Voice of the Nazarene 12-29-24

Voice of the Nazarene 12-29-24

Transcript

Pastor Ray LaSalle: 0:00

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. If you remember last week we talked about, are you ready for Christmas? And if you're ready for Christmas, you need to be saved, you need to be surrendered. You need to be satisfied. This morning, I want to talk to you about what happens after Christmas. Well, maybe I better use another subject. You must have spent all your money, or ate too much. I'm reading Matthew, chapter two, verse nine. When they had heard the king, it's the wise men they departed, and lo the star which they saw in the East went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was, and when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and and worshiped him without any question. Mary was special, but you need to know they worshiped him. They worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod they departed into their own country another way. What do you do when Christmas is over? So now what I mean many times when Christmas is over, we're waving goodbye, grandma, grandpa, and the cars heading out of the drive and and there stands that white headed couple waving to the grandkids as they leave. It means going back into the house and looking at the disarray, and you're picking up wrapping paper and stuffing and boxes and and trash and and trying to straighten the house and and to start a bonfire to burn it all. You're tearing down the Christmas decorations. You're trying to put in a little containers all the leftover food and jam it in the freezer, or calling your friends and passing it off to them. Some of you, it'll mean you'll have to be paying off the credit cards for a long while. And some of you, for the next few days, you'll be returning things that don't fit anymore. You just got it Christmas, but it doesn't fit. Some it means you're going back to work. Others, you're going back to school. For some it means weight gain. I could have talked all morning and not said that. Did you know The nation will average between Thanksgiving and Christmas, seven pounds of weight gain. One guy was after Christmas. He climbed on the scales, and he was holding his stomach in, and his wife walked by and kind of disgustedly said, that's silly. That don't make you any trimmer. He said, I'm not trying to be tremor, I'm trying to see the numbers. So Christmas is over for another year now, what? And the nativity scene has to be taken down. There's there's Mary the mother, and there's Joseph the father, there's baby Jesus, and there's the animals and there's the shepherds. And somehow some people put the wise men in there, kneeling down, offering their gifts. But we know in reality that they were not there at the made in your scene. If you look again at the text there, in verse nine, it says, And that star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. Notice verse 11. It's speaking about the young child, not a baby, but a young child. And if you look just a little farther there, in verse 11, they came to a house, not a manger scene. And what I'm saying is, when the wise men got there, they Jesus was probably one or two years of age, and they had traveled across the burning deserts. They had crossed the Euphrates River and. And they were weary. There were no roadways, no highways. They're traveling on foot by Campbell back. And so when they arrived, they presented him with gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. No doubt, Christmas is already passed. It was over. I heard the other day about a preacher that they had put a Nativity scene out in front of his little church, and Christmas was over, and he went out to tear down the nativity scene, and he noticed Baby Jesus was missing, standing there pondering that. And about that time, a little Johnny was coming at the sidewalk with a brand new red wagon, and he noticed in the wagon was baby Jesus. He said, Johnny, did you take baby Jesus out of our nativity scene? He said, Yes, I did. I asked God to get me a new shiny red wagon. And if he did for Christmas, I was going to let Jesus have the first ride. Well, ladies and gentlemen, just like the wise men, Christmas is over. Christmas was over when they got there. And just like for us, Christmas is over. And in the light of the fact that Christmas is over, I think we can learn from the wise men and what they brought and they gave to him, that from here on into a new year, all this next year, we can give gifts to Christ that he deserves. And the very first gift. I want you to notice, since Christmas is over, that we can give us gold, and gold represents, I mean, gold represents, I'm going to be committed to Jesus no matter what. It's dedication. It's dedicating my very life, my thoughts, my all. I give it to him. Now, there's a man in the Bible who lost his family and and lost his finances and lost his health and lost his wife and lost everything that he had. And he wrote in Job 32 I think it was our 23 rather verse 10, but he knoweth the way that I take, and when I've been tried, I shall come forth as gold. Our lives can be made into gold that we offer to our Lord Jesus Christ. Job was simply saying, no matter what, I'm going to be dedicating everything to the Lord. I'm committing my all in First Peter, it tells us chapter one, verse seven, the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold. Gold. Now I'm convinced the way that we give Jesus goal is when we purpose in our heart, Lord, I'm going to serve you no matter what. I'm going to serve you, whether it's a bad report or a good report that I get this year from the doctor. I'm going to serve you whether he comes back home or he never comes back. I'm going to serve you whether my physical life is in good shape or it's in bad shape. I'm going to serve you. See, the way we give the Lord goal is by saying I'm totally committed and dedicated to you. Now we've got a happy, clappy religion going around these days. Don't get up tight. Just turn on your TV and it's name it and claim it and blab it and grab it and and believe it and receive it and health and wealth. And to be real honest, none of that's biblical you find where it's biblical because oft times the life that pleases God is often painful and difficult. Talk to job about it. Talk to Paul when he talked about being pressed with a thorn in his side. Talk to Timothy, who had stomach problems. I don't know if you've ever heard of Marcus Latrell, and I don't know if that's the way you pronounce it. Luttrell, some would call him. He was a Navy Seal, and he was in that Afghan operation. He was involved in it. Back to the matter. He wrote a book, Lone Survivor, and a movie was made about him as law, a lone survivor. And here's a little of what a seal goes through. I just thought I'd throw this at you. They go through what is called Hell Week. It's five and a half days of the most intense, physical, mental and emotional. No training that anyone could ever go through. Nothing like it in any area that I know, of fact of the matter, literally, when they go through those five and a half days, they hardly get four hours of sleep during the whole time. Two thirds of the Navy SEALs do not survive it. They can't make it through it. Now they have a bell, and when you give up and say, I can't go any farther, you ring the bell, and it means you can go lay down when you want to quit, you can ring that bell and you'll get a warm meal. You can ring that bell, and it means that you can get some sleep and you can take a shower, but when you ring that bell, you're no longer a Navy Seal and you're no longer in the program. Marcus Luttrell, he was asked, Did you ever consider ringing that bell? And his response, No, I never once considered it, because the Navy SEALs philosophy is, I'll never quit. I'll never quit. I'd have never made it in that Afghan operation if I had not made it through Hell Week. And what I'm trying to say, and listen to me closely in your life, you're going to have some hell weeks. You may be here this morning and say, preacher, you don't have a clue what I'm dealing with. I'm in hell week right now. What do you recommend when you're going through, when you're walking through Hell Week? My recommendation is, keep on walking. That's my recommendation. Make up make up your mind. Though we slay me, yet, will I serve Him? Yet? Will I trust him? You say, Well, what's your motivation? Is it? Marcus Luttrell, no, no fact of matter. Over in Hebrews, chapter 12, verse two, you read, we're looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God. What's he saying? He's saying he didn't ring the bell and he didn't quit. So what's the advice? Consider him that endured such contradiction, or sinners, verse three against himself, lest ye be weary and faith in your own minds. It's saying I'm walking through and I'm not ringing the bell, and I'm going to get through this week, and I'll get through this season. I'll get through this time when everything seems so difficult. I was a boy, and you probably didn't realize I once was, but mama and daddy and they would sing, I'm going through. I'll pay the price, whatever others do. Anybody you remember that one? I'll take the way with the Lord's despise a few I've started with Jesus, and I'm going through and that's how you give him gold, totally dedicating your life and committing to him. I'm taking the whole new year. I'm going into it and preacher, I'm dedicating everything to God. But that's not all. Christmas is over, and when they arrived, they brought him frankincense. Now in that word, Frankincense is the little word incense, and they would light that, and they would send a perfume that will head us straight up to heaven into the nostrils of God. And was talking about worship. Worship. He's talking about devotion. He's got my dedication, but he wants my devotion. There's three parts of us. Part of it is, is motion, that's the physical and and then there's emotion, the soul, but the spirit, it brings devotion. And we we come, and we say, God, I want to worship You. I come into Your presence. And you know, when Jesus brought his presence into our world. It's amazing how people were drawn to worship him. Can I just suggest three ways in which I believe that Christ is worshiped? I think first of all, we ought to worship him eagerly. Want to be eager to worship Him. Now you gotta understand, they'd cross this hot, burning sand Euphrates River. They had encountered bandits along the way, and they traveled between the year to two years and Herod had killed all the babies two years of age and under. And they went through all of that. Why? Because they wanted to worship Him. They were eager to find him at the other end of that star, and they knew that he'd been born, and they're on that long, long journey, eager. Now, I believe that you can worship by yourself. I'm not questioning that, but it's wonderful when we gather together and. We can worship corporately, like they did at the day of Pentecost. I'm telling you, things begin to happen when we get together and we magnify the Lord together. And I don't know about you, but I can hardly wait for a Sunday to come and I get to worship with you, and we get into this atmosphere, and the music begins to play, and instruments are tuned up, and all of it begin to key together. Suddenly, you sense God coming down as we throw worship, worshiping Him. I like that. Psalm 122, verse one, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. And Psalm 27 for one thing have I desired of the Lord, and that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. And Psalm 26 verse eight, Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honor dwelleth. I'm just talking about eager worship, but also it ought to be expressive worship. Notice what verse 10, when they saw the star, they rejoiced, but it didn't stop there. They could've rejoiced with joy, but it didn't stop there. They could've worshiped with great joy. But it didn't stop there. They worship with exceeding great joy. And verse 11 says they fell down and they worshiped him. And the context and the connotation is that of a building literally collapsing. It's the idea of a vase falling and shattering into 1000 pieces. They just literally fell down before him. Now they were wise men. Now catch this, you Germans, and don't think I'm a Frenchman, because my name's LaSalle. I got adopted. I don't really care where you're from, but I'm just trying to get you to understand something. These were wise men. They were astronomers. They were the most educated. They were the most elite. They were well born, fact a matter, they were the descendants of Daniel but when they saw Jesus, and I'm not preaching about the shepherds, they should have got excited bunch of hillbillies, but I'm talking about the most elite of their time. When worship time came, they were Express airy. I mean, they just opened up and they fell and humble themselves, and they worshiped him. Now, according to Philippians, two nine, therefore God hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth, and that every tongue must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. There's going to come a day, and I don't care how elite you are, how wealthy you are, how educated you are, how noble you are, and all of that, everything is going to bow. Every tongue. Might as well get started now. Get practice out. And I honestly don't give a plug nickel. What the Baptist think. I don't give a dime. What the Presbyterians think I don't give a quarter, what the Methodists think. The only thing I really care about is what this book thinks, what God thinks. You see, the Baptist didn't redeem me, and the Lutherans didn't redeem me, but it's the blood of Jesus Christ that redeemed and changed my life. So all I'm interested in is what the Bible says. Look at Psalm, not not the Baptist hymnal. Look at the Psalms. Verse 47 verse one, Oh, clap your hands, all you people. Shout unto the Lord with the voice of triumph. Get expressionary And Psalm 95 verse six, oh, come. Let us worship and bow down. Let us deal before the Lord our Maker in Psalm 134, verse two, lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord. That's not a Pentecostal thing. They didn't put a fence around that, and it wouldn't matter if it was. The Bible tells us to put our hands up once in a while and kind of get into the program and get into the mood and get into worship. Well, move it along. And by the way, it's okay to do it, and it's okay if you don't do it and don't get bit out of shape, if somebody else does it and you don't do it. They were eager. They were expressing but they were also extravagant. What do you mean? Pastor, gold, frankincense, myrrh. This is all I want you to see. They gave their very best. They gave their best. Did you catch what I said? I said they gave their best. Do you want to go to a new level of. Worship, then try going to a new level of giving. If you want a new level of worship, go to a new level of giving. You say, Well, Pastor, you preachers preach that because it affects your salary. Doesn't affect mine. I'm on a flat salary. I don't get a plug nickel more if you give a million dollars go walks through the ministry. It's not about that. I'm talking about going to a new level. I don't know about you, I'm trying to get to a new level, and I find there's something about giving that takes you to that next level. Now if you don't want to go there, don't worry about it. Now, Matthew two, two, they traveled 1500 miles across the desert, and they go first of all, to Jerusalem, which is five miles north of Bethlehem, and these wise men say, where is he that's born King of the Jews. We have seen his star in the east, and we have come to worship him. Where's he at? And here it said, I don't have a clue. I guess, ask those gun carrying bible thumpers, maybe they'll know something. So they bring in these Bible guys, and they begin to thumb their way through the Old Testament. And one of them said, Hey, here's a minor prophet by the name of Micah, chapter five, verse two, he said it's going to be down there at Bethlehem, that one will rise to rule the nations. So it's down in Bethlehem. And Herod's thinking, Hmm, so there's some competition now. And the wise men, they they sense they need to get out of this situation. And they said, we head south. And so they headed south, down here to Bethlehem, and the stars stopped over the house where the young child was now. They didn't know where he was born. Can I just back up for a moment? You can thank you. Nice to have permission. It said, being warned of God in a dream they should not return to they departed in their own country. Another way. I just want to touch on this. You've heard it preached on once you've seen Jesus, you'll go home another way than when you came. You'll get changed. You'll not be changed, not be the same. Your language will start cleaning up, and your thought process will begin to change once you meet Jesus. I mean, if you really have a meeting with Jesus and worship Him, you won't think like he used to, you won't talk like you used to, you won't even look like you used to. You'll be changed. They went home another way, but they didn't know where he was, and they somebody else had to tell him. But once they met him and worshiped him, from that point on, God begin to speak directly to them, to them. They didn't have to ask anybody else about it. And when you really know who he is, nothing more, nothing less, he'll speak to you. AW Tozer said this, I wish that we might get back to worship, so that those people in the church, they can find God's people worshiping and fall in their faces and say, Truly, this God is in this place. That's what the world needs to see when they walk in, see the people of God worshiping. Tozer went on, first and foremost, I'm a worshiper. The Church must worship, and worship and entertainment are at the opposite end of the table. I want to tell you something here this morning. We're not here to entertain you. And if you come from a small church background and and you think this is a big operation, and there's a performance and a program being put on. The only difference between the little church and the church here is I, I believe God deserves our very best, and I don't like sloppiness, and I don't like people spending about an hour looking for a hymn book to get up and stumble around and ask for anybody want me to sing something and to kill a service we just we put our best foot forward, but it's not a program to entertain anybody. We're here to worship. And if it bothers you, the size of the crowd, let me tell you something. Heaven's a lot bigger. So I don't know what in the world you're going to do when you get there, you're going to be in a bind, good preaching, you deserve the best, so gold, frankincense and myrrh. Now Christmas is over. Now what? Well, Christmas is over. Let's give him our gold. I just commit myself to you. Let's give him our frankincense. Christmas is over. You have all of my devotion, my attention, my admiration, adoration that goes to you, and now that Christmas is over, we bring you myrrh. Now, what does myrrh represent? It represents what do you use myrrh for? It? It's to embalm bodies, and so it represents death. You. I'm going to hang around this one a little bit because it seems to fit this morning. I'm talking about the crowd behind me. You see anybody? Is there? Anybody behind me? Get this and I'm done. Colossians, three, five. So put to death. The sinful earthly things lurking within you. What's he saying? He's saying, Ray LaSalle, there are some things in you that you need to put to death. Okay, God, let's have a conversation. Where are they? Okay? He said, have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires. Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of the world. And because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. You used to do these things when your life was still a part of the world, but now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, get rid of malicious behavior, slander, dirty language. He said, You need to bury those things now he said, I'm all for this dedication being committed to me, and I'm for your devotion. But there's some things. There's a death that needs to happen too, Okay, God, I want to do that now. Tell me how to do that. And there's just us here, right? Some of you can relate to this, right? Anybody, not from here, just raise your hand up. Just us. Okay, so how do we do it? Well, look in the Bible, Romans, 813, for if we live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if you through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. Now here's the catcher living the Christian life without the Holy Spirit is not difficult. It's impossible. I said it's impossible. The only way we can conquer anything is to walk in the Spirit that will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We desperately need the Holy Spirit in our lives. We can have victory outside of the Holy Spirit. You keep going right back to those weaknesses, back to those sins that pulled you down. You keep messing it up and messing up your life. You'll do it again and again and again and again, and you'll never get any victory without the Holy Spirit empowering you to live above sin, unless there's in us, that which is above us will soon yield to that which is around us. So we need the power of the Holy Spirit. And I, I don't know this somatically, but here's what I want to say. You ask pastor, how can we have more of God? And I'm going to close on this. Isn't that good news? If I don't that other crowds going to be standing out younger so how can I get more of God? Number one is prayer. Look at Luke 321, now, when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying. Jesus prayed and praying that the heavens were opened and the Holy Ghost descended while Jesus was praying, the Spirit descended because he was about to go out in the wilderness where temptation was incredibly intense, but he went out of the power of the Spirit, and he was able to endure because Jesus came in the flesh. He came as a human, as the Son of Man, he was the Son of God, but he took on skin and he took on humanity, and so he needed the Holy Spirit to help him with the pressures of life, just like you and especially me. We all need it. Jesus was praying, and the Holy Spirit came. So if you want more of the Holy Spirit in your life, he'll come through prayer. He'll come through prayer. Honestly, the more you give yourself of God, the more you get of God. That's the only way you get more of God, is to give God more of you. Now you can call it sanctification. You can call it consecration. You can throw any theological term around it, and we've got people as espousing all kinds of doctrinal terms that have never really given everything to God. And it's all about God getting all there is of us if we want more of God. And here's the second thing is fasting if you want more of God, not only prayer, but fasting. 35 recorded fast in the Bible who all fasted well. We know that job. Did we know about the Daniel fast? We know that King David fasted. We know his son Solomon fasted. The Bible said that Paul fasted. But by the way, Jesus also fasted. And I come to this verse in Matthew 914, then came to him, the disciples of John. Remember John, the Baptist well, they put him to death, and so they needed a leader. And those disciples, they come to Jesus, and they said, we don't get it. We fast. And the Pharisees fast. We fast on the Day of Atonement. And those Pharisees, they fast twice a week. And your disciples, they don't fast. Why? And he responds by saying, this, can the children of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, I'm here with them, and the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away. Said, I'm going to leave, and then they shall fast. That's that's Matthew, chapter nine, verse 14 and 15. Jesus said, You gotta understand I'm right here. I can touch you, I can speak to you. I'm I'm right here with you. You don't have to mourn that I'm gone. I'm here, but the day is coming that I'll be gone. And then if you really want to experience more of me, you need to fast and pray so that I'll be there with you, and in order to experience my presence in a great way, they'll fast. So we want more of God. It comes through prayer. We want more of God it comes through fasting. And Christmas is over, and I want to give him gold. I want to give him my dedication and my commitment. God, I'm going into 2025, but you need to understand one thing, I made up my mind, Hell Week, or whatever it is, I have to face in in this brand new year, no matter what comes, I'm going to serve you. Not a thing in this world. Am I going to let the tour my life? I'm serving you. I'm going to be committed, and Christmas is over, and I'm bringing my frankincense. You got my love, my devotion, my adoration. I'm going to praise only you. I won't try to build myself up. I'll build you up. And not only that, Christmas is over, and I'm going to give you some myrrh, I'm going to die out to anything that gets between me and you, anything that I begin to like more than you, whatever it might be, whatever attracts me and allures me and wants to pull me off. I die to that. I put it to death. I mortify those deeds, because Christmas is over and you deserve the very best, and I give it to 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.