Voice of the Nazarene 2-22-26

Voice of the Nazarene 2-22-26

Transcript

Pastor Ray LaSalle: 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,

Unknown: 0:18

the psalmist in his diary, in that first Psalm and the third verse, he talks about man being like a tree. He should be like a tree planted, bringing forth his fruit in the season of his life. By the 92nd Psalm, verse 12, he goes on to say, The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, and he shall grow like a cedar. In Lebanon, those who be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of God, they shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat. How you all doing? They shall be fat and flourishing. I guess it's okay to be a little bit fat, at least, you'll use less water in the bathtub. But I'd like to share just a few thoughts about the palm tree, and I'd like to parallel it with your permission to the Christian life and talk to you about being palm tree Christians, the Bible starts off about a tree planted back yonder in a garden called the Tree of Knowledge of Good and of evil. And if you recall, God said to Adam and Eve there in Genesis, don't eat of that tree, but they ate of that tree, and literally ate themselves out of a house and home, and when they ate of it, the Bible said that after they sinned, according to Genesis 38 they hid themselves among the trees in the garden, there's another man in the Bible by the name of Elijah. He even called fire down from heaven. I can light a fire, but if it's not raining, he can handle 450 false prophets, but one woman got him in trouble. And by the way, one wrong woman can get you in trouble, guys. And for your information, one wrong man can get some of you ladies in trouble, and he fled for his life. And the Bible said that there, in First Kings, chapter 19, verse four, that he found a juniper tree. Of all trees he got under a juniper tree. And the Bible said that he requested that he might die under that tree. When you skip over into the New Testament, there was a guy by the name of Zacchaeus. And Zacchaeus, the Bible said, maybe, the poet said, was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he? For he climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord, he wanted to see from a sycamore tree. And I don't know if you know this, but Christ died according to First Peter, chapter two, on a tree. And one day in heaven, there's another tree, called the tree of life, that bears 12 manner of fruit. I'm talking today about the palm tree. Nothing is in the Bible just to be in the Bible. If it's in the Bible, there's a reason why it's in the Bible, and there's a reason why the palm tree is listed and mentioned in the Bible. And I want you to see three simple little things. I hope that when I finish the message that every one of you will want to be a palm tree Christian. I know I do been thinking about it this weekend, especially three little things. First of all, I want you to see the person described. Look at verse 12. It says The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. I want to flourish Well, who's going to flourish? The Bible tells us that it's the righteous who are going to flourish. Let me talk to you about two types of righteousness. First of all, let me just mention spiritual righteousness. That means being right with God. Are you right with God? The Bible says in Romans, 310, as it is written, There is none righteous. No, not one. No, not one. The songwriter, there's a song about that. So that leaves us pretty bad shape, doesn't it? Nobody's righteous fact the matter Isaiah 64, verse six says the very best that we can produce is like filthy rags. So what hope is there? Well, in Second Corinthians, chapter five, verse 21 for he hath made him Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So that simply means, if I accept Christ and His sacrifice at Calvary. What happens? He got my sins and I get his righteousness. What a trade off. So when God sees me, he sees me as being right in his sight, righteousness simply because I accepted Jesus Christ. Now it's not enough to be spirit, to have spiritual righteousness. I should desire, and we should desire morally righteousness, moral righteousness, to have morally a sense of righteousness, to live a life that God can bless you. Say, Well, I want God to bless me. Well, I've learned, if you want God to bless you, you got to be blessable. Instead of begging God to bless be blessed, ask God to help you to become blessable, and He'll bless you. Now we live in a day when nothing is wrong. There's no sin to hear some people say it, but I want you to know there's still a standard, and there's still Absolute Truth, and here in Galatians, chapter five, verse 16, so I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Do you have a guide? It needs to be the Holy Spirit. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. So it sounds like there's a battle going on, kind of like in a phone booth with a Wildcat boy. It's a tug of war ended, and the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you're not free to carry out your good intentions. So what kind of things are being battled here? Well, he shares that in verse 19, when you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear, sexual immorality. And incidentally, sexual immorality rules the world. You can't turn on TV, you can't go down the highway and look at billboards. But what advertisers are selling their ads through the lust of the eye, and he moves on, impurity, lustful pleasure, idolatry, sorceries, hostility. Boy, that's a big one these days, isn't it, everybody's so hostile. Somebody called me from another state, and boy, it got on to politics. And boy, did they get hostile. I was glad I wasn't with them. They'd have chewed my head off. They did work on their phone. They chewed their phone for a bit. Hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outburst of anger. Have you ever been around somebody that just they have an outburst. Boy, it gets quiet. Everybody looks around. Everybody drops their head die. I lost my temper when I was a kid a couple times, but my dad helped me to find it. I don't want that kind of help anymore. Selfish ambitions, dissension, division. Envy, drunkenness, wild parties. That's for you, party people and other sins like this. So how do we deal with this stuff? You want to know how Okay. Galatians 522, goes on, but the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, and the only way you're going to be morally right with God is through the Holy Spirit. It. That's the only way you and I are going to make it. Now I look out over my crowd. I thought of my crowd sitting in my office. I pastor. Wonderful people don't forget the offering after a while. Great people don't forget the offering. Tremendous people. Fact of the matter, I don't believe any of you are struggling over about six different things in your life coming at you that we just read down through, but it might be one thing and that same thing, and here comes the devil, and he bombards you to hit you in that one weak area, and he works on you, and he does his best to bring you down that one area, and you feel like a failure. And you say, Pastor, how can I overcome? Well, the only way, ladies and gentlemen, that you're going to overcome is through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's not in trying. You've tried all that, but it's entrusting, leaning into the Holy Spirit. And somebody said, Unless there is that above us or in us, which is that above us, will soon yield to that which is around us. And so if you're struggling, you're saying, God, fill me. I'm not making it God, please give me the Holy Spirit. First of all, may I say, just start saying, God, empty me. Empty me. Get rid of this in me and that in me. So there's room for the Holy Spirit to take control of me. We need empty different things. So there you have the person described the righteous are flourished, and now he talks about the potential discovered. Notice verse 12, The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. Now, do you think God wants to bless you? How many think God wants to bless us? I may not preach on that very much, but I think God wants to bless us. I think God wants to bless her socks off. I think God's for us. I've got some kids. I've got two. My wife had two and I had two. That makes two. And, you know, I didn't just get them raised, but years later, I'm still blessing them and blessing them and blessing them, I'll get a phone call. I gotta bless them again. You say, Well, you, you need to bless my kids. They're They're your kids. I'm blessing my kids, and God's going to bless his kids. If you're his child. God will bless his child. I believe that. I believe God kind of like the dog that I heard about the other day. Guy was talking to another guy about what a good dog he had said that dog can go out to the lake and tell me how many ducks are on the lake. No, he can't. He said he can. Told the dog said, go out to the lakes, check on ducks. A little while the dog came back and he barked twice. And the guy said, What does that mean? Said it means there's two ducks on the lake. A couple hours later, he sent him back out and he came back. They barked four times. The guy said, What does that mean? Says there's four ducks on the lake. Later, he said, they'll send your dog back out. I don't believe it. And he came back out carrying a stick, just shaking a stick. So what does it mean? He said, there's more ducks than you can shake a stick at and honestly, I believe that God wants to bless us more than you can shake a stick. He wants to bless her. Socks off. You're raising kids, and you need the blessings of God on your kids. You need the blessings of God on your marriage. You need the blessings of God on your family. Start calling on him. I believe he wants to bless the upright fact of the matter. Psalm 84 verse 11, no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. And then over in Psalm 68 verse 19, it said, Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us down. He just loads us down with blessings. God is saying, I want to flourish you. I want you to sprout. I want you to have growth in your in your marriage, and I want you to have growth in your finances and and growth in your career and growth in your relationships. God is saying, I want to bless you. Now I've just feared you wouldn't get it, so I spent some money. I may turn it in and triple the cost, but I I got some coconuts, one of them spilt. Boy, it's leaking, you know? It. These are the fruit of the palm tree. Did you know palm trees produce coconuts? Where have you been? And I don't know, but if they produce fruit, I thought, God, that's what I want. I I want my people, their tree and their life, to produce fruit. And if you're not producing fruit, I want to see your life producing fruit. I want to just hang with fruit, fruit on the branches. Fact of the matter, there's something about palm trees that produce coconuts, and they have found now that coconuts produce all kinds of things. Did you know that the coconut has an oil in them that's supposed to be good for the hair and it's good for the skin? I read that they've even got coconut oil that will help with belly fat. I'm ordering some. I don't know if you drink it or if you rub it on the outside, but I know one thing. The fruit is not to stay with the tree. It's not to hang up there and dry up. It needs to be separated from the tree, and it needs to be used. You say, Well, I want God to bless me, yeah. And you want to keep all the coconuts, right? Well, you're not green with anything this morning, but we want to keep the blessings and God saying no, they need to be used. They can help others. You say, Well, I want God to bless me. He already has blessed us, but we're too busy keeping the fruit thereof, and it's time we begin to share the fruit to be a palm tree. Christian is what he's talking about, and it's only the nuts that keep the coconuts moving along. The third thing I want to portray to you is the picture detail. What does a palm tree? Christian, look like? Why is it important to be a palm tree Christian? Well, three quick statements. Number one, palm tree. Christians bear fruit. They bear fruit. And the Bible talks about bearing fruit that remains. You know what that means? It means living a life that will outlive you and live long after you're gone. People will say they made a difference in my life. They changed the way I lived because I lived next door to them, and I saw something in their life that drew me to Christ. Don't you want your fruit to remain? The poet said, help me live from day to day in such a self forgetful way that even when I kneel to pray, my prayer shall be for others, others, Lord, yes, others. Let this my model be. Let me live for others. God, that I may live like thee, a palm tree, Christian, produces fruit. Now we're not judging fruit, but we can look and see whether there is fruit, and if there's no fruit, it tells me what kind of a tree something's going on. But the second thing, a palm tree knows how to handle a storm, a tornado can come through and be up there in the the wind and the miles per hour of the wind, and when the storm is over, there'll be hundreds of oaks laying out there on the ground, but a palm tree can stand up to 50 mile per hour wind. It may bend, but it won't break. It may get knocked down, but it doesn't get knocked out. It'll bounce right back up. It can handle the storm. Can I just say to you, have you seen some Christians that handle the storms of life, and they didn't throw in the towel, they didn't get bitter, they didn't get angry. They kept coming right back up in spite of everything they've been through. And I want to tell you something, storms are coming. You better be a palm tree. Christians, what the Bible's saying. And there's a third thing, oh, let me just stop here for a moment. I was studying about the palm tree this this weekend, and it's the root system. There's where the secret is, the root system very fibrous, hundreds upon hundreds of little and it goes down and it builds an anchor. So when the storms come, it can't be pulled out. It has an anchor. Do you have an anchor? Well, the palm tree does. And you say, Well, Pastor, where can I find an anchor? Well, let me tell you, it's right here. The Bible says, Those that are planted in the house of the Lord, where's my. Anchor house of the Lord, you say, Well, I don't think that attending church is very important. Where'd you get that? You build your anchor in the house of God, one with another, and together, we're able to stand. We encourage one another, we build one another up, we pray one for another, and together, it builds a great family. And we're able to stand the storms. Know how to handle the storm. And a third thing, the palm tree. Christian, there are people of praise. You say, Well, Pastor, I'm walking through a very tough time. What advice would you give? My advice? I recommend that you praise your way through praise, your way through the tough times. Now, palm branches are only mentioned by one writer in all of the Bible, all of the Bible, only one man wrote about palm branches. His name was John, and when Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a borrowed donkey, John wrote in chapter 12, verse 12, that when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet him and cried Hosanna. John's the only man in the New Testament that wrote about palm branches. Did he ever say anything again about it? He did over in Revelation, chapter seven, beginning in verse nine. Look at what it said. After this, I beheld, and he was on the Isle of Patmos writing this, he said, I saw a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. Fact the matter, I've even got a palm in my hand and cried with a loud voice, saying Salvation to our God, which setteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb and all the angels stood around about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts and fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped God. And what did they say? Saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. They had branches. Now, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, there were a few people that threw down some palm branches. But in heaven, there will be a great multitude that cannot be numbered, waving their palm branches. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, only the Jews threw down the branches. But I want you to know in heaven that all nations from all kindred and tribes and tongues will weigh their palm branches. And when Jesus rolled into Jerusalem, only the Jews wanted him to be King of the Jews. But I want you to know in heaven he'll be King of Kings and Lord of lords. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, he was on his way to be crucified, but when he makes his way into heaven, he's on his way to for a coronation when they when Christ rode into Jerusalem, he said, on a on a borrowed donkey, but in heaven he'll be sitting on a throne. When he rode into Jerusalem, he's on his way to stand before the judge, but in heaven, he's the eternal judge. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. Jesus is Lord of Glory. But it all started with righteousness. It's the righteous that flourish like a palm tree. How do I get right? You allow God to make you right. And my question to you in closing today, Are you right with God? If you've got it right, and you're right with Him, and there's no sin between you and him, I want to tell you something. The Bible said, we'll be a palm tree Christian. We're going to be blessed. We're going to flourish in the courts of the Lord. I'm not holding up a mirror, but maybe if I had one, I could hold it up, but you'd soon look in that mirror and you'd notice whether you're flourishing or not, and it all goes back. Am I living a righteous light. Am I right with God? Father? Take a little message. Give it all the anointing that it needed. Bless it to our hearing. May our people walk out of the house like this. Pastor plans to today to be that palm tree Christian with fibrous roots that go down to the. The House of the Lord, and having an anchor that holds that when the storms come, it may hurt and it may bend us, but it'll not break us, and we'll have fruit in our season, and we'll flourish and we'll make it even during the hard times. And we want our life to live long after we're gone, a life that made a difference for somebody else, a neighbor, a co worker, our own offspring. We want them all to get to heaven. Help us to live righteously and to be right with you. I pray in Jesus name Amen. Stand with me, if you would. Don't forget to worship in your giving as you're going out. There's buckets in the back. Let's be let's be palm tree Christians this this week. How many I'm going to be one of them? Thank you. God. Bless you as you go sing us out.

Pastor Ray LaSalle: 26:11

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.