Voice of the Nazarene 11-2-25

Voice of the Nazarene 11-2-25

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.

Pastor Ray LaSalle: 0:18

A woman was talking to her husband. She was very excited. She said, You can't believe what happened last night. He said, what happened? She said, I had this dream. Said it was just a phenomenal dream. And she said, Really, it seemed like it was real. I felt like I was living it. It was my birthday. And she said, it's only a week off. And she said, he said, Well, what happened in the dream? She said, I dreamed of of getting diamonds and and pearls and a big ring in this dream. She said, How was you in? How do you think? What do you think that dream meant? Well, he said, your birthday is in a week. Maybe you'll figure it out. And of course, her birthday came and and he gave her a gift, and she opened the gift, and it was a book entitled interpretation of dreams. And certainly Joseph, not only could he interpret the dreams of others, but he had his own dreams. It may have been those dreams that somehow pulled him through those long, long dark nights and the endless years that he never lost sight and his hold on those dreams. There in Psalm 105, verse 17, David's writing, he's talking about Joseph and said they sent a man before them who was sold as a slave and certainly, Joseph is the Old Testament forerunner of Jesus, who also was sold at a slave block by one of His own disciples, 30 pieces of silver, same as Joseph. There's at least 100 typologies and similarities between the life of Joseph and Jesus. I'm not dealing with those today, and I'm not going to go on and on with this, but I'm going to close out and just I'd like to give you an overview of the life of Joseph and see if we can learn some lessons and glean some gems, at least. These are lessons that I picked up, and the first was that he didn't know how his story was going to end, and you don't either. Life can change in a moment with just one telephone call. It can change with a letter from an attorney. It can change is that tires begin to skid out there on the highway, and it goes off of the road. You don't know how things are going to end. It could end with a nuclear attack. It could end with a fall down a flight of steps. None of us know just how our story is going to end. Life is short, fragile and certainly uncertain. No one knows what tomorrow will bring, but I can make the ultimate choice of how my story ends, because I can choose this day whom I will serve none of us otherwise, though, know how our story is going to end, and life sometimes is filled with turmoil. This is another lesson I gleaned with Joseph. It was early on. He just a boy. His mother died when he was a teenager. He's a part of a blended family that just didn't blend very well. Amazing thing, Joseph always landed, though, on his feet, didn't he? He was what I call a survivor. You betray him, and he ends up in Egypt, throw him in prison, and the next thing you know, he's running the joint travel to Egypt, and he's Prime Minister. He just really gets around. Try to trick him, and he turns around and he forgives you. Here's another lesson I learned, temptation all. Often comes when we least expect it. This is at least how Moses puts the matter in Genesis 39 as he records the account, Joseph seems to be sitting on the top of the world. And then in comes a slinking character with no name. It mentions who she was married to, but actually she was a single, married woman. I'll slow down for you if you want to get on the train. And the Bible said that she made eyes at him. The good thing is he didn't pick him up and roll him back to her. Better. Slow down again. She was passionate. She was persistent, for it said, day by day, and he said, No, he respected his boss. He said, I can have everything that's here, except for you. But he was also loyal to God when nobody else was looking, shades are pulled, lights are out, nobody knows he was still loyal to God. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God? It didn't matter that he was single. It didn't matter that nobody would know. It didn't matter that she was attractive. It didn't matter if she was hot to trot no end of subject, end of story, moving on. Better Naked than naughty. And he ran and left his coat behind. The temptation was real. The temptation was repeated, and note the strategy that he used there in verses eight and and nine. Number one, he was courteous. He tried to ignore it. He didn't try to make a scene. And secondly, according to verse 10, he was cautious. He tried not to be alone in the house, not to risk a rumor getting started. And he was also courageous. He stood up against temptation, knowing perhaps that she would lie. And then he remained cool. But the good news is, when he left, he was still clean. He was still clean. He didn't mess around. He didn't flirt with the trouble. He didn't say, how far can I go? He didn't apologize that he had convictions. He didn't say, Well, I'll try it once to see if I like it. He just said, No, and don't be surprised if temptation doesn't come around and knock at your door before the week's over, we can look at others who have fallen, but this year hadn't finished for us yet. Either it's there when you least expect it. And there's another little lesson that jumped out at me, and that's the whys of life. Joseph, 17 years of age, he's got shackles on his hands. He's sold to slave traders. He's in their caravan, and as the miles begin to separate him from his brothers, who are counting the money they'd just sold him for, he's pondering, why did this happen? Why? Why? Why would my own brothers do this to me? And you know, so much around us seems to really not to make much sense, does it? I've lived for a few years. None of your business really, how many, but you'll check it out, and can't hide anything anymore. Used to be secrets, but there are no secrets now, but I'm thinking about the mysteries of life, how one person gets cancer and another is spared cancer, and I'm scratching my head, and I I can't wrap my mind around it and why a little baby dies and another person lives to be an older person. I don't get it how one person takes chemotherapy and it works, and somebody else takes the same thing and has the same kind, and it doesn't work. The Mysteries the wise, why one family seemingly has an endless series of hits and trials, why another lady is trying to live good and her husband walks out of the door and out of the marriage, why does a car wreck leave one man crippled for life and another man gets out of the same car unscathed? I'm scratching my head on that one, and the list just goes on and on. Why one person gets promoted and another person is passed over? And why do some people. Who want to get married so bad and can't seem to find anybody, and others not so sure they want to stay married. I scratched my head with all the whys, but there's another lesson here, and that's the weights of life. Are you willing to wait for God? Joseph did. He couldn't explain all the whys, and it just seemed like the years stacked up and he waited and he waited. He's waiting for what's going to happen next. And prison became the school of spiritual growth for Joseph, I believe that waiting is probably the hardest discipline in the Christian life, all of us are going to have to wait for something at one time or another, and I don't like it any better than you do the waiting. Most of us hate to wait, and probably we're all waiting right now on the next little happening, some of you are waiting to get your grades. I remember those days. Had the big exam, and then you worry all night long. Well, I'm going to tell mom. How we going to talk mama and not telling dad, waiting for grades, waiting to graduate, waiting to be accepted into college, waiting for your first job offer, waiting to see if a bank will give you a loan, waiting to see If the house will sell, waiting to start a family, if you're a preacher, waiting for a church to call you. If you're a Christian, waiting for your loved one to come to Christ. If you're single, waiting for the right guy or the right gal to come along, waiting to be married, waiting to find out what God wants you to do, waiting for prayers to be answered, waiting for a husband to come home from a business trip, waiting for that child to come back to the Lord before you die, we all have to wait, whether we like it or not, truth be told, most of life is waiting, isn't it? Now you who are big football victims? I mean people. You like to see them kick a bag of air through the air. Are you still here? I've lost about half of you. Rest of you haven't woke up yet. It's not time for football. Do you know how long an actual game lasts? Only lasts about 60 Minutes, according to the rules. Boy, at my house a few times. Well, when I don't happen to my house, but if I'm in somebody else's house, it just lasts forever. According to NFL, the average games, they rack up three hours for television time. According to The Wall Street Journal, they said the average NFL telecast, playing a football takes up 11 minutes. So then what happens with all the rest of the time, that three hour block of time? Well, you have 60 minutes for commercials, 75 minutes with the players standing around, 17 minutes for replays, after a few other miscellaneous things are thrown in, such as crowd shots, talking to the heads in the booth, taking shots of the cheerleaders. Zoom, all you have left is 11 minutes of actual football, and I take that literally as a parable of life. Listen, the action of life is small, but the waiting of life is large. We spend our time waiting for something to happen, and the question then becomes, what do you do while you wait? Joseph decided to be faithful and to keep a good attitude. That's what he did. I thought of psalmist David. Hadn't thought of this verse in years and years. It came to me in my office a bit ago, over in the 39th Psalm, verse seven, David said, what wait i for? And I'm just going to reverse the waiting game for a moment. So what do I wait for? If I'm going to get right with God, what am I waiting for? You ever thought about that? Are you waiting Be sure you got all your fun in and got your sins? Is taking advantage of and what are you waiting on? Are you waiting till you think you can live it? Are you waiting till you get the kids raised? What are you waiting on? Time is running out, and the game of waiting is on. But there's another lesson that I picked up as I read down the overview of his life, and that's the what ifs of life. I mean, what if life hadn't taken this turn or this little twist? It's the what ifs of life that kill us. It just kills us. What if, I mean, what if the cup bearer never remembers I asked him to remember me, and a year passes and two years pass. What if he never remembers and what if I die in prison? What if I never get to clear my name from the lie that was told? What if I What if I lose the job? What if he didn't ask me out on a second date? What if I never get married? What if we can't have children? What if we run out of money? What if we make a poor decision? What if the kids get sick? What if we can't find a place to live? What if the contract falls through? What if the chemo doesn't work. What if she files for divorce? What if the church splits? And what if, like Joseph, you've been a victim of mistreatment at the hand of others, and what if you two have been betrayed, and what have you been abused? And what have you been falsely accused? And what have you spent your years in Twilight while others passed you by? And then there's another lesson that I picked up. I don't know what you're thinking out of this story, and that's the winds of life. God's never in a hurry, but he's never late. He's always on time, and even when the cup bearer forgot, Joseph, God didn't betrayed, enslaved, falsely accused in prison forgotten. God never hurries. And Joseph's experience in prison reminds us that God doesn't keep time the same that we do. He's from everlasting to everlasting. And then there was another little lesson that I scribbled down on the fly leaf of my Bible, the mills of God grind slowly, ask Joseph. 20 years pass, but I want you to know those mills grind very fine. 20 years a long time, a lot can happen in two decades. Lot of water can flow under the bridge and down in Egypt, hundreds of miles away, Joseph has risen from slave hood to become prime minister of Egypt, and his brothers back in Canaan don't have a clue, out of sight, out of mind. They don't think about him, probably much anymore. Conscience is not the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit's faithful. The conscience, after a while, can kind of quiet itself, and they've probably forgotten they've lived their lie out. But you know, sooner or later, chickens come home to roost. You farmers will know that eventually skeletons come out of closets. Eventually the old hammer is going to fall. It's time to face the music. And I looked at the story here. Of those brothers who were a part of the story of Joseph. Are we willing to face our past? The past will come before us sometime. Count on it, 11 brothers have to and back to the story. Everything had happened exactly as Joseph said it would. He said, there would be seven years of plenty, and there, there were seven. They were great. They built bins and and stored up grain, and they raised more crops, and they built more barns, and they concerned. And then he's now two years into the seven lean years, and they're bad years. He's 39, years of age. Vast famine has gripped the country, and an old man named Jacob Clara back in Canaan, his trees have died, the cattle have died, everything has died. It's a famine. But he hears there's food down in Egypt, and he gathers his boys around and said, our only hope is to get some of that food. And I'm wondering if those 11 brothers thought we don't want to go to Egypt. Sold our baby brother into Egypt. If he's alive, is there any possibility that we'll run into 20 years a long time, a lot of waters flowed under the bridge. Lot's forgotten, never mentioned again. If those brothers ever get right, three things have to happen. Number one, remember, remember, that's what Christ told the church. Remember from whence thou was fallen. Remember, remember. And those things begin to turn around on those 11 brothers as the Holy Spirit taps them on the shoulder and said, Remember your baby brother, what you did to him, how you ignored his cries from the pit when he begged you to spare him and you didn't, and they remembered how they hated him, envied him, plotted against him, cast him into the pit, callously, ignored his cries, lied to their own father. But there's more than memory. There needs to be a recognition of God. If we don't acknowledge God, if we don't recognize God, there's no hope. I don't care how much you remember, I don't care how bad you feel about things. You have to realize there's a higher power that's bigger than us. And here's what happened. It said, their hearts failed them, and they trembling and said, What is this that God has done to us? Genesis, 4228 It was huge. It's the first time they ever mentioned the name of God. And until we acknowledge there's a God, there's not a preacher or a church our theological concept that can change you until you recognize there is a divine God, and then there was repentance. How shall we clear ourselves? Genesis, 4414, these 11 brothers said, God hath found out the iniquity of Our servants. And there's a couple more things, maybe two or three. Now I'm done. If I saw any gem in this whole thing, it was forgiveness. After all that had happened to Joseph, he was still able to forgive. Had somebody come to talk to him in my office here while back. Didn't happen in this house, okay, but they said I wronged somebody. Didn't mean to I offended them, and I asked him to forgive me, and they said, we'll never forgive you. The rest of our life, we'll never forgive you, and that part is living in un forgiveness. Joseph, forgive. Forgave. Is there anybody that you haven't forgiven? I mean, even in your own heart of hearts, anybody you holding something against then God's holding that against you works that way at a triangle, and he said to his brothers, I'm Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you have sold me hither, For God did send me before you to preserve life. Isn't it amazing, at no point did he ever take his eyes off of the Lord. Adversity didn't harden him. Prosperity didn't ruin him. Temptation didn't destroy him, imprisonment didn't embitter him, and even promotion didn't change him. And you know what? He wanted more than anything else, after he forgave him, he wanted to bring his family back together. There's something when we begin to correct things in our lives. We want the family healed. We want the kids back. We want our marriage to start to work. We want the grandkids in. We want that wayward one, that prodigal to come home and he said, I want you to go get dad. Is dad still alive? What about my baby brother, Benjamin? I want the whole family bring everybody. He wanted the family back. And I'm just going to close with this one then, and that's to die. Well, if I glean anything from this little story, it's to die. Well, we're all going to die now. Run the clock ahead 100 years, Joseph, he's been dead for a long, long time, and a little Hebrew boy says to his mother, Mama, are we going to live in Egypt forever? Are we never going to leave Egypt. She said, you see that box? That little box over yonder? He said, Yes. He said, What's in that? Mama, your great, great, great granddaddy's bones are in that box. It's called a coffin, honey. And if you read on the side of it. It, see what it says. It said, bound for Canaan. He made them promise. Whatever you do, you can put my bones in a coffin. You can put it in the ground, but when you go into the Promised Land, you take me with you. I'm glad there is one coming. His name is not Joseph, but his name is Jesus. And when he comes back, he's going to get our bones and whatever remains of us there is, and he's going to take us into the promised land. He'll not miss a one of you. Don't worry about toenails. And all he's going to get you there's going to be a great resurrection. And he knows you by name, and he knows who you are, and he's coming back for this body, and he'll give us a resurrected body. Of all things. I've said this before. I mentioned it once in a while at a at a graveside, or maybe during a funeral. I don't do it every time, but once in a while, I do at the word coffin only listed one time, and all of the Bible's right there with Joseph's bones put in a coffin and said, Take it in the Promised Land, that the word coffin means Hope Chest. And so to the saint of God, that box you call a coffin is a Hope Chest. And the first thing that a gal does is she prepares for she saves all the best things and puts them in the Hope Chest. And when the bridegroom comes, they open that Hope Chest together. And I want you to know when the great Bridegroom of the sky comes, the first thing they'll do, the Bible said, the dead shall rise first, while they do and they open the Hope Chest, and Mama's going to come out, Dad's going to come out, granddad's coming out, and and uncles are coming out that have died in Christ. We put him in a Hope Chest, and together we'll meet the Lord even in the air. Now, three lessons from just that little thought. The greatest thing you can do is to pass your faith on to your children, and your children's children pass your faith on. Don't worry about how many dollars you're going to give them to fight over and how many acres, and they're going to fuss about that too. There's going to be hard feelings. Pass your faith on. And the saddest thing you can do is become bitter when you get old. And I watched the power plays around churches. People have been around churches for years, and they get a little bit of power, and they get their way on a few things, and we're not careful when that all changes, and maybe, maybe a new preacher comes, and we're not going to accept him or like him, because we don't want to lose our grip. Don't become bitter in old age, against your companion, against the world at large. May I say the happiest way to live is to realize that God's work is bigger than you are. It's not about me. I've said this, I don't know how many times at this church I said it at my last church the day I left and I'm not planning on leaving, so don't have a shouting spell right now. Please don't. Don't stand and sing. What a friend we have in Jesus. Jesus told him to leave, but I told him at my last church, I said, if you leave, what I leave? Then you got La Salle religion, and you didn't get Jesus, because you're going to stay if you found Jesus, he put you in this church. And you're not following man, you're following the Christ man.

Unknown: 28:31

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 Bucyrus nazarene.org, you.