The Greatest Thing God Wants

Transcript

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Welcome And Today’s Scripture

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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 Busaris Ohio Church of the Nazarene. We join our pastor, Reverend Ray Listow and the Voice of the Nazarene.

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There are certain things that God puts an emphasis on. I was reading in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 1. Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. One of the greatest things I think in life is this idea of grace. That God provides grace. Some of that grace is unmerited favor, but by the same token, some of it's grace to get through life, the pressures of life. I thought about Hebrews 11, verse 6, but without faith, it's impossible to please him. You see, without faith, you can't do one thing that's going to impress or please God. It didn't say it was difficult, it just says without it, nothing else really counts. Now I thought about Hebrews 11 and the great roll call and how those forefathers in that chapter did world-shaking exploits, and they did it all by faith. And yet God says there's something a whole lot more important than faith, more important than grace. And I'm trying to wrap my mind around what that is. So I want you to know what the most important element or ingredient of all.

Faith And Hope Aren’t The Peak

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And I want you to join me in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 13. Now abideth faith. There's that faith thing. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It's something that we can't do without. Now abideth faith, hope. We think of hope. I thank God for hope. I have a hope for America. I trust you do as well. We hear a lot of negative things, and we can get so caught up with that, but I'm reminded that across this great nation of ours, I believe the heart of America still believes in God. I believe there's a little element that's always stirring things and always trying to change things, but I believe God's still on the throne. God's going to have his way. When the people of God call on him, there's a powerful thing called prayer. And it moves heaven and it changes things on earth. He said, and just stop on hope just for a moment. Can you imagine living in a world without any hope? The number one death among teens is suicide. They're wanting to check out something's happened in their life and they feel like they have no hope. Why continue on? Thank God for hope. But God says there's something more important than this grace and hope and faith. So we said, Thou abideth faith, hope, and catchest, and charity. These three, but the greatest of these is what? Charity. Now

The Greatest Of These Is Love

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we have great faith movements, and they're emphasizing faith, and I believe in faith, and that's their preaching style. There's others that spend all their time offering hope, and I believe in hope. And of course, you have the grace crowd. And I think we've kind of missed a little bit because we're missing this thing called divine love. You don't realize why homes are divided, why even in the church world is now equal in the divorce to the world itself. You know why churches are struggling? Because of the missing ingredient called love. And he says, follow, follow. God puts a special emphasis and a special command in chapter 14, verse 1, follow after charity. And that word follow here means with a passion pursue. God says you're to have a passionate pursuit for love that even exceeds faith. I ask again, how's your love life?

Eros, Friendship, And Agape Love

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How's your love life? Now the word charity here in the Bible is the word agape. It's a word for love. It's a word that means a love that only God can produce. There are three words, especially in the Greek New Testament, for this thing called love. And we live in a culture that's enamored with the word love. But the first word for love in the scripture is a word called heiress. 99% of the time when the world uses the word love, it's a word for physical attraction, a sensual attraction. Most of the time, when people get married, it's because they were attracted to someone. Boy, it's quiet now. And we we we get attracted. The problem is we forget later on and when the years pass what we were attracted to. Because that all changes. You're not gonna remain the same as you were when you were 20 and 21. And so if you're attracted to what you're seeing, that's not gonna be there when the years pass. And uh suddenly somebody says, Well, I don't love them anymore. You never did. It was a physical attraction. Then along comes somebody else, and you're more attracted to them. And boy, does the devil dangle that out in front of us and the effect that it has. The second word in the Bible is filio. And from it we get the word uh philanthropy. Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. And when you're talking about filio, you're talking about you like somebody. You have a friend, it's kind of a friendship, sort of a love. Eris, we get the word erotica. And uh and now we get this other word that talks about we we like somebody and we want to share with them. But the third word for love is the Bible is agape. Now, a saved person can eros eros. A saved person can have filio, but an unsaved person cannot have agape love because it's a love produced only by God Himself. Now,

Love As The Spirit’s First Fruit

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if you wonder how important it is, then join me in Galatians chapter 5. And uh there in verse 22, when it talks about walking in the spirit, not after the flesh, and it says, and the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, and etc. The very first fruit of the spirit, God says, is love. There's no way you can walk in the spirit if you don't have this love. So again, my question is, how's your love life? God says, I want to make, I want you to understand how important it is. So he gives us some benchmarkers, and uh I'm gonna touch on them just for a moment.

Without Love: Noise, Nothing, No Gain

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One of those is noise. Noise. Go back to 1 Corinthians 3 again. Look at verse 1. Paul speaking to the Christians at Corinth, he said, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not divine love, I'm as what? A sounding brass and a tinkling symbol. Do you know what a sounding brass and a tinkling symbol is? Well, back in those days, the merchants would make a lot of noise to attract the attention, to get some buyers. Fact of the matter, if you go to Jerusalem now and go into the old section, merchants will screech and howl and do everything they can to make a noise. It's an irritating noise. Now, we don't do that in America. We use Dion lights and flashing lights, but in that day, that irritating noise of the merchants trying to get your attention was called a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And what God just said, if you don't have this love, all you have in this world is nothing more than an irritating noise. That's what the world is not saying, but it's what God is saying. And I've wondered how many times have I been just an irritating noise? How about you? I was in town not too long ago, and I was setting at a stoplight, and I was in the turn lane, and about that time my car started vibrating and dancing, and I thought maybe there was an earthquake. My car shook all over. I wasn't sure if I had a rod going out or what in the world was happening, and I'm all by myself, I can't talk to anybody about it. And the noise level, the decimal point, was so loud, I thought my ears would crack, my chest started hurting, and I looked out of my window, and there was one of these big old choppers. And the biggest guy you ever saw on that seat of that motorcycle, and behind him was a lady bigger than him. The motorcycle, I think, said, please, one at a time. They had their radio turned up so loud, making, and when they left, I they disappeared and I could still hear them. Fact of matter, I think I still hear them now. If I could even hear anymore. This ear's giving me some trouble lately. I think it was from that motorcycle. Noise. And uh sometimes that's you and me. And this is not the world saying it, but it's what God is saying. And look at the second benchmark. He said, I am nothing. And I pick it up in verse 2 though I have the gift of prophecy, understand all mysteries and all knowledge, though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains. Wouldn't you like to remove a mountain? Wouldn't that be impressive? He said, if I do all that and have not love, I am nothing. The Lord says, Without love, I'm an irritating noise. God says, without love, I am a nothing. I wonder how many times I've been nothing. I did a lot of special little things, but it really didn't amount to nothing because love wasn't there. And then he mentions a third thing here. He said, It profeth me nothing. Verse 3, and though I bestow all of my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and to have not love, it profeth me nothing. Nothing can take the place of love. So, how's your love life? Let me tell you something. Without it, you're going nowhere because all you are is an irritating noise. You're a nothing. Can I just stop here and get in the brush? You ever hear a preacher? You haven't heard a preacher say that, have you? I don't know if I've ever said that here. We used to be preaching, and somebody said the preacher's getting in the brush. In other words, he's off his sermon. But have you ever been in an irritating noise at your home? How about in the neighborhood? Is there a neighbor that's an irritant noise? You ever had an irritant boss? I don't talk about who you're married to. I'm talking about at work. Jesus commands this love.

Jesus Commands Agape Love

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And if you'll turn to John chapter 13, verse 34, and Jesus has a huge throng of followers along with his disciples, and straight from the very lips of Jesus Christ Himself, he said, A new test, a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. That word there in the Greek is agopi. It's the love that God produces. That you love, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. Not a desirable option, but a command. A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another, as I've loved you, that you also love one another. And by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if you have love. That's agape, one for another. So again I ask, how's your love life? Now back to 1st uh Corinthians 13, look at verse 4. Jesus says, just so you know your benchmarks here, know that love is optional in your life because without it, I'm just an irritating noise. I'm a nothing. And he says, here's a benchmark, verse 4 love suffereth long. Now we can go all the way through the chapter. I'm not going to, so you'll make it to dinner on time, all right? But love suffereth long. You need to underline that. Maybe put a star by that. It means you can't wear it out. Nothing can make it go away. Now, of course, you can easily defeat Eris, you can easily defeat Philio, but nothing can defeat the love of God in you. Absolutely nothing. Well, that's it. I'm sick and tired of you. I've had it up to here. My cup's full. The kids are driving me crazy. No, this doesn't say that. Love doesn't wear out, it suffereth long. How's your love life?

A Grudge Broken By Grace

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I uh I was attending a Christian school in Anderson, Indiana as a kid. And uh it was high school. We had a dormitory. One of the teachers, I never had him for a teacher, but uh Mr. Slaughter, just the name alone tells you something, doesn't it? He was my most. He was not my favorite teacher. Although he wasn't my teacher. He was the dean of men. And when you stayed in the dormitory, they had a dean of women for the ladies, and they had a dean of men for the guys. He was a single fella. He had no concept of relationships with young people. He didn't get it. He wore hearing aid, and nothing wrong with that. I guess he could hear better if you put it in your ear. And uh one day he came down the hallway and he was sniffing. He said, I hear cigarette smoke. I mean, he was that kooky. I never saw it. We just fell on the floor and laughed our heads off. Now, if he if he smelled it, it's fine, but if you're hearing cigarette smoke, it's getting worse. It's gonna damage something here. And uh we had a few clashes. Now that'll surprise you being as kind and nice as I am. He never got me. My humor drove him nuts. My pranks drove him nuts. I liked a good time. You can't imagine that, can you? It was just fun to knock on somebody's door and they peek through the keyhole, and you give them a little bit of whipped cream or shaving cream. I was the youngest guy in the dorm, and I tried to enjoy myself, except for Mr. Slaughter. And uh I bothered him. And because I bothered him, he began to really bother me. And you know, I had God in my life, but there was something in my life that God didn't have. And I found after being a Christian that I was struggling with this issue of something in here that reacted wrong and it wasn't with love, it got me pretty upset. A little bit angry. Did I say a little bit? And uh I realized I needed an experience. There was a revival going on in Anderson, and some of us students went to that revival, and uh the evangelist was preaching about an experience called sanctification. He claimed that the Bible taught that you could get rid of that carnality in your heart, that the Holy Spirit could deal with that, that you didn't have to throw a fit, that you didn't have to deal with the lust all the time in your heart and cherish it and enjoy it, but you can resist it. And he said that experience was when you turn everything over to the Holy Spirit and he cleanses your heart and deals with that carnal nature, and the old man of sin is crucified, that the body of sin no longer had to be served. New to me. Maybe I'd heard other preachers preach on it, but boy, the Holy Spirit really hit me hard with it. And I went back to the campus and and uh late that night I realized as I was praying by my bed, I needed to talk to Mr. Slaughter and tell him I was tired of this little grudge, this fuss, this difference that we had. And I went down to the through the dormitory and I went through the far door into the teacher's quarters, and his was the first door on the left, and I knocked on his door, and you heard about the paper boy that knocked on the lady's door real early in the morning, and she came down her hair all messed up and an old gown on, and and uh he said, You you got up grumpy, didn't you? No, she said, he's still in bed. And uh he opened the door, and man, he was grumpy. I had evidently woke him up. And it was only about nine o'clock. Nobody ought to be in bed by nine o'clock. What's wrong with people? And he said, What do you want? I said, uh, he about knocked the one out of me. I said, Well, I I came to apologize. I said, Do it then. So I tried to apologize. Well, he said, it's about time, and he made me mad again. Back through the fire door, back to down the hall, and knelt down by my bed, and I realized I've got to get this thing settled. You know what I did? I'm not a smart guy. Don't say amen. Don't ruin your record. I headed back down. By this time, it's only 10 o'clock. I knocked on his door again and he was madder yet. I said, You made me mad when I was here with what you said, and I've got to get this thing settled. Would you forgive me? He said, if you'd go to bed, I'd forgive you for anything. Back down the hall. The next night at the revival when the evangelists gave the altar call, and some of the boys that I'd gone to to the service with from the school, they were laughing and talking, and but I made up my mind I didn't care what they did. I needed to settle this thing that was in here. I knew I had God, but I knew God had some stuff in here that I didn't belong in here that he needed to deal with. And I stepped my way down the aisle, and when I did, conviction hit the other boys, all of us, lying that altar. And God did an experience of grace in my heart. From that point on, Mr. Slaughter was fine. It wasn't that I that he became my favorite dean of men, but we got along in spite of whether he wanted to or not. Kind of interesting years passed. And if I didn't get a letter in the mail from some foreign mission field and it was Mr. Slaughter, and he said, I'm trying to get sanctified, and I've held this grudge against you all these years. Will you forgive me? Well, whatever. But I want you to know that God can put a love in your heart. Listen, if you got something in there that oughtn't to be in there and you get poked just right, it'll always come out because what's in there comes out. Sammy

Whatever’s Inside Will Come Out

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Robinson was a neighbor boy of mine, and and uh we uh we we we grew up in the neighborhood together. And he was a good boy. He came from a Christian home. His folks were Nazarenes. And we got in my old car and we'd driven down to a Vidock and railroad trustle overhead. And it was out in the country. And somehow there was a coon that had gotten killed. I don't know how whether it got hit by a car or what. It was the biggest coon I'd ever seen in my life. It was about that big a round, about that long. I didn't realize it was bloated. It had been dead long enough, it was about to burst. And uh Sammy had his 22 rifle with him. We were going to target practice. He got right over there where that big old coon was, about to explode, put his rifle down against him and pulled the trigger. Well, when he did, there was something in him. And what was in that coon came out and it was gas. It hit Sammy in the face. It looked like he turned green, he backed off. I never seen anybody lose their breakfast, their dinner, their supper, and maybe the supper tomorrow night. He was sick. What was in it came out. And you know what's in you will come out. If there's anger down in there and you get poked just right, that's what'll come out. That's why God wants to fill you with his divine love until whatever happens in life, you'll respond as a Christian with the love of the Holy Spirit. That's what I'm trying to talk about here.

Love Your Enemies Through Prayer

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And Matthew 5, 43 said, You have heard that it had been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. And the word here is not agape, it's the word that the world uses. You throw dirt on me, and I'll get even with you. And he goes on in verse 44, but I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you. You say, Well, preacher, you don't know my mother-in-law. You don't know my boss, you don't know my neighbor. You're right, I don't. But it doesn't matter. Because God commands us by Jesus to love even those that don't deserve it. You know what I've discovered? The world is full of irritating people. How many know that? How many know an irritating person? How many sitting right next to them right now? I saw your hand there. So God gives us command. I'm commanding you to love them with a love that nothing can wear out. And he goes on in verse 44. I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. God says, I'm commanding you to love them and to do good to them and to pray for them. How's your list of irritating people that you're praying for? Have you got a list? You say, I don't pray for. You say, Well, Pastor, I'm not, I don't even have anybody in my life that irritates me. What about when you're sitting at the rush hour traffic? I bet you get irritated then, don't you? Well, I'll not push it. But you'll never pray right until you love right. And knowing what comes straight from the lips of Jesus, but knowing it and doing it is two different things. We've gotten so comfortable in not doing it that we wonder why we don't have the anointing of God on our lives. So, how's your love life? I know our nation is in the throes of division. And I'm not in charge of somebody else's love life, I'm in charge of my own. And I've got to be sure it's divine love. So I'm to love them, I'm to bless them, I'm to pray for them. There was a missionary

Elizabeth Elliot And Costly Love

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couple, and their names were Elliots. You remember the story? Jim and Elizabeth Elliot. They were going to a mission field. Actually, they were going to Ecuador, and there wasn't even a mission field where they were going. They were trying to find this tribe of headhunters, cannibals. You heard of the cannibal that was fed up with people. And they were headhunters. People knew they lived there, they knew people were disappearing. Fact of the matter, it was so fierce and so bad, the oil company had moved out of that part of Ecuador because they had lost so many of their workers. When they would bring in a helicopter, sometimes they would throw spears up and would catch the propellers and crash the helicopter. It was bad. They were dangerous. And they were going down there to love these people and to bless these people. And they knew it was dangerous. Strange that everybody wants to go to a safe mission field, but these people needed Christ too. So Jim Elliott hooked up with a guy by the name of Nate Saint, who I, as I recall, was a pilot. They had this little plane and they were flying over trying to spot this tribe, but uh they could just mysteriously blend in with the jungle and disappear into the terrain. And one afternoon they were flying over and near the edge of a river, and suddenly that tribe of headhunters came out and began to feign friendship and begin to wave them down. And so they made several passes and landed that plane on the beach, and those natives turned on them and not only killed them, they savagely killed them. They roasted them slowly, according to my understanding, for days, and took ten days to kill them. Word got back to the mission compound, and they told Elizabeth, who was pregnant, carrying a child, that her husband was dead. There could be no funeral. There had no body. They came to her and said, Would you just want to go back home? She said, No, no. Well said, Do you want to go to a safer mission field? And again, she said, no. All I can tell you, I want to pray, but I know that God sent us to bring the gospel to this tribe. And I believe that Jim would want me to stay here. I'm going, and after prayer, she said, I'm going to go in there and find those that killed my husband and tell him that God loves them. They said, You'll have to take the army in there with you. She said, No, I'll get a few other missionaries. We're going to go in and we're going to find those headhunters. They said, Don't you understand the danger? She said, I'm not naive. I know only when you pray, God does the impossible. And God told us to love them and to bless them. And there's a power in prayer, and God will go with me when I pray. So somebody asked her if she was scared. She said, I'm terrified. I'm human, I'm terrified. But by prayer, I'm going in the name of Jesus. When they got in there, they encountered the tribe, they met the chief, and he was very angry. And through interpreters said, Don't you realize how fierce that I am? Do you even understand what we did with two other missionaries? We roasted them for about 10 days. She said, I understand. He said, Where do you get the power to stand? There was a little woman in front of me. She said, Because God loves you and I love you. And I've been praying for you. The chief went crazy. He said, We killed your husband and another man. And the whole time that we were killing your husband, he kept saying that God I serve loves you and I love you. And the last words he said was, I'm praying for you. See what the scripture said, a new commandment I give unto you that you love one another. Not the chief love of the world, but agape love. God produced love. And Elizabeth Elliot led that chief to Jesus Christ, and he became a pastor to his own people. How's your love life? How's your prayer life? I promise you that prayer is the most powerful thing there is on earth. Well, a strange thing happened. After she led that tribe to Christ, she heard there was another tribe upriver. And so she told this tribe who had given their hearts to Christ, she said, I want somebody to take me in a canoe or something upriver. There's a tribe up there. Oh, they said, You don't, no, no, no, no. You don't go up there with them. Those headhunters we're afraid of. They're the worst of the worst. Well, she said, let me fast and pray, and I'll get back to you. And she said, She said, I want to go. Now, she was a gentle lady. Somebody asked her about herself, and she said, Oh, I'm I'm a nothing, but God is everything. Can I just stop and ask you, what would it take for you to love your enemies? Can you imagine loving the chief who had actually killed her husband? And forgiving him? And not holding a grudge? And saying, I'm gonna love, even if it takes the Holy Spirit to help me, I'm gonna agape, love them, and I'm gonna pray for

Praying For Others And Closing

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them. You know what I've been doing lately? Something I've never done. Lately I've been meeting people I've never met before, and I've asked, been asking them, is there anything going on in your life you'd like for me to pray about for you? I'm a Christian. And I've been amazed at how tears suddenly begin to well up in their eyes. Everybody's wrestling with something. Everybody's up against the wall. Everybody's nearly struggling these days. Bow your heads with me, Father.

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