Voice of the Nazarene 1-12-25

Voice of the Nazarene 1-12-25

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 Bucyrus, Ohio Church of the Nazarene. We join our Pator,Reverend Ray LaSalle and the voice of the Nazarene. Join me, if you would, in Matthew chapter 11 and the 11th verse, some of the words from Christ's own lips and about his own cousin. What an insight. Jesus said, verily, I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there have not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Those born of women, there's not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Just seems like every light begins to focus on John the Baptist for a moment, and all of the curtains are pulled back, and we're all given a glimpse, small glimpse, his ministry only lasted for six months, and yet he said, notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he I'd certainly like to get in on that last phrase, the least can become greater. I think it's time to man up. I think there's some steps to better ourselves. I believe there are steps that we can become better men. And as I share with you this morning, I'm talking to the men and the ladies. I don't know ladies, whether you've realized it or not, but in the word woman, there's the word man, wool man. I think you'd all agree that in that word, human is man. We're all of a human race. I'm talking to all of us. We're all apart. And let's talk about some steps of becoming a great man and woman, two boys were talking, and one of them said, my dad can whip your dad. And the other said he didn't think he could, but he said, You haven't met my dad. My dad, he can whip every man in the neighborhood. Fact of the matter, he's got a list of all the men that he can whip, and your dad is at the top of the list? Well, he went home pretty dejected, and he told his dad. He said Johnny said that his dad could whip all the men in the neighborhood, and he said that your name is at the top of the list. The guy was about 250 pounds, six foot, five, bulging chest and bulging arms. Just look at me. You'll kind of get the picture. Not much support here from the music department. And he said, In the light of that son, let's, let's go visit the guy. They went across the neighborhood and knocked on the door, and this little, frail, short guy answered the door, and the big guy said, I want to see the man of the house. He said, you're looking at him. He said, I'm looking at him well, he said, Your boy said that you you can whip every man in the neighborhood. You got a list of all that you can whip. He said, I do. You're right. Well, he said, my boy, your boy told my boy that I'm at the top of the list. He said, You are. Well, he said, I'm here. What do you want to do about it? He said, I I want to move your name off the list. Jesus said that John was the greatest born among women, and I thought of He's the greatest. I thought I'd never looked at it this way, but I I thought maybe it'd be good to look again at the life of John and see what were the qualities, the characteristics, the idiosyncrasies that Jesus saw in John. Maybe, in looking at these qualities, maybe we can incorporate some of those great traits into our own life. I'd like to be a better man. And the first quality that I noticed about John, he recognized he needed a Savior that's more than some folk have realized and recognized. Ignite. John makes a big splash. He comes onto the scene. Big guy, clothed in camel hair and wore a leather and girdle, had a diet of honey and wild locusts. Can you imagine that beard full of matted honey and full of kicking grasshopper legs, the kind of growls of the crowd and people gathered from all over to watch him baptize in the flowing Jordan River. They came in droves. He was a pretty prophetic guy. Great crowds, but he said something in John one, verse 20, and he confessed and denied not. He said, I confess that I am not the Christ. I'm not the Messiah. I'm not I'm not the Lamb of God. And then in verse 29 of that chapter, he looks up and he sees Jesus coming toward him, and he said to that great audience, he said, there's there's the Lamb of God. They're taking away the sin of the world. And here's what I want you to understand, sir, every man needs a Savior. You can't be the man you ought to be until you put your trust and your faith in Jesus Christ. You can't be the person that you need to be, until you come to recognize that you need to put your faith in God's only son. That's step number one, sir, and that's step number one, lady, Listen, I'm not trying to make you a Methodist. I'm not trying to make you a Pentecostal. I'm not here to impress you to become an Episcopalian or a Baptist or a Lutheran. The Bible said I know in whom I have believed, and in the womb, it's not a witch, it's not a what. It's a person, and you need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Deion Sanders, quite an athlete. Big guy, towers above many of the others in the football world, he was at the very top. It was through him that he was able to help his team win two Super Bowls. But not only did he win two Super Bowls and play football, but he has the distinction of having played in the World Series. He was at the apex in football, winning two Super Bowls, and by the same token, was in the apex in baseball, playing in the World Series. He said, I had it all. I had everything. Just look at me. And he said, it, I had it. You name it, I've got it. But in 1997 he said, My life was so empty I didn't want to live anymore. They said I had it all. And I want to tell you something you can have all the world has to offer. And you can be empty. And he said, in 1997 empty, he said, I decided to take my car and drive it over a 40 foot embankment, and in my life, and he did that only he survived. And there the hospital. He said, There must be a God, and that God must have a plan. And when he got out of the hospital, fell on his knees and invited Christ into his life, and he made this statement. He said, I I used to be on the enemy's team, but now I'm on God's team. I don't know which team you're on, but I hope you're getting into the right team. That's what I that's what I want to say. He was not only John, not only recognized the fact that he needed a Savior, but the Bible said he was filled with the Holy Spirit. I believe that's a great quality. Luke one verse, 15, don't turn me off. I'm not trying to make it complicated, but it said in Luke 115 he was filled with the Spirit. Now get this. You receive Christ, and the Holy Spirit literally comes into your life. You say, Well, preacher, I'm not interested in the Holy Spirit. You don't know what you're saying, because you can't be a Christian without. The Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit that pricks your heart, and it's the Holy Spirit that shows you your need of a Savior. So when you get saved, the Holy Spirit comes into your life. And Ephesians 518 says, Be filled with the Spirit. Have you ever noticed after you get saved. Do you ever notice that your life is pretty clean? I asked for a quart size. This is a gallon, half a gallon. But if you notice that after you get saved, you hang around the church and other Christians and and they're not all cursing and damning and saying terrible things and and you your language begins to change and and your thought pattern begins to move away. You're no longer running the with the other crowd, and you're no longer out in the honky tonks and those leap in, leap out, sort of hell holes and and your life gets all cleaned up, but after a while, things begin to get back into your life. Have you noticed that you might get around somebody that gossips. The next thing you know, you get on the telephone and you start gossiping. You don't all have to say, Amen, I know where my notes are. I know where I'm going. And the next thing you know, maybe you got some secret thoughts that you ought to have, and they get into your mind and get into your life, and suddenly you're not nearly as hungry for God as you were, and you start missing church, and you don't have the prayer life and other stuff begins to get into your life. And you know what the Bible says? The Bible said that we need to be filled with the Spirit, filled with the Spirit. Now, what happens when I'm filled with the Spirit? What begins to happen all these things begin to get back out of my life. Now listen to me over there in Galatians, chapter five and verse 16. What say I then walk in the Spirit and you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Man, here's what I want to say to you. If we're not careful, it isn't long, these things can start getting back into our life. That's what I'm saying. And I'm trying to tell you this morning that we need to be filled with the spirit or the carnal appetites will start showing up. I need to stay full. And if I want more of God, what do I need to do? Give God simply more me. Okay, well, let's move on to something else. Not only was he filled with the Spirit, and not only had he recognized this need to be saved, but I saw another quality as I read through his life, thinking here and there through the Scripture. I believe he was a man of prayer. Where do you get that pastor over there in Luke, chapter 11, verse one, the disciples had gathered around Jesus. They had been followers of John, and they said, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples, teach us to pray. May I say this man, you have a responsibility to pray. You have a responsibility to pray for your family. First, Timothy two eight says, I therefore, I will therefore, let men pray everywhere, and nobody's going to pray for my family like me, and nobody's going to pray for your boy, sir, like you can, and nobody's going to need to pray for your companion like you can mayhem. And so God has given us a responsibility. And if you want to become a great man of God, you've got to become a man of prayer, a man who prays for his family. I was reading after Howard Hendricks the other day, Dr Howard Hendricks, and in the book, it said that he had researched over a two year period, 246 men, men who had wound up with moral failures in their life. And you say, well, preacher, you're wasting your time. That'll never happen to me. Well, it happened to David and it happened to Solomon. It happened to Samson. So don't rule it out. I'm talking to you, he said, over the course of two years. He He watched these men, 246 who had moral failure, and he said the common denominator among all of them, they said, I abandoned my time in prayer. I abandoned my time in prayer. There's something about prayer that builds a barrier around you, a barrier of protection so the devil can't get in. And men, if you want to win the battles in your life, get on your knees and you'll never lose a battle. Become people of prayer. And then another quality quickly, John had a spirit of humility in Matthew, chapter three, verse 11, he said, concerning Jesus, I'm not even worthy to touch his shoestrings a humble spirit, spirit of humility. Do you know a great man will serve his wife? A great man will serve His children? It's not all about you, mister. God give you a family. God bless you with virginity. And we need to expand our vision beyond our little self and realize that we have a God given family and a God giving given companion, and we need to serve them. It's strange to me, sometimes guys that we're kinder to the lady down at the convenience store than we are to our own wife. Don't use that in the next service. God said, If you'll Humble yourself, I'll exalt you. But if you exalt yourself, he said, I'll I'll humble you. One preacher thought he had really done good on that Sunday morning. He thought he had preached to filibuster on the way home, he said to his wife, he said, Honey, I wonder how many great preachers there are in America. She said, one less than you think. Pray that God will keep us humble. God can't use you if you're not humble, if we get all caught up with self and opinions and and self worth and our achievements, God can't use us anymore. God is supposed to get all the accolades. What makes a great man is when he has a spirit of humility, when you don't think you know it all, when you don't always have to have your own way, when once in a while, you admit that you're wrong. Now here's a fifth quality of John. Listen to me. Faster. We'll get done sooner. He got down, but he went to the right place to get back up. And here's all I'm going to say, man, you're going to get down once in a while. Everybody has downtime. There's times of discouragement in life. There's times of defeat. Some of you live in defeat at your home. You hate to go to the house, even some of you, it's your job. But whether it's on the work relationship, or whether it's in the marriage, there will be times when you'll be down and you've gotta know where to go to the right place to get back up. You say, Well, did John ever get down? Well, let's read about it. It's Matthew 11, verse two. Now, when John had heard in the prison, that's where he was at the works of Christ, He sent two of His disciples and said unto them, Art thou that should come or do we look for another? Now let me give you the background he had been arrested. Old Herod had made his wife, well he he made his stepdaughter a promise. When he was half drunk, anything she had asked for, he'd give it to her. She went to her mama, mama, what do you want? She said, I haven't slept since that preacher preached. His name's John the Baptist. I'll never rest till they cut his head off and I'll extract his tongue and drive a dagger through it. I'll silence him. So she had her husband to arrest him, and John is down, and he's discouraged, and he hears about Christ, and so he sends two of his disciples. And in Luke, chapter seven, verse 22 they went to see him, And Jesus said unto them, Go and show John again those things which you do, hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them. Go tell John, Blessed is He who's not offended. Here's what I want you to see. John was down, but he knew to look to the Lord. He sends messengers to find Jesus, and when you're down, you. You better know how to find your way back up. You say, preacher, is it okay to get down? Well, look at Proverbs. 24 verse 16, it says, For the just man, falleth seven times yet riseth again. It doesn't matter how many times you get down, you keep getting back up. And when you get down, pays to get your eyes on Jesus and get up real quick. Like, here's the sixth thing about John. He was so like Jesus. He was like Jesus, according to Mark chapter six, verse 14, when, when Jesus comes on, the scenes and miracles begin to happen, and word gets to Herod. Herod, he's frightened. He said it must be John resurrected from the dead. Jesus and John were so much alike, and here's the last thing, he brought others to Christ. You say, Pastor, what's your goal in life? Well, I'll tell you, here's my goal. I can't impact everybody, but I can't impact somebody. And here's what I made up my mind and my little sphere of influence, I don't come in contact with everybody. I wound up pastoring in a little city. I spent the first 23 years of ministry and evangelism, traveling the countryside and preaching on about 30 radio stations, putting out a publication. I never came here till I was in my late 40s. I'm now probably in the last chapter my earthly ministry, someday soon, I'll face God. I sure wish I'd have done better. I hope there's some way that I I could leave a little bit of the vision that I have into your mind, and if I could lay the burden of my heart, to burden your heart. I wished I could. I've struggled through the years of pastoring, trying to get people to see a bigger vision. They want to spend every little last penny, but they don't want to spend big money to invest in the lost. Seem like we'll always want to go backward to a smaller program and more comfort, and we never catch the vision of doing something big for God. I wouldn't God that we can be like the Heavenly Father that welcomed prodigal sons in instead of being like an elder brother back in the house pouting. I don't like the music, and I wish people wouldn't come, and I don't like all the change. God pity us. And here I am nearing the very end, and it's only a matter of time. It didn't take a genius to see that. I'm not telling you anything new, but what little influence I have on somebody, whoever I want to try to impress them with God and impress them for good with their lives while I can. And you know, the first place that we're to start with our realm of influence, our impact, it's with our family. Look at what Acts 238, Then Peter said unto them, Repent, be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. So first of all, we come to Christ, and then we receive that gift of the Holy Spirit. And then on down in verse 39 it says, For the promise is unto you and your children and to all that are far off. Do you catch that the promises unto you and your children? What's he saying? He's saying that I have a responsibility to my wife or to my husband and our children? Joshua, 24 verse 15, he said, but it's for me and my house. We will serve the Lord. You know, it's wonderful to talk about our house, but hold on, wait a moment. It begins with me. It starts over here with me. I better get myself right. I better humble myself. I better get into the prayer closet. I better find and get acquainted with God if it gets with me and then it moves on into my house. I simply trying to say, men, you have a responsibility pray for your family, Sir, you have a responsibility to lead your family. I sent a text to my boy this morning because I talked with a trucker last night, and he said he when he gets up in the morning, he's going to go past cabbage Hill, Oregon. He. It's called Dead Man's pass. He said, I don't know how the weather is out there, but he said, if he's pulling a trailer, he can lose it three hairpin switchbacks going down those miles of mountain, he better make contact. In the last four days, they've crossed into 11 different states. He's moving to Eugene, Oregon, and all week long, I've been thinking about my boy, the boy that I raised. He had a better mother than he had father. And I'm simply trying to say to you that you and I have some responsibilities our boys and our girls. You ever think about the first three questions in the Bible? Genesis, three, nine, Adam, where are you? Where you at? You better find out where you're at, sir. And the next question, chapter four, verse nine, where's your brother? It's about time some of us get a burden for our brothers and sisters. I don't know if you're catching anything I'm saying this morning, but I wouldn't God that I could impact and impart to you that. And the third question, Genesis, 18, verse nine, where's your wife? Where's Sarah, thy wife? Where are you at? Where's your brothers? Where's your family? Begins with us. We have a responsibility to bring our family into relationship with God. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family. James Dobson had a heart attack, and he thought he was dying. He was laying there the hospital, thinking, This is it. I'm going out at the stage in life. I And while he was there in the hospital, by the way, I've been in the hospital with men dying. I still do the chaplaincy thing the local hospital, I got called out last week, lady going into hospice, calling for a chaplain, somebody to come hold my hand and pray with me. I cannot tell you how many hands this hand is held, men or women dying. I've never had any of them brag about how many degrees they had and much how much education I've never had any tell me how much money they had in their bank account, or how many acres of land they owned, I've held their hand and they died while I held it. I had a warm hand, and suddenly I had a lifeless hand, and suddenly they belonged to the ages they'd stepped out of the great beyond Dobson lay dying, and as he thought he was dying, he asked himself three questions. Number one, who do I love? You know, I don't want to spend my time reaching the world and lose my family, as long as my kids say I was a good dad, I hope I was. And the next question that he asked himself, who really loves me? Well, I've got 1000s of people love me, Pastor, well, you need to think long and hard on that. You know, 30 minutes after you're gone, they'll be saying, pass the beans. Would you pass some of that roast beef over there? You better start pouring yourself into those that are going to cry the loudest with your passing and loved you the deepest. You better start spending some time and find out just where they are spiritually. His third question, will I spend my eternity with the ones I love? So he started Focus on the Family, and then it hit him, I'm starting a focus here and a ministry and an organization of how I can save families and my own son, Ryan is not a Christian. What am I going to tell everybody when I try to tell them they need to reach their children and my own boy, he's away from God. Soon as he got out of the hospital, he begin to spend time with his boy and begin to build relationship with his boy, begin to pour into his son's life. And Ryan became a Christian and is now a pastor. Somebody asked him about the heart attacks. He said, Thank God I had a heart attack. Act. It was that a heart attack that helped me to realize what was important. You know, we have a little saying that when you die, you can't take anything with you. That's not totally true. You could take your family. Some of us could take a neighbor or two. Some of us could probably take that guy that's on that next machine, or that person down there that sold you the donuts. If we took just a moment to become their friend, you he died, everybody's going to die. And the Bible said in Luke 16, and in hell, lift up his eyes, being in torment. And all he could think about, I've got five brothers. Is there anybody that would have enough influence that could talk to them and keep them out of this place of torment? Is there anybody I could send back to them? I'd like to send you out to have an influence on some people to keep them out of hell. Could be your brother? God's going to ask you, where is your brother? Where's your wife? Where are you at, 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 bucyrusnazarene.org, you.