Voice of the Nazarene 1-21-24

Voice of the Nazarene 1-21-24

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 It is great to get to be with you today. And great to have my the Nazarene. my family with me today. I don't always get that opportunity. So great to have some of my family. I have our daughter Grace, and our son Christian. There are two others that two other daughters that we have and a son in law, no grandkids, because I'm not old enough for a grandkid yet, right. So that's kind of kind of how that works. Howard, thank you for leading us in worship today. Didn't they do a great job. They did. You know, I think I say this just about every time here but I love hearing Howard play the guitar, the guy can play guitar. Can't he? And the thing I love about him is it's not his skill set. That really is how he worships and it comes through and everything that he does, then what a blessing. Pastor Ray and Jan you are so blessed with with some of the best leadership there is in the Church of the Nazarene. Could we honor your your pastor and my what a great staff. I mean, I went my what a great staff. You're a great church. Did you know that you're a great church? I sense it every time I'm here. Every time I'm here, y'all y'all have smiles on your face. And forgive my vernacular. I'm from Alabama. Okay, so y'all have smiles on your faces. Everybody's so friendly. And if you're not if you don't have a smile on your face, it's okay, that's okay. And maybe you're new here. Hang around with some of these people for a while you'll start having a smile on your face. There was a little girl who called her mother frantically. She was home sick. Fever was rising. And she said to her mother, Mom, I need you and I need you now. So the mother quickly went to her employer and she said I need to go I need off work. I need to go tend to my daughter. She called her doctor, the doctor called in a prescription. She ran to the corner drugstore to get the prescription for her daughter. And when she went inside, she thought I'll just be a minute. It was starting to rain. She went inside and she got the medicine and and she came out and went to her car door. And sure enough she did the one thing some of us have done in our lives and that was she locked the keys in the car. Her daughter was home waiting. It's really raining now she runs back into the to the drugstore and says Sir, I need help does anybody in here know how to get into a car is there a police officer you can call is there some way you can help me? And the manager of the store said ma'am I'm short staffed I've got a clothes hanger I can give you and maybe you can you can try it that way. So she went out and she tried and tried and couldn't get anywhere. It's it's now a rain is a complete storm and downpour. Daughter is sick. She's thinking about her and how she needs to get home. And finally she just cries out as she's striving to get the door open of her car. She cries out God I need you and I need you now. Right then a beat up pickup pulls up next to her a guy with a do rag on his head, a guy that looks pretty rough pops out of the truck. And she looks at him and says, Sir, please, can you help me get in my vehicle? And he grabs the coat hanger and within a minute, the door is unlocked. And she looks at him and she says Thank you, sir. Thank you and she hugs him. She says you're such a nice, man. Thank you. And he says Ma'am, I am not a nice guy. I just escaped from prison. He said I'm a professional car thief. And she said, exclaimed at the top of her lungs. She said thank you God for sending a professional. Right? Isn't it interesting? How our prayers get answered. But they may not be answered in the way we think they should. Isn't that interesting? Isn't it also interesting though, how the Lord wants us to take things to Him in prayer. I find it quite interesting how we go to God with our wants our desires, our plans, our hopes, our dreams. And God has His wonderful and masterful way of realigning our lives to his plans and his purpose. And he has this amazing viewpoint that we don't have. He sees beginning and end, doesn't he? Hmm. So Jesus says in Matthew that Matthew 13, that that parables that he uttered that they actually, they actually have hidden, heavenly truths in them that these are things that have been hidden since the creation of the world. In fact, the prophet foretold that when Messiah would come, he would speak in parables, he would tell stories, in a way to connect with us. So if that's the case, if there are hidden truths in these parables, and probably something we ought to pay attention to you, Amen. And so I'm going to call your attention to Luke chapter 18, where we're going to read our parable for today that has a hidden kernel of truth for us. As you look at that text, let me just start by asking you some questions. Have you ever thought about giving up on praying? Have you ever been frustrated in your prayer life? Has it been difficult to pray when you don't see results? If you've ever felt like you should just throw in the towel on this prayer thing, then this is a story for you today. What I love is that most of the parables that Jesus tells us, he tells us at the end of the parable, what the meaning of the parable was. But he didn't do that in this one. This one, he actually starts by telling us what the meaning is, if we go to Luke 18, verse one, then Jesus told his disciples, a parable, to show them that they should always pray and not give up. There's the meaning verse two, he said, in a certain town, there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming in to him with a plea, grant me justice against my adversary, verse four, for some time, he refused. But finally, he said to himself, even though I don't fear God, and even though I don't care what people think, yet, because this widow keeps bothering me, I am going to grant her request, I'm going to see to it that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come and attack me, I find that interesting, a widow is going to attack a judge. But at this point, he's tired of her being around. Verse six, and the Lord said, Listen, I want you to hear what that unjust judge said, I'm gonna stop there. And I'm gonna say that I find it interesting because the judges perspective here was one of literally being sick of her requests. He was tired of her showing up, he probably in his mind, thought, Well, I'm just going to do it, because I'm sick of seeing her. I don't really care why she keeps coming. But I just don't want to see her again. If I give her what she wants? I'll never have to deal with this again. That's where his head was. Verse seven, and will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night? In other words, if an unjust judge is going to answer, a fervent prayer, a fervent request of someone that is in their jurisdiction, how much more will your heavenly Father who loves you and sees your life, grant your request? Jesus says, Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? So here's the correlation, unjust judge, constant request, I'm gonna grant it because I'm sick of hearing about it. The contrast of that with a God who is a just judge, who is our heavenly Father, who loves us, who sees beginning and end, who says, keep coming to me, and I will grant a request because I love you. It's a big differenc there. Interesting to me, that Jesus tells us at the beginning, that this parable is to show us that we should pray and not give up. I could say it this way. You and I were supposed to wear God out with our prayers. Look at your neighbor and say where God look back at them and say you're wearing me out. A father was trying to encourage his son to not quit school, he lectured his son about all sorts of things. And then he named some spectacular people. He said, Son, you've heard of Albert Einstein. He didn't quit. He said, Son, you have heard about Abraham Lincoln. He didn't quit, son, you've heard about Thomas Edison. He didn't quit. His son started nodding his head. And then he said, Son, you've heard about Isadore McPringle, and his son interrupted him and said, Dad, I've heard about all the other guys, but I don't know who Isadore McPringle is. And his dad said that's because Isadore gave up. Right? Gave up. Don't quit, be consistent. Don't hesitate. come to God with everything that you have. Wear God out. The reason Jesus told this parable was to show us that we should pray and not give up. In other words, God so cares for you that what is on your heart, what is in your mind, that worries the cares that you have in your life. He wants to hear about them from you. If it's so important to you, that it matters that you stress over it, that you worry over it that it keeps you up at night. The parable says you keep coming to God and don't give up. Don't give up. You know what I wonder though, sometimes? We live in a society that quits pretty quick. We live in a society things get a little rough. And I might as well I guess it's just not working. And Jesus is speaking against that in your Christian life and mine to say, even when it's rough, you keep going because God hears you. And if an unjust judge can answer, imagine what God could do in your life. You know, it's interesting, because I don't know. It's kind of hard. I can't see everybody's faces. So I can't totally read the room. Right. But, but but I'm guessing, I'm guessing that there are some in here that have thought about quitting. There are some in here thar have prayed for things so long, you didn't see an answer to your prayer that you've thought, in your own mind. What does it really matter? Does it really make a difference? This is God's saying to you today, don't you dare quit. I think though, that there are some reasons why people do think about quitting. Time is a reason. It takes too long. I prayed for that for two years. And nothing happened. I think maybe another reason might be we think sometimes that God has more important things to do, than to worry about this trivial matter in my life. I shouldn't bother God with that. Maybe we think I should know how to take care of myself, I have an intellect, I should be able to figure this out on my own. Or maybe in your life, you thought, well, I got myself into this mess, it's my responsibility now to get myself out. Maybe you've even thought, well, it's selfish for me to pray for this. When I look at everything else going on in the world, it is selfish of me to pray this way. Maybe I shouldn't ask God for that, whatever it is. Or lastly, maybe you thought I should pray for others, not myself. I should really be more concerned about everybody else. And my prayers really shouldn't be ever about me. There's a simple message here. The single point again, if an unrighteous secular judge will finally hear our appeals, how much more will our appeals be heard by Heavenly Father who loves you and cares about you supremely? If you say Christians hear me, if you say Father, help, he hears your prayers, and he answers them. First John three, how great is the love the Father is lavished on us that you and I we should become and be called children of God. When you accept Jesus Christ into your life. His Spirit comes into you the Word says, you become a daughter and a son of the Most High God. You are his and he is yours. You have full access to run to the throne of grace, anytime you need it. You don't have to schedule a call with God. You don't have to wait till you do enough to earn his favor. It is a wide open gate for you to run through and to go to his throne with a power dominion and authority and to say to him, I need you now God, you have that ability. Sadly, though, in the church today, maybe not you not Bucyrus Naz because y'all are awesome. But sadly in the church today too often running to the throne of God for His power, dominion and authority is maybe the last thing we do when it ought to be our first. A father the word says knows how to give good gifts to a kid and you are his kid, you are a child of God. It's interesting to me that the analogy of a father and child, I mean, I think sometimes we should have fear and reverence for God. We should, that should be part of our lives. But I also think when Paul gave us the term Abba, that's the most endearing term for God it's Daddy, it's not this father who's gonna punish me. It's Dad I love you. Now God is all things he is both omniscient, omnipotent. And he is also all loving, He's agapay. So there is this tension with God. But when you have been washed by the blood of the lamb that we sang about today, you are His child, and you can run to his authority and power in your life. You have free access. My question for us is, are you using it? Are we using it? Your his child, little Darlene surprised her mother, with a little addendum to her prayer. She said, Dear Lord, please send the beautiful snow to keep the flowers warm through the winter. Climbing into her bed, she confided to her mother. She said, Well, that time and that prayer, I really fooled God. She said, I only prayed for snow because I'm gonna go sledding. That's the real reason. Jean had been troublesome and had been sent to the den to think over things. And after a while, she came out all smiles. And she said, I thought and I prayed mom, and I'm fine. God, and I settled it. And her mother said, oh, did you pray that God would help you be good? And she said, Oh, no, Mom, I didn't ask God to help me be good. I just told God to help you put up with me, please. One of our children, not our children here I want to get off the hook their Grace and Christian, right? Not our children here. Somebody asked me after first service, do your kids like it when you use them as sermon illustrations? And well, they weren't here, So I'm okay. All right. I'm just kidding. But our oldest daughter, Emma, she was new to school. Tammy and I were new at this parenting thing in school. She was our kid that only one in school. We got all the supplies, we we got her ready and did everything we were supposed to do because we wanted to be good parents. I mean, we even had her in a Christian school like we were gonna get this right. And, but midway through the year, all of a sudden, teacher catches Tammy and says, is everything okay in your home? And Tammy, yeah, everything's fine. She said, Do you guys have enough resources? And yeah, we're I mean, you know, Wendell's, not a millionaire. But you know, we're okay, Right? I mean, that little salary that he pulls we're making it right. She said Emma doesn't have the supplies that she needs. And so I was just asking to see if you needed more supplies. And Tammy was like, we got everything on the list when it started. And, and we just didn't know that she needed more things. We will take care of that tomorrow. At supper that night we're having a conversation with Emma. And it's it and I kind of said to her, Emma, Why wouldn't you tell us what you need? And this is what our oldest daughter said. She said, I didn't want to bother you with something so silly. Our response to her was Emma, we're your parents, I'm your father. I want you to have what you need. And if I don't know what you need, I can't supply it. Now I know that Scripture teaches that the Lord knows our hearts, He's greater than everything and the Lord knows what you need before you even ask. But even with that being the case, as Scripture teaches, he still tells us to ask. Everybody with me? There is something about the act of prayer that matches the intent of our heart. And when the words of our mouth confess that we need God, that we don't have the right perspective, that we need his intervention and help. There is something about those words being spoken from a right heart that unleashes the power of God in your life. Something amazing that happens there. So Christians, wear God out. If an unrighteous judge hears how much more will your heavenly Father hear? So mom, he hears you. He hears you crying out for your kid. He knows your hearts desire for them. Don't you dare quit. Mom he hears you when you pray to him for a house hear me, not materialistic, because I know a mother's heart for a house large enough so your family can come home to visit. And so you can be together. He knows your heart and knows those prayers Mom, he hears you when you ask God to help with a test result at the doctor's office, your father wants to supply your needs according to His riches and glory. Mom, he hears how desperately you want to be healthy for your kids and your grandkids. So you can watch your grandkids grow. Mom, he knows how much you want your husband to understand, to truly understand and to love you. He's listening to you. He's hearing you don't quit. He gave us this parable to show us. We are not supposed to quit. Dad, he hears you striving to lead your home, pray for your family, pray blessings over them. Pray over what you would like for them to become wear God out with those prayers. God knows how you want to provide for your family. He knows how tight finances are. He knows how you want to bless your family, Dad he gets it how you worry about things, and how if this one thing could happen, it could change everything. Teenager, keep praying for that special person in your life. Keep praying that God will send the right person in to your life. Singles pray for that mate in your life. I know that prayer works. You know how I know. Because Tammy before she met me, my wife prayed for a great husband and look at what she got. Huh, church, keep praying. God sees your desire to reach this community. Keep praying. God knows what's around you. He sees the evil around you when you pray against it. You keep praying for victory and watch victory happen in people's lives. You keep praying for God to show up in a great way. Believe that God can do it. I want to say this isn't health and wealth. But there is a balance here. Okay. There is a balance here. Because when we come to God in prayer, we are submitting to His omniscience. And with that he has the ability sees beginning and end. And when we do so an appeal to him, we are placing our life in his hands and saying, This is my perspective. This is my dream, my hope and desire. And then we're allowing his spirit to shape our lives. The word says we're supposed to delight ourselves in the Lord. And He will give us what the desires of our heart. It's interesting to me, let me give you a couple of real world examples. My same daughter, my oldest daughter, she was getting ready to go to college, we had exhausted every bit of financial aid we could ever find. I've been a pastor my whole life and trying to make ends meet. And I remember praying that God would allow her to have her desires. I just so happened to run into the president of the university that she went to, and was at a function and gathering and just said, you know, hey, I'm really hopeful that she can come but boy, I'm just not sure how it's going to work. We're, you know, we're just just a ways away, but boy, she wants to come because he asked if my daughter was going to come. And I said, you know, gave that answer. He said something. I'd been praying that prayer God let her have the desires of her heart. And he said something in that moment, that was monumental for me, he put his hand on my back and he said, Dad, I want you to leave this meeting and I want you to go home and I want you to tell that little girl of yours that she is coming to our university. He said we have access to some extra funds and we're going to solve that problem for you. You believe that? I went home I remember Tammy, got the call. And the financial aid person called and said, the President wanted me to tell you that we've approved an extra $7,000 to help get her there. And if that works, and quite honestly that was about the gap that we needed to cover. Isn't that amazing. Now listen, a God who is our father sees a child in need and he doesn't turn a blind eye to the needs of his children I want you to hear that. And he knows what you need, but he wants you to be specific about your needs. I'll give you another one. There was a time when I made $13,000 a year. And we had houseful, we had three girls. I made $13,000 as a youth pastor, I made, I'll just tell you about $15,000 as a director of a social service program, and we didn't have a lot of money at all at the time. I mean, it was it was touch and go, let me tell you. I remember that, with all these kids running around this apartment, things were pretty tight. Things were a lot of struggles. And in that season in my life, I directed social service, I was a youth pastor, I was in seminary, and I was a webmaster for the largest employer in Pickaway. County, Ohio. And so I would, a lot of that was I'd work, you know, from the computer for web stuff. I was online at seminary and then I had my two physical jobs. And so there were a lot of nights I'd go to go to bed at 4am and get back up at six and do it all over again. It was tough to put all those ins together to make everything work. Of course Tammy needed to be with the girls at home. And I remember us kind of praying there was this there was a time that one of Tammy's friends got a got a brand new house and she was telling me all about it. And I remember thinking I wish I could give that to her, you know, but here we are stuck in this apartment. And it just wasn't our season. There was a brand new subdivision in Circleville back then, that had one road in and one crossroad one way in one way out. It's a beautiful subdivision used to be a cornfield. And I used to pass that subdivision in that season in my life and I would just dream of how nice it would be to live in a place like that. Wouldn't that just be great God, I would say, maybe someday, I moved away became a pastor. About seven years, eight years later, we moved back to Circleville. Imagine that and I became the pastor of Circleville First Church of the Nazarene then. And guess where a foreclosed house and a great deal just happened to be guess where it was in the neighborhood we used to dream about living in. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Now, this isn't a prayer for you to say, Man, I knew it. All I got to do is keep praying and I'm gonna be loaded. That is not what this is. Because I want you to catch. I didn't have anything to do with it. God knew what He was doing. He knew our desires, but God knew what he was up to. I have a great friend in my life he was a successful football coach. He won a national championship in 92. He might have been from the state of Alabama. And his name might be Coach Gene Stallings. And I'm seated at his table and we're holding hands at his ranch. And he prays this prayer God, Would you help us to be thankful for what we have today? I asked him about that prayer Coach, what did that prayer mean? He said, Wendell I want you to remember something. There's nothing that God hates more than a spoiled brat. And boy does that ring in my head a lot. He said, But when I was a kid, I had nothing. And we're on an 800 acre ranch with an airstrip and everything else. And he said when I was a kid, I had nothing and I used to get really angry about what I didn't have. He said until one day I'm praying and telling God, how angry I am. And God said why don't you just start thanking me for what you do have and see what happens in your life. Some of our greatest prayers in the midst of our needs are recognizing with praise what we all ready possess. And I think there's a pathway there that God listens and responds to our prayers. So I'm going to land the plane here. I promised, Pastor Ray said I needed to be done by two so I'm close. I promise. I tell you Verse eight, this is what Jesus says about the coming to God I tell you, we will receive God will see that we get justice and quickly and then here's the question that's been I don't just been rockin my world a little bit. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth, will he? The parable is wear God out, don't give up. And then there is this foretelling of the return of Christ in which Christ says, so when I come back, will I actually find people doing this? Will there be faith? The question here was to encourage the disciples to have faith. Will he find people on the earth that truly believe that God can do amazing things? Let me say that again, when Jesus returns, will he find people on the earth that truly believe that God can do amazing things? He asked them this question, to spur them on, and to continue them to encourage them to pray. But let me say this, and I think this is vital. A person who never believes God for something should not be surprised when God does nothing. Let me say that again, a person who never believes God for something should not be surprised when God does nothing. There's a term here, and that is providence and the providence of God, it comes from two Latin words pro and vide, and it actually means to plan in advance and carry out the plan. I say all the time that God is the ultimate chess player, he's so many moves ahead of us, right. He's connecting and working in ways that we could never see, he's so many moves ahead of you and I. But I love the thought that because of that, because he sees beginning and end because he knows my desires of my heart because I am his child because I have access to his power, dominion and authority. I love the thought. That when I asked him for things, deep needs in my heart, it is in His providence because he wants me to go to Him with everything. David Roper said, and since the agent of Providence is an all knowing all powerful God who nothing and no one can resist. Literally everything is included in the plan of God. CS Lewis said it this way, there is no neutral ground in the universe, every square inch, and every split second is claimed by God. If that's the case, why would his people who are His children ever be fearful of coming to Him in prayer with our deep needs? If you miss anything today, please don't miss the fact that it's okay to wear God out, it's okay to share your deep needs with him. 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.