Voice of the Nazarene 6-14-26

Transcript

Welcome And Scripture Focus

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From North Central Ohio, we share with you the Voice of the Massouri, a week-by-week venture into the Word of God sponsored by the New Stars Ohio Church of the Massary. We join our pastor, Rebecca, and the Voice of the Massoure.

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Matthew chapter 5 was one of D. L. Moody's most favorite verses. Fact of the matter, when they tallied up how many times he'd preached out of those verses in Matthew 5 combined, he'd preached on it more than all of the other verses that he'd ever used. And somebody asked him why, and he said, if you don't get this right in your Christian life, nothing else is going to be right. Charles hadn't Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, the pulpiteer of London. He told his preacher boys in the school, he said, mark your calendar and preach at least four times out of Matthew 5. They said, Why? He said, I preach it to remind the people what they're to be, and to remind myself what I'm to be. Now Matthew 5 starts with the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes, as we read them today, are literally revolutionary. It'll change your life. All kinds of faith and all kinds of religions are full of what you ought to do. But the beatitudes are telling us what we need to be. That's why they're called beatitudes. I want to remind you that we're not human doing, we're human beings. And God wants us to be something.

From Payback To Second Mile

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Matthew 5, verse 38. Ye have heard that it hath been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That's the gold standard. You do something to me, and I'm going to get even with you. Sadly, that same attitude sometimes has worked its way into the church. You started it, now I'm going to finish it. Verse 39, but I say unto you that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Now they believe that D.O. Moody coined this phrase, second mile Christians. He preached on it so much. Do you know that God has commanded every child of God to be an extra mile Christian? Not a suggestion, it's a command. And when Jesus told these people that he wanted them to go an extra mile, they were aghast. It floored them. You see, Persia, the when it was a world empire, the Persian king had set up a new rule that if you were about the king's business and you needed help and you saw a man or a woman or a child, you could compel them to go with you an extra mile. People didn't like it very well. And if they refused, the king said, You kill them. Now, Rome is in power. And the Caesars liked this rule so much, they expanded on it. They said, just take them another mile. And if you want to, compel them to go another mile, another mile. And you might never see them again. The people wanted to do away. They hated this kind of a law. And here's Jesus bringing up this kind of a law in the spiritual realm about being the extramile Christian. He said, I not only want you to meet, but I want you to exceed in what God wants you to be and wants you to do with your life. Now, we'd be pleased in many churches to even have a quarter mile Christian, wouldn't we? Since many of them aren't doing anything anyway. But being a one-mile Christian isn't what God wants. God wants an extra mile spirit. Now that can be a struggle. And I want to talk to you about several areas of life and about being an extra mile Christian. I think Moody had it right when he said, if you're not a two-mile Christian, you'll soon start chiseling on your obedience in favor of yourself. So let's not only meet the Lord's requirements, let's say, Lord, from here on, I'm going to exceed even your expectations. What

Extra Mile Faith At Home

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about being an extra mile Christian in the home? You know the kids are watching. How many of you have kids? How many of you know that Christians are our kids, rather, are God's little spies in the home? They'll tell on you. And what's alarming, in Bible-believing churches, we we're losing at this time 70% of our kids. When they become teens and no longer compelled, they don't want to go to church anymore. They're not leaving the holiness church to go to another church. They're leaving the faith. Somebody asked some of them why, and they said, Well, when we go to church, we we hear all these things that we're to be, and then we go home and it's not the way it is. What we see in church is not what we're seeing in our home. We go to the church and we have this act, and then we go home and we see the real deal. We're tired of it. We don't want anything to do with that. And God didn't call us to be world-class actors, he called us to be the real deal. Now turn with me to Ephesians 5, and I want to look at the extra mile Christian in the home. Do you know having two Christians under the same roof doesn't necessarily mean you're going to have a Christian home? Having two Christians living together under the same roof doesn't mean you're going to have a Christian home. Now it starts off with the commands to the wife, and then it moves from that to the commands to the husbands. Okay? Did you know that the divorce rate is now the same in the church as it is out there in the world? So something we're preaching, something that we're believing, isn't working any better for us in the church than it is out yonder. And we can get our back up and we can get a bent out of shape, but if something's not working, maybe we ought to take another look at the scripture. And and not get all bent out of shape about it. You don't need to get the mop out and write the Lord's Prayer on your lower lip right now. I know there's enough room on it, but I just want to talk to you for a minute. Can I just talk to you? If you don't like it, fine. But I'm gonna just take a glance at this scripture again. It's just a Bible lesson. Okay? Starts off with commands to the wife. Husbands, they love this verse. It may be the only verse in all of the Bible that they've ever memorized. Chapter 5, verse 22. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. From the Greek, you know what it actually means? It actually means submit. I don't like it. I didn't ask you. I might not like it either. I'm just telling you what the Bible says. If things aren't working right at home and everybody's having divorces around you, just look at the Bible for a moment. It says, Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husband as unto the Lord. Do you realize the wife is supposed to obey her husband as much as she also obeys the Lord? Now, guys, don't get haughty about it. God could have reversed this. God's not doing it because you're any brighter than they are. And uh, how many will admit you married over your head? Guys, how many married above your head? Can I see your hands? What is three hands? If you didn't raise your hand, you got a case of the stupids. Right? Do you ever have any advice for young couples wanting to get married? I say yes. I'll say to the young lady, all right, you're in love. If you want to marry this guy, are you going to obey him as you obey the Lord for the rest of your life? If you're not willing to do that, don't get married. That's the wrong guy. You've got to find the guy that you're going to be obedient to. If this is what the Bible said. I'm not making all this up. Part of it's true. And you know what they say to me? No, we just want to be married. Verse 23, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands. Now, I ask the wives to underline those next two words in everything. So let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. You say, Well, Pastor, me and my wife, we have a little understanding. No, you don't have a right to any understanding other than the Word of God. Now, are you guys ready? Women are all mad at me now, so let's move over to you guys. Look at our responsibilities. Verse 25, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church. And say it in unison with me. And gave himself forward. You didn't say anything. Are you sound asleep? Hit the alarm button here. Say it with me together. And gave himself forward. Understand this. This is what God is saying. I'm commanding the man to do. I want you to love her and to give yourself for her. How many of you are doing that? Well, she cleans the house and she fixes my meal and then she brings me iced tea. That's not a wife, that's a maid. And here's what God says: I want you to extra mile it. I want you to give yourself for her. So when was the last time you went in and said, I want to give myself for you? What would you like? You say, I don't want to do that. She might want something. I know. And not every woman's going to want the same thing that another woman will, but I'll tell you this much: every one of them will be glad to receive something. And it's written in the continuum here. It means you say it once, but you keep doing it and doing it and doing it and doing it. It's a lifetime. Giving yourself and giving yourself and giving yourself. Now, what terrifies me is the fact that our wives are struggling to submit, and the men aren't even trying. Can I give myself to you? Oh no, that's all right. No, God commanded. I give myself to everybody else. And the very one that God has commanded me to give myself to, I don't. What about it, guys? This coming week, say, hey, beautiful lady, can you say that much? I want to do something for you. I want to give myself for you. The kids are watching. The world's watching. And we can't find enough counselors to help marriages around the church world. I'm just talking to you. God says, I've got something I want you to do. I want you to go the extra mile, and that's in the home. And remember, whatever God commands you to do, He'll enable you to do it. I'm moving off of that one right now. Right down in the second service, don't emphasize it so strongly.

Extra Mile Work Ethic

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What about the extra mile on the job? Do you know there used to be a time when unsaved people wanted to hire Christians because they knew they were honorable, they knew they were honest, and they knew they had work ethics. And the Bible commands that you don't work for a company, you don't work for the boss, you work as unto the Lord. And uh that's the way a Christian works. And we do it with all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength. Then extra mile it. I'm gonna do it unto the Lord. When I go in this week, I'm gonna give a solid 40 hours of hard work. I'm gonna be honorable. And I'm not gonna slip around and hide and try to get out of things. What about the extra mile Christian with others? Now

Integrity With People Who Test Us

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let me tell you something. You already know this. There's a lot of goofy, wacky, nutty people in the world around us. How many know that? How many of you have some goofy, nutty, wacky members in your family? How many sitting next to one right now? And we're all in trouble now. And they're all around us is crazy. And God said, prefer them over yourself. As you live your life, prefer their interest above your own interest. Live honorably. My dad that raised me. He was saved later in life. He didn't get saved as a young guy. He'd already been to the war and back. He'd already been through a divorce. He'd buried children. In fact, the matter, he went to the war hoping that he'd get killed. He'd lost his dream of life. But he didn't. He came back home and he was driving a bus. He was a bus driver. My mom looked at the back of his head and his neck and his hairline and thought that was a best-looking guy she'd ever seen. From behind, I guess. She was getting off the bus and he thought she had the best legs he'd ever seen. I'm just telling you what happened. Don't look so pious. Anyhow, they got married. But when they got around the church back in the days when I was a kid, a divorce was really frowned on. Really frowned on. No way to express that to you. Dad had a lot of integrity about him. Dad tried to really live honorably. There were times that he struggled, but he always had integrity. I was just beginning in evangelism. I was about 19 or 20. And I came home, mom and dad had gone on vacation, and when he returned from vacation, the Ellis trucking firm that he worked for let him go. They said they'd cut out his job. It's another way to say we're firing you. Dad was in his later 50s. You couldn't hardly find a job during that time. He looked around a little, got discouraged, and quit looking. And over the next year, he literally withdrew into silence. Went through their savings, spent their money. And I was very curious as to why he lost the job, but I was afraid to ask and and uh I wanted to, but I I didn't, and he wasn't talking. He gets strangely silent. He nearly destroyed dad. I saw my dad go from vibrant to very quiet and reserved. Eventually, another trucking firm hardy. Went back to work. Time passed. Dad died. Boy, the shock of my life when I got a call to come home. Dad had passed away. Nazarene guy owned a funeral home, and they put him in the casket. Crowds came to view, and I don't know how you are. I was lost in grief. I mean, my world was shattered. He'd been my mentor, my example. He'd been a rock in my life. People came and went, and I hardly heard anything they said, but I tried to get my hand out and shook, I shook hands. But three gentlemen came, I did not know them, and they stood at his casket and they whispered and they talked and they looked around the room and they wouldn't move on. And finally one of them turned and beckoned me over and he said, Are you his preacher boy? I said, Yes, sir. We debated whether to say anything to you or not. You know, your dad lost a job at Alice Trucking Firm some couple years ago. I said, Yes, sir, I know that. He said, Did he ever tell you why they let him go? I said, No, sir, I couldn't get a thing out of him. He was silent. Well, they said about three of his bosses wanted to buy trucks, pickup trucks. And they wanted the company to pay for it and they wanted him to hide it in the paperwork. And he finally told them, I can't do that honestly. I'd be crooked if I did that. I'd be lying on paper. And he said it was very convenient for them to let him go, for they were afraid the word would get out. He said, Your dad was a Christian gentleman. He was honest. We just wanted you to know that. And I stood there as they walked away, and I thought, oh God, help me to live up to that legacy. Help me to have honor even when the blinds are pulled. When nobody even knows what's going on, let me be honorable in your sight. And I stood by that casket and I was so proud of Dad. You know, if we'll do, if we would do right by the little things, the big things will run themselves. What would happen if we went the extra mile as a Christian in the home? What would happen if you and I would go the extra mile on the job? What would actually happen if we were extra mile Christians with others? Let me ask you one other and I'll quit.

Loving Enemies As A Command

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What about being and going the extra mile as a Christian with our enemies? What does the Bible say about that? Well, I don't care who you are, at some point, you're gonna have friction with somebody. And it may be minor and it may be very aggravating, but it can be humongous. And if you're truly a child of God, let me tell you something. The devil will stir up some friction to make life difficult. Now go with me to Matthew 5 and let's see how we're to be as an extra mile Christian with our enemies. Verse 43. You've heard it that it's been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. There you go. You do good to me, and I'll do good to you. You throw dirt on me and you better duck. And verse 44, but I say to you, and would you say these words with me? Love your enemies. Let's say it again. Love your enemies. Don't hate them, but love your enemies. Did you know that's a command? And bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you. And pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Now, extra mile it. Okay? How good are you at loving and blessing and doing good to those who choose to be your enemy? I'm not 20 years of age anymore. I've lived a long time and I've had some enemies. And I know what it's like to be light on. I know what it's like to be undermined. I'm not talking about in the pastoral. I'm talking about in my life of living. And then you have to face them. Are you going to give them the silent treatment? Are you going to shake their hand and still endeavor to smile? And do what's right and to be. That loving Christian. The extra mile. You know, it takes a lifetime to make a good name, and you're going to lose that good name and be a day away from it. Now you're going to be God's man at home, on the job, with others, with your enemies. Did you know that God turned the tide for Job when he prayed for his enemies? That's in the 42nd chapter, verse 10 of his writing. I'll just read it. And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his enemies. What's amazing? It's in the last chapter of his book. It took him forever to get around to that. He'd lost everything, he's buried his kids, his health broke, his wife walked out. The bank took everything he had. And his enemies came and they said, Well, you must have sin in your life, or you wouldn't be sick like this. That's what happened to David Wilkerson, the preacher that led Nicky Cruz to Christ in New York City. Wound up pastoring Times Square Church into the thousands. And he came right down to his wife had cancer, his daughter had cancer, and they're dying. And he received 75,000 letters in the mail telling him you must have sin in your life or they wouldn't have cancer. How crazy. God turned the captivity of Job when he prayed. Sometimes, instead of fighting our enemies, we need to pray for them. Well, Pastor, God might start blessing them. I know. Pray a blessing on them. God bless them to death. I didn't mean that. Now, in the early 1900s, that event happened.

Alaska’s Serum Run And Prayer

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Alaska has very cold winters. I've nicked and tucked on this story a few times in the past, but I'll give you a more complete analysis of it. 1927, the worst winter on record happened. They're in Alaska. Storm after storm came in off the Bering Sea and it buried them with record snow. Normal snowfall there in the mountains was about 20 to 30 feet, and now it was up to a hundred feet. Temperatures plummeted down to 60 to 70 below zero. Now, Anchorage, Alaska's down here at the southern portion, and Gnome, Alaska's way up at the northern end. It's a thousand miles from Anchorage to Nome. And there's two great mountain ranges in between. One of those mountain ranges is the tallest mountain range in North America. And all the weather began to close in, and there was train tracks, but it was encased in snow, and it would take from 10 to 12 days to have traveled it in good weather on a train. They did have telegraph at that time, but generally in the spring it would break the wires, but they'd lucked out and the lines were good. And diphtheria suddenly broke out, and it was a plague level in Nome. People were dying. They were out of medicine. There was a vaccine that was reasonably effective. If kids got, they would die almost 100%, and there was a 70% chance that adults would die. And Gnome got on the wire and they announced to the world we've got this plague, it's plague level. People are dying, we're out of medicine, we're snowed in, and we don't know what we're going to do. The president of the United States announced to the nation, I'm calling on a day of prayer for Noam, Alaska. Unprecedented. The Queen of England got word of it and stood up and said, I'm asking for the Commonwealth of the British Isles to pray all day long for Noam. Nobody knew what to do. Planes were in their infancy. No way to get a flight in. There was a guy by the name of Charlie Oson. He was a dog sled driver. They call him mushers. And he got the bright idea, and he got on the wire and he said to all of his friends, he spread the word, if we get enough of the mushers together and we put our dog teams and we set them up in legs of 20 miles apiece. If we get the supplies, and Anchorage has an unknown amount of supplies of medicine and stuff needed to save gnome. We can load them up and we can take them on these legs and different ones and we'll travel that thousand miles and people's lives will be spared. People said it's ridiculous. There's no way. And the Queen of England called on the British Isles to pray. And something happens when people are praying. So if I was going to try to get that medicine through, I want to do it while people are on their knees and they're calling on God. I don't know God, but people that pray know God and people are dying. We've got a chance. People said there's no chance. But those mushrooms begin to talk together over the telegraph and they begin to agree we can we can do this. And he set it up. And they loaded up the dog sled with medication. And they started the first leg and the second leg, and amazingly, and three and a half days later, they were within 67 and a half miles of Gnome. Charles Oson is making that last leg, and then he'll turn it over to his dearest friend Gunner Caseen. And Caseon will take it on a two-legg journey. He's got to get to an outpost and from there to Gnome. But he'll have to have a change of dogs. And when Charlie arrived at the place where he met up with Gunner, his friend, he said, we've really done well, but we've failed. We can't do it, Gunner. I know we're within 67 and a half miles of gnome. But he said, I can't even close my hands. He said, the blood and the bodies of my dogs have jailed, and they can't even hardly wobble on their four feet. It's impossible. And Gunner said, but people are praying all over the United States. The Queen of England. And when word got to the president and he found out the valor of these men, he called on a second day of prayer and unprecedented again, the Queen asked the British Isles to pray another day. Gunnar said, while they're praying, I've got my team ready. Let's transfer your stuff to my sled. He said, I beg you don't go. It's suicide. He said, You've got the most dangerous legs of the journey. There's 5,000 feet of drop-off, and you're going in the dark and you're going blind and snowy and the storm's getting worse. He said, I gotta go. People are praying. He said, You're crazy. Fact of the matter, when he went in and he journaled, he wrote down, Gunnar Case is the bravest man I've ever met. He helped him load the sled and they embraced. And then Charlie said, You know, your lead dog is sick. And you've got that young black husky. And it's unproven. That dog doesn't have the experience, he'll get you killed. He said, but people are praying. And I'm going the extra mile. I'm going on this last leg. He said, I watched him as he called out the and he said, just as they were ready to go, he said there was a blast of wind that was miles and miles strong. And he said, immediately to survive, the dogs curled up to keep themselves from freezing. And he said, I watched Gunner stand on the back of that runner and he called out, Belto, the name of the dog. Hup! Hop! When they said that, that had meant lead on, and suddenly that black husky stood up and looked back at its master and turned and started to pull. And when he began to pull, the other dogs began to pull. And he said, I watched him, I saw him with only 20 feet, and he disappeared into the snow. But he said the wind carried his voice back, and I could hear him say, Balto, hop, hop! And he faded away and the sound disappeared. Amazingly enough, when he came to the next outpost with about halfway on to gnome, there was no lights. And he found the man that was there that was supposed to fed the dogs and harnessed fresh dogs. He'd gone to sleep. He'd take an hour or two to feed the dogs and get him in a harness, and he made a quick decision. I'm going on with these dogs. And I'm going to go to Gnome. And he said to Balto, hop! Weary, cold, nearly frozen. Off into the dark they headed. And he made it to Gnome. The city was saved. Well, the news spread around, and they got uh Gunner to come to New York City. They were going to give him the Congressional Medal of Honor of the first time ever to a civilian. He didn't know what the big deal was, but when he got there, he refused it. He said, You can give it to the dogs. He said, I just went along for the ride. He said, uh we made it. If you go to Central Park in New York City, the only statue of an animal in that park is that of a dog Boltel. You know what it says? Baltle? He went. New York Times interviewed Gunner. They said, Why did you do it? He said, People will pray. Is there any other reason why you did it? He said, Yes. My grandchildren were there. And I had their only hope. So he said, I went. Do you know when he arrived in Gnome? He was so frozen, he could barely talk. And the dogs, once they stopped, couldn't stand any longer. They said he only said two things. When they got near, they heard him mumble. Good dogs. Good dogs. They got closer and he said, something happens when people pray.

Final Challenge To Bring The Remedy

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Paul told. Can you hear God speaking to us this morning? And he's saying, Hop. Hop. We've got a dying world around us. We think church is just for us. The world's plagued. They're dying of the disease of sin, and they don't even know they're dying. And we're the only ones with the medication, the spiritual remedy that can save our world. People that work next to us on the job. Others that we ought to be preferring as more important than we are. And we have the only thing that can save this world. And can you hear God say, up? Up to the church. God, if you say it, and the devil's do everything he can to drown out the voice of God saying, Hup to us. Say, God, I'm listening. I can hear you. And I'm going to do something this week to keep somebody out of hell. I'm going to live Christ in front of them. And I'm going to get salvation to them. I'm going to get the gospel to them. I'm going to get the remedy to them. I'm going to invite them. God, just say hop. I'll hear your voice.

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Thanks for being a part of the Voice of the Nazires. Visit us every Sunday at 9 a.m. with BSD's at the regular style. For more information regarding BST, visitnets.org.