Voice of the Nazarene 8-4-24

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,

For men verily swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is, to them, an end of all strife, wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel and confirm it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie.

We might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Which hope we have as the anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast and which entereth into that within the veil. Did you catch that, which entereth into that which is within the veil? How many remember studying about the Old Testament tabernacle? Do I see any hands and there was the most holy place, and only once a year a High Priest could enter into that most holy place. It was in there where the Ark of the Covenant was located. Over the top was a mercy seat. On either end were golden seraphims. The high priest would go in once a year. He only dared to approach with blood that had been sacrificed out yonder. And if we take a vase and they would carry that blood. In the New Testament, it says that we're made nigh by the blood of Christ, if he stumbled and spilt the blood, he would die instantly without the blood between him and God. And they put a rope around his ankle, because if the high priest went in and there was sin in his life, he would be struck dead.

Round the bottom of his robe were tied bells and pomegranates, dried pomegranates, those seeds would rattle and the bells would ring, and when they didn't hear those bells jiggling, they knew their priest was dead, and that meant they had no forgiveness for another year, and they would pull the rope and drag the dead body of the priest out. And when he would go in, if there was no sin, God would show up. What I'm trying to say to you, what is that within the veil, it's God, it's God and he's saying that our hope is in someone who cannot fail, a God that never changes, a God that never loses, a God that never lies. And in verse 20, the forerunner who entered it, even Jesus made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So our High Priest is Jesus. How you going to go wrong with that?

They're having a a Godhead meeting in there. And so he's saying that we we cast our anchor over to that, that was within the veil, we're putting our anchor in God. That's pretty good news, isn't it? And so I like that phrase, which anchor we have as an anchor of the soul. I have an anchor for my soul. All hell may break loose, but I have an anchor. The economy may crash, but hey, I've got an anchor. There's a big election, I'm not paying much attention, but they tell me there's a big election that may change the whole dynamics of America, but hey, I've got an anchor, and my anchor holds to that, that's within the veil and it can't move and it can't lose.

You're attached to something that nothing can attack, nothing can defeat, nothing can change, nothing can alter. I hope you're hearing me. I don't know what you're going through this morning. God laid the message on my heart about a week ago, and I don't know what you're facing, but if you've got an anchor, and you're throwing that anchor over to that, that's within the veil to God, nothing can defeat you.

Fact of the matter, if Jesus says, We're going to the other side. We're going to the other side. There's not a devil that can keep you out of the will of God. If your anchor is cast into him, it's sure to hold. Now what is an anchor? Well, if you've had a boat, you know something about it. An anchor is something that holds you in place, in spite of the winds, in spite of the currents, in spite of what all is happening, there's an anchor that you cast and it holds you in place. And maybe some of you need to start casting your anchor down into the depths of God so that you're held during the storms. Anchors keeps the boat from drifting, and it holds you in the right direction. I've been on Lake Erie, I used to have a boat, and I would throw my anchor overboard, and it would splash when it hit the water, and that rope would begin to unfurl as that heavy anchors going down, and I'd feel it hit, and the rope quit going down, and then I would hit my throttle, and as I move forward, that anchor would grab in the bottom, and it would hold. Fact of the matter, it would hold me from drifting away, would keep me in the right direction, and the only way I could get out of that was to turn the motor on, take a wide sweep and dislodge the anchor and go in another direction. I want you to know the truth it's holding. The majesty of God is holding, the word of God is holding, and we don't need to get a headache over some nico poops that are going by that have dislodged their anchor, and they're going a different way.

Our anchor holds at its sure.

And if it'll keep me in the right direction, I've got an anchor. I know these are times of uncertainty. Security has gone crazy, and employment is nuts and bankruptcy is rampant.

Moral decay has taken place.

Traditional values are being trampled on and people are losing hope, but I want to declare unto you this morning, I have an anchor. I have a hope that's steadfast and sure, and that my hope is attached to somebody. Some years ago, when I was a kid under conviction, I woke my parents up and I said, I want to pray, and I cast my anchor into the great sea of God's forgiveness, and it's been a great time. Now my problem is the devil wants to come along and take me out. He's always after us. And here comes brother discouragement, and there comes brother disappointment and all of them are trying to pull me away, but my anchor is holding and I'm not letting it take me away. Thank God for that. And I don't care if despair comes and disappointment comes, if I have to bury a loved one, if I have to live with unanswered prayers, that's alright. I've got an anchor. I'm going to make it in the storms of life. And all of us, all of us can we need an anchor, and that anchor is in him. Now, here's my problem.

Once in a while, I want to do something stupid, I want to blow it, I want to mess up, but I have an anchor holding me, and it keeps me from going to far the wrong direction. Now, I don't want to mess with your theology. I don't want to mess with you this morning. But my boat doesn't hold the anchor.

The anchor holds the boat. And my victory is not in the vessel, my victory, friend, it's in the anchor, and it's what keeps us steady. So I'm not worried about the economy. Got an anchor. I'm not worried about disease. We've got a anchor, and I've thrown it overboard, and it's holding. So in tribulation, we triumph. In disaster, we find deliverance.

And in despair, you have a hope.

Why is that, Preacher? Because our hope is superior to the wind storms and through the pressures of life and through situations.

And my anchor is attached to two words this morning. I want you to get this I want to leave it with you, two words over 200 times there's this little cliche in the Bible. You can get out your reference and check me out see if I'm wrong, again. There's two words it says, But God, but God, I would drift away, but God, I would blow my brains out, but God, I would throw in the towel and quit, but God, I'd resign the church, but God, I just walk off and go off somewhere, but God, I'm trying to tell you, but God is steading the ship, but God is still on the throne, is what I'm trying to say, but God is rich in mercy. Let me give you a scripture. It's my scripture right now. I'm hanging on to this one. It's my new passage that I am living in.

It's Ephesians, chapter two, verse four, But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. (For by ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us set together in heavenly places in

that in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Now the prophet Isaiah said, when the enemy comes in, and what's the rest of it? Anybody know that passage, when the enemy comes in, and it reads like a flood. The Lord shall raise up a standard against him. Now, I guess I'm messing with you. In the original Hebrew, there's no commas, there's no paragraphs, there's no verses, there's no chapters. I don't know if you know that. We had it translated from the original over into the English. And when they did that, they put chapters in so that somebody, if they were reading, they could tell you where they're at and you could find it too. But in the original, there's no commas and no verses or no chapters. And for some reason, when the translators put this down, they said, When the enemy comes in like a flood comma, the Lord shall raise a standard up against him. I like it a little different than that.

I think I'm a little more right than some of the translators.

And there are men just like you and I. I think we ought to say it like this, when the enemy comes in comma, the flood of his standard rises up against him.

I'm trying to say to you this morning that God's for us, and he's on our side. And to me, that's the good news. He's on my side. No weapon formed against us, the Bible said, shall prosper. And we have a God that intervenes, and if he has to He'll interrupt hell's program.

Now I feel like maybe this morning, and I've thought about it all week long, that maybe I had a word for somebody I don't know who, and I'm not trying to figure it out, but this morning, some of you may feel like you're held and you're trapped in the sovereignty of God. You say things are happening in my life and I can't get out of it, and God, I want you to get me out of this, and I want you to get me out of that. And and we don't like being caught up in things that are troublesome to us, and we're saying God snatch us out, and sometimes God wants to take us through. And we go through this time of sovereignty when it seems like we're being blasted on every side. May I just simply say that there's a lot more glory to God when God can take us through something than just snatching us out. I believe there's a door in every disaster. I believe there's a passage way out of many problems. But I believe that during the storm, God allows a God storm in our life. He did with Jonah. The Bible said that he hurled a storm into the sea to get Jonah's attention and get him back into the the will of God. But in the darkness, there's always a voice calling.

Those disciples were in a storm, and they looked out, and in the dusk, they saw a figure of Jesus walking toward them, and his voice called out to them, and you'll never experience the supernatural until you go through some dark periods in life. We talk about the end of Job story. And did you realize that God called to him out of a whirlwind? It wasn't a room in the hotel at Radisson. It was out of a whirlwind, out of a problem. Now I thought about Adam and Eve when they sinned.

God should have just taken them out, but it reads, But God, in mercy came to the rescue. And think about the times you messed up in life. God could have just come and have taken you out, but God in mercy, it reads here, but God showed up. He said here in Ephesians, two, one, and you who were dead in trespasses and sin, hath he quickened. Do you realize, I know we've been a Christian for a little while, but you realize that we had a wrong nature? Remember when you used to do wrong things, and you used to be out there in evil and you'd messed up and you couldn't seem to do things right. But God, you might have been sitting on a bar stool in some kind of a honky tonk, one of those leap in, limp out hell holes, and the devil said, I'm going to take them, and God stepped in and said, you can't touch him, or you can't touch her, I've got a plan. I've got a destiny. And God got on your trail and begin to deal with your heart. God had someone speak to you about spiritual things, or somebody invited you to church and God begin to work in your life.

God's interested in us, and God snatched us out. Let me give you a few characters. One is Abraham. I'm going to begin with him. Genesis, chapter 20.

Genesis 20 · chapter mention

Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife.

Did you catch that? It was his wife. She is my sister. Now he's saying a half truth. She was his half sister. And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

And then we read those two words, but God. Here's a guy that got caught in the middle of a dilemma and he told a half truth. He well, let's just let's be honest, he told a half lie. I know you wouldn't do that, but you didn't meet Abimelech. He was a big dude. He was the hot dog, he was the king, he was the big kahuna. And he looked this gal over, and he thought, Man, she is hot to trot, and I want her and he sent for her and Abraham, he thought, Abimelech will bump me off if I say it's my wife. So I'll just say it's my sister, never dreaming that he would take her to his harem, Abimelech, he told a lie, Abimelech's a deceiver. Am I telling the truth, isn't that what it said? But look at it again. Abraham was still God's man. You know what the holiness crowd would do if you told a lie? They'd kick you out. You know what God does? God gives you another chance, but God in mercy, who is rich in mercy. And don't let your shortcomings and your weaknesses to find you. So this old King Abimelech, he takes this chick and takes her down to his harem to be a play toy. And he's got the morals of a barnyard dog and he says she's fine, she's mine, mine, mine.

And poor old Abraham is sitting back here grieving I shouldn't have lied and I messed up and I blew it, and he's taken my wife.

And you know something I found in my lowest moments in life, when I had both feet in my mouth, maybe I do this morning, and when I've had a bad attitude and I was doing something stupid and living below the dignity of a child of God, and when God could have just ripped me off, but God who was rich in mercy, came to my rescue. And do you realize in this moment, God begin to challenge Abimelech? He didn't chew Abraham out, and Abraham had really messed up. He chewed a Abimelech out because your position with God didn't stop when you make a little mistake. It's a whole lot different when you're breaking anchor and turning around and going in the wrong direction.

But if you make a mistake, God loves you, and God's going to show up. And if you look here at this second verse, Abraham said to Sarah, his wife, she's my sister. Abimelech, king of Gerar sent and took Sarah, but God came to Ambelech in a dream by night. Did you know something?

Sometimes God speaks to other folk besides holiness people.

Sometimes he'll talk to an old sinner. God's got a way to get everybody's attention. God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man. For the woman which thou hast taken, she's a man's wife, and in verse seven, now therefore, restore the man to his wife. I know he lied, I know he deceived, but he's still a prophet. Yeah, he lied, but he still a prophet.

You know, you don't lose your calling just because you made a mistake, not talking about jerking your anchor out, going the wrong direction. I'm talking about blowing it sometimes in a weak moment. Bible said he is a prophet. Now if it had been us, we would have said, well, he used to be a prophet. He used to be one of ours. We're pretty quick to judge, aren't we?

We've taken his credentials and we, well anyhow, can I just ask you a question? We're pretty tough on preachers. Did you ever say something you shouldn't have said? Do you ever do something you shouldn't have done? I'm just asking. Did you ever have a thought that you wouldn't have wanted anybody else to know that you thought about it and dwelt on it for too long? I'm just asking. Aren't you glad that God didn't put you up for adoption?

Aren't you glad that God didn't tear up your birth certificate?

But God, who was rich in mercies, and he said, I want you to restore the man, his wife, he's a prophet. He'll pray for you that you Thou shalt not die, that you shall live. And I don't know what Bible school you went to, but they were pretty tough where I went, and somebody gets up to preach, and if they said something that somebody didn't like, they just cut them off forever, and they spread the word to cut them off. May I just simply say that all the gifts of God were not given in total perfection, but all of us have to grow and learn and mature along the way. God sang to Abimelech, go Ask that guy that had blown it tell him to pray for you. And look at verse 17.

Abraham prayed unto God. God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maid servants and they bear children. God can use you again. God can use you again.

God can bless you when maybe you failed. Do you know that God can restore dreams? God can restore vision and the devil wants to tell us that God is through with us, but God called us, and he's not finished with us. We have a destiny and we have a work to accomplish. What I'm trying to say is I've got an anchor that's holding me with all the flaws. I have an anchor, and I'm not holding the anchor. Just a couple more chapters here over with Jacob. It's Genesis 31.

Remember Jacob? Remember how he deceived his old dad, Isaac?

Remember how he stole the birthright from Esau, his brother, and then stole the blessing, and then he had to run for his life, and he travels across country, about 400 miles, and he comes to a great big ranch where a man by the name of Laban lived, and Laban had the most beautiful daughter that this old scheming Jacob had ever seen. Her name was Rachel, and he hung around that farm for a while and got hired in and began to work for him. And finally he said, I'd like to have your daughter Rachel. And you talk about an old dirt bag. This Laban he was one crooked guy. He said, alright, but you'll have to work for her for seven years.

He labored seven years to get Rachel, and when he pulled up the veil, it wasn't Rachel it was the ugly duckling, Leah.

Anybody remember that story? He said, You told me I'd work seven years for Rachel. I know, but she's not the oldest daughter.

You have to marry the oldest daughter first. He worked another seven years to get Rachel, 14 years to get these wives, and then he had to work six years to get some cattle.

And Laban changed his wages 10 times. Talk about it. I think it's one of the funniest stories in all of the Bible. Every time I read it, it makes me want to smile. I mean, you got two of the biggest crooks there ever was on the same plantation, and they're each trying to out scam the other. You talk about a chess game. God's looking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And so Jacob said, it's time to get out of here. 20 years he's changed my wages, if I stay, he'll take everything from me, and he grabs his gals and all of his possessions. It must have been a caravan about a mile long and about a block wide, and they're cutting across country. And he said in his heart, I've got to go back. He never realized what a schemer he had been and what deceit will do. And he never realized what he had done to his brother, Esau, until this old Laban had gotten through cheating him, and he thought, I've gotta get it right with my brother. I've gotta go tell him I'm sorry.

Before either one of us die, we've gotta settle these issues in the family tree. I' I'm gonna tell Esau I'm sorry. Three days on the road and Laban finds out that Jacob's left and taken the girls and everything that he had. Boy, he sets out after him, and he says these words when he catches up, he said, Don't you know it's in my power to hurt you? Now watch this verse 24 but he said, But God, the God of your father, spoken to me yesterday, saying, Take thou he that thou speak not to Jacob, either good or bad. There's a God in heaven who will interrupt and intercept and intervene in our lives. We have an anchor.

But God devil thought you had me, but God Devil said, I'm going to take your life, but God said, we can live. And if you look up those references, they just keep running, but God, but God, but God, but God. So there in verse 41 he answers, he said, Thus have I for 20 years been in your house? I've served you 14 years for your two daughters, six years for your cattle, and you've changed my wages 10 times, except the God of my father, he said, But God. He said, I left there empty handed, but he said, But God. And I love this little but God. It didn't matter who or what's against me.

If I'm anchored in but God, then I want you to skip over to Genesis, 39, Joseph. Joseph's master took him and put him in prison. Now watch this if you're going through a dark time, and maybe it's been weeks of discouragement, and if you're like Joseph, one of the hardest things to deal with is unfair treatment, injustice, unexplainable circumstances. And here is Joseph. Joseph is a godly boy. He's a godly man now.

He's matured now, but he too got stuck in the sovereignty of God.

God knew that he needed to get somebody down there in the land of Egypt, a great famine is going to come. It'll wipe out even God's people, and so he needs to get somebody down there who can be in charge of things and save the chosen people. He couldn't understand why everything seemed to be against him. His brothers lied on him.

They put him in a pit, and they sold him to some slave traders and then a woman lied on him and then he's put in prison and he did some favors for others and he said, When you see the king, will you remember me? And they forgot him. He's stuck in the sovereignty of God, because God had a bigger plan than Joseph was able to view. And you begin to read about it. They put him in prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound, and he was there in the prison, but the Lord was with Joseph. Showed him mercy and gave him favor in the side of the keeper of the prison, even in the dungeon, even in your darkness, God can still give us favor, still give us blessing. He don't always take you out, but it'll take you through you see if your anchor holds and you haven't dislodged it going in a different direction. And so it reads now, Jacob, their father, the old father, he said unto them, me have you bereaved of my children. He said, Joseph is not, Simeon is not, now you want to take Benjamin away? He said, All these things are against me.

Anybody ever been in that place where he just felt like everything was against you? I'm asking you folks something if you're here, have you ever been all these things? But not all things were against him, just all these things. And there's a God in heaven. He knows what you're going through. And here's the problem with Jacob, he's misreading the situation. He said, Joseph's dead. Well, news flash, he's Prime Minister down there in Egypt, the biggest nation in the world at that time. News flash.

He's got the keys to the crib.

And another news flash he's dispensing all of the groceries.

He wasn't dead. You just thought he was. Fact of the matter, the devil says Jesus is dead, but he's not. He's alive and he's well, Joseph's dead, and just because you don't see him doesn't mean he's not there. And he said, and Simeon is not. He didn't realize that Simeon had been locked up by Joseph so that he could protect him and bless him and find favor for him. And you know, it's what you don't know, the adversary capitalizes on. It's the things that you're not sure about the devil will come and he'll drive you nuts thinking about them. While your storm's beginning to rock the boat I think some of us need to look within the veil. We need to look in the spiritual realm and realize that God is still on the throne. And he said, and you will take Benjamin away from me.

He doesn't know that Benjamin was long for by an older brother who loved him and wanted to bless him and wanted to enrich him and wanted to favor him. Now watch this. This is the darkest moment in old Jacob's life. He doesn't know that Joseph is alive. He thought Simeon is probably gone. He thinks he's going to lose his baby boy.

There's a tropical bird. they tell me over in another country.

And when they want to teach it how to sing, what they do, they put it in this cage and they cover it with a cloth till it's in dark isolation. And they have found that out of that darkness, the bird will begin to develop a song and will begin to sing. And it may be that God is allowing a little bit of darkness so that you'll find your song, so that you'll make melody in your heart. You've heard me say that birds have bills, but they still sing. I know we've got a few bills and a few other things, but we've gotta get our song back. He said, All of these things are against me, but all things weren't against him. Just all these things. Heaven wasn't against him. Angels weren't against him. The blood of Jesus wasn't against him. The word of God wasn't against him, the Holy Spirit wasn't against him. Fact of the matter, The more I look at it, the more I'm realizing everything's for us. And when we're going through our little thing and all these things are against me, and we're about ready to throw in the towel, that's when, but God, who is rich in mercy, comes to our rescue. You're about to leave service in a few moments, and you're heading back into another work week, back to school, back to the your career, back to the job, back to the factory. I want you to know one thing, all these things aren't against you. All those things are for you, and God's going to go with you into that storm and into that battle, and you need to tell yourself, hey, I've got an anchor that holds. Little preacher said, my anchor is in God, and God's going to hold me in the storms of life when the worst news in this world could come. God's got an answer, and I'm going to be steady on course, and I'm not going to drift off. God's got an answer, but God.

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

Visit us every Sunday at 9am with BNC's Pastor, Ray LaSalle, for more information regarding BNC, visit bucyrusnazarene.org, you.