Voice of the Nazarene 8-31-25

Voice of the Nazarene 8-31-25

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 Pastor Reverend Ray Lasalle and the voice of the Nazarene. Good to see you. We welcome our guests, and we welcome our live stream at church folk as well. I'm speaking to you from Genesis, chapter 39 verse 20. And Joseph's master took him and put him into a prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound, and he was there in prison. He was there in prison. I want to talk to you about when everything goes wrong, when everything that seems right goes wrong. Fred and Martha had been married for more than 60 years. They were sitting in on the porch swing together as the sun had sunk over the western hills, and soon the moon began to play in sparkling splendor against dew drops out there on the leaves. They were quiet and Fred turned and looked over in the moon glow at Martha, and he said, Martha, we've been together for a long, long, long, long time, haven't we? And she leaned over and whispered, yes for a long time. He said, Do you remember when our first house burned to the ground and we lost everything? And she said, Yes, I remember. He said, Do you remember when I lost that job down at the mill? Was without work you were still with me. She said, I remember. And he said, Do you remember when I opened up that brand new business and it went belly up and we lost every cent of our investment? You were right there with me. She said, Yes, I remember. He said, Do you remember when I ran for the mayor and I lost by 5000 votes, and yet you stuck right there with me? And she whispered, yes, I remember. He said, a few weeks ago, when they diagnosed me with prostate cancer, you're still with me. He said, You know, I'm beginning to believe perhaps you're bad luck. And if you live long enough, you'll soon find that things will go wrong. You've got to be sure that when things go bad, that you don't go with it. I like what Jerry Falwell said. He said, when the stars from time to time, when the stars fall from your heaven and your world collapses around you, for he said it will, and it's so true. Charles Spurgeon, back in the mid 1800s was the first mega church pastor. The building, as I understood, would hold 5,000 people, and many times there were that many people standing on the outside that couldn't get in to the inside to hear him preach. Nothing like it there in London. He was called the prince of preachers. The most quoted preacher, even to this day, is Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Charles Spurgeon stood in the metropolitan tabernacle church 1866 and he said these words. He said, I have to speak to myself today I shall be endeavoring to encourage those who are distressed and downhearted. I shall be preaching to myself, for I need something to cheer my heart, while I cannot tell you wherefore. I do not know, but I have a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of satan to buffet me. He said, my soul is cast down within me. I feel like I would rather die than live. Now, catch this. This is the prince of preachers. This is the first mega church pastor, pastoring 1,000s. He said, I would rather die than to live all that God hath done by me seems to be forgotten and my spirit flags and my courage breaks down. I desperately need your prayers. And you know, folks, sometimes these days we hear this, name it, claim it and blab it, grab it and health and wealth and believe and receive. The honest to God's truth Folk, the life that pleases God is often painful and difficult. Some of those guys that have national ministries need to stick that in their pipe and smoke it for a while they're on something else. I don't know what kind of trip they're high on, but the life that pleases God is often painful and difficult. Sometimes things go wrong and they're just mundane things. The tire is flat and you're in a hurry or you're stuck in traffic. I was coming down the stairs at the house I used to live, and I'd gotten a call that an apartment building had flooded and they needed a key and couldn't get in. And I mean, it's pouring in 30 minutes, I had a wedding to do here at this campus. I was dressed to the best of my ability, had my best shoes on, and as I stepped off of the last step, I stepped into water that went over my shoes, water in the basement. Kind of mundane, but it was a big deal to me. Sometimes it's just a bad experience at a restaurant ruins your day. This guy had gone to a little diner, and the waitress came over and she was cranky, you've been there. And she said, What do you want? He said, I want some eggs and just a few kind words. And she gave him a look that burned him to a cinder, spun on her heel and disappeared a little bit, came back with a plate of eggs and slapped it down on the table, and he said that, where's my few kind words. She said, Don't eat the eggs. Sometimes problems are mundane, but sometimes they're monumental. It starts with a word like terminal. It can start with a words like that affair. It can begin with a word like divorce, monumental. It can begin like a word like bankruptcy, you've lost everything. It can begin like a word like termination, and suddenly you're out of a job. Sometimes it's mundane, sometimes it's monumental things happen. But today I want to bring to your attention a man found in divine writ that God put the story of his life for you and I to look through the window for a moment and study it so we know how ourselves how to better live. There's only two men in the Bible that not a word of disparity is mentioned about their character. One was Daniel, the other is Joseph. Remember, Joseph was only 17 years of age when the story seems to unfold before us. He was just like any 17 year old lad. He was excited about life. He had aspirations. He had dreams. He had goals. He had places he wanted to go, but he had a problem. He had brothers that literally were jealous of him. Those brothers despised him. How many of you know that the greatest hurts of life, many times, will come from your friends and from your family? The most dire disappointments that will come your way comes from those who are the closest to it. We have a little account there in the scripture that reminds us of that in the book of Zechariah, chapter 13, verse six, it was a prophecy fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and it simply says this, where did I get these wounds? It said in the house o my friends. So the Bible said the day came when those brothers said, we want to do something. Let's hurt this little half brother of ours named Joseph. Let's do something to him, the little swagger and braggart and and he's got all these fancy clothes, and his dad's favorite and as he's coming down the way toward them, one of them looked over and saw pit. They said, Let's put him in the pit. And the other brothers agreed and said let's let him die in that pit. And they heard some camels, and they looked over and Ishmaelites, the slave traders, were passing through, heading toward Egypt, and Reuben said, Let's not kill him, but let's sell him for the price of a slave, 20 pieces of silver. And they sold him. They stripped him of that coat before he left. And they said, We've gotta hatch up some kind of a story. We gotta face our father and this is his favorite son. And so they ripped the coat and dipped it in a goat's blood, and they went home and they said, Father, that favorite son of yours, that prized child that you love so much. Here's all we found left just a coat it's torn. Look at the blood. He's gone. And old Jacob said, I'll mourn till the day that I die. You know the story, the Ishmaelites arrive and down there in Egypt, they sold him to an officer in Pharaoh's court, and his name was Potiphar, And Potiphar made him a servant and he served as a slave to Potiphar. Of course, one day, Mrs. Potiphar got her eyes on JoJo and said he's a hot item. And when her husband was away, she made a move on him and cornered him and tried to seduce him. And he turned and fled, and she grabbed him by the coat and held on to the coat, but he ran and kept his character. I've known of those through the years that have lost their coat and kept their character, but I've known more that lost their character and kept their coat just saying. You say, well preacher, I'm in a real tempting situation right now. She rolls her eyes at me down there on the job, and I just pick them up and roll them back to her, and we got this little thing going between us, and I'm praying, oh, God, keep me strong. You don't need to pray that prayer. You're not strong. You need to run for your life. You're about to lose your character and not your coat. You got Bible for that? Yes, flea fornication. Sometimes, instead of fighting, you need to do some flighting. It's time for flight, you need to run for all that's within you. Now, Potiphar comes back home and she knows she's in the jamb and she said that servant he tried to force me, I've got his coat. And Potiphar probably knew the hussy really how she was with the affair she had probably had, but he didn't want to lose little blue eyes, so he said, I believe you. And he took the boy, 17 and a half years of age, and had him put in prison. And that's where we come into the story. 12 years have passed, 12 years down here in prison, not because he had done anything wrong, but because he had done everything right. That's why he's in prison. There's not a doubt in my mind that satan didn't come to him over and over and over through the nights as the years pass. Where's God now, if there's really a God and you did nothing wrong, why are you in this situation? When things go wrong what do you do? Well, here's the message, when everything goes wrong, what do you do? If you want to take a note or two, you can if you don't have a pen, just use some mascara write on your husband's arm and tell him read the notes. Four things you need to do when everything falls apart and the stars are coming out of the their sockets and falling from the sky. Four things you need to do when everything around you seems to be going wrong, because if you live long enough, everything and everybody that you put your confidence in is going to fail you everything but God. So what do you when everything goes wrong? Number one, don't demand to understand. Don't be trying just to figure it all out. You say, Well, I'm I'm listening for a voice. You don't need to listen for a voice. You need to look for a verse. 95% of everything that God wants to say to you, he'll say to you through His Word. Get into the Word. Start looking for a verse. Quit listening for sounds. You'll hear all kinds of sounds. Let me give you a verse. Isaiah, 50 verse 10, who is among you that fear of the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light. What is he supposed to do? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God.

Proverbs 9: 16:02

10, says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Do you know he that fears the most loves the best? He that fears the most loves the best, and those that fear the Lord obey the Lord and love the Lord, sometimes things still go wrong, and the light goes out and darkness begins to flood your life. What are you supposed to do then, when everything's falling apart? Now, when I was in school, I had a lesson, and then they turned around and gave me a test. The audacity of that crowd. But in life, I get a test, and it teaches me a lesson. And when you go through a test back in school, when test time came, guess what happened? The teacher became silent. During the test the teacher wouldn't say a word, just paced the floor and not a word. And sometimes, when you go through the tests of life, God doesn't say a word, becomes silent and you feel like you're in darkness and the light has gone out. What do you do? Well, look at the verse again. Who is among you that fear the Lord that obeyeth the voice of the servant that walketh in darkness has the let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God. What does that mean? It means lean into God. Trust Him. When you don't know what to do. Just lean in to God. Notice verse 11. Behold all you that kindle a fire and compass yourselves about with sparks and walk in the light of your fire. What's he saying? You're trying to figure it out, trying to work it out. You're trying to handle it on your own. But he said, quit doing that, start leaning into God. You may not understand, but you lean on him because you understand something. Joseph was in prison, and all he could see was prison. But God not only saw the prison, God saw a palace. Joseph saw where he was, but God saw where he would be. God sees the prison you're in for the moment, but God sees a palace up ahead. And the Bible says in Isaiah, 55 verse eight and nine, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, saith the Lord, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts or your thoughts. So don't demand to understand. Could I just stop for a minute? There was a young boy that went off to college. They call them liberal arts. That word liberal is basically what it's all about. Now, don't get bent out of shape here. Just stay cool. Many of the universities of our time, they're not trying to educate. They're trying to indoctrinate. They're trying to indoctrinate. That's why we've got all the problems on the streets here in America. It's come through the universities and the liberalness of those so called professors profess to know something and know nothing. I know you're mad now. Somebody said we need to be more tolerant. We're so open minded now I think our brains have fallen out. Kids go off to school, and you trust them to educate, and they're indoctrinating. And they come back, questioning everything, questioning their sexual identity and questioning creationism and questioning whether there's a God anywhere Well, the boy went off to school, came home and he looked at his old God fearing dad, and they're standing out in the front yard. They're under a gigantic oak tree with his massive limbs and little acorns. And he said, Just look at that, dad. You believe there's a God? I question creation. I question this whole concept of a God that would make an oak tree so large and little bitty acorns, he said, Dad, in the backyard, you planted pumpkins and little old, flimsy vines and gigantic pumpkins don't make any sense. At about that time, a acorn fell and hit him on the head, and all his dad said, Aren't you glad it wasn't a pumpkin? Don't demand to understand. I walked a mile with pleasure, and she chatted all the way left me none the wiser for all she had to say, and I walked a mile with sorrow, and not a word said she and all the wiser I was when sorrow walked with me. Pastor, I'm going through a tough time. May I just say, Don't demand to understand when you're going through a tough time. Don't fail to be faithful. Joseph is in prison. What did he do in prison? Can I read it to you so you'll not think I'm making all this up? That part of it's true, okay? But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison, and the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison, whatsoever they did there he was the doer of it, and the keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand, because the Lord was with Joseph, and that which he did, and The Lord made it to prosper. What did he do? He's in prison, but even there, he just served. Was faithful. Somebody said great doors of opportunity turn on the small hinges of obedience. I've had people come and tap on my door very quietly, and open door, and there they stand, weeping. My mate just left me. I didn't want him to go, What advice do you have? About the only thing I know to say is do what's right. Keep praying. Keep believing God. Stay in church. You know, I have been around this area 32 years and a half. I'm counting the halfs now. You can't believe the people that have been here don't come here anymore, or they come and then they leave, and then they return and they leave, I've been thinking about doing that myself, and going out and trying to find me. And I'll be uptown, and there's people out and about, and they spot me, and they try to hide. Drop their head like if their eyes don't make contact, you don't see them. I just hunt them down. I saw somebody here the other day, and they said, Now you haven't seen me around church much, have you? And I'm just like you I was silent, just like you. They said, we've been having a lot of problems. Well, when you're having problems, you don't need less Bible and you don't need less prayer, and you don't need less church, and you don't need less preaching. You need more when you're going through a difficult time. Can I share with you a page that I just read out of Wesley's journal? Yes, you can, preacher. Thank you. Here's from his diary. Sunday a.m May 5th, preached at St Ann's and was asked not to come back anymore. Mark that one off. Sunday p.m, May 5th, preached at St John's. Probably weren't any saints there. Anyhow deacon said, get out and stay out. Sunday a.m, May 12th, preached in St. Jude's. Can't go back there either. Sunday a.m, May 19th, preached at Saint somebody else's and the deacons called a special meeting and said, I couldn't return. Sunday p.m, May 19th, I preached on the street corner and got kicked off the street. Sunday a.m, May 26th, I preached in the meadow. They chased us out of the meadow. They let a bowl loose and turned it loose on the service. Sunday a.m, June the second, I preached out of the edge of the town, and I was kicked off the highway. On Sunday p.m, June the second, I preached in a cow pasture, and 10,000 people came out to hear me. 10,000. What I'm saying, Don't fail to be faithful even when it's one thing after another that lines up to defeat you. Be faithful, even if you're having a hard time and when everything goes wrong, don't bow to bitterness. You see Joseph gets in prison while there, he realizes the butler and the baker to the Pharaoh is in prison with him, and he had the gift of interpretation of dreams. And the butler found out about it and came to him. He said, would you interpret a dream that I just had? He told him the dream, and he said, Sure. And he said, Well, what's the interpretation? He said, Don't worry about it. In three days, you're going to be butler again, and you'll be working for the Pharaoh. And then Joseph made a request. He said, in Genesis, 40, verse 14, by the way, when that happens, he said, I need your help. Here's what I want you to do. Think on me when it shall be well with thee and show kindness. I pray thee unto me and make mention of me unto Pharaoh and bring me out of his house, for indeed, I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also have I done nothing that they should put me in the dungeon. Now, they just better be glad it wasn't me. I'd have done some belly aching. I've written a book on it when things go bad. I'd have started with my brothers and how they lied on me. I'd started with Reuben and went all down through the list of all of them ding bats and how they done me wrong song. And all my exes are in Texas. I'd have named it all out. I'd have just had a catharsis and spelled out my problem. I'd got on the phone and called everybody in the church. I'd have called the district superintendent bellyached too. But, you know, Joseph didn't bow to bitterness. He understood bitterness does more damage to the container in which it's stored than on the object on which it's poured. And he made up his mind he's not going to bow to bitterness, and he didn't bow to bitterness, and God gave him a son. Can I read this to you? You can, thank you. And Joseph called the name of the First Born Manasseh, for God, he said, has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house. When you forget, you forgive, when you get it out of your crawl and you let it go, you forgive. And then he said, the name of the second shall be called Ephraim, for God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction. So I'm going to name that boy, Manasseh, because that means forget and forgive. That's what it means. Everything my brothers did to me, I'm going to forgive. I'm going to name that boy, Manasseh, forgive them. And he said, Wait, but God's given me a second son, and his name means fruitful. And he understood, until you forgive, you can't be fruitful. One has to come in front of the other. Got to be in that order, you forgive and then you get fruitful. In other words, you just let go and you let God. And that brings me to my last thought, and I'm done. I wish I'd started with it. I'd been out of here. When things go wrong, don't miss the sovereignty. See, it's God's sovereignty that helps me keep my sanity. My heart may twist and turn, and my heart may throb and ache, but it's in my soul, and I'm glad I know that my God makes no mistakes. Spurge it again. He said, God's too loving to be unkind and too wise to be mistaken, and when you can't trace his hand, you can trust his heart. When that little baby died, you got angry at God. Whatever prayer that you prayed didn't turn out quite the way you wanted it to. You don't get bitter. Sometimes you gotta trust His sovereignty. Don't miss it. Jacob dies, the old dad dies, and all these brothers, they had gone down to Egypt to get food, and they didn't realize their own brother, Joseph was still alive. Now he's second in command. He's Secretary of Agriculture. He's over all food in the land, and they receive food. He said, I want you to move here. Bring old dad with you. Bring my baby brother, I've never met, Benjamin, and move around me, and we're going to live together. But Jacob dies, and the brothers immediately think, now that dad's gone, he's going to get even, he'll kill us. So they go to him, and they said, Please don't kill us now. And he said, you know you did me wrong. You hurt me, you sold me. But you know God sent me ahead and put me in charge of things, so when bad times came and seven years of famine would hit, it kept us all from starving to death. And then he says this, and it's so good, he said, in

Genesis, 50: 30:47

20, what you thought for evil. God meant for good. You thought it for evil, but God meant it for good. Have you got a parallel scripture in the New Testament before we leave? Yes,

Romans, 8: 31:03

28, and we know that God works all things together for good to them that love God and to them that are called according to His purpose. I'd love to tell you a story, but I've never told it in any pulpit in America that I preached in. So I guess I probably won't tell it here, and we got live stream, and I'll be hearing from my old hometown if I do, I can't tell you the story of my life without sharing a story about other relatives that I wouldn't want to disgrace their name, but if you only knew my background and how God would take me back to the same town in which everything had happened and put me in a church that was so in debt. Everything broken down. The crowd was down, and right across the street was the hospital where I was born, the last guy in the world to help a struggling church. And two and a half years God made it to be the second strongest church in all of the cities across the county. When it seems like the devil wants to do evil and he intends to make it for evil, God can turn things around and make it for good. When everything falls apart, the stars are coming out of their sockets. Can I just simply say this? Don't demand to understand. Just find a verse or two. Be faithful. Don't give in to bitterness, and just trust the sovereignty of God. God's on the throne. Nothing can happen unless it goes past his attention, and God knows what's best, and I don't know what you're going to do, and I don't know where you're at in life, but I'm going to trust him. I've already had to trust Him, even since pastoring here when my world the walls closed in, and I had nothing to do but trying to put one foot in front of another and try to walk into a pulpit and preach without talking about my own problems. And if God can help me, God can help you, and you're at the right church today. Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene visit us every Sunday at 9am with BNC's Pastor Ray LaSalle for more information regarding BNC, visit bucyrusnazarene.org.