Voice of the Nazarene 3-15-26

Voice of the Nazarene 3-15-26

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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 Lasau, and the Voice of the Nazarene.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Philippians 3, verse 20, but we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. Eagerly awaiting his return. Ye were in samples or examples to all that believed. They're in Macedonia and Archaia, Crawford County, Besiris, Nevada, wherever it is you live. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Archaia, but also in every place your faith, the God word is spread abroad, so that we need not speak anything. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. If Jesus is coming back, we need to be looking for his return. If Jesus is coming, we need to learn about his return. If Jesus is returning back, we need to love the fact that he's going to return. If he's coming back, we need to listen for the trumpet sounds. If he's coming and he is coming, we need to live in such a way, ready for his coming. I want to talk to you about how we can eagerly await his coming. And I know there are things we need to be doing and things that we need to stop doing. And I don't want you to get impatient waiting for his return. Would you run that little clip for me? Easy to get impatient.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

He's been waiting on this day a long time. And so, Jordan, upon the profession of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I now baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

unknown 2:59

Go, Jordan.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

He couldn't wait any longer. I hope all of you had a good view. We're down to one screen up front due to getting ready for the drama and the Easter passion. But he couldn't wait much longer. Maybe you're struggling, waiting for the coming of Christ too. Adrian Rogers said that we ought to live as though Jesus died yesterday, and that he arose this morning, and that he's returning this afternoon. We should be eager, and I know the Bible tells us some things that we ought to do in light of his coming. And I want to jump into those. The very first thing you need to be doing is to refrain from judging. Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 4 5, so don't make judgments about anyone ahead of time before the Lord returns, for he will bring our darkest secrets to light. See, before the Lord comes, none of us ought to be critical. In light of the fact that he's coming, before he gets here, don't be judging one another. Now, after the Lord comes and you want to be critical, that's fine. I won't be around to listen to you. I won't be reading your Facebook post either. But Paul is saying that we we ought to be judging and calling shots on one another. You say, well, what about those that are getting away with it? Well, read on down. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Therefore, then will God give to each one whatever praise is due. God's going to take care of it all. You don't need to worry about it. And I figure that God's not going to hunt me down to come and check on some of you. And I doubt if God raises some of you from the dead to check on me. It's just not going to happen. He's the righteous judge, and he will judge in fairness and accuracy. And so he knows the motive of our heart. You say, well, Pastor, where does that leave us? Well, Mother Teresa said, if you judge people, you don't have time to love people. And we need to love one another. God loves us. Billy Graham said it this way: it's the Holy Spirit's job to convict. It's God's job to judge. And it's my job to love others. And isn't it amazing how we'll judge someone for the next 30 years, if not their entire lifetime, for something they said or something they've done. And we never let them get away with it, and it only happened for 30 seconds, but we'll define them like that for the rest of their life. And God help us, we've all made a mistake or two. Maybe you've hid yours better than somebody else did. But all of us have come up short a time or two. All of us have said some things that we wish we hadn't have said. All of us have done some things that we really shouldn't have done. So let's not be judgmental. And I'm glad that God doesn't treat us as our sins deserved. Mark Laurie said this. What about you hate your sin and I hate my sin? And in the meantime, let's love one another. You take care of your problem and I'll handle mine. And in the meantime, we'll get along. You see, the Holy Spirit's convicting me. And I'm doing everything I can to be sure I'm right. And I despise anything in my life that doesn't look like Jesus Christ. So together, let's love one another. Jesus said to us here in John 13, verse 35, By this shall you know that these are my disciples, how they judge each other, how they're old sarpuses, how they're critical. No. He said, because they love one another. And that's how the world's going to know that we're God's disciples. So you know what I need to do? I need to get that great big old log out of my eye and quit looking for that little splinter in your eye. No judgment. And so we need to eagerly await his return, and then we've got to refrain from judging. You know the problem with many people when it comes to going to church is the fact that they've already been there. And they've seen things like the elder brother that didn't want the prodigal to come home, looking down their nose in self-righteousness. And that's why sometimes they they think the church is full of hypocrites. And what I'm trying to say is let's do the best we can. And maybe we have missed it a time or two, but let's love each other and not be judgmental. Here's the second thing: Jesus is coming. And if you want to await eagerly his return, then remind yourself of God's faithfulness. Now the Bible speaks of Christ's coming the first time as a babe in a manger. Remember that story? It's a date on your calendar called Christmas. And do you know for every one time that it mentions his first coming, the Bible contains eight times for every one time talking about his second coming. He's coming. He's coming. We ought to be telling one another and reminding each other that he's coming. And maybe, maybe we ought to have eight holidays instead of just one for Christmas. Maybe we have need to have about eight of them since there's eight times more emphasis on him coming back. And maybe we need to be talking more about his coming again than we do about Christmas. Maybe we ought to tell Walmart to run a second coming special. Maybe we need to let Amazon know. Free shipping, get a present for your friend. Jesus is coming. So we need to read again that God is faithful. Hebrews 9 27, Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. Only to do that one time. Then he will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who eagerly are waiting for him. He's coming. And he's bringing salvation with him. It was March 11th, 1942. It was at the hike of World War II. Douglas MacArthur was the uh general in the Philippine, theater of war, and there were theaters going on around the world. He had six great world leaders: Churchill, Hitler, Roosevelt, Stalin, Tojo. And so everybody's fighting and nation against nation. There on the Philippine Islands, our army had come. My dad was there in that Philippine theater. And General MacArthur was over the Philippine Islands, 1942. And his officers came into his tent somewhere during the night and said, We've got to get you out of here. The Japanese are pressing in from every side. There may be a takeover. You're the face of hope that maybe America can win the war. If they can take you out, it'll be disastrous, and we need to keep you alive. And so, under the cover of darkness, during the night, they put him on a PT boat and snuck him out past the Japanese naval fleet. And he was able to get away, but he, when he left, he said, I shall return. A little over two years later, back again, it was, I think, in October time, that 1944, that the victorious General Douglas MacArthur returned and waded ashore, and he said, I've kept my word, I've come back. My dad has told that many times as a boy, I would hear him tell about how our guns were empty and rusting. And we were hungry and without food, and our clothes had rotted on our backs in this tropical weather, and the dead were everywhere, and the stench was great. But we clung to the promise. Our general said that he shall return, and he kept his word. May I tell you there is someone a whole lot greater than General Douglas MacArthur. And our hope is in Jesus Christ. There in John chapter 14, verse 1, he said, Boys, you need to realize I'm leaving, but I shall return, and when I come again, I'll receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. So we need to eagerly await his return, remind ourselves that what he said, he'll be faithful to do. Now, here's a third thing. If Jesus is coming, we need to regularly review the cross. I don't know if you know this or not, but our church here took on the responsibility of the three crosses south of our church here, located along Route 4. How many have seen the three crosses? Did you know that middle cross represents and symbolizes Jesus Christ dying for our sins and not for ours only, but for all of Crawford County and Josirus and for the world and for the past, and he wants to take care of our sin problem. And every time you drive by that cross, don't let it be a monument, but let it be something that reminds you to thank God for sending Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 11, 26 says, for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. So whether it's through the cross or through communion, we need to regularly review the cross. Oswald Chambers said that all of heaven is interested in the cross, hell is afraid of the cross, while men are the only ones that ignore its meaning. Here's a fourth thing I want to say to you as your pastor. As I realize I'd be facing you this morning if the wind didn't take me away. And that's to refuse to neglect the church. You say, Pastor, you're talking to the choir. We're all here, I know. But this message will go out on at least two radio stations. It'll go out on all the television stations that our church is on and is going out by live stream. We better not refuse, we better refuse to neglect the church. Don't neglect the church. You see, the church is important because it's a set time, a set time when we encourage one another. When I come to church, I come to encourage and I come to be encouraged. I come and I listen to your stories and I watch your lives and what you've been through and what you're struggling with. And I find my own faith is beginning to have an uplift. And so it's a set time to encourage. I believe it's also a set time to grow in our faith. It's our opportunity to come and every time we walk through the doors, leave with bigger and better and brighter faith than when we walk through the doors. I don't want to leave the church like I came. I want to be better than having grown in my faith. But thirdly, it's a set time to exalt the Lord. Here's what he said in Psalm 150 let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. And in that hundredth Psalm, he says, I will enter into his courts with thanksgiving. And fourthly, it's a set time to demonstrate our priorities. Mom and dad, every time your kids watch you, you're demonstrating your priorities in action. Probably the greatest leadership principle to our children is simply monkey see, monkey do. When they watch your life, they may not do everything you say, but they're pretty well going to do everything they saw you do. Set a good example. And grandparents, grandkids are watching to see what your priorities are and how your attitude is at this point in your life. If you get bitter, get bittersweet. Jesus is coming. So what do I need to do? Renounce complacency in my life. And many of us are okay with whatever's okay, and it's not okay. 1 John 2.28 said, Now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ. Why did he use that word remain? Because it's possible to drift, to wander away from fellowship. D.L. Moody said our greatest fear in life should not be the fear of failure, but fear of succeeding at things that really don't even matter. And some of us are really good and successful at things that have no eternal value. Renounce complacency. Don't just go through the motions of going to church. Don't try to make people look at you and think you're doing well by looking at the outside when you know that on the inside you're dying. Pursue God with all of your heart. And it's going to take some effort. He said, Draw near to me and I'll draw near to you. Then we've got to receive more of the Holy Spirit. I travel a lot. I drive a lot of miles. It's a strange thing. My car uses up a lot of energy when I drive. You probably didn't realize that. You thought I'd drive for free. I just go through all kinds of energy. I've got to pull over and stop at some of these refill places and get some fuel. Down at my house, I've got two furnaces and I've got a lot of lights. A lot of my switches have about 16 lights on it. I just follow my wife around, turn it off. She goes into the next room and turns it on there and leaves it on, and I go and turn it off. That's my job. I'd like to say more, but I have a feeling I'd like to live longer, so I'll let it go. But I'm using up a lot of energy, and so I need a whole lot more energy to come down through the power lines. Can I say this to you? You need the Holy Spirit to help you with your struggles. When it comes to the fruit of the Spirit, we talk about love and joy and peace and long-suffering and patience. It's amazing how you can go through a lot of patience dealing with other people in life. It's amazing how some folk are so hard to love, and it just you run thin after a while. You wear out. It's amazing how much you need the Holy Spirit to increase that love and increase that patience, is what I'm saying. But here's the good news: Acts 2, verse 17. In the last days, God says, I'll pour out my spirit upon all people. God knew that we would need more of an outpouring in these final moments of time. You better hope that God gets that to you and pours out his spirit in your life. I need power for living. It may be that you're struggling and you need power, and power only comes through the Spirit, and we need more and more and more, and his supply, the good news is, is unlimited. May I throw out one more thought? And then I'll give you a couple sub points. As we await eagerly the coming of Christ, we need to reach the lost. God has no other plan to save the world than through the church. We're it. That's why we can't let each other get on each other's nerves. We've got too big of a job out yonder. That's reaching the lost. I just uh I just put together another little dinky plan. The district is pushing everybody to win one. Have you won your one? And uh I looked at it a little differently, and we have built this church nearly on Friend Day weekend in the past. We would have Friend Day weekend and everybody invite everybody. We spent about four weeks reading names off. And then this time I'm just going with everybody bring one. I haven't set the date yet. I'm getting it out to our other campuses, so the campus pastors will do the same. It's got a little tear-off on one end. And the other longer part is to get their name and uh their uh telephone number if necessary. But our office will send out a reminder that maybe Mike has invited a friend, and Bev will send out a reminder and said, Your friend Mike invited you to come, and he'll be looking for you, and he'll he's gonna save a seat up front. Of course, his wife's supposed to bring someone too, and pretty soon that whole row is gonna be full. And all of us bring one. Can you imagine what would happen? You know what I plan to do? I plan to bring a bunch because my one may not make it, and I don't want to be embarrassed. And so I tear this off and I give him the invitation. It tells the date, it tells the location, it tells the church, and I'm getting this back to the office so that Bev can send out a letter. And in the past, we would triple the amount when we did Friend Day weekend. We had people that had invited more than 50, and something began to happen, and folk begin to get saved. And I'm just simply saying this to you a sports team, when it's right at the end of the game and it's down to the uh final quarter. It's the fourth quarter, and the clock's running off time, and they're getting desperate to get some points. That's when you want to give a little bit more push in the game. Listen, the game's almost over. You can get your rest later. But right now we've got to push. The game is on the line. Three things I need you to do. One is intercession. Bible said you have not because you ask not. James chapter 5, verse 16. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. It produces a lot of results. That tells me that prayer matters. It tells me that prayers make a difference, that our prayers impact eternity. Martin Luther said to be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing. We need to spend some time praying for each other. We don't know what our friends are going through. Let's pray for each other. Intercession. Secondly, involvement. It's time to get off the sidelines. It's time to get in the game. No time to sit on the bench. I mean, if you're ever going to reach the loss, you need to get involved now. Now, we may be a little nervous about being in the game in the fourth quarter in the last days, but we're in the last days. I listened to a challenge yesterday, a challenge to Putin, not to get cocky or we'll drop a bomb on him. And you're talking about in times right now, folk. We've talked about it being in times for years, but I've never seen anything drawing together quite like it is right now. The Bible said that they would gather together to divide her spoil in the midst of her. What is the spoil? It's oil. Everybody's after the oil. We've just watched Venezuela get cut off. China is not getting the oil they need. They don't produce oil. Now we've seen Iran cut off, and Russia suddenly is not getting the oil, and everybody's getting desperate. We talk about a shield of the Americas, and it looks like they're trying to line up all of the American continents for a final push. That's why Greenland was talked about. It's why the little old Panama Canal is so important. It's why getting everything in. We're near the end. And I'm simply saying to you and I, it may be scary to think that we are in the fourth quarter. It's our time, the game's almost over, and yet God thought enough of you to allow you to be in this time, and he wants to pour out his spirit to equip you to make a difference in the world today. And you've got to get involved. You see, we're stronger together. There's a synergy when we all get together in like-mindedness. Jesus said it like this in John 9 4, as long as it is today, we must do the works of him who sent me. Because night is coming when no man can work. And I know there will be a day when we'll not be able to speak to our loved ones anymore. Jesus is about to part the eastern sky and to return. And he's returning for his people and returning for his church. And we're going to be gone, and it'll be too late to talk to lost people. We're not going to have any time at that moment to reach those that we love and those that we care about. It's time to get in the game. One of these days, Pastor, one of these days. Normally it means none of these days. So start now. And then investment. Intercession, involvement, investment. Now I'm talking about our resources. And I know your pen just ran out of ink, didn't it? Talking about giving resources. What's wrong with my pen? I can't take notes now, Pastor. I won't remember this later. I'll lay it on you then. Resources. World War I. Oscar Schindler. Have you ever heard that name? He was there in Poland, a businessman, and he had just in 1939 bought an enamelware factory. And about that time, Nazi Germany came in and to Poland, and they literally began to exterminate the Jewish population. They were running bayonets through babies and running them through the women and lining the men up on the streets and mowing them down with guns. They were putting them on train cars, boxcars full of men and women. They were heading for the concentration camps. One church said as the train was going by overhead in our city, we could hear them and we could hear them screaming. But we silenced our ears by singing louder. People. People that need the Lord. People facing certain death. And Shingler said, I couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand to see people die. And so he began to sell things. And he took the money and he went to German, Nazi German officers. And he told them, I need workers in my ware, my factory, enamelware place. I need people to run machines, and here's some money. Can I just pick off some of these people? And they were loading them aboard the train. He said, I want that young man, I want that lady, I want that older guy there. I need these. And history tells us that he saved well over 1,100, maybe 1,200, and maybe even more. The war ended. And Shingler walked out to get in his car. And he looked at that car, and some of his men were around him, and he started to weep. And they said, What's wrong? He said, You know, I could have sold that car. I could have saved ten more people. They're dead now. They'll never breathe another breath. I could have saved them. And he reached up to the lapel of his coat and he pulled off a little lapel pen and he held it up to the sunlight and he said, This is made of gold. If I'd have sold it, I could have saved two people alive. They're dead. In his mind, he knew how many that he had saved, but suddenly he realized he could have done more. He could have done more. And I'm standing here this morning telling you, I want to do more than I've done in the past. I want my dollars to count. I want my time to count. I want any talents that I may have or don't hardly have. I want to use them for God. I don't want to wait and find out I could have done more. One day we'll stand before God and give it a count. God, you gave me a sound mind. I had time on my hands, but I just blew it. I had treasures in my account and I let it sit there, and I could have made a difference. Do you ever wonder why your pastor takes calls in the middle of the night and goes up to the hospital, somebody's dying, and I don't even have a clue who they are? Do you know why I go? Because I know hardly anybody else is going to go. And before they die, they they need a preacher. I was two last week, and they died. I was the last preacher that ever reached down and held their hand and talked to them about God. It's been week after week people dying in hospital. That's why I go. Do you know why we went from one service to two services over in the old sanctuary we call the event center now? Because I believe there were a lot of people that could be reached, and we didn't have any more money to build. And it wasn't long, both services were packed. And we went to a third service. I was already past retirement time. We did three services for six years. Our little old grand foyer, it wasn't so grand. It was a little hallway, and people would be coming out of service. Parking lot, they're coming in, and uh they're a long line trying to get in while other cars are going out, and as people would come into that little hallway, they'd be bumping shoulders and chest against people they didn't know and some maybe they didn't like, and it was so crowded. Why did you do it? We're trying to keep people out of hell. Trying to get them to heaven. That's the only reason we did it. Did you think I got a raise? You think they paid me more? You think I did it for money? I've been here 34 years. I don't think I've had a raise in 33 years. It's not about money as my reason for being here. I'm here to keep people out of hell. Money's not even an issue. Souls are an issue. When I see parents scuttling their kids around to this sport event and that school event, and all that's fine. But I want to remind you, those are only temporal things. And when you don't get them into church and they've got a soul, that's for eternity. And that soul's going to be somewhere sometime. Remembering how they missed church, and mom and dad pointed out every other priority and not kingdom. And I'm saying, let's get involved in spiritual things. You know why we took the two churches that were closing over here at Upper and over at Kerry and took them on and put a campus pastor in and brought in music people? Because we didn't want the message to die in those towns. You know why we started the church at Freedom about seven months ago over here in Mansfield? They'll seat about 350 to 400. A nice building. We put a campus pastor that did our celebrate recovery over here. Used to be a drug pusher here in town, but God saved him around 12 years ago. He's pastoring. They're running over 100 every Sunday. People are getting saved. They never have a service without an altar call and getting a great response. They bring in about $2,000 to $2,500 a week enough to basically pay their expenses. You know why we did it? Because we're in the final quarter and the game's about over. And some of us better get our head out of the sand and realize we're in the end time. You know why we went on television? Do you know why I have people paying for television time on the stations we're on? I've never even met them. I don't even know who they are, but they have spent thousands of dollars, and I've not had to beg the board to give me enough money to put us on TV. The reason we went on two radio stations, we're doing it all to keep people out of hell. We started the preschool a number of years ago. I can't tell you how many years ago. I I'm not good with time. And I lost a few pints of blood over starting it. Every time you do anything, you lose blood when you're a pastor. But the Cretans are over here to one side, and I hope they won't mind me mentioning this. But we did the membership class Sunday, Sunday evening last week. And she said to me, she said, Did you know, Pastor, that I went to the sunshine? I said, You did what? I didn't even know it's been open hardly five or six years. I guess it's been 20 some now. She said, I went to it until I finally aged out. And here they're talking about joining the church. Boy, I'm glad we started it. I think about the Bible bus that we used to have running the streets. And kids that didn't have any kind of church home. We'd had a drug pusher come into town and shot and killed some little girls and their moms. I got called out to go to the hospital when I got there. I mean, guys were packing guns and the FBI was there and the police were there and they said to me, We want you to do traffic control. I said, Do what? Traffic control. I never seen so many people at that hospital in my life. They were outside and they were angry and they were talking about starting a ride in our town. And I asked them, if you go with me, I'll take you back to see the two little girls that have been shot. And the first people I took back when I got into that emergency room and they were lying on the bed dead. I took a look at their faces and I realized they'd been in our Sunday school. They didn't have much money. They came from the projects. And they didn't feel as welcome because their clothes weren't nice. When I left there, I said, God, if you'll help me, if I can't get them into church, I'm going to take the church to them. And we started, got an old bookmobile, and headed it out in the projects and played Christian music and fed them and gave them a Bible story to those kids. Later on in the classrooms around our public school system were singing gospel songs they'd learned on that Bible bus. I think of our Bible quizzing, and I watched the screen a little bit ago. What are you saying, Pastor? I'm saying we're in the final quarter. This is the fourth quarter. Game's going to be over. And there's more pressure on us to get the work of God and ministry and the gospel out than we've ever had as a church before. We need people not only saved, but we need so filled with the Spirit that they're just going to want to share Jesus and live in such a way that people ask, What makes you different? Why don't you rip us off like other business people do? Because we found Jesus and He turned our life around, turned us upside down, and we're working for Him now. Father.

SPEAKER_00 37:06

Thanks for being a part of the Voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9 a.m. with BNC's pastor Ray LaSalle. For more information regarding BNC, visit UsirisNazarine.org.