Voice of the Nazarene 12-8-24

Voice of the Nazarene 12-8-24

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. I want to focus your attention this morning on a little village. It's still in existence, now controlled by the Palestinians, and not a very safe place to go. It's a little village mentioned 35 times in the Old Testament. You talk about romance. It's where Ruth met Boaz, and you think of the great King David. It was the little village there in which he was born. Micah tells us about it in the fifth chapter verse two, he said, Thou, but thou Bethlehem Africa, though thou be the littlest among the 1000s. Yet out of thee shall Jesus come forth unto me, that is to be ruler whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting. And four things I'd like to mention to you this morning about Bethlehem. First of all, Bethlehem reminds us that God always keeps His promises. Little girl climbed up on Santa Claus lap, and she looked up and said, Santa, are you a politician? He said, No, no, no. What makes you ask if I'm a politician? She said, Because you always promise more than you deliver. Well, I'm here to tell you this morning that God never promises more than he's able to deliver. Fact of the matter in Hebrews 1023 it said, Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful the promise. And there in Second Peter, chapter three, verse nine, it says, God is faithful. He's not slack concerning His promises. He'll always keep his promises. Here's what I want you to realize this morning, when Micah Five, Verse two, it was prophesied that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, I want you to know that 750 years later, right there, in that little village, Jesus Christ was Born and laid in a manger. Why? Because God always keeps His promises. Now I don't know what you're going through. I'm always frightened of holiday season, but because it just seems like everything floods in. And sometimes people get bad reports about their health, and sometimes people lose a loved one, and sometimes financial crunch, and you're wondering how you're going to celebrate with the family. I don't know what you're dealing with. I don't know what you're facing. I have no explanations. And we, we don't live by explanations. We live by the fact based on the promises of God, that God promised he would be with us. Now I want you to know that God will show up. No matter what happens, he'll show up and he'll be on time. Recently, I attended one of our district pastor's excellency programs. Mark Smith was the Speaker Marcus. Fought for his health here for about a year, fought with cancer and all kinds of surgeries and no way in the world it looked like he would live until finally, he resigned as the president of Columbia International University. Prior to his being president, they had another president by the name of Dr Robert mcquillocon. Robert was the president for a number of years, and over time, his wife developed dementia to the place she didn't even recognize her husband. For a while, he would hire workers to come in and sit with her and and serve her and and to try to keep her calm. But she was very distraught. And there was something about his presence, although she didn't recognize him as her husband, something about his presence that brought peace. And finally, he turned in his resignation to Columbia International University. He said, I've got to take care of my wife. Somebody said to him, said, Sir, are you telling me that you're resigning this great Presidency of the university to go sit with your wife with her dementia? It she doesn't even know who you are. He said, she may not know me, but he said, I know her, and I think it'd be better if you would hear his resignation in his own words.

Unknown: 5:14

I've experienced easy decision making on major decisions, but one of the simplest and clearest decisions I've had to make is this one, because circumstances dictated it. Muriel, now in the last couple of months, seems to be almost happy when with me, and almost never happy when not with me. In fact, she seems to feel trapped, becomes very fearful, sometimes almost terror. And when she can't get to me, there can be anger, she's in distress. But when I'm with her, she's happy and contented, and so I must be with at all times. And you see, it's not only that I promise, in sickness and in health, till death, do us part, and I'm a man of my word. But as I have said, I don't know with this group, but I've said publicly, it's the only fair thing she sacrificed for me for four years to make my life possible. So if I cared for her for 40 years, I'd still be in debt. However, there's much more. It's not that I have to that I get to I love her very dearly, and you can tell it's not easy to talk about she's a delight. It's a great honor to share with such a wonderful person,

Pastor Ray LaSalle: 6:59

wonderful that a man kept his promises. And Bethlehem reminds us that God always keeps His promises. You say, Well, Pastor, what has God promised us? Well, may I say, first of all, God promises pardon. He said, If you have sinned, that he's willing to forgive you. First, John one, and in that ninth verse, If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us. But God also promises us provision. The psalmist, in that 37th Psalm, verse 25 he said, I was young, and now I'm old. Yet I've not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. I believe that God also promises His presence. Lo, I am with thee always. I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. And even if there's not a big crowd where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them His presence. I believe God has also promised us providence. I love Romans, 828, for all things work together for the good of those who are called according to His purpose, and with the call of God on your life, God promises he would work things out for our good. Now, it may not be good right now, but I promise you, hang in and it'll get good. And I like the fact that God promised us a place. Jesus said, there in John chapter 14, I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there may you be also. And so there's a place called heaven. And Bethlehem reminds us that God keeps His promises. A few weeks ago, getting a message together, I was reading out of George Mueller's writings and his prayer life literally has changed the way that I pray. It's a new way to pray for me. Every time that he had a big situation, he would go to the scripture, and he would find an instance, and he would put his finger on it and ask, God, you did it, then I'd like for you to do it now. And I've done the same thing here lately. I've said, God, there's a guy right here, and he had the same need that I have. And you're no respecter person. You're not a God that lies. If you did it for them, I believe all these years later, you'll do it for me. And every time you think of Bethlehem, may it be a reminder to you that God always keeps His promises. But when I think of Bethlehem, it reminds me that God also sees our potential. Look again at Micah five, two, but thou. Bethlehem, Africa, though thou be the littlest among the 1000s, yet out of thee he shall come forth to be ruler whose goings forth have been from from of old and from everlasting, a little village. And Jesus was born there. And I'm thinking, why not Rome, with all of her coliseums and her aqueducts and her streets and her paved roads Rome, with all of its organization and wealth, but not Rome, and why not Athens, with all of its intellectualism and its orators? But he didn't come from Athens. I thought about the capital there of Jerusalem, but it wasn't five miles to the southeast in a little obscure, unknown village, Bethlehem, Africa, Jesus came. It was there that after King Saul had back, slid and for 38 years, drifted from God. God sent an old prophet named Samuel to that little village, to a man's home by the name of Jesse. And he said, I've come to anoint one of your boys to be the new King. And Jesse prayed at all seven of his sons before him, and he said, not one of these. And he prayed them again before the Prophet. And he said, No, Surely you've got one more son. I know God sent me. And he said, Well, I've got a boy. He's 17. He's the least of all of them. He's the littlest, he's the last. And they sent for him. And little David came in from the sheepfold, 17 years of age. Fact of the matter, the Bible said that he was a Rudy complexion, probably red hair, and that was unusual for a Jewish boy, the least you had ever thought. But you know what? God always sees potential. He sees potential in you. Today, you say, Well, Pastor, I don't think he sees anything in me. I'm I'm not smart enough. I don't have the right look. I haven't attended the right schools. My IQ doesn't reach your match, and I didn't come from that kind of a family. Hey, God sees potential in you. When you don't see anything in yourself, God sees something far greater than you'll ever imagine. His name was Abraham. He's 75, years of age, and he's childless. Actually, his name at that time was Abram, and that name, Abram means noble father. What a joke. He's 75 and he's childless. He doesn't have any kids, and it doesn't look like he is going to have any in the future. In fact, the matter according to age and his wife's age, he wasn't too sure to have any. But God said, I'm going to change your name. And he said, What are you going to change my name to, from Abram to what he said to Abraham, and that meant father of many, and God looked at Abraham at 75 years of age, changed his name, and he said, I'm going to make your offspring like the sands of the sea and like the stars of the heaven, and You're going to be the father of the Jewish nation. You see God sees potential when we don't see anything. There was a guy named Gideon, and he was afraid of the Midianites, and he had gone down, and he was hid in a wine press. Nobody knew where he was, but an angel of the Lord showed up, and he said to Him, the Lord is with thee, thou, mighty man of valor. Now wait a minute. He's hiding out. I don't see any valor there. I don't see any courage there. But God saw what he could become, and this morning, God sees what your marriage can become, and he sees what your kids can become, and he sees you, if you'll mind him, and listen to His voice and start moving with the Spirit. He can see into your future what he wants to make you to be potential. Understand that when you study about Bethlehem, it's a reminder that God sees the good and the best and the potential in all of us. I was reading again in John, chapter one, verse 42 when Simon Peter was brought and introduced to Christ. And Christ beheld him, and he said, Thou art. And he gave his name, thou art, Simon, thou art. And Jesus looked at him, The Good, the Bad, the warts, all of it thou art. I know what you are. You say, Well, Pastor, that's kind of the way I see myself. I I see myself as a failure thou art. I've got this alcohol. Problem thou art, I've got this divorce deal going on. Thou art. I've got addictions thou art. And then he went on to say, Thou shalt be. You see, we see ourselves as thou art, our failures, our weaknesses, our humanity side. But God said, Thou shalt be, thou shalt become. God sees potential. You say, Well, I don't see anything in myself. Well, you need to you need to quit putting yourself down. You need to quit giving up on yourself and your future. You need to quit selling yourself short. God said that you can become and we can through him. A boy was 12 years of age, attending school. Teacher handed him a note, and the kid took the note home, and he gave it to his mother, laid it on her lap, and she read it and begin to sob, and she's wiping the tears. And the boy leaned over to his mother, and he said, Mama, what does the note say? What did the teacher say? And she said, the note says that you're a genius, and the school has become too small for you, and they don't have any teachers on your level to teach you, to move you into the future, and I'm to begin to train you here at home. And so that mother began to train her boy, he didn't go to school again in his life. Eventually she died, and as a young man, he was going through his mother's things, and he ran across that note the teacher had given him to take home the last day that he had ever attend school. The note didn't read the way that I just read it to you. The note actually said, Your son is mentally ill, and your son We don't want him here at the school anymore. He's a hindrance. We want you to keep him home. But that mother saw potential in that boy. You say, Well, whatever happened to him? Well, his name was Thomas Edison. You tell me whether there was any potential. And I'm trying to tell you that God sees in you potential when the world does not, when the devil's always on your case, and telling you you don't amount to anything. Let me tell you something God's not through with you. Now I've been around a little while. I don't have all the answers. I'm for keeping marriages together. I'm for keeping people committed in their lives with one another, and for the life of me, sometimes it don't work out, and a divorce will come, and some people will tell you that your life is over, then God can never use you again. I've never been able to see it that way. You see, you gotta understand. I came from a broken home. I lived in a home where my dad had been married before, and he married my mom, and he was a step dad. And back in the old that era, they would say, well, that couples, they got this mess in their background and their kids, there'll never be anything. I grew up like that, but I had a step dad that saw something in me, and he believed in me, and he said, Son, you can be whatever you want to be. We don't have much money. Mama never worked out of the home, and dad was the only income. But dad said, we'll we'll invest what we have. And there's something in you. I believe that God can use I would not be here this morning if that dad had not seen something in me and invested time and energy and encouragement into my life. Bethlehem reminds us that God sees the very best. He sees potential in us. Bethlehem reminds us that God always keeps His promises. But further, Bethlehem reminds us that God has a plan. You say, Well, I got my life already planned out. Well, let's see how that goes. Look for a train wreck ahead. If you want to get God to laugh, just tell him you got your own plans. But if you really want to live life and live it beautifully, let me tell you, God's got a plan for your life, you need to find it now, I want to point out the plan that God had for Jesus being born in Bethlehem, for it was one of the most improbable times for to ever have happened here in the book of Luke. Chapter two, verse one, it came to pass in those days that Caesar, Augustus, that went out of decree from him that all the world should be taxed. They gotta understand something. There's never been a decree before that, nor has there ever been another decree after that. For for Rome, who was. Caesar Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. He ruled, and he reigned for 45 years, and he sends out this decree. And God had a plan, you say, well, was Caesar Augustus a godly man? No, he was a pagan. He even worshiped the Roman gods. He went so far that he wanted people to bow down and worship Him. But let me tell you something. He was simply clay in the Hand of the Divine Potter. God was at work behind the scenes. God had a plan, and he had said in his plan through Micah, 750 years before that, Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. And the years has passed, and God began to work on old Caesar Augustus, and got him so involved in wanting more taxation and money that he put out this decree, and it caused that little couple named Joseph and Mary to travel all the way down to Bethlehem, where Jesus would be born and laid in a manger, and angels would come and make him welcome. God has a plan. Did you know something? God has a plan for your life. Some of us need to be like the old Bade. Somebody said that God has the plan to marriage. She said, that's good. I'd like to get in on it. And some of you need to get in on God's plan. And you've been living too long on your own plan, and it's not turning out too good. And I'm simply saying God's got a plan. And I'd rather be in the sovereign will of God and have some sanity than to live my life outside of the will of God and blow it. I'd rather say, God, I just turn my life over to you. I give it all to you and come what may I'm going to live for you. I'm going to praise you if the house doesn't sell, I'm still going to praise you if I don't get the job, I'm still going to praise you if she leaves me or if she comes back, I'm still going to praise you if the doctor gives me a bad report or a good report, I'm still going to praise you. You got a plan for my life. You're sovereign. I'm going to keep my sanity. And Bethlehem reminds us that God has a plan, that God keeps His promises, that God sees potential in all of us, and Bethlehem reminds us of God's great purchase. Micah, chapter five, verse two, but thou Bethlehem, Africa, you say, But wait, why didn't he just say, Bethlehem? Well, there were two bethlehems at that time. One was north of Jerusalem, the other was southeast of Jerusalem, about five miles. And to differentiate between the two, it was Bethlehem Africa, and Jesus would be born there, just five miles from the great city of Jerusalem. But why did he say Bethlehem Africa? Well, you need to know that Bethlehem means house of bread, and Africa means fruit of the vine. Every time we have communion, what is it that we celebrate? We come with a body, and it uses bread as a symbol, and we come with the juice, and it represents the blood. It's the body and the blood of Jesus Christ, and it's a sovereign God's way of saying that the body of my son will be given for you the sacrifice of your sins and through the shedding of His blood, to wash away all of your past and the unrighteousness. Now most of you have started wrapping your Christmas presents. I have it. I have Jan wrap her own here pretty soon. I'm sure she's already got it ordered from Amazon. I just haven't checked my card, but I'm sure it's on the card. And maybe, maybe you've already placed some gifts beneath the tree, but when God gave his present to the world, God doesn't put it beneath the tree, but God put it on a tree called a cross, For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. We used to have a man that attended this church by the name of Don Ginny. Anybody remember Don Jenny? A great, big guy. He served on the board. He understood board mentality. He was a supporter of the pastor. There were times he'd face the whole board, say, hold it. Just a moment. Just a moment. But. We've forgotten who the pastor is here, and he has a voice. Boy. I love Don Ginny, and I've missed him. Don Ginny owned ondigo, over there on Mansfield Street, before he passed away over here in the hospital at Gallaudet, he and his wife had taken a trip, and they went to the East Coast, and they traveled up to Kennebec port, to that estate where George H W Bush lived. It was a beautiful estate right out on the waterway. He and Barbara Bush lived there. In fact, the matter when Don Jenny got ready to leave. He said, now you've just written a new book, and I've got a pastor, and I'm getting ready to go back, and I'd like to present that book to him as a gift. Would you sign the book? And he signed it to pastor la salle. I have it somewhere in my belongings. George Bucha senior always signed the cards. When he made out cards to his children or his grandchildren, he would sign it with these words, I love you more than tongue can tell. I love you more than tongue can tell. What a strange way to end all of his cards to his children, to his grandchildren. Why did he end it that way? Well, maybe you don't know all of the story, but he and Barbara had a little girl by the name of Robin. She was three years of age, and something began to be wrong, and they took her to the doctor in the hospitals, and they diagnosed her with leukemia, and she wouldn't live by the way, if you never noticed pictures of Barbara Bush, her snow white hair. She was 28 when they diagnosed Robin with leukemia. Her hair turned white overnight. Robin died at age three and a half, and George Bush leaning over her bed holding her and her last words was, Daddy, Daddy, I love you more than tongue can tell, and I've come this morning to tell you at this Christmas season that God loves you. I don't know what you're going through, I don't know what you'll face, I don't know what the new year looks like, but I'm here to tell you that God loves you more than tongue can tell. God loves you more than this tongue can tell. I do not have the vernacular, the vocabulary in which to express God's great love. But God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. God sent Jesus as the greatest gift, the greatest present, into our world, not just to die for us, but to be with us. And that's why the Scripture says, Emmanuel, God with us. You're not alone this year. You're not alone during the season. There's somebody that chose to be with you. I hope you're throwing the front door of your heart wide open to him and saying, I want you to be with me this year. I don't want to spend it alone, but I want your presence. I want your plan, and I want to find your purpose. If you see any potential in here at all, move in and take residence in me. I may be little in everybody else's sight, but you see what nobody else sees, and I'm making room for you in my heart, Father, we thank you. Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9am with B and C's pastor, Ray LaSalle, for more information regarding B and C, visit bucyrusnazarene.org, you.