Voice of the Nazarene 1-5-25

Voice of the Nazarene 1-5-25

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 buchars Ohio Church of the Nazarene. We join our Pastor Reverend Ray LaSalle, and the voice of the Nazarene. Some of the chapter I'll not read, but will refer to it, and so I'd encourage you to read it even after the service is over. During the week, if you're doing devotions, look at chapter five of Luke. A reason it came to pass isn't that good news that it comes to pass doesn't come to stay. You think you're in the middle of a storm. It'll last forever. You think this issue is going to take you out. No, it's it came to pass. That's where the price of admission, right there, isn't it? That as the people pressed upon him to hear the Word of God, you catch that the people pressed on him to hear the word. They were so hungry they were pressing him to preach to them. Brill cream used to have a commercial. A little dab will do you. There's many people when it comes to the Word of God, just a little dab seems to do them. But the people pressed upon him to hear him. And he stood by the lake of genesaret, and he saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were going out of them and were washing their nets. And here's Simon Peter with his boats. No income. It's another bad day. Payments to make on the boats. People to pay wages to discourage and Jesus borrows one of those boats. Some call it a ship. Like to get on the ship, we need to come together in fellowship, then we can worship to Him. That's the Lordship, if you're on the ship. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's Simon Peters, and prayed to him that he would thrust down a little from the land. And he sat down, and he taught the people out of the ship. And just like I'm using this mic for amplification. Jesus was using the water acoustically for his voice to thrust out to the crowd. Now, when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, the failed fisherman, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a drought or a great, massive catch. Do you realize that failure sometimes can be beneficial? Potato Chips are not good for you, but they sure are good. They're so good that people have been going to Kroger's and buying out the kind I want. There was a chef by the name of George Crum, and somebody had sent an order back for some fried potatoes. And he fried them, sliced them, and fried them and brought them out and delivered them. And the man looked at him, and he said, That's too thick. I want him thinner. So he went back and he peeled some thinner potatoes and fried them and brought them back. And the guy said, that's still too thick. I want them thinner. He went back, and he peeled some more and sliced them thinner, fried them and brought it back. And the guy said, I told you, I want him thinner. He was frustrated. He was mad. And he went back to the kitchen, and he made him he said, I'm going to make him paper thin and I'm going to fry him till they're hard. And he made them paper thin and fried them till they were hard, and took it out and slapped it down on the table. The man tried them and said, That's delicious. Have you got any more? That's how potato chips were created. Actually, it was kind of a mistake. It was kind of revenge on the part of one guy mad at the other guy, but we got those chips that are not good for you, but they sure are good if you get the right kind. There were two brothers, two men, and they'd put some boiled wheat in a pan and along with some water, and forgotten, let it. Said, and it was several days before they got back to it, and those two brothers, the Kellogg brothers, realized that just discovered Kellogg corn flakes. It was by mistake. It wasn't even on purpose. It wasn't by design, but out of their mistake, something good came, if you like, breakfast, Ivory soap, a man was mixing a batch of the solution, and he put too much solution into the batch, and then he realized his mistake, and he didn't mean to do it, but he did it, and he wanted to hide his mistake. He didn't want to lose his job, and he knew he'd better not put it out. So the salesman would deliver it around to the various stores. They had customers that they mailed product to, and so he packaged them and he sent it on the mail out so he wouldn't get caught. But immediately statements begin to come, and cards begin to come, and letters begin to be written. We want some more of that soap that floats Ivory soap. He didn't mean to do it. He was actually a mistake, and he even tried to hide it. But out of it. We have Ivory soap. You might try it. There was a little boy. It was 1905, and his name was Frank Epperson, and he was playing around, and he had some powdered soda, and he added water, and he took a stick and he mixed, mixed it all together, and he forgot about it, and left it out on the Porsche, and it froze. Became known as what we call popsicles. He didn't mean to do it. He forgot about it, but it's something kids love. Here's what I'm saying. The Bible says a just man falleth seven times and rises again. That's proverbs 24 you know that many in the Bible made mistakes and failed. But out of that, God used like David, of man after his own heart. But look at all the mistakes he had prior to that God brought him down to so humbled him that he could finally use him. Now, here's the story, and I remind you again, failures can be beneficial if you'll allow them to Now, here's the story. We have these fishermen and others, several ships feast all night, caught nothing. I've been there, but it wasn't night, it was day. And they're washing their nets. They're discouraged, disenchanted, dismayed, financially, smitten, and they're just washing their nets in defeat, been a failure, spent all night, caught nothing, but the next day, the same fishermen with the same nets and the same boats on the same lake met someone that told them, cast on the other side out into the deep and in that same lake had a massive catch. They went from failure to success, and they, no doubt, learned some things. A businessman said that he had to file bankruptcy, and he said they took everything that I had, everything, everything, he said, but the knowledge, I still have, the knowledge up here, and out of all of these mistakes that Simon Peter and these fishermen made, there's one thing, if we'll learn from that, we'll have some knowledge that nothing else can take from us, and we'll have value if we will learn from their mistakes. You know, it's wise to learn from experience, but it's wiser to learn from the experience of others, and not nearly so painful. Let me give you three primary notes. I think they're important points. And what can we learn from failure. Three things. Number one, appropriate God's presence in your life. One night they catch nothing. Next morning, massive catch. What's the difference? Well, it hit me when I read this. I'd never just exactly saw this before you read about in verse three, and he entered into one of the ships. What made the difference? Jesus was in the boat. Jesus was in the boat. And here's what I want you to understand, Jesus got in the boat. And if you read the Scripture real. Close. It was Simon's boat. That's Peter's boat. He owned the boat, and Peter had to let Jesus in the boat. Some of you, if you want victory and you want spiritual success, you're going to have to let the Lord in the boat with you. You're going to have to let him in your life. You're going to have to appropriate the presence of God, His Lordship in the boat, somebody asked, how much of God can I have? Well, you can have as much God as you want. You can have as much God as you want if you allow him to be the president in your life and not the resident, if you allow Him to be Lord. And somebody said, if he's not Lord of all, he'll not be of all, he'll not be Lord at all. And the valuable principle we can learn to appropriate God's presence into our lives. Now, Peter's a professional fisherman, and he appropriated the presence of God into his occupation. It just seemed like we want to separate our public life from our private Christian life. Sometimes when we make the mistake that we want to separate between the spiritual side and the secular side. But I remind you, he's either Lord of all or he won't be Lord at all. No, no, no, yes, yes, yes. You see if he's Lord of all, then it kind of takes me to Genesis, chapter one, verse one. I just saw this this week, I've seen it, but never saw it in the beginning. God, everything that we face, every decision we have to make, it ought to be in the beginning. God, I go to God, I'm I'm yours, and I want to you're my partner, and you're in charge. And I just want to go to you. First of all, I want to talk to my wife. Imagine you better. But don't forget, you need to talk to God in the beginning. God, what school should I go to in the beginning? God, talk to God about it. What job should I take in the beginning? God, what should I do with this money? Everything should be taken to God appropriate God's presence in your life. Here's number two, cooperate with God's plan for your life. Look at what the scripture says. Now, when he had left speaking, he said to Simon, Peter, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a massive catch. Now, Jesus was a carpenter. He built cabinets, and he's talking to a professional fisherman. Of course, what Peter didn't know Jesus was the creator of the fish. Taught him how to swim, put birds in the air, taught him how to fly. But he's a cabinet builder, and he told Peter to launch out of the deep. And you wonder if Peter said, Jesus, you're a carpenter and I'm a professional fisherman, and I know this water like the back of my hand. I know wherever it plays out there, and how deep it is and where the fish run. But probably confused. Simon Peter a little he said, launch out of the deep. He's wondering, you don't fish in the daytime. There's a reason why we fish at night. It's when the fish are running. And he's saying, Launch out into the deep. And that's not where the fish are. He was a fisherman. He knew they were up closer to the shore and up near the bank, where all the weeds are growing and hiding and moving among them and feeding. But the master of the sea said, Launch out into the deep. It made no sense. You know, sometimes we have to trust God. You have to obey God and leave the consequences up to him. All you need to do is cooperate with God's plan for your life. How do you know that? I can tell you why. I know that when I was a boy, there was no way in the world I'd ever end up in the ministry, not a way in the world. Did I ever have a desire to stand up and holler at people, and that's what I do, and I can't seem to bring the holler down to a talk. You gotta talk to him. On a level, it keeps them awake. You know, my family, it's not a whole line of preachers. The last statement I ever heard my biological dad say was to my wife when she asked him, would you like for us to pray you don't want to go to hell? And he looked up with a sneer, and he said, I'll let you know in a few days what Hell's like. Last thing I ever heard him say, you don't. Come up on that kind of a thing and have a desire to be a preacher. Fact, no matter, I wanted to work hard and develop a business, a great business. I wasn't trying to change anybody. I wanted to charge them. But God, had another plan for my life. I was born to do what I'm doing. I'm no exception. Don't get me wrong, but I'm trying to tell you, God has a plan for everyone of us. God has a plan. You need to get in on it. That's what the old May said. I believe in marriage. I just like to get in on the program. Proverbs, 35 says, Trust in the Lord. Do you know what the word Trust means? It means to lie face down in the dust, face down like a servant, waiting for the master to respond. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not on unto thine own understanding in all thy ways, acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths. One little boy said to the other little boy, he said, I know how to get along with my mother. Whatever she says, Just do it. Well, here's Peter fishing, and if you'll read John 141 of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon, Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother, Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted to Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation of stone. He had already been called into the ministry, and guess what? He had gone back to his old lifestyle. He just couldn't give up the fishing, and it's falling apart on him. I'm trying to say, cooperate with God's plan for your life, things will go better. He was saying, I don't need a professional fisherman. I need a fisher of men. I need a minister of the gospel. I've got a whole city to reach and a world to reach, and I need you to preach at Pentecost and 3000 souls be swept into the kingdom. Cooperate with God's plan and program and purpose for your life, appropriate God's presence in your life, cooperate with God's plan for your life, and then anticipate God's provision for your life, he said, launch out in the deep. And of course, if you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space. Launch out into the deep. And according to verse five and six, when they launched out into the deep, they had a massive catch that nearly sank both boats. It was such a large cat. Three quick things, and I'm done good news in it. I didn't want you to have a breakdown. Number one, there's life after failure. You need to know that Peter felt like a failure. How do you know that? Preacher? Well, look at verse eight. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I'm a sinful man. You called me in the ministry, and I went another direction. I was fighting to do my own thing. Forgive me. I want you to understand in every life, there's life after failure, maybe, maybe I'm making a mistake to say that. Maybe I should say there's life after failures plural, you're not a failure. Failure is an event, not a person. So a person can't be a failure. Failure is an event. In 1816 his family was forced to move out of their home, and he had to work to support him. In 1818 his mother died, and in 1831 he failed in business. By 1882 he ran for the state legislature and lost. In 1832 he lost his job. He wanted to go to law school, but he couldn't get in. And in 1833 he borrowed some money from a business to form a business. By the end of the year, he was bankrupt. He spent the next 17 years paying off that debt. By 1835 he was engaged to be married, and that fiance that he loved so dearly died in. And had a broken heart, and so by 1836 he had a complete nervous breakdown and never got out of bed for more than six months. 1838 he sought to become the speaker, and was defeated. 1840 he ran for elector, and he was defeated. 1843 he ran for Congress. He lost. By 1846 he'd run, and he won, and he served for one term, worked himself to death and then was voted out. 1849 he sought a job as land officer in his home estate, and was rejected. 1854 he ran for the Senate of the United States and lost. 1856 he tried to become the vice president of his own party, and got less than 100 votes and lost. It's now 1858 he ran for Senate again and lost. But in 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States of America. Here's the second thing. See, there is life after failure, but sharing is the secret to keep from sinking. Look at verse six. And when this was done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net break, they beckoned under their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came filled both ships so that they began to sink. Here's what I want you to understand, sharing is the secret to keep from sinking in life. They lost their boat, they lost everything, but they shared it with others, and they came over and it kept them from sinking. Now, if you're having a hard time and you're too proud to admit that you're hurt, don't be surprised that you'll soon think that everybody and nobody cares. If you're too proud to admit you're hurt, you'll think nobody cares. Galatians 62 says, bear you one another's burden, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Sharing is the secret to not sinking. Dr Carl Menninger, he was asked, What do you do if you're facing a nervous breakdown? He said, Just get up out of bed and go up the road and look for somebody in a worse condition than you are, and help them. Sharing is the secret to not seeking. Here's the third thing I want to say, and I'm hopefully done. If I can find the runway, look for the good that comes out of failure. Now I wasn't there. Nobody asked me to be there. Nobody asked me what I think. Much anyhow, I have a lot of people tell me what they think, but they never ask me what I think. Sometimes they'll tell me what to think. Don't hang around to find out what I think. But don't think. I don't think. Finally been there, I'd have probably said, Peter, all Jesus, if you don't mind talking with me, Peter, all Jesus wanted you to do was just to follow him. Why couldn't you do it? Why were you stubborn? Why were you going back to your old lifestyle? You messed up, and he'd say, Ray, bottom line is, I did mess up, and it was terrible, but out there on that sea of Galilee, I learned some lessons. I learned some lessons that, first of all, if God asks you to do something, just do it, leave the consequences to him and just simply obey. What else did you learn? Well, I learned that if I had needs, he supplies all the needs. Not only does he supply my needs, but he always supplies enough to help some others also bring the other ship over and they filled them both. Did you learn anything else? Yes, I learned that when he said, launch out in the deep, if he's on my side, I'm in the majority. It doesn't matter who's against me, as long as I'm with him. But the biggest lesson I learned, I will not see going bankrupt, discouraged that when Jesus came alongside, that he can use you even after you've blown it, even after you've made a mistake, even when you didn't listen, he still got a plan and a purpose. US for your life. And I'm talking to people that will be watching by telecast, watching by live stream, who are gathered at our service at some point along the way, you messed up. What should I have done, Pastor, when you're down, pick up something on your way back up when you're down, learn why you went down and counted a blessing when you're back up. If you've ever been down in Alabama, where they have okra and greens and grits, I'll just take a one pound grid. There's a little town down there called Enterprise. Enterprise Alabama, tornado came through and did$50,000 worth of improvements. Just a little humor. Enterprise Alabama. All they planted was cotton. It was their livelihood. They survived. And that's about all they did. They survived with cotton. And then in the 1800s the bow evil came through and destroyed their crop. It broke that town. It broke their back. And when they got together, instead of just bemoaning that all of that, they did something very useful. They said, We need to diversify. Let's not just count on cotton. The boll weevil destroyed the crop. It broke us. We've got to find a way out of here, and they did something new. They planted peanuts, and they started making more money than ever made in their life. The town became prosperous. They said that boll weevil was a blessing. We're grateful that the boll weevil came through and got us off the cotton, got us out of just existing, and forced us into planting peanuts. And now we're a wealthy area, a wealthy County. We ought to do something so we never forget what the boll weevil did to us. They took and pulled their money together and they put up a statue in the center of enterprise. It's a woman holding a boll weevil up. They said, when our kids come through, they'll see that lady holding up the boll weevil, and it'll be a reminder when we were nearly broke and barely existing, planting cotton and never diversifying that when that boll weevils came through, destroyed the crop, we caught the vision of planting peanuts and we become wealthy. And you know what I know about everybody that's listening? You've had some boll weevils in your life, too. You say I got hurt at that church, yeah, but the boll weevils came through, and you'd not be here this morning if it hadn't been for some of the boll weevils in life. I was hurt by some men. A man hurt me, I understand. But if it hadn't been for that, those men hurting you and those boll weevils in life, you wouldn't have found that real good man that you're serving with and living with as a husband and wife. I'm simply saying boll weevils come into our life and kind of mess with us and kind of bring failures and all of that. That lost job and you got transferred into this area boll weevils. Listen, there's life after failure. Sharing is the secret to not stinking, and you need to start looking for the good that comes out of all the failures of life. You just don't know what I'm going through right now. I know, but I know a God that can turn that mess into a message, and that very test that you're going through right now, God's going to turn it into a testimony in 2025 that'll be anything that anybody's heard, and we're waiting to hear the outcome, the testimony, and not the test. We're not here to look over the mess. We're going to listen to the message. God's going to turn some things around. We've got a brand new year. Let's quit looking for the negatives. Let's start looking for the positives. Let's begin to see that there may be a devil, but there's a God bigger than the devil, and he's got a plan, and he's got a purpose for your life. So appropriate God's presence. Cooperate with God's plan, and whatever you do, you better. Accept God's provisions, even if it's a boll weevil. God's going to use it for your good father. 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 Bucyrus. Nazarene.org, you.