Voice of the Nazarene 8-25-24

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 Lasalle and the voice of the Nazarene

Been talking to you about the people of the Bible and going back into the Old Testament. Last Sunday was the example of Elijah, and this Sunday, it's the example of Elisha. Their names are so much alike. Romans 15:4, For whatsoever things were written aforetime. That means back yonder were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. And so the Old Testament was written so that we could learn, and we learned that we can develop patience we don't like that process and that we can find comfort, and it helps us to get hope for our future. Now I'm going to look today at the life of Elisha, just for a little while. I believe there are to be some encouragement. I believe it's a great example. Number of years ago, Ben Franklin owned a bookstore. A guy came into the bookstore, and he met the guy at the counter and said, I want to buy a book. And he handed him the book and said, that'll be $1 and the guy said to him, I want to talk to the owner. He went back and got Ben Franklin, and he came walking up eventually, and he said to him, how much is this book? And the counter guy had already told him $1 he said, it'll be $1.25 well, he said they said I could get it for $1 Yeah, he said, That was then, this is now. He said, I was busy and he said, You interrupted me and my time is valuable. Well, he said, I want another price.

Romans 15:4

He said, it'll be $1.50 now for he said, my time is very valuable. And then he gave that famous quote, and it says, Dost thou love life, then don't squander time, because time is the stuff that life is made of.

And isn't that true? Life is just a minute with 60 seconds in it. Forced upon me, can't refuse it, didn't seek it, but it's up to me to use it. I must suffer if I lose it, give an account if I abuse it. Life is just a minute, but eternity is in it.

And if you want to maximize time and maximize life, let me tell you something, whatever learning you've got to do, you've only got it in this little space called life. I don't know if you realize this is preparatory time toward heaven. If you're going to learn how to get along with the family in heaven. You've got to learn how to get along with them here. If you can't get along here. Why would you want to be in heaven with people you didn't like and you criticized or they rubbed you the wrong way? And so this is the learning process. I learned how to treat my my fellow believers and I learned things. And so life is so short, you got to be quick to learn. And out of the life of Elijah, we can learn there's a process. And from the story, there's four things, real quick like that, I want to deal with.

And the first I learned from this story is the person to please. Now here's the background. Elisha is a young man. He's big boy. He's on a farm, and he's farming. He didn't have a tractor, but he had some oxen. And the Bible said there were 12 yoke of oxen, and he was in the final yoke, along with another ox. He must have been a big boy. Now, if you count that up two times each yoke and drop one off of the end, there were 23 oxen, and he's in the back with that last one. I can't even imagine. I've never been a farm boy, but I can't imagine that many oxen hooked together. How far would be in the distance with all those others in front of you, at least 11 more sets of oxen ahead. And so here he is. And God told Elijah the old prophet, you're not going to be here much longer. I want you to go down.

There's a farm, you'll see a farm boy, and I want you to put your mantle on him. You're the prophet here in Israel, but your time is ending, and this is going to be the next prophet of Israel. Good humor. I love humor, and people start a rumor about my humor. And I love a great story, but when it comes to transforming your life, neither. We need the word of God. You see, the grass withers, the flowers fadeth, but the Word of God stands forever. And to have a transformed life, we need the preaching word, and we need to apply that word to our lives.

Now here's what I want you to see. If you miss this, you're going to miss the message.

Between Elijah and Elisha, there is a parallel of us and the Lord Jesus Christ as one was to the other, so is the Lord Jesus Christ to we who are here as Christians. So first I want you to see the person to please. Now the Bible says in First Kings, 19 verse, 21 and here's what happened, Elijah comes down. He puts his mantle on the young man. And you know what the Bible said when he did this young guy, he walks away from the oxen, hurries up the lane and begins to follow the old preacher. He goes after him. And I was reading here in Matthew chapter four, very, very interested in verse 18 and 19, where it said Jesus found some guys out fishing. And he said, if you'll follow me, I'll make you to become fishers of men. And the Bible said they left their nets, they left their boats, they left everything, and they went after him. I'm hoping this morning That's the feeling of your heart that you want to go after Jesus Christ. You want to please him.

I hope that's what you're thinking. John Calvin said, I gave up all for Christ and found everything in Christ.

Discipleship is not about movement it's about a man. Fact of the matter discipleship is not about joining a movement, but is following a man. It's not a program. It's following the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Making up our mind. I want to please you. Wherever you go, I want to go. Whatever you're wanting to do that's what I want to do. Now, look, here he comes.

He's following Elijah and the Bible said, and he ministered unto him, not ministered for him, but ministered unto him. I hope we're spending a little time with Christ. I was looking at some stats this last week, and the stat said that the average full time Christian worker spends four minutes a week in private time with the Lord. It shocked me, the average full time Christian worker on paid staff only spends four minutes in a week alone in private with the Lord. Listen, if God can't do something in us, he's not going to do something through us. Charles Stanley said, prayer is life's greatest time saver, talking about the person to please, Pastor, should I do this? Should I do that?

Well, Christianity is not about rules.

That's all you've heard maybe.

But it's about a relationship.

It's about a relationship. It's about pleasing a man, and that man is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And if you please Jesus, it doesn't matter who you don't please. And if you don't please Jesus, it doesn't matter who you do please or impress. Holiness is not the way to Christ. Christ is the way to holiness. So I'm talking about a relationship about pleasing the Lord. C.T Stud, who left all to go to Africa, said, If Jesus died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him. So there's only one person to please. That's the Lord Jesus.

That's my first takeaway. My second takeaway is there's a price to pay. A.W Tozer said, I doubt if God can bless the man or woman greatly until they've been hurt deeply. Jerry Falwell said the life that pleases God is often painful and hurtful.

Charles Stanley said, God can't bless you until first of all you've bled. Now. Now, Elijah brings the mantle, he puts it on Elisha, and he said, you're going to be the next prophet.

But as I continued to look into the story, I was amazed. There were some things that Elisha had to forsake. And one of those was position. If everything in life to you is about position, You're going to have a problem. He's out there with his 23 oxen, 12 yokes, and it tells me that it was from a very wealthy family.

He was probably the foreman for his dad's farm. They probably had a lot of money. But in going after Elijah and going into the ministry he had to forsake that farming business and all of those oxen. And it says in 19:19, First Kings, he departed thence found Elijah, the son who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him, and he with the 12th. And Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him.

And then he takes off. He leaves that position. He also forsook his parents. Look at verse 20.

He left the oxen ran after Elijah and said, Let me I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I'll follow thee. He said, I want to kiss dad and mom goodbye. And it reminded me of a verse that I'd never understood in in the book of Luke chapter 14, verse 26 if any man come to me and hate not his father, catch that. That's strong language, isn't it, and mother and and wife and children and brethren and sisters and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Talking almost like you can't love your own life.

Luke 14:26

Well, I know the Bible says to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, strength and thy neighbor as thyself. So if you're not comfortable in your own skin and you're not happy in your own skin, you're going to have a problem. Some people are always on a downer, and they just don't believe they can do anything correctly. And there's a certain amount of respect you have to have that God has given to you, for yourself and for your neighbors.

So what's he talking about here?

Then I realized that we had what some call, you ready for this word, you can't pronounce Amen?

Have you ever heard of hyperbole? How do you say it, hyperbole? Amen. What that means is that somebody loves something so much it almost appears like they don't love anything else.

Hyperbole it's almost as though, when people are looking on that you love Jesus so much, they almost think that maybe you hate everything else. And that's the expression here. The contrast is so great. And he's saying, if your love for Jesus is so much greater than even your love for your companion and for your children. And Elisha is simply saying, I'm willing to forsake my position. I'm willing to forsake my family, if needs be.

And he even goes on, he leaves and forsakes his possessions.

Look at verse 21 he took that hickory wood, plows and yokes.

And he takes those 23 oxen, he slays them, and he cooks them, and he feeds everybody, and he says, goodbye. What it is he's getting to the point. He's saying, God, you mean more to me than any position. You mean more to me than any possession. I'm going to praise you, and I'm going after you, and the person that we want to please is the master, and there is a price to pay. And then he talks now about a plan to pursue. Did you know that God's plan for your life is what you would want if you had enough sense to want it? God's plan for your life is what you would want if you had enough sense to want it. Because God's plan for your life is the best there is. Sometimes we don't have the sense to see it. Now I want you to keep in mind,

16 he's out there plowing the field, and God's got a bigger plan for him. And God's looking down and watching it Amen. And I believe that God uses people's lives who are just faithful right where they're at. I mean, if people can't do what they ought to be doing, why would God raise them to a higher position?

And everybody seems to want to have this quantum leap from here to way up to here, and they're not faithful down here. Why did God use David to slay a giant?

Because David was faithful with the sheep. Does that make sense?

Why should God make you a millionaire when you slop around with what money you make and then you don't want to work for it. Write down. Don't use that again, that that don't glory.

Bolt to anybody here. But if you'll do with what you have where you're at, God won't leave you where you're at, but he'll increase what you have, do what you can with what you have, where you're at, and this little boy's out of your plowing in the field. It's a normal day. He's hooking up all of these oxen and getting them all hitched up, and getting the rains and the traces on them, and getting the plow sunk into the ground, just another normal day. And God's looking down, and he's saying he's faithful in what he was.

Given to do, I'm going to make him a prophet over the land. And here's what I'm finding out, even when we don't realize it, God is orchestrating and God is planning our lives. If you don't fight it, God will bring the right people into your life, if you'll let him, and God will move some other people out of your life that you don't need in your life. God sometimes will close doors that need to be closed, and he'll open up other doors that need to be opened.

And it's amazing. We don't even realize what's going on, but God's taking us to a new level.

So there's a plan to pursue.

There's a young man. He was a great singer. He was 20 years of age. Could look at big boy, and his voice was outstanding. He could have been a great opera singer. He was more into the pop realm, and everybody liked his music. And he had plans. He thought, I'm going to be a famous singer, but he had an old praying mama that prayed, oh, God, draw my boy back. Don't let the world allure him and and pull him away. God, draw my boy back. Isn't it good to have those kind of mamas in our life?

Aren't you glad for those voices in your life speaking to you? It might be a phone call, son, you're going to be in church this morning, aren't you? I'm counting on you. Oh, mom, hey, daughter, gonna be in God's house today, gonna let God speak to you? Thank God for those voices. Don't let them grow silent. And he's thinking, I got this offer from NBC and and I gotta be world famous. I've got the talent. And his mom is praying, oh God, bring him back.

Every morning, he'd get up, race down the stairs, go to the piano, sit down, play and and sing and practice. Mamba would come and sit down in a chair and listen to him, watch him, and all the time saying, Oh God, don't let the devil have him. I want you to have him. I want him used in the church and in ministry. One morning, she got up early, she had run across a poem written by a lady by the name of Miller. She took that poem and that evening before, put it there on the piano. And so when he came down early and sat down at the piano, reached for the sheet music, and there was his poem. And so he started to read it, and tears started down his cheeks, and he began to weep, and God began to draw him back.

Mama started down the stairs, and as he wept, he took that poem and began to put a tune to it, and he began to sing it with that tremendous voice. It was never written to be a song. It was a poem. It was the first time anybody had ever heard that poem, and he began to sing, I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather have Jesus than riches untold. I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands. I'd rather I'd rather be LED by His nail pierced hand, than to be the king of a vast domain and be held in sins, Dread, sway. I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today, and made of his mind he was going to use what he had for the Kingdom.

His name was George Beverly, Shea, and Billy Graham heard him and said, You've got to join my little organization. I'm a brand new preacher. I'm going to preach across the country, and Cliff Burroughs and those three men set out together for the next 60 years, worked in great coliseums, preaching and singing. But there's something else that I want you to see, and that's the power to possess. Now Elijah and Elijah, they're having a conversation. They're walking the Bible said they walked on and talked on, and as they're walking along, the old man knew he was about to leave.

He's going to come to the end of his path. He's going to heaven.

And he turns to Elisha, and he said, Do I have anything that you want? What would you have?

And he looked up at him, and he said, I'd like to have a double portion of your spirit. Three things came to mind. Now throw them at you real quick, like and then I'll try to land my my ship. The first is the presence of a master. Now here's what happens. He puts the mantle on him. It's Gilgal, little town called Gilgal, and he said to him, now, young man, I want you to stay here. You remain here.

I'm going on. I'm leaving. I'm going away to heaven, but you stay here at Gilgal. He said, No, no, no, wherever you're going, I'm going. If you're going on, where are you going?

He said, Well, I'm going to Bethel. I'm going with you. No, you stay no. I. No, no, I'm going to stay in your presence.

I want to be in the presence of the master. And when they got to Bethel, Elisha said to Elijah, now you stay here at Bethel. I'm going on to Jericho, and you stay here. He said, No, no, I want to be in your presence. I don't know of any place I'd rather be than you're the master. I want to be in your presence. They had already traveled for almost 10 years together. He said, I'm going with you. And when they arrived to Jericho, he said, I want you to remain here for the next place I'm going is Jordan, the young man wept, and he said to the Old Master, I want to be in your presence. I want to go with you. I don't want you to leave me behind. I want to go on to Jordan. I want to stay in your presence. And the next thing that came to my mind was the place of maturity, not only the presence of the master, but look at the place of maturity. They go from Gilgal, they go to Bethel, they go on to Jericho, and now they come to Jordan. I want you to look the Bible said in Second Kings Two, 750, men of the sons of the Prophet went and stood to view afore they were little Bible school. And they're looking down on the old prophet and the young man. And they said they stood by Jordan. Here's the old man, the young man down here by Jordan. Any time you see the word Jordan in the Bible, it always represents death. When we talk about baptism, it simply means the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

You say, Well, Pastor, when you're talking about this death thing, I'd like to have a double portion of the spirit. Well, you can't have a double portion unless you have a Jordan experience. You say, Well, what are you talking about? Pastor?

I'm talking about Galatians, two verse 20, where it said, I'm crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless I live, but not I, but Christ liveth in me in the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now you can call that anything you want to you can call it sanctification.

You can call it consecration.

Call it whatever you want to call it, but God wants all of us to experience a Jordan experience, an emptying out of self, a dying out to our agenda and dying out to who we want to be. When you first come to God, God asks for your sins and you confess them, and He forgives your sin, and He takes those sins, and he cast him into the sea of forgetfulness. But somewhere across the years, you're going to come to Him, and God said, I want more than your sins. I want your old self, that part of you that always wants its way and always wants to leave me out and includes you, and it's all about you and and the focus is on you. I want you to you need to die out to that self. Give me yourself. You know, I'm convinced a lot of people around the church want salvation, just kind of for a far escape. Just don't want to go to hell. So they need to get saved. So they'll have to worry about hell. I want you to know that God not only wants to keep us out of hell, but some of us need enough God to get the hell out of us that old carnal thing, that anger, that jealousy, that meanness beneath the surface when when you're not smiling, and when you don't have the necktie on and and when everybody don't see you, and you're at Your worst. God wants to deal with that thing in the human heart. And I'm trying to tell you, there is more to this thing than just salvation. God wants to take us to the Jordan.

There needs to be a laying down and emptying out ourselves. So there's the presence of the master, the place of maturity.

But I want to talk to you real quick, like, about the power for ministry. Elijah said, if you see me when I have sinned, you'll get the double portion of my spirit. Now get this down.

May never hear this again, and probably the first time you ever heard it, power and the double portion is always connected to the ascension. Do you remember what Jesus said? I'm going away, but if I go, I'll send the cover. When he has come, you'll receive power from on high power, power for ministry, power for your life. Do you know what this is? This is an old gray leather glove. It has no redemptive ability about just a glove, but when you put a hand on the inside, suddenly that glove is able to do something.

I'm trying to tell you that this is your life without the hope.

Holy Spirit. We can't do much, not on our own, not in the flesh, not with just our charm or our charisma or our educational degrees, our looks.

This is our life without the Holy Spirit. And I'm saying to singers, singers, you really can't sing without the power of the Holy Spirit. And teacher, when you get up to teach, you really can't teach without the power of the Holy Spirit on the inside, guiding and directing you and what you have to say in the way that you live. Power, presence. Of the master. He said, I wherever you go, I want to go, and I need to reach that place of maturity where I I lay it down. I need power for the man. But he now talks about performance of miracles, because after the double portion, Elisha did 16 major miracles. And ladies and gentlemen, we can't be what we ought to be without the power of the Holy Spirit.

Samuel Chadwick said these words, Christian religion is hopeless without the Holy Spirit. The church that is man made and not God governed, is doomed to failure a ministry that is college trained, but is not spirit filled, works no miracles. Do you know what God wants to do with us? God wants us to reach that Jordan experience where we say, God, I want to die to myself, because I want your presence, and I want your power more than anything else. I believe that marriages would be different with the Holy Spirit. I believe our influence would be different if we're filled with the Holy Spirit. I believe in everything that we do, it'd be different if we're spirit filled. We need to come to God and say, God, I'm just emptying myself of everything of me. It's always about me. I need a Jordan experience. There's things in my life that I need to die out to things that I try to control, and they're out of control, and I need to turn the control over to you. Somebody said, Unless there is in us that which is above us, we'll soon yield to that which is around us, and the pressures of this world will cause us to cave in, if we don't have the Holy Spirit on the inside pushing out and resisting that ornament of the world and emptying out. Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing this morning if some husband leaned over to his wife and said, you know, what that man's preaching about is exactly what we need. He'd make an effort in our home. He'd make an effort in our marriage, if we could just empty ourself of ourself, and say, I need that double portion. I need the fullness of the Spirit. We've tried to make this thing work, and it's not working. But he's saying, if we're spirit filled, we can make it we're trying to make life work, and temptations too great, and I keep going back and failing. But if I can empty that out and say, God, I can't control this, but I yield control to you, would you break some of these habits and these addictions and some of this going on in my mind and stuff, and give me deliverance, empty me of this and fill me with your Spirit. Let me die out to old self and come alive to the Spirit.

thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene.

Visit us every Sunday at 9am with BNCs pastor, Ray LaSalle for more information regarding BNC visit bucyrusnazarene.org.

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