And God says, it's the prayers of the saints. This coming up to me, all of a sudden, with all the praise and all the things that are going on, God stops everything, there's silence. And he said, there's prayers coming up, I don't want to miss those prayers. That's how important your prayer is. And my prayer is, prayer is important. I'm not trying to put a guilt trip on anybody. But may I say, today, your prayers may determine the destiny of somebody else. And your prayers may determine the eternity of somebody else. If somebody's destiny in their eternity is riding on my prayer, and I'm not praying. Kind of frightening innit? The 12th chapter of Acts is an interesting chapter. I never quite noticed it from this point of view before, like I have this weekend. But there in the fifth verse Peter, the Bible says was in prison, but prayer was made. Prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. Prayer was made by the church, not just one person, they were together in prayer. They're praying for their pastor, for Simon Peter is in prison. And because they pray, they made a prayer together, God miraculously delivered Simon Peter, it makes history. In that same chapter, just a few verses earlier, you read about another one of the apostles, one of the disciples, he was just as important as Simon Peter. But you don't read where any church prayed for him. Let me read it. Now about that time, Herod the king stretch forth his hand to vex certain the church, and he killed James, the brother of John with a sword. You don't read where anybody prayed for him and he was killed. Prayer was made for Simon. Peter, I'm trying to tell you today that prayer makes all the difference. Two brothers raised on a farm together, decided to go off to college, they did. Their a farmer father, at the end of the month would send money to them to help them with expenses so they get by food. But a month passed and no money and another month passed no money and they were totally out of money, true story. They were down to one dime between them. They couldn't figure out why their daddy hadn't sent them any money and they went to a phone booth. You've never heard of a phone booth most of you. Used to have phone booths. Nobody had a cell phone. Used to when I traveled as an evangelist. I don't have any cell phone and GPS. I had a big old map. The big old car and a little preacher boy. Boy, I'd look for a phone booth. Yet it'd be service already starting and I didn't know where to find the church and I'd find a phone booth and not drop my money and hope they'd answer. Those boys went to a phone booth and it was back when a dime you could make the phone call. They dropped the dime, true story. Dropped the dime into that phone booth. Hoping to hear on the other end of the line and down in that little farm out in the countryside. They could hear the sound of the phone ringing Mama picked up the phone, true story. She answered the phone and they said, mama we're in a jam. We're out of money. We were down the last time when we just put it in the phone said, Dad's always sent his money and he hasn't sent any money for a couple months. Is something wrong? She said, Your daddy's very sick. He's in bed. We don't have any money to send. They said, What are we going to do? She said, I'm gonna pray. And she dropped her hand and begin to pray. And she prayed Heaven and Earth together. She quoted Scriptures, the righteous would never be forsaken other seed begging bread and said, I've got two boys and their daddy sick and there's no money to send them and God would you feed my boys. When she hung up the phone, true story. Suddenly, all this change that have been put into that telephone system. 72 dimes fell out of the bottom of that thing. Where if you put too much in, you could get change. $7.20 worth? Well, the boys were so conscientious. Because personally, I'm hungry. I'm not going to make this call. But they did. They call the phone company and they said 72 dimes just fell out of the machine. And said, we were hungry. We were calling mom asking why dad hadn't sent any money. And she prayed and all his money came out. What are we supposed to do? And they said, well, we don't have any way to get it to us. Just go ahead and keep it. True story. They went down to a little grocery store, picked up some food because they're desperately hungry, hadn't eaten for several weeks. And when they got ready to pay, they're paying with all these dimes, they're counting dimes and stacking dimes and everybody's watching in the store. Pretty soon the owner came over and said what's going on and they said, you want to hear our story. We're in college and no money and dad sick. We didn't know we call home with our last dime and said Mama, pray that God would supply the need and 72 dimes fell out of the machine and the phone company told us we could keep it. We're buying food. The man's heart was moved. He said, boys I need to workers in the back of my store. And if you want a job, you can have a job and work it around your own schedule with college. What are you trying to say? Pastor, I'm trying to say that prayer works if you'll work it. And it's even better when we do it together. Life is better together. Marriages work better when they're together. Families work better together. Churches work better together. And when we get together, and we begin to pray and we're in harmony and unity and we're in agreement together, things begin to happen that even a hell can't stop. And your backs against the wall our God's the greatest of all. When there's a river that seems uncrossable, there's a God that can open up the way and see us through. And I'm trying to tell you, let's gather together as a church and let's make this year a priority to be people of prayer, together. Now, we may not be in the same room, but we can be in agreement together. We can begin to agree that God needs to reach a lot of people only if he'll use our influence, we'll do the inviting. We'll pack the building out it's the year that we can make a difference. And God can help that difference to happen if we invite him in on the scheme and say God, let's reach our city for your glory. We pray together. There's a god there's going to answer. Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9am with BNC's pastor Ray LaSalle. For more information regarding BNC visit Bucyrus nazarene.org.