Voice of the Nazarene 9-21-25

Voice of the Nazarene 9-21-25

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. My little text from out of the little series that we'd started, it's found in Genesis, chapter 50, verse 20, where Joseph said, You meant it for for evil against me, but God meant it for good. As I'm setting in my study, I read about John the Baptist, and I began to see a correlation between Joseph's life and John the Baptist, some similarities. And the more I looked at it, the more grippy and the main effect in the comparisons, at least, it brought to me a sense of comfort, and I want to share just a few of those. It's maybe a little bit minute, but let me get started here, and we'll see where God takes us. Number one, Joseph and John the Baptist were born when their fathers was old. Luke, one tells us that both Zechariah and Elizabeth were advanced in years and in Genesis, Jacob loved Joseph more than the other kids because he was the son of his old age. Not only were their fathers old, but their mothers had been barren. The similarity when the Lord saw Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel had said was barren, and in Zacharias case, no children because Elizabeth was barren. Another similarity, they were born in answer to prayer. I like what Genesis says. God remembered Rachel. God hearkened to her, opened her womb, she conceived, bore a son and said, God has taken away my reproach. And then over in Luke, concerning Zechariah, do not be afraid, for your prayer is heard, and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son. You'll call his name John. So both births are the fruit of God's omnipotence, the proof that God can do humanly what seems to be impossible. And I believe, just as much as God raised up leaders in that day, I believe God is raising up a new generation of leaders for our time. Here's another similarity. He predicted that each would be great. The angel said to Zechariah, many will rejoice at his birth, for He shall be great before the Lord, maybe a little different with Joseph, but God gave him dreams. In his dream, he saw these sheaves and one stand up and the others bow down, and suddenly he began to realize that God was going to make him a leader. I was amazed as I turned into the news media the other afternoon and and I heard Trump say, I put my arms around Charlie Kirk and said, you know, you've got a bright future. It may be one day you'll be President of the United States. Isn't amazing how God can give different gifts to different people. And I believe that God often reveals his purposes before accomplishing it, because when it finally comes to pass, it's clear that God did it. And I thought of these brothers helped fulfill God's plan. They became angry. They became jealous of Joseph, and so they sold him to the Midianite traders on their way to Egypt. Little realizing to get rid of that vain dreamer, they set in motion the events that would fulfill the dream. And I thought of 17 year old Joseph, his father, looks at the bloody looking coat of many collars, begin to weep, and he could not be consoled. 20 years passed. He couldn't get over it. You can say, Jacob, you need to believe God, but he wouldn't hear you. 20 long years before you realize that God, in mercy, through it all, would show his plan. Another similarity that John and Joseph is that both were sent by God as forerunners and way preparers. Jesus said of John that he would prepare the way before thee and I thought of Joseph's trip to Egypt and all that took place when his brothers finally arrived. He said, Hey, God sent me before you to prepare life. God sent me before you to preserve you for a remnant on earth and to keep alive for many survivors. I thought again of our recent how. Happenings, how it seemed like, in a way, that a life has been cut off, but it's only the beginning, I believe, of God raising up a new generation of young people who have never heard anything about God, anything about Faith and Freedom, and to suddenly be exposed to truth after setting in these universities, it's an awakening call another is the mission of Joseph to Egypt and John to Israel. I think the real significance of both was not in themselves, but in what came after them. The result of Joseph's mission to Egypt was God's people were delivered from a famine, and on the hills of John's mission, guess what? The Deliverer himself came, and then Joseph and John gained the reputation of being trustworthy. That's a huge thing these days, isn't it? Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. And all the way down through Joseph's life, it just kept saying and the Lord was with him. Did you know that both of them got in trouble because they resisted sexual evil? Did you ever notice that similarity, I hadn't but as I read it, I was amazed. They opposed adultery uncompromisingly. John did it publicly. He said, It's unlawful Herod for you to be married to Herodias. You killed Philip, your brother, in order to live with her lasciviously. And Joseph, on the other hand, in dealing with Potiphar, his wife in a house alone with her, she tried to seduce him and said, Lie with me. But Joseph resisted her and fled. Now, John did it publicly, Joseph did it privately, and in both cases, they wound up in jail because of women. They reproved. Were enraged and Herod he he bound John, put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, and she hated him. And I thought of Potiphar, his wife. She hated Joseph, and tried to say he's tried to seduce her and made herself the victim. Now here's another similarity, both of them were about 30 years of age. Genesis, 4146 Joseph was 30 years old when he got out of prison. Now we know that John was six months older than Jesus and in Luke 323, Jesus was about 30 when he began his ministry. Now we've looked at the similarities. I want you to notice a standout dissimilarity. Joseph was released to rule Egypt. John was beheaded. You see the difference? I want to talk about that for a moment or two, the Lord's with Joseph showed him love, gave him favor. He became keeper of the prison, and you see all that God did with him and took him along and used him. But the the tide began to turn when it came to John the Baptist. Amazingly, it's late night. It's probably in Tiberias, which is on the Sea of Galilee, under which province that this leader ruled, named Herod. And he's in prison. And while he's in prison, it's dark, he can hardly breathe. They're having a party over the castle, in the palace, and they're getting drunk with wine, and it's flowing. And somebody said, bring out a dancer. And so they bring out Herod's daughter, Salome, and she danced a provocative dance, and the old king is drunk and and he made a race vow up to half of his kingdom. He said, whatever you ask. She went to her mother. What do you think I ought to ask for? Ask for the head of John the Baptist. I want to silence the voice of the preacher that's caused me sleepless nights. Think about it for a moment. John is only 30 years of age. He had been out in the wilderness preparing for his ministry, and he steps out to become the forerunner. And his ministry only lasted for about six months, and now his life is about to be cut off. The door the cell opens and a soldier stands there and and John is asking, Why are you here? Because the King had a dance, and they like to dance of Salome, and they've asked for your head. And I've wondered often what went through the mind of John. I wonder if he thought, well, where's God in all of this? Have you ever asked. Yourself that you say, Well, I don't believe John the Baptist would have asked that. Just a little earlier, he had said, I want you to go to Jesus and ask Him, Are you the one, or shall we look for another? There was doubt in his mind, and he could have became angry, and he could have said, done all of this for you. Had a little bit of ministry, and now you're going to throw me on the tray sheet, but he's beheaded, and they bring his head on a platter into the presence of Herodias. Historians say that she pried open the mouth, pulled out his tongue and drove a sword through or a knife through it, and said you'll never preach another sermon, and calls me another sleepless night. Historian said his eyes were open, and it seemed almost to penetrate her very soul. And so here's the more pressing question before us, is this, was God with Joseph and not with John? Did God love Joseph more? And did he abandon John? I don't think so. When John was in prison, Jesus paid him one of the most beautiful tributes, he said, among those born of women, none is greater than John. And then in he in Matthew 1413, when he heard that John was dead, Jesus withdrew from there in a boat to a lonely place apart. He wanted to get away from the crowd and sorrow over the death of John, the main reason I think that God was faithful to John, even through this seemingly meaningless death, is because in Hebrews 11 and in the 34th verse, and I'm just simply saying this, sometimes we go the way of Joseph's experience, and sometimes we go Through John's experience. For in that 34th verse, it said, these are men and women of faith who escaped the sword. But by the time you get to the 37th verse, These are they, which were of the faith that died by the sword. And so sometimes we don't always understand. And if you're trying to make some kind of meaning out of the death of Charlie Kirk, I think it's a little difficult to always make sense of things. But if there's three lessons to learn from their lives, one, do not assume you'll have a long life. Did you know that John and Jesus both died in their 30s, while Joseph lived to be 110 and a second lesson, God is the ultimate giver and taker of life. He gives it as long as we have a mission yet remains, and he takes it when the mission is done. John's mission, as a forerunner. Was done, He must increase. I must decrease. It was more swift and decisive than John ever expected. But I believe that God will keep us alive as long as it's good for us and for the church. When we're done, he can call us home. And a third thing, I think those that love God are called according to His purpose, should never believe that our rinsing, painful turn of affairs is a sign that God is against us. There are three things that make this hard to believe. Number one, it's hard to believe God is for us in our tragedies, if they last for 20 years, when it never gets better and year after year after year, and you, you can never convince me that Jacob believed that God was working everything out for his good in the loss of Joseph. As the years passed, until one day after 20 years, he saw that God knew better than him. And a second thing, it's hard to believe God is for us in our tragedies, if several of them seem to come in a row, one after another, after another, after another, the devil knows how to knock us down, doesn't he, and if you look at Joseph life, apple of his father's eye, sold as a slave, goes to prison, lied on just one thing after another. Some people would have thrown in the towel A long time ago. And thirdly, it's hard to believe God is working for our good when our setbacks does not give us life but leads us to death. I thought of the missionaries and Elizabeth wrote about her husband when they died in that Congo. I thought of Charlie Kirk. But I believe with all of my heart that Genesis, 50 verse 20 is. Just as true for John the Baptist and Herod as it was for Joseph and his brothers and for Kirk as for you, you meant evil against me, but God, God meant it for good, and now all across the nation and around the world, of new generations rising up. We're not talking politics. We're talking about a new group of believers. The lights turning on. People are coming to God, and let's believe God for good days ahead. Don't question bad things. Leave it to a sovereign God. That's the last thing that he had said in the interview. An hour before his death, he mentioned the sovereignty of God. God is in control, father. We, thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your watch care. Do we always understand everything? No, but when we see your hand at work in the life of Joseph and yet we also see it in the life of John the Baptist, it helps us to realize that you're on the throne and we're going to trust you, that all things will work together for your good to those which are called according to their purpose, bless us as we go our way this week. Help us to be one of those lights that we can turn on in a dark world. Let us be a voice, not a angry voice, but a kind voice that somebody needs to hear. Bless us. We pray this morning in our giving as we leave your house, help us to make friends with others. Hear the church until we're like one big family. Go with us now I pray in Christ's name. Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9am with BNC pastor Ray la salle. For more information regarding B and C, visit bucyrusnazarene.org Ray.