BNC Podcast
BNC Podcast
Voice of the Nazarene 9-7-25
Voice of the Nazarene 9-7-25
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, The wise writer Solomon wrote in the 18th Proverb and verse 24 he said, A man that hath friends showeth himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. May I ask are you friendly? Well, I got saved, Pastor, that doesn't make you friendly. I attend church doesn't make a person friendly. I've met some of the most unfriendly people in church, disagreeable people actually, controlling people, manipulating people, people with agendas. He that hath friends showeth himself friendly. Here a while back, I met a man, and he told me, said, I'm in the car business. And I said, No, no, no, you're not in the car business. You're in the people business. Somebody else says, Well, I'm in the medical field, I'm in the medical business. Let me say, if you don't show patience, you'll soon be without patients. But we're not in the medical field, we're in the people business. Well, I'm in the housing business, manufacturing houses. No, we're the people business. And without people, we have no business, and we're all in the people business. A few years ago, I was in the conclave of preachers, and one of them went to the microphone and he said, I love the ministry, but I just don't like the people. Ministry is people. The Bible says in First
Corinthians, 12:20, but now are they many members, yet but one body, and it's talking about the church, that we're literally one body and the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee nor the head to the feet, I have no need of you. The scripture's saying that we're one body with many members. Now this happens to be my hand. I suppose you can see it in the back. Ray Charles, can you see it? That's my hand. I appreciate my hand. This is my right hand. I'm right handed. I value this hand. Now, if you cut off this hand and you put it out in the yard, that hand is no longer of any value, and I can tell you why it's of no value, because it's not connected to the body, unattached to the body that hand is of literally no value. And may I simply say to you, that's why everybody ought to be in a connected to the church. You need to be connected to a church family. You need to be involved in a church family. You need to get to know people. You need to fellowship with others. You need to serve in a church family. You need to learn how to work together in a church family, because we're no value if we're not attached to the rest of the body. Fact of the matter, you can never maximize everything that God wants you to be if you're not a connected to the body. You cannot be maximized to your full potential that God wants to make out of your life unless you're connected together with a body. The first millionaire in the world was a man by the name of John D Rockefeller. Can you imagine controlling 90% of the world's oil supply? This guy had it all, and he made this statement. He said that I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any other ability that a person can have. I don't care what other abilities you have. If you can't deal with people, you're not a value to me. I'm looking for someone that can deal with people, and it matters not if you're in high school, it doesn't matter if you're a stay at home mother, it doesn't matter if you're a business person, it doesn't matter if you're a university student. There are some principles that are very beneficial in life if we're going to work with others, and I want to give you just. Four of those real quick like and it'll help us to be a part of the body. May I say, first of all, concerning relationships, be committed to friends. Look at what the Bible says. Proverbs, 18:24, I've already quoted it. A man that has friends must show himself friendly. Ben Franklin said, Be slow in choosing friends, but be slower in changing friends. Be slow in choosing friends, but be slower in changing friends. Now, there's a lot of things that you can do, but there's one thing you can't do, and that's to make old friends. You can make new friends, but you can't make old friends. And if you've got an old friend that has stuck with you through the years, you've got a gold mine, you've got a treasure, you've got a jewel, you've got a gift, you've got a friend. And my word to you, from God's word today is be committed to friends. You say, Well, Pastor, I don't know how to make friends. I don't even know how to start, well maybe I can help you with that. Three simple things you need to do. Number one, be likable. It's not rocket science. I know it's deep, but be likable. Notice what it says. A man that hath friends must show himself friendly. If you never speak to anybody and look them in the eye, you just walk through life. You're not going to have many friends. It's not brain surgery. The poet said, I went to find a friend and couldn't find any. I went to be a friend, and I found many. You simply have to be likable. You say, Well, I'm in church, doesn't make you likable. Well, how could I be likable? Well, here's several components. Number one, look people in the eye. Now I know preachers that preach and they look out over the heads of people. I know others that close their eyes when they're preaching. I don't close my eyes and I don't look out over the heads. I look people in the eye because I believe that I'm preaching literally from the Word of God, and I don't have to look away. I can look right at you and look you in the eye. You say, Well, that's profound. Is there any scripture for that? Yes.
Proverbs, 4:25, let thine eyes look right on and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. You make friends by looking people in the eye. When you look somebody in the eye. You're saying, I value you. You're saying you matter to me. But secondly, smile. Church would grow, probably by 10% of people would just smile. There's a mile in between the S's some smiles. You say, Well, I don't have any teeth. Well, just show your gums. Where do you come up with this out of the Bible Proverbs, 15 verse 13, A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance. Did you know that a frown takes 33 muscles? Some of you are about to wear your faces out, and a smile only takes 13 muscles, so it's easier to smile. Mother and daughter walked into a department store and the mother leaned over to the daughter, and she said, Did you see the dirty look that sales person gave me? She said, No, Mama, you already had that when we came in. I'm telling you, look people in the eye. I'm saying we need to smile and we want to be friend and we want to be likable, and then call people by name. If I handed an ink pen to you, the first thing 97% of you would do, you'd take a slip of paper and you would write your name down, because that's music to our ears, our names, and we want to see if that'll write our name well, you say, Well, one day God's gonna call my number. No, according to Isaiah, 43 verse one, he said, I've called thee by thy name. God doesn't know us as a number. God knows us as a name. You're not a number to God. You're a name to God. And let me tell you something else. Talk about them. When you meet people, talk about them. Don't try to show them how interested you are in yourself, but act like you're a little bit interested in them and what their children are all about and what's going on in their life. Where do you get that from?
Bible again, Philippians, 2:4, Look, not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. And young people I'm going to say this to you, there's a book that I read. It's written by Dale Carnegie, how to win people and how to win friends and how to influence people. And if you want to win friends and you want to influence people, don't talk about yourself, talk about them, and not everything that you're doing. And then there's a fifth thing, and that's compliment others.
Ephesians, 4:29, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying. What does that mean? It means to build up, not tear down, but build up that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Somebody pulled me aside the other day and said, Pastor, I'm having trouble in my marriage. Well, I can tell you what will transform your marriage if you'll start building each other up instead of tearing each other down, speak an encouraging word. Everybody likes to be acknowledged. They like to be appreciated. They like to be affirmed. And so I'm simply saying use complimentary words, one with another. You gotta be likable. But there's another thing you need to be loving.
Galatians 6:10 says, as we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are the household of faith. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Love is not just words. Love boils down to actions, doing something for others. Sam Raber, one of the house speakers, fact of the matter, he has been a House Speaker longer than any other man in Washington, DC. He had gotten a call that one of his friends had a daughter that was killed in an accident. He immediately threw his clothes on, raced over to that man's house, knocked on his door, and he said, Is there anything I can do for you? And he said, No, there's nothing. We're just making the arrangements. Well, He said, have you had your coffee yet this morning? He said, No. Well, he said, Could I come into your kitchen and could I make some coffee? He said, You could do that and begin to weep. While he's making coffee, another guy came in and said to him, Sam, you're supposed to have breakfast today with the President. He said, I know I called him and I told him I couldn't make it because I had a friend that needed me. Love is action. Love has a do ability about it. It's not just words, but not only be likable, not only be loving, but you need to be loyal if you want to have friends. Proverbs, 17:17, says A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. What is a friend? A friend is someone who walks in while everyone else walks out. And it maybe you have a friend that's going through a very difficult time, a time of hardship. Maybe they've lost their reputation, maybe there's been a death, maybe they've gone through a divorce, and you know what God wants you to do? You're here to show up because the Bible said we're born for adversity. We're born to help that person who's going through the low times in life. A brother's born for it. Be committed to friends and then be compassionate with folks. I like what Aristotle said. He said, If you don't want to be criticized, do nothing, say nothing and be nothing. You say, Well, preacher, I don't want to be criticized, I can help you, just do nothing, say nothing and be nothing, because I can tell you this much, you're going to have some foes. There'll be some people that don't like you now, maybe more me than you. But a frog does have an advantage over us. They can eat whatever bugs them. And you can't do that. Instead, you're going to have foes in life and here's what I recommend you to do. Number one, face them with forgiveness always. Don't start letting a
grudge build up. Ephesians 4:32 be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God has forgiven us. And
here in Matthew 6:14, for if we forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your trespasses. But if we forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. You say, Can you expand on that a little bit? I Probably could. It means that if I don't forgive you, God's not going to forgive me. If I don't let go, neither will God. And then secondly, kill him with kindness. Look at
Matthew 5:44, love your enemies. What? Bless them that curse you wait and do good to them that hate you. Any of you remember the East and West Berlin walls? It was during the Cold War. I don't know if you knew what was going on, but in East Berlin, they would load their dump trucks up with garbage and debris and dung, and would drive it over and back up and dump it over the wall into West Berlin. In retaliation, the West Berliners, they loaded up their dump trucks with food, with medical supplies and with warm clothes, and they went and backed up and dumped it over on the wall on the east side. The question we need to ask ourselves is, what are we dumping? Because every one of us are dumping something, and we've gotta decide what it is that we're gonna adopt kindness or meanness or whatever. And then a third thing, this really is important more than you think, consistent with finances. Did you know that $1 bill is the best yardstick to measure the character of an individual $1 bill. It's a yardstick, by the way yardsticks are no longer being made. Zoom. Did I go too fast? They're not being made any longer now, yardsticks. Oh, well. 500 verses in the Bible are about prayer. 500 verses in the Bible are about faith. 2300 verses are about finances. Do you realize that one out of every 10 verses in the Bible deal with finances. So what do you think preacher? Well,
Matthew 6:21, for where your treasure is there will your heart be also. Where my heart is, is where I've been putting my treasures. You say, Well, I don't have a heart for mission. Start sending some money to missions, and your heart will soon follow. I don't have a heart for the youth. Hey, put some money in the youth, and pretty soon your heart will follow. Because where your treasures are, that's where your heart will be also. Now, in Luke chapter three, these Jews came to Jesus and their Pharisees, and they're breaking on their lineage. We're of the children of Abraham. And they're talking about, we're the chosen, we're special. And when they got all through, Jesus turned to them and said, you know, being children of Abraham doesn't prove anything any more than being born in a garage makes you a ford. You say, Well, my granddaddy was a charter member. That's wonderful. But what's that got to do with you? What's got to do with you is, what is your own personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, when we're standing at the Judgment Day, what really proves our love and he shares with us in that chapter, if you'll go down through it, talks about practice generosity in verse 11. Got two coats, then give one to a fellow that doesn't have one. If you have meat and somebody else doesn't give to them, don't wait till somebody else gives to you give to them. Give without remembering practice generosity. And then be honest, he's saying in your financial dealings. Verse 12, the the publicans came to be baptized, and they said, Master, what are you going to do? And he begins to talk to him exact no more than that which is appointed you. Don't extort money from people. Be a person of integrity. I was reading after Warren Buffet this last week. And when he hires people, he has a criteria of three things. He wants intelligent people that let me out, don't say, Amen, spoil your record. And he wants people with initiative, you know that they'll get involved and get self motivated. And he wanted people with integrity, and Warren Buffet said, if they don't have integrity, the first two really don't matter at all. So we're to practice generosity, be honest in our financial dealings, and then be content. Who wants to be around somebody that's never content? Be content. Means be grateful for what you have, instead of focusing on what you don't have, be glad for what you have. In other words, don't have destination disease. If I was only married, I'd be happy. Don't count on it, and don't make somebody else miserable too. If I just had that job, I would be happy. Contentment is wanting what you already have. And then, last, be cautious with
fools. Proverbs, 13:20, He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. You need to be friendly with everybody, but you don't need to have everybody for a friend. They'll pull you down. Listen, there's people we don't need in our life. And then, may I say this, there's places that we all where we are. And you know, there's parties that we don't need to be a part of. There are people, places and parties that we don't need in our life. You say, Well, Jesus would well look at what He said in John 2:24, Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men. Be careful who you run with. Now, this hand is attached to this body. Without that hand being attached, it's of no earthly good to the rest of the body and you who are attached to the church, you're good as long as you're attached. And and you need me. We need each other. I hope you realize that catch it on this song.
Unknown:Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9am with BNC Pastor Ray LaSalle, for more information regarding BNC visit bucyrusnazarene.org.