Voice of the Nazarene 10-12-25

Voice of the Nazarene 10-12-25

Transcript

Unknown: 0:00

Ray 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 La Salle, and the voice of the Nazarene. And I

Pastor Ray LaSalle: 0:18

want to talk to you today about Joseph overcoming the pit. It's Genesis. 31 verse, 23 it came to pass when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many collars that was on him, and they took him and cast him into a pit. What do you do when people have a pit in mind for you, when they want to put you down, when they want to belittle when they want to get on top and you won't be on the bottom. They can do it with remarks. It could be verbal jabs. It could even be business deals that leave you hurt. And these brothers had planned together. They saw Him afar off. They saw him coming, and they began to discuss how they could get rid of Joseph. They were talking of killing him, and one of the brothers said, No, let's let's not take it to that level. There's a pit. Let's put him in the pit, and I want to talk to you about the pit, but before I get there, let's begin with Joseph's brothers having a fit. It had been festering for years old. Jacob, father of Joseph, had been married to a woman by the name of Leah he never cared for. It wasn't by choice he had been deceived by by his own father in law, and he's very upset about it. And from her, he had at least four sons. They were not high on his list of achievements. And then, of course, two maid servants were pushed off on him. He had four more boys, and I'm sure that not all of them slept in the same tent with Jacob. And these brothers are jealous. They're jealous, first of all, of of his parentage. It says here in verse three, Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons because he was the son of his old age, and when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. And I'm sure you recall that all of Jacob's sons, without exception, except for Joseph and Benjamin, and they were produced by Leah zelpah, her handmaid and Bella Rachel's handmaid. And Jacob seems to have been rather shamelessly showed little love for Leah, of whom his father in law, Laban, had tricked him into Marion under the assumption that he would receive Rachel. Now here's zelpah and Bella thrust upon Jacob merely out of this contention that existed between Leah and Rachel, who constantly competed for Jacob's attention. And that seems somewhat if you've studied the story at all, when Jacob was returning and he's going to run into Esau, his older brother, whom he had cheated and he knew that Jacob hated would kill him, probably that when he was about to meet with him and his band of raiders, he arranged his family in such a way that the handmaidens were out in the forefront with her their sons, And then behind that would be Leah and her sons, and clear in the in the rear would be Rachel with with Joseph. That way, if he's going to destroy the family, Rachel and and Joseph would have a chance to escape so all could see that Jacob loved Rachel more. I mean, she was a looker. She had it going on. She's the kind that would melt the heart of ice of any guy standing around. And naturally, Jacob, he loved her. And so she had two sons, and then she dies. She leaves a little baby, and she leaves this young teenage son, and naturally, the heart of Jacob turns and begins to protect this boy that doesn't have a mother, and he transfers his affections to this son, plus he had been born in the late years of Jacob, and it was a joy to him. And so the 10 brothers are outsiders. They're not included in this warm relationship. And jealousy began to eat at them, and they couldn't peace peacefully speak to him. They can hardly tolerate him. But not only that, they were jealous of his position. The Bible said that verse three that he made a coat of many collars, and that coat detailed that authority was being turned over to Joseph. They were jealous of his possessions. Now the oldest son of Leah, the eldest of all, had been immoral, and so Jacob turned away from him and gave all of the birth right to Joseph. And you talk about possessions, look at the land over in John, chapter four, verse five, it speaks of the land given to Joseph. Then cometh Jesus to the city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. That's where Jacob's well was, if you know anything about land without water, land was worthless. It was desert. And because of that well that had been dug and had struck water, it was a most valued possession of all. And Joseph had been given that, and they were jealous of God's preference. Look at verse five. Now, Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even the more. Two things that he dreamed about. He dreamed about the sheaves and he dreamed about the stars. I'll read it to you. Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren, and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, here, I pray you this dream which I've dreamed, they didn't want to hear. Maybe you don't, for behold, we are binding sheaves in the field. And lo, my sheaf arose and also stood upright. And behold, your sheaves stood around about and made obeisance to my sheaf and his brethren said to him, shalt thou indeed reign over us, and shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him. Yet the more the harvest Fields was a symbol of the world's resources and bounty and wealth. And then he had this dream about the stars, about the moon and the sun and the stars and and how the 11 stars would bow down. And that spoke, it was a symbol of authority and leadership. Now, if you're two steps ahead of the pack, you're a leader two steps, but if you're 10 steps ahead, you're a target, and Joseph was certainly a target. Now we haven't gotten to the pit yet. We're still having the fit these brothers had denied him. Those brothers from different mothers, literally, they took him and placed him in a pit, a pit this sore that had been festering between them. Now you talk about in a pit. Here he is down in the ground, unable to get out. He's 17 years of age, and it wasn't full of water, but I'm sure it was probably muddy. He's desperate, and it's a sign of failure. I mean, all of the dreams have died. Now, what are we tempted to do when we're in a pit? Gotta talk to you about that for a minute. Number one, most of the time we want to play the victim, don't we, when we're in the pits of life. Life's not fair. I don't deserve this. Why has this happened to me? This isn't what I wanted life to be, and this isn't what I'd hoped for. Poor me. We start singing that song, we get our guitar out, and we sing somebody done, somebody wrong song, and all of my exes are in Texas, and on and on, we go and and most of us, we play the victim. We begin to pout and doubt and do without, and it's a pity party that we have. We play the victim. But secondly, if we're not playing the victim, we begin to point the finger. It's somebody else's fault. I knew it all along, and they're the problem, not me. After all, I've done this is what I get, and I've seen people do that with God, they'll say, God, where are you at? Why did you allow this to happen? Why didn't you intervene? You could have stopped it. You have the power. Or why, and we begin to point the finger, blaming this one and that one, and blaming God, and if it's not that, then we plot revenge. And that shows up later on in Joseph's story. And it's easy to allow the poison of revenge to get into our thinking when we get quiet in our pit, we begin to imagine the scenario about those who have hurt us because someone has to pay and we want to get even, and the devil is sitting there waiting for our attitude to become so full of malice and jealousy. And oftentimes we think the pit is useless, it's pointless, and no good will come out of it. And I think that we forget when the walls begin to close in and the dreams turn to nightmares. Joseph could hear his brothers up above eating and drinking, and he's thinking that life is over. If you'll start going through the word of God, you'll find story after story when it seemed like people had come to the end, the Lord always shows up when that little boat set sail and Jesus turned to his disciples, he's weary, he said, Let us pass over to the other side. They forgot about that out of the middle of the Sea of Galilee when a storm arose and that little ship of theirs, that big boat, began to rock and toss and and was dashed about. And somebody said, We better awake the master. And when he came on board, up above, he said, peace. And suddenly there was a great calm, a great calm. And imagine Joseph thought that he was alone, but the Bible said the Lord was with him. And I've come this morning to tell you that the master saying peace be still. I don't know what's going on in your life, and I know people are watching by live stream and by television. May I say to all of us today, whatever it is that you're facing, there's a God that wants to step into your world and say, Peace be still. And he wants to say I'm with you, and that's what I've come to tell you, for God has a future. I believe that God has a purpose for our lives. I believe that God has a plan to save us, and I think God sees a palace in view. But when we're in the pits of life, we lose our dream if we're not careful, and we lose our faith and God wants to here's what it said later on, Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now be not grieved or angry with yourselves that you sold me hither, For God did send me before you to preserve life. God's got a future, a future, even in the midst of our failures, it seems in the pits of life, God sees beyond the pit. He sees a palace. Three trees once stood on a mountainside. They were small trees. They were growing, and they were dreaming of what they would like to become sometime when they became big and strong and tall, and the first little tree began to grow, and it thought one day I would like to hold treasure I'd like to be shaped into a treasure chest, and I'd like to hold wealth and beauty and be wrapped in gold. And that was its dream. Now, the second tree looked out at a small stream that was trickling by, heading out to the great seven seas, into the ocean, and thought, one day, I would like to travel the world, and I would like to be a great ship, and I'd like to carry kings the third tree thought, No, I want to stand on this mountain. I want to rear my head into the sky. I want to lift my tops into the clouds, and I want to always be looked up to as a strong tree. Years passed and the rain came, the sun shone, and the trees grew strong and tall and mighty. And one day, woodcutters came to that mountainside, and the first wood cutter looked at the tree that was stood there and thought, what a tree. And he began to take his ax and begin to cut into the side of the tree, and fell the tree. And the tree was excited as it saw that wood cutter. It Thought, I'm going to become a treasure chest. I'm going to contain gold and and it dreamed on. As it fell to the ground, the second woodcutter looked at the second tree and said, this tree is strong. It's perfect. And with a swoop, he brought down the shining ax and leveled the tree to the ground. And it thought, I'll become a mighty ship. I'll carry kings. But the third tree, its heart sank. I don't want to fall. I want to stand tall and mighty and high and strong. That first tree rejoiced that the wood cutter had cut it down and had taken it to the carpenter shop, and had thought, I'll become that treasure chest. But instead he thought, as he cut into that tree to make some lumber. I'm going to make a little feed box for animals to eat out of the tree's heart died and his dreams failed, and it just became filled with hay for hungry farm animals. The second tree smiled when the woodcutter took her to her shipyard, but they didn't shape it into a mighty ship, but into a small fishing boat. And that third tree thought, I'll never stand tall. It was cut into a beam and and stacked in a wood pile. But many days pass, nights pass, three trees forgot their dreams, and one night, golden beam of moonlight poured into a little window in the side of a cave, and a little couple took a baby and put it in that little feed trough. And the father wept, and he said, I wish I could have made a cradle. The mother said, It's all right, it'll serve as a manger. And suddenly, that tree realized it was bearing baby Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The second tree that I had mentioned to you, there were some tired travelers and and there was a man that was weary, and they put him out here on the boat, and his friends gathered around him, and they set sail, and somewhere out across the waters, storm came, and it looked like the boat would go down, and the tree thought, I'm not big enough to handle this load, or this kind of a storm. But they woke the weary traveler, and he said, Peace be still. And the tree realized he was bearing the King of kings, the last tree that made it into a beam and left it in a wood pile. And it thought it would always lay there and rot. But one Friday evening, they took that big beam, pulled it out of the wood pile, and shaped it into the form of a cross, and they put a man on that cross and drove spikes through his body and into the tree, and blood stained the dry wood, and then they dropped it into a granite socket with a thud, and it became Sunday morning as the sun rose, hanging on that cross was Jesus Christ, who died for the sins of the world. I'm trying to tell you that God has a future when it seemed like every dream dies and there's nothing ahead. God saw for Joseph in a pit. He saw a palace. I stood a few years ago out in Pennsylvania after service and and met a man that I enjoyed talking with, and so the pastor invited him over to the parsonage. His name was K L Crocker. I didn't know him. I'd never met him. Kale Crocker had once been a great evangelist in the Free Methodist Church and movement. We were sitting there talking, and I don't know how the story came up, but he said, When I was pastoring, I had three kids, said it was a small church. Wasn't large. Was in one of our towns here. He sat here in Pennsylvania. He said the parsonage was located at the very edge of our town, and people coming in on that main two lane road would have to go buy our parsonage, and we had just a little bit of grass, a fence, and there was a road, and they let that road, it'll become dilapidated, and potholes and pits and and bumps and and cars would go by, and they said it wasn't so bad, but at night, when you're trying to sleep, when they would hit one of those potholes, if it was rainy, it splash mud all over the front of our fence and into our yard and some up on the porch, and you'd hear the sound of those tars hitting those potholes at night, and you couldn't sleep. He said, I I was down emotionally a little bit and a bit discouraged with some things. And he said, One night, I didn't sleep all night for all of the tars. Vehicles hitting those potholes. And he said, The next morning, I got up and he said I was Grumpy. Grumpy. He didn't stay in bed. Grumpy. Got up, and he said, as he got ready and got dressed, he said to his wife, said, I'm going up to the City Hall. I'm weary with the potholes. It's kept me awake night after night. It's placed mud all over the front of our house. And he said, I'm going up to deal with the city fathers to fix the potholes. She said, I don't think you're in a good mood to handle that well. As a holiness Pastor, I think maybe you better stay home. He said, I'm not listening to anything. I'm straightening things out. And he said, I was ready to leave. He said, My little boy came up to me and said, Daddy, would you go into town? Would you do something for me? And he said, What's that, son, daddy, would you get me an orange? Daddy, I haven't had an orange in over a year? Could you get me an orange? He said, I've only got a few cents. I don't have any money. Well, he said, Daddy, could you ask God to help you to get an orange? And he said, Son, if you want an orange, you tell God you want an orange, you don't need to bother me about it. And the little boy looked up and said, Daddy, okay, I'll go ask God. And he said, I started up the road. It was chilly. He said, I tightened my overcoat around me, and I began to feel the guilt of what I'd done to my boy, telling him you trust God. You tell God what you want. And now, if he doesn't get the orange, it will shatter his faith. Said, I made my way by. He said, by the time I got had walked my way to the city hall and and met with the leadership of the city. He said I'd kind of calm down a little. I didn't handle it nearly as way I thought I would. And said, there's some potholes out there, and if you don't mind, I'd really like for you to look into maybe filling the potholes. Said I headed back to the house, and said I was almost to the house, and I heard my boy call out to me, daddy. And he said, I looked up and my boy was standing on the edge of the porch, and there was a whole row of oranges along the porch rail. And he said, I said, Son, where'd you get those? He said, Daddy, I asked God for them. And he said, I got excited, dad. And I said, God, I only want an orange. I'd like a bunch of oranges. And he said, There was a whole box of oranges, and the lid flipped off of it, and they were scattered over our front yard. You said, Isn't God good? He said, Son, don't touch another orange. Those aren't ours. He said a truck must have gone by and a box of oranges bounced off, hitting one of those potholes that I tried to tell the city fathers about. Now I've got to pay for oranges, and I don't have any money. And he headed back uptown to the where they had a little market vendors would come in and sell their wares. And he said, I sure enough, I found a truck and it was full of crates of oranges. And he said, I said to the driver, you lost a crate back there when you hit a pothole. And the driver said, I don't think he said, Sir, there's a whole crate of oranges that spilled out in our yard from the pothole you hit. And the driver went over and began to count. And he counted, 6970, no. He said, I've got all the orange crates. He said, Sir, you hit a pothole and it jarred a crate of oranges off in my front yard. He said, Sir, I'm not going to argue with you. I'm not going to go back and get those oranges. Said there's 70 crates, and that's how many I'm supposed to have. So he said, I don't know where you got them. I don't care how you got them, but don't bother me about it. And he said, I headed back home and said My little boy sitting there looking at the oranges, afraid to eat one because I told him no. And he said, Daddy, did God send the oranges or not? He said, I scooped him up, up in my arms and hugged him and said, Son, you ask God for oranges. The only thing I can tell you is God must have sent him. Sent him. Evidently, God uses the pits and the potholes to build faith, and in response to our prayers, I've never forgotten that, and I thought of Joseph here in the pits and the potholes of life when it seemed like all was lost, and he's disappointed, dreams have turned to nightmares, and God's never going to come through. There'll never be a palace, there'll never be a future. But God had bigger and better things in mind, and sometimes the pits that we don't like, the potholes that we don't like, maybe the very thing that God will use to answer prayer and to shape your life and to shape my life. And to take the arrogance out and to humble us down and make us like putty until he can shape and mold our lives. He uses. None of us amount to a whole lot, but when God gets through with us, it becomes useful to him, and that's all. It really matters, father. Take the little message today, Joseph there in the pit, heart broke, feeling like life was over, and even when he was drawn out, was sold into slavery and started the next 13 years with a broken heart. But you had a plan, and I believe today you have a plan for every family in our congregation. You have a plan for every individual. You know when our heart is crushed, you know when we're broken, you know when we're angry, and you know what it takes to soften us up so that we become pliable. So if you want to put a pit out in front of us, or allow our lives to go through some of the potholes that shake some stuff loose in our lives, you do what's needed till we become useful in Your kingdom. Don't let us just be arrogantly strolling along through life and miss your will, but shape us, mold us, make us into whom you want us to become. I pray in Christ's name, and I wonder, just waiting for a moment, music explained softly. Is there anybody would say, Pastor, I feel like my life's in the pits. I feel like things are broken. I feel like it's just one pothole after another shaking my life to pieces. I'd give anything If God could come and reassure me that he's got a plan, I just feel like life is aimless, and I'm not going to hold it long. Is there anybody just feel like Pastor? I'd like to pray this morning. Stand with me. If you would sing just one verse, And if God is whispering to your heart and you just want to approach God and talk to him for a moment. Do it while we sing. Anybody need to talk to God? We'll give you a moment to come other.

Unknown: 28:08

Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9am with B and C's pastor, Ray La Salle for more information regarding B and C visit you. Cyrus nazarene.org, you.