Voice of the Nazarene 11-10-24

Voice of the Nazarene 11-10-24

Transcript

Pastor Ray LaSalle: 0:01

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. The third epistle of John was written to the well beloved Gaius. And the writer said, beloved, I wish above all things, that thou mayest prosper and be in health as thy soul prospereth. John's writing to Gaius, and he wanted to say to him, I want you to prosper financially and physically and even spiritually. That's so intriguing to me. I think it's worth studying, and I think it's worth investigating, maybe trying to understand what the writer is saying. I want to take you in to the Scripture found over in John, chapter six, verse 21 for where your treasure is. There will your heart be also. Last week, we talked about being relationally healthy. You know, frogs have an advantage over us. They could eat what bugs them. But we don't have that. We don't have that, we have to interact with people. Fact of the matter there's other people on the planet. I thought maybe I ought to tell you. Some of you may not know that thr smallest package in the world is a man all wrapped up in himself. But we need to know how to interact with others. After all, if we Christians go to heaven, it's to be eternally there together. If we can't learn how to get along here without pouting and doubting and doing without, then we're not going to do well in heaven. Hello. Today I want to talk to you about being financially healthy. Financial Health. We're all a little serious. I don't know if you've kind of caught on to that or not. Pastor was speaking to a very large congregation into the 1000s, and he said, I want you to bow your heads for a moment, listen to what I'm saying, and then I want you to respond. He said, How many in the auditorium feel like that you need God to give you a financial miracle. Maybe your business needs a financial miracle. And he said he was astonished. 75% of the people raised their hand. I want to look at that verse again. For where your treasure is there will your heart be also? You see, whatever your treasure is, your heart is going to be following. And as you study that verse, we need to get our treasure right, because our heart is so connected. I want you to notice down in chapter six, verse 24 Jesus said these words, you can't serve God and money. You can't serve God and money. By the way, you can't serve God in just your physical fitness. Why didn't he say there in the scripture that you can't serve God and your appearance? Am I hitting home with anybody, I'll get you now? Why didn't God in His Bible say you can't serve God and OSU football? Oh, nobody's going to heaven from here, are they? Unless you think heaven is down in Columbus, why didn't he say you can't serve God and education? Because God knew our greatest struggle has to do with this issue of money, this issue of Lordship, concerning our finances. Now here's what's interesting. The Bible mentions 500 times concerning prayer, 500 times, and that's very important. It mentions 500 times this thing of faith, and faith is very important. But did you realize that the Bible uses 2300 references to this thing, dealing with finances? That means that one out of every 10 verses that's taught is talking about finances, there are 38 parables in the Bible. You know what a parable is, an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And out of the 38 parables, 16 of those deal with money because God knew it would play such an integral part in our lives. Chris Hogan wrote a book entitled The everyday millionaire, probably the most exhaustive study of millionaires from a Christian perspective. Now, I don't believe that the Bible teaches that it's the will of God for everybody to be a millionaire. I'll be real honest with you. I don't even believe in the prosperity gospel, that if you come to know Christ, you're going to be rich. I just don't believe that. But while I don't believe the Bible teaches a prosperity gospel, neither do I believe that it teaches a poverty gospel, that somehow you're closer to God if you have nothing, because think of the thought, if you don't have anything, how in the world are you going to be able to bless others? I believe that God wants to bless us, and in doing so, we can bless other people. And when God blesses you, he had not only you in mind, but others. And maybe the reason God can't get to us is because he can't get through us because some of us have sticky fingers. We get to trying to accumulate and seeing what we can get its mine and greed. And next thing you know, and here in Chris Hogan's book, he talked about millionaires, and he mentioned some common qualities. Number one, 79% of them never inherited anything of any value, yet became a millionaire. And the second thing, 76% said the secret was discipline and hard work, that knocked a lot of folk out, wouldn't it? That little dirty four letter word work. And three, 79% of them did not attend private schools. Only 31% had a six figure salary and yet became millionaires. I want to share five things with you from the Bible concerning how to be financially healthy. Not talking about wealthy, but healthy. Okay. Number one, be correct in how you see money, in how you see money. An elderly lady down in Florida had been shopping, and when she came out of the mall, starting to cross the massive parking lot, and she neared her car, loaded down with all these packages, saw four males sitting in the car. She dropped her bag and drew her gun and screamed at the top of her lungs, I've got a gun. Get out of my car. Those four males tumbled out of that car and ran like crazy, and she climbed in her car after loading the back seat and tried to get the key in the ignition, and tried and tried and tried, and she was shaken up. Then she began to understand when she looked over in the seat beside her, there was a football, a Frisbee, and 2 12 packs of Diet Cokes. By the time she got out of that car, went a few spaces down in the parking lot and got into her car, she thought, I better go to the police station and report my mistake. And as she was sharing with a sergeant what had happened. He was laughing so hard he couldn't hardly stand. And finally she said, What's wrong with you? And he just pointed. And down the counter was four males, very shaken up, and they were reporting a car hijacking, and they wanted a description, and they said, well, it was a mad, bad little white lady. She had a major size handgun, she wore glasses, did not stand more than 5' 5" and she had white, curly hair. You know what her problem was. It was an ownership problem, the car she thought she owned, she did not own. Do you know what our problem is? It's an ownership issue. Sometimes we don't understand Psalm 24 verse one, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And the people, that dwell therein the world and they that dwell therein, we don't understand we need to see money correctly. We don't own it. We're just managers. We're stewards. One preacher said all money is tainted. Taint yours and it taint mine. You. And we gotta see it folk, because God owns it all. We're just the managers, and we've gotta develop a grateful heart for all that God allows to pass through our our hands. Listen, the more you thank God, the more that God will allow you to have to thank him for, and the more you complain, the less you'll obtain just throwing it out at you. We've got to be correct in how we see money. God, you're the owner of everything. Thank you for allowing me to share in that as a manager. Here's a second thought. Be committed in how you share money. You need my address. Well, Pastor, I can't believe I came to church this morning, and here you are talking about giving, and I've got a light bill, I've got a water bill. I can't pay my rent, I've got medical bills. And there you are up front. I don't even think I've got a enough money to go through the fast food restaurant, and you're up there talking about giving. Well, can I ask you something? How's your lifestyle working out for you? Maybe I ought to be talking to you. Thank you, Jesus, you're the only one. Amen to me. Proverbs, three, verse nine, Honor the Lord with thy substance. If we can get that in our brain that we need to honor the Lord with our substance, what God has given to us and with the first fruits of all thy increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and your presses shall burst out with new wine. Let me say something. If you give to God, God will give back to you. I'm not talking about prosperity. I'm just talking about the goodness of God. If we are good with what he shares, God is good in return. So I study those billionaires in the book, I found that 70% of them were givers. 70% do you want to know the secret to life? Can I tell you the secret to life? When you get up the morning, instead of thinking about you, think about how can I invest in others? How can I make a difference? Who today can I bless? Who today can I make life a whole lot easier for? Well, all I'm trying to say is, if you give to the Lord. God's going to be good and give it back, and I have a confidence in that. Now, do you know who the first billionaire was in America? Anybody know? John D Rockefeller was the first billionaire. Fact of the matter, by his own admission. He said he wanted to be the first billionaire ever in America, and he became that. Of course, he was very hated and they said he was very greedy. People hated him, despised him, but at that time, he owned 90% of all the oil reserves and the oil market around the world, but he had a problem. His problem was he's a billionaire. He owned so much, but he was dying. He's 53, years of age, and all he could eat was crackers and milk. He couldn't sleep. And on one of those nights when he couldn't sleep, God showed up, and he said, God gave me a vision, and he said, In my vision, God said to me, John D Rockefeller, all the money in the world is not going to do you any good in heaven or hell. When he got up the next morning, he established the John D Rockefeller Foundation, and he began to invest in schools and begin to give to hospitals and give to churches and give to needy people. He said, I give and I give and I gave and I gave and I gave. Let me tell you something. You may not be a John D Rockefeller, you may not even be a businessman, but we can learn to do what we can with what we have. The poet said, it's not what you do with a million, if a million were your lot, it's what you do with $1 and a quarter that you've already got. And we can start making a difference today, little by little in the lives of others. The preacher was talking to the farmer, and he said to the farmer, he said, If you had two houses, and God asked you for one of them, would you give it to him? And the farmer hung his head for a little bit. He said, If God asked me for a house and I had two of them, I'd give it to him. He said, Well, farmer, he said, if, if you had two tractors, and God wanted one of them, would you give it to him? He said, If I had two tractors, and God said, I need one. He said, I'd give it to him. He said, What about if you had two trucks? He said, If God wanted one of my trucks and I had two, I'd give it to him. Well, he said to the farmer, if you had two pigs? He said, Stop, that's not fair. You know, I've got two pigs. Number three, we'll just let you absorb that one. Be consistent in how you save money. You say, Well, Pastor, does the Bible teach us to save money? Here's what it

says in Proverbs 21: 15:12

20, there is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man spendeth it up. It's very biblical to save money. 85% of the millionaires in Chris Hogan's book said that their parents taught them to save at an early age. Don't spend everything you've got. Save a little and can I give you a little bit of advice? Yes, you can pastor, thank you. Number one, give 10% to God. Just put God first out of your increase. Give God 10% second bit of advice, I'd say, save 10% save 10 and here's the third piece of advice, work 10% harder than you've ever worked. Pastor, Do you think Jesus was a savior, a saver? Well, I know he was a savior, but I think he was also a saver. And I read that little passage there about 5000 plus to feed and no food, and everybody's hungry and they're getting irritable, and and Jesus takes those five loaves and the two fishes, and he thought, I'll just have a little fish fry here. I'm going to serve fish and chips. You folk do read the Bible, don't you? Gotta understand this stuff when you read it. And he blessed it, and he multiplied it, and he began to share it. And when it was all over and everybody's deed was met, he said, gather up the fragments. He wasn't a waster. He was frugal. Gather up the fragments. Interesting enough. There were 12 baskets full, and he gave some to the disciples. Jesus didn't go around spending and spending and spending and spending is what I'm trying to say. Jesus teaches us, and I'm trying to teach you as well. It gives you options if you don't spend up everything you've got. Once in a while, good options come along. Can I just stop here for a minute and tell you my life, just a little bit? If an alarm clock goes off, you're going to wake up, or I'm going to I might be dreaming. I was in evangelism. Fact of the matter, while in evangelism, I went on radio. I didn't particularly intend to but God opened up a door, and it was a story in itself. And next thing I knew, I was on 15 stations. Only had one recorder, so it meant I had to preach 15 times every week. Finally bought another recorder, and then by then, I was on 18 stations, and I preached once, and then had to reel to reel, make all the rest of them. Boy, was I sick of those sermons and but it opened up doors. Wasn't long. We started the publication. We were reaching out, sending out a publication to more than 5000 every other month. And it opened up doors. We begin to make records. I put out 13 long the lps. You remember those, don't you? It was vinyl for you that don't know but, but it opened up a market for selling records like you could not believe we begin to sell those. We produced a book, and that thing went out across the country and along with doing that, I begin to tape myself when I was preaching and we had a tape of the Month Club, and pretty soon we was moving up into the 1000s, and God blessed financially without ever setting a price for revivals. Never said anything about money, never mentioned anything. And we'd write a few crazy songs with whatever popular song was going. Remember the song just a swinging there's a little choir in the church that I attend. Half of them are singers, and the other half are men. I went one Sunday afternoon just to hear my favorite song. Before I knew what had happened, I had me a choir robe on, and I was singing just a singing, and we produced a lot of that. I'd go into a revival and sell about$200 the first night of just the one tape, and God opened up doors and I began to invest. Is that all right with you? And it wasn't long I had a nice house, but I decided to sell the house, buy an old house and remodel that house, and I invested in church bonds at about 14%. 10%,$100,000 it'll make in 15 years, at compound interest to make$500,000 reinvest that common interest and it'll give you a$50,000 a year, just income. Of course, the market went down, but it got me started when I came here, somebody asked me, I said, I need a rental. I need a rental. And they took me out, and there was 18 of them one night show. I said, I don't need all these. I can't pay for it. They said, you can. We got in the rental business. And while you were sleeping, there were many nights I was up painting and dry walling and working my head off for years. But in doing so, it paid it off. I want to tell you something. There are people that will loan you money and without a gun and with a tie and white shirt on, they'll rob you, and I begin to realize quickly you better pay off principles so you don't owe interest, or you'll spend literally 1000s upon 1000s of dollars. But you don't have that option. If you spend everything you can't invest in a good opportunity that comes along, is what I'm trying to say, good preaching. You just missed it. Okay, now here's a fourth thing, be cautious in how you spend money. Now, there's only three groups here. There's the haves and the have nots and then there's the have not paid for what they have group. Man, had his credit card stolen, and somebody said, Well, have you reported it to the police yet? He said, No. He said, The thief spends less than my wife does. Pastor, Is debt wrong? No debt is not wrong. After all, I came into this world, and my mama kept me for nine months, and I owed her room and board. So a little bit behind debt is not wrong. But if you're overextended in debt, it is wrong. You say, Well, Pastor, I overextended, and just soon as you give the altar call, I'm going the altar and ask God to do something magically. No, don't waste your time, because God's not going to do anything magically, because you won't learn anything. And God's trying to teach you. We're in our learning course. This is school, and get your books open and catch on to what's happening. Here's what it says in Romans 13:7 render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tributes do, custom, to whom custom is due, fear, to whom fear, honor, to whom honor ,owe no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. So if you owe somebody, the Christian thing to do is to pay them. Not skip payments and let it stack up and act like everything's. No, that's not the way you do it. You say, Well, Pastor, I can't pay him. Then you keep open the lines of communication and you talk to them. Don't leave them hanging.$1 is the best yardstick for measuring the character of an individual, and if a man or a woman won't do right by money that they won't do right. So he's saying, pay off custom to whom custom is due, tribute to whom tribute is due. Owe no man anything. Now, what does that mean? It means let no debt remain outstanding, but to love one another. You see, when our outgo exceeds our intake, our upkeep, it's going to be our downfall, and when we get more month left than we have money, we're going to be in trouble. So why does God not want me to be overextended? Number one, it damages my testimony. How can I run around as a pastor in this town owing everybody behind on every debt, everybody knows that I'm scamming them? How could I be an influence for the Kingdom? It's going to damage my influence. And the second thing, we become slaves, if we are so far into debt. It's controlling us. We're not controlling it. The Bible says in Proverbs,

22: 23:44

7, the rich ruleth over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender, because we're controlled by the debt. And here's another thing, marital problems. Marital problems, your marriage is going to be in trouble if you're in trouble financially. Couple had an argument, and she said, if it wasn't for my money, that BMW wouldn't be sitting over there in the driveway. And she said, if it wasn't for my money, that theater room wouldn't be here. If it wasn't for my money, there wouldn't be a hot tub. He said, Wait, honey, if it wasn't for your money, I wouldn't be here either. Pastor, I'm going to marry for money. Don't do it. Borrowing is cheaper. And then there's emotional problems. And friend, I've been in this for years. I've watched people stressed out. I've watched people guilty over finances. I've watched folk literally to the breaking point. So pastor, can you give me a quick help? Okay, if you want to write this down, you can and fly leaf of that little note you've got there. And may I say, the weakest ink is better than the strongest memory. Sometimes it pays to write something down,Okay. Learn the secret of admiring only. It's a nice looking car, but I'm just going to admire it. I don't have to have it because I really can't afford it. And the good thing, think about it, if you just admire it. You don't have to clean or dust it, and you don't have to insure it, and you don't have to paint or polish it, and you don't have to gas it up or feed it, just admire it. Here's the last thought. Be calculating in how you secure money. Here's what's amazing. Five years after someone has won the lottery, on average, they're broke. Why they never learned how to secure it in the first place. Here's what the Bible says, Proverbs, 13:22, a good man leaveth an inheritance for his children's children. A good man leaves something for his family. When I die, we're to leave something to the family, and I've told you to remember where there's a will,don't forget, there's always a relative. They may not make it to the hospital when you're dying, but when they hear about the will, they'll show up. They will not miss. Count on it. A good man leaveth and inherit. Now, what does the Bible say to leave? Well, look at

Ecclesiastes 7: 26:26

11. This is the story you go to. Did you miss it? 711? Wisdom is good, okay? And in verse 12, for wisdom is a defense and money is a defense. But the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them that have it. Wisdom and money is a great protection. It allows your teenage children, if something happens to you, to survive. They're protected for a while, till they can get their feet down and make it on their own. But dad, mom, you cannot leave character in a trust fund, and the greatest thing we can leave our children is godly wisdom. Somebody said, I counted dollars while God counted crosses. I counted gains while he counted losses. I counted my worth, by those things gained in store, and he sized me up by the scars that I bore. I counted the otters, I counted the degrees, but he counted the hours I spent on my knees. And I never knew until one day by grave, how vain are the things we spend our lives to save. I do funerals, you'd be surprised sometimes how many. Not all of them in this town, I drive miles to do funerals. I can't do all of them that I'm called to do. When I do a funeral, I like to meet with some of the family, because most of the funerals that I do, I do not know that individual. Now I like to meet with a family and ask, can you tell me a little bit and we'll just say it's the dad that died. Okay, can we do that? Can you tell me a little bit about your dad? And they'll begin to tell me, because they love talk about family. Nobody knows the family like the family, and they'll tell me. What did your dad enjoy doing? Well, he liked this and he liked that, and fishing and hunting and etcetera. What about vacations? Did your family Oh, yeah, we went to this place and went to that. And then I get toward the end, and I'll ask, can you tell me about their spiritual life? And it'll get so quiet so you can hear the grass growing. And I'm sitting, I'm saying inside, I'm saying, Please say something. Please tell me something good about their spiritual life. Tell me what church. Tell me,Do they have a Bible that they marked up? Because I'll borrow that Bible and kind of go through it and find a little bit about them, and no Bible. And I've had them look up most of the time and say, Well, I really don't have anything to say about that. And I'm thinking in the back of my mind, tomorrow, I've got to preach that funeral, and I have nothing to say. For what shall it profit a man if you'd gain the whole world and lose his own soul? I've said it before I say it again. Eternity is too long to be wrong, because when you slip through that lip of the grave, that rolling acres, that farm, that $12,000 an acre, you won't take any with you. They'll simply bury you in it. That car that you almost had paid for, and everybody was impressed. It won't matter now the family be trailing along behind the hearse, and you gained all of that, and the preacher standing there knowing you've lost your soul. It's too long to be wrong, and I'm talking about finances, but it also deals with our spiritual don't just accumulate. You need to know where you're going, and you need to let the preacher know that you've got a forwarding address. Don't spend the first 20 years brothers wondering where you're going in life. You get married, the next 40 years, a wife wonders where you're going every time you reach for your hat. But when the pallbearers start your casket down the aisle, they'll look at each other and wonder where you went. And the preacher, after having talked to the family most of the time, will have a pretty good idea, and it wasn't good. 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 bucyrusnazarene.org.