Voice of the Nazarene 1-25-26

Voice of the Nazarene 1-25-26

Transcript

Unknown: 0:01

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: 0:17

I'm reading from Hebrews chapter 12, beginning at verse one to talk about witnesses for a few minutes. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to who, Looking unto Jesus, the author, the finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross. And I doubt if we're hearing much these days about how much endurance it took to survive the cross, despising the shame and sat down to the right hand of the throne of God For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. Why his response is lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds now Galatians, chapter six, verse nine says, Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season, ye shall reap if we faint not. I believe, if anything, the devil wants us to get tired. And we may not be tired of the way, but we can get tired in the way and just throw in the towel. And what's really dangerous. I mean, when you walk away, when Peter walked away, Nathaniel and Thomas both walked away too. So you never know who your life may be impacting. You don't know who your life may be influencing, and that's why we need to stay in the fight. May I remind you that we have witnesses looking on from chapter 11 and the three observations that we need to make. Observation number one, God said to consider them, that great crowd of witnesses, and he tells us that Heaven's grandstand is full. It says we're compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses. Talks about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and on and on. Heaven's grandstand is full. And the Bible said that we ought to be conscientious of the matriarchs and the patriarchs who have gone on before us. And you know what the scripture really says? Well, in First Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 11, it says the Old Testament was given to us so that we could learn from their lives. We learn from their successes. As May I point out, if you'll check the 11th Chapter, you'll find a lot of them had failures. We can learn from their failures. And it says that we're to consider them. But it moves on to say that we need to consider him, consider Jesus, and we need to look to and at the very life of Jesus, Christ. And then it says that we're to continue on. You need to stay in the fight. You need to keep running the race. It gives us the idea of passing on a baton, not just one runner, but we're all in this like a team and and we need to pass on the gospel as it was handed to us, just as clean as when they gave it to us on to the next generation. Then here's the thought that hit my mind. It's Hebrews 11. It gives us the Hall of Fame chapter. It gives us the heroes of the faith. And what I want to do, I want to point pull out people from that chapter. And if I could, I would ask them, if they didn't mind, to just run a lap with us, and while we're running that lap that we can learn from them, just a lap, so that we might learn. And I'd like to use in this service the story and the background of Joseph in the Old Testament, and it should get our attention, because in the Bible, there's only two that had no character flaws mentioned against them. I'm not saying they didn't have feet of clay, but the Bible doesn't point out any kind of a character flaw. So what can we learn? We learn first of all, of course, that Joseph is perceiving Jesus and the mirrored image is so tremendous. Fact of the matter, there's a parallel between the life of Joseph and the life of Jesus Christ. Now I want to point that out as we run the lap, Joseph was his father's favorite son, and that's found there. Genesis, 37 now Jacob, or Israel, loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many collars. Now, I know it's not good to have a favorite, but apparently Jacob did, and his favorite son was Joseph. And perhaps you were a favorite, or perhaps not, but he had a favorite, and he made him a coat. You asked, What's the parallel John 316 shares that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. What does begotten mean? It means that he was born of a mortal woman. He his mother was a mortal woman, while his father was an immortal God. The Bible said that Joseph had a coat of many collars. Well, if you'll read in Luke 1923, the Bible says that Jesus there on the cross, the soldiers gathered around at the foot of the cross, and it said also His coat was without seeing, woven from the top throughout. And nothing is in the Bible just to be in the Bible, Joseph had a coat of many collars, and Jesus had this coat woven from the top. Now, why was it woven from the top to the bottom? Because, ladies and gentlemen, he left heaven, he left the top, and he came to the bottom. He left the heights of heaven and came to the barns of Bethlehem, to the lowlands of sorrow that we might have eternal life. Joseph was his father's favorite son. Jesus also was the only begotten of his father. But a second thing I learned from Joseph, he was a dreamer. It said here in Genesis, 37 verse five, that Joseph dreamed a dream. His problem was he told his brothers, and they hated him very much for it. And when he dreamed that dream, he was only 17 years of age. And you know what I'd like to say to the young people? Dream big dreams. Always have a dream. Believe God for big things. Hold on to those dreams. Don't ever give up on the dream that God has placed in your heart. And I believe that when we're filled with the Spirit, I believe the spirit will put dreams in our hearts. The Bible said, in the last days, I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh. Young men will see visions. Old men will dream dreams. The poet said, great it is to believe the dream as we stand in youth by the starry stream. But a greater thing is to fight life through and say at the end, the dream is true. Now let me say this. Somebody said, this is a big church, okay, but I want you to know it was not a big church. It became big in my heart, and it became big in the dream of the people that make up this church, until it became a great church. Joseph dreamed a great dream, and his brothers hated him. So what's the word? Don't tell your 11 by 14 dream to a five by seven. Small mind. Don't. Don't tell them, because they don't have the capacity to receive it. They'll not have the capacity to encourage you. They'll not have the capacity to believe God alone with you. Don't ever give up a dream that God has placed in your heart. Now Jesus said these words in Luke 19, verse 10, Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. And when you look at lost humanity, you'll realize what a great dream. It was that Christ came with then in John, chapter 10, verse 10, he said, I'm come. They might have life, and mankind only has the grave death and the grave in hell to look forward to outside of Christ. But he came that we might have a abundant life. Now wait, let's go back in the story. Joseph said, Hey guys, we're in this field. And he said, I see stalks growing. And he said, I see my stalk and my dream standing, and I saw yours kneeling toward mine. And you know, nobody gets excited about a dream if they're standing and you're kneeling. So let's go back in the Scripture Jesus said in John 435, there are yet four months then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they're white already to harvest. Now listen, if the grain is from God, it'll always be connected to the harvest. And if God has really put something in your heart, it'll always be connected to people. And our problem is we get so busy doing things, but all that's really going to matter is what we do for Jesus Christ. It's how we make our life count for him, the poet said only one life will soon be passed. Last, and only what's done for Christ and others will last. He's not interested in the size of our bank account, not interested in the size of our home, not interested in what model of car we might drive, not interested in our 401 plan. He's interested in only one thing. What are you doing for the Kingdom. Joseph was a dreamer. Joseph, thirdly, was rejected by his own he walks up and he says to his brothers, or his brothers rather, they say to him, Behold the dreamer cometh Genesis, 3719 and his brothers were jealous of him. Jealousy as cruel as the grave. Destroy your life. It'll make it miserable. We need to get over our insecurities and deal with our jealousies. And it's not them anyway, it's you. And the brother said, throw him in a pit. Reuben said, No, we don't want to kill him. Just put him in the pit and leave him there. And I can't really see much difference between the two. And one of the brothers said, I've got a plan. By this time, Reuben had left, and he said, Let's sell him. And a band of Ishmaelites were coming by in Genesis, 37 verse, 28 let's sell him for 20 pieces of silver sold. And they sold him for the price of a slave at that time, but wait, Jesus comes on the scene, and John 111 says He came unto His own and His own received him not. He lived in a house. He had four brothers. He grew up with those four brothers. He rode the bus with those four brothers. He went to school with those four brothers. They were in the carpenter shop together, all of them, but these four brothers. What did Jesus say in John seven, five, neither did his brethren believe in Him, none of his brothers. And then the Bible says in Matthew 26 verse 15, one of his own Jewish men named Judas said, What will you give me for him if I deliver him unto you? And they coveted with him for 30 pieces of silver. They offered to sell their own Jewish brother, Jesus Christ, for the price of a slave at that time. Here's another thing I learned from Joseph. He was falsely accused, eventually sold by the Ishmaelites, and they sold him to a man by the name of Potiphar. The Bible says that Potiphar was the officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, and a powerful man. Joseph becomes a slave to Potiphar, and the first thing he does, he just starts serving. And he serves, and he serves. Anybody else would have had an attitude, but not not Joseph, he served. His attitude was that he understood if serving was beneath you, then leading is above you. So Joseph just served. And you know what the Bible says? The Bible said that he had the favor of God upon him, and it said that everything he did prospered. Then it says that potiphar's house was blessed because of Joseph. You say, Well, God has blessed me. Well, maybe he didn't bless you. Maybe he blessed you because of somebody else in your house. But let me tell you something. Potiphar was married to a desperate housewife, and she was very blatant, very brash. Every time she got a chance, she had asked to sleep with Joseph. She would say, Lie with me. And he said, I do wrong. I can't do it. The Bible said the day came, Genesis, 3911 that she caught him alone, not a good position to be in. And Potiphar comes home, and the scorned woman lies about Joseph and said he tried to force himself on me. Here's his coat. And Potiphar put Joseph in prison. Interesting thing is that he was the captain of the officers, but he was also captain of the guards talking about the prison. Evidently, he was over the prison himself, and just as much as he had allowed Joseph to be in charge of everything in his home. He allowed him to be in charge of everything in the prison. But something that really digs up my mind, he didn't do anything wrong to go to prison. He went to prison because he did everything right, nothing wrong. Somebody said, if you live for God, everything's going to be wonderful, but that's not what the Bible teaches. He went to prison because he did what was right. Years ago, my my dad that raised me, lost his job, came home a broken man and never said much about what had happened. I kept wondering, how did he lose his job, and why is he black balled? And why can't he get on at another trucking firm, and for the next year, unable to work a job, lost everything they had, a broken man. When dad died, I had gone down to the funeral home, the Farley funeral home. I was standing by the casket, and people are going by, and two or three gentlemen came up, dressed in suits, and you could tell they had class about them. And one of them asked me, Are you the preacher son? I said, Yes, sir. They said, can we just tell you something. Your dad lost his job. Are you aware of that? I said, Yes, I've never known why. They said, Well, you need to know. Because of integrity, the bosses wanted him to lie on the paperwork and give them a truck and write it off on the company and lie that had ever happened. And he refused to do it, and said, Your man, your father, was a man of integrity, and that's why all of us remember that side. And I have now somebody said, if you live for God, everything's always going to be good, but it doesn't. All of us go right? Joseph was falsely accused, but jump over to the scene of Christ. He was accused of being a drunkard, he was accused of being a heretic, accused of being a madman, accused of insurrectionists, sentenced to the prison of death. But I want to jump back to Joseph again. He was supernaturally delivered from prison. Joseph gets down to prison, and Pharaoh begins to have, everybody's having a dream in those chapters. And Pharaoh was having this dream about seven of this and seven of everything was in sevens. And somebody said, Well, there's a guy down in prison, and he understands dreams. If you bring him in, he'll explain what it means. And they bring him in, and he says to Pharaoh, I can interpret your dream the first seven, it represents seven very plenteous years. The last seven represents a famine, and it means that you better stock up during the good years so it doesn't wipe you out in the bad years. And so Pharaoh said unto Joseph, for as much as God has showed you all this, there's none so discreet and wise as thou art. Thou shall be over my house and according unto thy word, shall all my people be ruled only in the throne. Will I be greater than thou? Genesis, 41 verse 39 so he was in prison, and is supernaturally elevated to the second most powerful position on earth, and the most powerful man, next to Pharaoh. And when Jesus was in prison, the prison of death, he was buried in a borrowed tomb for three days. Hell had a party, but he arose triumphant over death, hell and the grave, and he seated the right hand of Almighty God second in command. Another thing about Joseph, as we look at his life, he was given a gentile bride. The Bible tells us, in Genesis, 41 verse 45 that a gentile bride. Her name was asanath. She was a Gentile you remember, God was married to Israel, the Jewish people, Jesus was given a gentile bride, and when Christ died on the cross, he was given a gentile bride. It means that Gentile and that Gentile and that all become the Bride of Christ. We're draft, drafted in contrary to nature. The Bible also tells us that Joseph's brothers were blinded to who he was. They didn't realize who he was. If you remember, we told you that down there in Egypt, they had seven prosperous years, and then seven years of famine. And the famine came, and Jacob said to his boys, that's the brothers of Joseph. The cupboards are bare here. We're without any food. And I hear there's corn down in Egypt, and Joseph is all is over all of the food supply in Egypt. He's the secretary of agriculture. And three times those brothers leave Canaan go down into Egypt, and every once did they recognize who he was. He spoke through an Egyptian interpreter. He was dressed in Egyptian garb, and that know him. And if you were to go to Israel today, do the Jewish people worship Jesus? No, why don't they? Well, they're blinded. They're looking for a messiah to come, and they don't realize that He already came. You say, Why did my kids live for Christ? Christ, why didn't my spouse have a heart for God? Well, the Bible tells us, in Second Corinthians four, four In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them. And we need to pray God give them sight, remove the blinders so they can see that Jesus is the one. But I want to point out something else I saw. Joseph revealed himself to his brothers. We read here in Genesis, 45 one, Joseph could not refrain himself. Now they've come down. There's all of his brothers. They're there in the room, and as they're standing around, he cried, and he said, I want every man to go out for me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. Now this is the third time they came for food. It's on this third time that he reveals himself, and in verse one, he's asking every Gentile to leave the room. He empties the room, and he's saying, it's just going to be me and my Jewish brothers. And he says, I want you to realize something, I'm your brother. And if you remember, there was something about the Jewish boys, there was a surgery that took place, and he's revealing himself his wounds to prove that he's not one of the Egyptians. I'm a Jewish boy, just like you. Now it's been better than a decade. Everything had changed. They hadn't seen him for years, but he said, I'm your brother. I'm the one you sold for 20 pieces of silver. And they begin to weep. But if you read it, he said, I am Joseph. Now listen, Jesus is coming back to get his church. It's a Gentile church. The Trump is going to sound and we ain't going to be around. But seven years later, something is going to happen. What happens seven years later? It's the second coming of Christ, not the rapture. The Rapture happens before seven years pass. Now it's the second coming of Christ, Revelation, one seven. First time he comes. He comes as a thief. But this second coming, Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall well because of him, even so Amen, it's the Jews that crucified him, they said, Let his blood be upon us and upon our our offspring. And it was, if you'll follow their trail, they've not been able to find a homeland. Hitler killed over 6 million. They believe that Stalin probably killed around 20 million of those Jews. Everywhere they go, they're being fought. If you look at your college campuses right now, you'll see they're marching against him, and they're trying to fight with him, and the Jews can't find a home, and now they've gone back to a little strip of arid sand and set up their nation and put a flag out there in the soil, and they're beginning to return. They're trying to go home. Why? They don't realize it, but Jesus Christ is going to return. They're looking for his first coming. They're going down to the Wailing Wall, touching their head against the wall, praying the Messiah will come. He's coming, but he's coming as the one they crucified. And they're about to realize it. Facts about an interesting scriptures, Jeremiah, 30 verse seven, for that day is great so that none is like unto it. It is even the time of Jacob's trouble. Remember, Jacob without food, everything had gone against him. The years are passing. His cattle are dead. The trees have died. The crops are gone. The cupboards are empty. And he says to his boys, we've got to go down to Egypt and get food. It's a time of Jacob's trouble, but it said, but he shall be saved out of it. That's there in your King James Version, seven years of tribulation. Tie it all together. It all goes together. It's an amazing parallel. Now, what's going to happen when Jesus comes back? Well, they're going to see his wounds. It says they'll see that he's the one that we crucified Him, and they'll do the same thing that Joseph's brothers did. The Bible said they will wail because Jesus will stand in front of them and say, I am Jesus. Now let me close. May I ask, is there somebody that you need to forgive, somebody that's gotten under your skin, somebody that hurt you, somebody that left you wounded. You feel injured. You feel a great wall has been built up, and there's anger in your heart. You say, Well, I've forgiven them, but every time you see them. You react, and when their name comes up, you immediately begin to withdraw from the conversation. Well, an interesting thing. Joseph looked at his brothers and he turned and they empty the room. I wanted everybody to leave the room. And you know, if you're still talking about who hurt you, you haven't emptied the room yet they're still under your skin. You need to deal with them. What will it help me to empty the room? Pastor, well, Genesis, 50, verse 20, but as for you, ye thought evil against me. But God meant it unto good to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Joseph turned to those boys, those brothers, and he said, Don't be hard on yourselves. They're weeping. He said, If you hadn't have sold me as a slave, I wouldn't have ended up down here in Egypt. I wouldn't have become the second in command over all of the land and all of the earth at that time, and we would have starved to death. But I want you to know that everything you meant for evil, God has turned it around, and he's using it for good. Now that Joseph was in this position, the Bible said that Pharaoh gave him a new name. Now it's about 25 letters, so I'm not going to try to pronounce it, okay, but it's in Genesis, chapter 41 verse 45 and that name, what did it mean? It meant the revealer of secrets. Jesus is the revealer of secrets. In fact, the matter in Romans, chapter two, verse 16, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. Do you know he knows everything about you? There's nothing has gone on in my life, but he hasn't known about it. Maybe mom didn't find out. I hope she didn't tell dad, but Jesus knows it all, and in that day when we stand in judgment, He knows all the history of our life. He can tell you why that little baby of yours didn't live your heart was broke. He can tell you why that relationship didn't work out and you were left broken. He can tell you about the time that you were abused and explain all the background of that because folk, he's the revealer of secrets. The secrets of all men is going to be revealed to the judgment unless they're under the blood of Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Philippians, chapter two, verse 10, that there is coming a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of the lord of God the Father. Now get this. Hitler may have killed 6 million Jews, but one day he'll bow before a Jew and to confess that He is the King of kings. It'll be late for Hitler, and this is all I'm going to say. Doesn't it make sense? Folks? We're either going to bow our knee here, or we're going to bow our knee then and there. When it's too late, we need to bow our knee here, bring all our secrets to Jesus now and confess all of our sins to Him in the now, for he's here to meet

Unknown: 28:31

our need. Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9am with B and C's pastor Ray LaSalle for more information regarding B and C, visit Bucyrus nazarene.org. You.