Voice of the Nazarene 4-14-24

I'm 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 joined our Pastor Reverend Ray LaSalle, and the voice of the Nazarene.

It reads here in verse 43, the day following Jesus would go forth in the Galilee. Now get this and findeth Philip, and sayeth unto him, Follow me. I hope that you've heard that call. More than that, I hope you've responded. Now Philip was a Bethsaida the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathaniel and sayeth unto him, We have found Him of whom Moses of the law and the prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. There was a entrepreneur, business guy, he was to speak at a large banquet.

A businessman and the MC was introducing him and said that he was probably one of the most outstanding businessmen in all of the nation. And he said, it's evident by the fact that he'd made a million dollars in California oil. And when the guest of honor got up to speak, he seemed a bit embarrassed and he said all the introduction was factual except it wasn't oil, it was coal. And it wasn't California, it was in Pennsylvania, wasn't a million dollars, it was $100,000. And he said, it wasn't me it was my brother. And actually, he didn't make it he lost it. He said all the other facts are absolutely true. Well, Philip wasn't that way. He was one of these analytical sort everything had to be just right. He was a facts and figure guy. Personality wise, he would have been a melancholy.

He was one of those guys that always said it couldn't be done, don't you like them kind? Yeah, it might work elsewhere but it won't work in Bucyrus. They just can't seem to see it getting done. And we've talked about six disciples, this is the seventh.

He's the seventh disciple. He's the seventh apostle that Jesus chose. 250 million in that day on Earth, and Jesus chose these 12 men. And from these 12, there are literally millions of followers of Christ, including you. And it all can be traced back to these 12 men, one of those Philip the human calculator. I want you to see something I want you to notice, first of all, his call. The day before Jesus had gone down to the Sea of Galilee and the boats are rocking in the waves, the winds blowing, there's the wharf, the dock and fishermen are gathered around telling their fish stories, mending nets, getting ready to go back out on the waters. And Jesus called Andrew and his brother, Simon Peter, two big old brothers fishermen. The next day, he went down and he called to a guy by the name of Philip.

The Scripture literally says that Jesus found him. Can I make that point number one under number one? Jesus found him. I hear a lot of people say, Well, I found Jesus. I didn't even know he was lost. But they found him. And the whole truth of the matter is we don't find him he finds us he came to seek and to save that which is lost. That's why he came he was looking for you and me. Billy Graham was holding a crusade and they had put him in a motel right out of the city in a little town. And he was looking for the post office and drove up the way and didn't know where to go. And he saw a boy a small boy on the sidewalk and he pulled over rolled down his window and he said, son, can you tell me where the post office is located? And he said, Yes, sir. When you get to that light, turn right, go to the third block and turn left and you'll see the post office.

Billy Graham said to him, Okay, so now I'm right nearby, over here in the city holding a crusade I'd like you to come bring your parents and come hear me. I want to tell you tonight how to find heaven. And he said, Son, are you going to be there?

And he said, No, sir. He said, Why aren't you coming? He said, If you can't find the post office, how in the world are you going to find heaven? Do you ever think about this, the first question in the Bible God ask, God ask. And it's located there in Genesis chapter three, verse nine, where God called to Adam and said, Where Art Thou? Now it wasn't that God didn't know where Adam was. God wanted Adam, to know where Adam was. And God knows where you are, but he wants you to know where you are.

And the very first question in the Old Testament, Where art thou? And I want you to know something the very first question in the New Testament was not asked by God, but asked by man. Where is he? Where is he born KING OF THE JEWS? We've seen his star in the East, and have come to worship Him, Matthew 2:2. I want you to understand something you may not agree with this, but I'm right.

Matthew 2:2

God has a part. And you have a part. God has a part and you have to play your part, as well.

You say, Pastor, this guy named Philip this human calculator, this analytical sort, this guy that always overthought everything very studious. Why did he immediately follow Christ? Do you think maybe he was so influenced by these two brothers that were fishermen?

Andrew and Peter, you think he influenced him? Perhaps I don't know. But the more I study this, the more I believe it's some other reason. Because if you look at verse 45, let's look at it. Philip findeth Nathanael, ans saith unto him, We have found him, o whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And let me tell you something, Philip has studied the Old Testament so thoroughly, that he realized that Jesus Christ had fulfilled 300 Old Testament prophecies.

And he immediately unequivocally thought, This is him. This is the son of Joseph it's Jesus and He is the Messiah. And I want to report to you Jesus found Philip but I want you to see something else. Philip found Nathanael.

God had his part, you play a part too. And it's in John chapter one, verse 45. Nathanael was his friend and he says, Philip findeth Nathanael to sayeth to him, We have found him. Let me tell you something folk, that indicator that we've been found to the Lord is when immediately we want to find somebody else and tell them about Jesus. Do I need to make a repeat and duplicate on that? A good indicator that you have really been found to the Lord is when you in turn, want to find somebody else and tell somebody else about Jesus and invite them to the kingdom and to the church. Did you know that 31 people came to Jesus by that individual approach? By that I mean, they were not saved in a mass crusade by Christ. 31 people came on an individual level 26 to 28 of them were brought by a friend, somebody that cared about somebody else, and they brought them to Jesus and introduced them to Jesus.

Pretty strong, innit? Do you know what's worse than being lost? I think it's being lost and nobody's looking for you.

Can you imagine living and dying and working a job and there's Christians in that factory, they never mentioned come to our church. I'd like to invite you to meet some of my Christian friends, attend school and none of your friends ever invite you to church or business and nobody ever say anything to you about Christ. What's worse than being a loss being lost and nobody seeming to care? And the Bible said here that, Philip, he went to his friend Nathanael said, We have found him. And that's our responsibility, just as. Philip found his friend, and that we ought to always be looking for a friend and inviting them toward the kingdom. There were a number of the wild game men's groups. A lot of folks came because they were invited by another friend and they showed up. It makes a difference. And I want you to understand Jesus found Philip.

Philip found Natanael, but Phil have found the secret of the Christian life. You're said I'd like to know the secret. Well, I'm gonna tell you, It's right here in John chapter one, verse 43, look what it says, The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee and find Philip and sayeth unto him, catch this, Follow me. Follow me. That's the secret. Follow me. Philip was the very first person that Jesus ever said to follow me. Get this Jesus is His ministry. Do you remember Simon Peter, you remember how he had denied the Lord, he had messed up he had blown his testimony? He wound up cursing, he wound up running with the wrong crowd. And Jesus went out and found him and offered him the keys of the kingdom. Do you remember what he said to him? He said, Follow thou me. Now. Look, follow me.

He said when he began his ministry to Philip, and when he ends his ministry, he's still saying, follow thou me. Let me say something. We get into trouble when we get our eyes on something. We get into trouble when we get our eyes on somebody also. The secret to the Christian life is just following Jesus. Keep your eyes on him.

Don't get them on an individual.

Don't get them on circumstances.

Just stay on the heels of Jesus.

Follow thou me. Now if I could sing and aren't you glad I can't. I would sing I have decided to follow Jesus. And it just keeps repeating. I have decided to follow Jesus no turning back. No turning back.

You've got to make up your mind that the family is not going to stop you.

You got to make up your mind you're not gonna let friends stop you from following Jesus.

I'm not gonna let my foes stop me. I'm not gonna let my fears stop me. I'm not going to let my frustrations stop me. I'm not even going to let my feelings stop me. I'm going all the way through, I've decided. Now I see his call but something else looking at his calculations now I mentioned he was a human calculator. Jesus is teaching in John chapter six, verse five.

And when Jesus lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come unto him, he sayeth unto Philip wince, shall we buy bread that these made. In other words, you think you ought to run down the McDonald's and get some happy meals? Boy, I hope they got more than that. Or maybe we ought to run over to Kentucky Fried Chicken were it's finger licking good and just get a whole truckload of fried chicken. Or maybe run down to Red Lobster and get some of those cheesy biscuits. Maybe we ought to just go to White Castle, those belly bombers.

Everybody gets a bite. But look at the next verse. It says in verse six, and this he said to prove them for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him. Now he's the human calculator. He said 200 pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.

As Jesus looked out, he saw 5000 men. Now if you got any good looking men the women's going to be hanging around. And wherever there's women, there's always some kids. So I don't know how many could have been up to 15,000 or more. And the human calculator said, Lord, it would take a half a year's wages to give everybody just a bite. He's calculating. And in verse 10, Jesus said, make the men sit down now there was much grass in the place. So the men set a number about 5000. And Jesus took the loaves, and when he'd given Thanks before the miracle Jesus gave, Thanks. That's one of the reasons when we sat down to the table before we eat, we give thanks. Would you like to ask and give the thanks to the Lord. You say, Well, after God does a miracle, I'm gonna thank him. No, no, no, you need to thank him before the miracle, chances are you've got a better chance of having a miracle. And he gave thanks before it happened, he gave thanks before the multiplication, and it said he gave thanks. Then he distributed to the disciples and the disciples to them that sat down and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. Philip got in trouble, Philip the human calculator, when he left God out of the equation. Because of the Ephesians 3:20 says, Now onto him that's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we asked to think according to the power that work within us. You remember the definition there in Hebrews 11:1? Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Somebody said, when I see it, I believe it. No, you need to believe it, before you receive it. Because if you don't see it, before you see it, you won't see it. We built this. And when I say we just leave me out.

Ephesians 3:20 Hebrews 11:1

But this new auditorium and the grand foyer, we started going to financial institutions trying to find somebody that wanted to fund us. Of course, they want to know how deep are the pockets?

And how many people do you have?

And can you get your hand in the pocket? And of course, when you try to there's a politician got his hand already in there. It'd be a cold day when the politicians keep their hands in their own pockets, wouldn't it?

And they begin to calculate and figure out what their chances are of getting their money back and how many years this crowd could pay. Do you realize we're within seven months of paying off this loan? Being debt free?

Long before their calculation said it would take. Fact of the matter when we tried to raise our giving, how much can we give financially, and we asked for pledges. And a little over a million was contributed and pledged. And they told us they said now you'll only get 80%. at the very most, you lose at least 20 and probably you'll lose 30%.

Our people gave more than 110 to 120%. He came in. I'm just simply saying God blessed us.

When we leave God out of the equation, we always get into some trouble. You say, Well, Pastor, there's no hope, there's no hope for my marriage. Hey, you're leaving God out of the equation. Well, Pastor, what about my boy getting saved?

Don't leave God out of the equation. We can go on and on and talk about that. I see Philips call, I see him calculating and then I see his confusion here and John 12:20.

John 12:20

There were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast, not a Jew among them.

And the Jews, you know how they hated the Gentiles. They were dogs, they were unclean, they were uncircumcised. And if you and I would have been there, that's the way they would have looked at us. But it said the same came therefore to Philip.

Certain Greeks. I mean, Gentiles. Why did they come to him, Pastor? Because Philip had a Greek name, which was a Bethsaida of Galilee and desired him saying, sir, we would see Jesus and Philip cometh and he tells Andrew and again, Andrew and Philip, tell Jesus. All they wanted to do was to see Jesus.

And Philip, he goes to Andrew, and that calculation got him in trouble. Why? Because he was trying to overthink things. He over thought everything. Some of you have a tendency to overthink. I had a wonderful couple here at our church. And they showed up I think last week. And they brought a fellow with him a real neat guy. He was built just like me real trim.

And he had been to the passion play and God spoke to him and he just wanted to get his life on track. He said, What do I need to do? And I told him, he said, but that's, that's too simple. I said, I know. Well, he said, he scratched his head and looked over at them, he looked at me, looked at them, looked at me. He said, Are you saying it's that simple? I said it's that simple.

We have complicated this thing.

He invites us to come to as many as received him to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. All we've got to do is confess our sins. He's faithful just to forgive. He stands outside the door, He knocks all we've got to do is get the door of our life open and invite him in. It's real simple. We've got to overthink this thing. That's why a lot of folk are not where they ought to be with God they've been trying to overthink and out think God, you don't need to do it. He's already thought enough. And poor Philip, he over thought nearly everything. And Philip overthought everything about this instead of just bringing him to Jesus. Now why should he have brought him to Jesus?

Because a couple of verses later verse 37, Jesus said, Who's ever come up to me I will in no wise cast out. Everybody that comes to him and means business, he's going to receive them. But old Philip got confused because they're Gentiles and he got to thinking he's not going to save Gentiles. But he does. Aren't you glad? Listen, I just want to talk to you for a minute. If you're a Christian, we need to get comfortable with people who are not like us. Are you with me? There are Christians who don't look like me. There are Christians who don't dress like me. Now I've struggled with this for years. There are Christians that don't even act like me. You know, there's a lot of things that are not my preference. But I have no right to and Christianize others that's wrong. If you're a Christian, you better get comfortable with people who are not like you. Now pastor whats heaven going to look like Well, let me read it to you. Revelation chapter seven, verse nine, you might as well get over the shock now. I don't want you to wait till you try to walk through heaven's door and look around it'll really mess with you. After this I beheld, and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all nations, all nations. Yes, Chinese, hope they cook a little. Asians, Asians, Indians, Indians, African Caucasians, and Vietnamese, Koreans. It said all nations.

Who did Jesus come for? Who does God love? It says kindred and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb.

Heaven. So it's time to tell the media quit playing us against each other. Your days are over.

We're gonna love each other. And we're gonna go to heaven and we can go to heaven together. His call is calculating his look at his complacently found here in John chapter 14. Jesus is about to leave about to go away. And he shared some prophecy with him and they're all shook up and they don't know which way to turn and which ways up and which ways down and which way is sideways. And he said, Let not your heart be trouble you believe in God, believe also in Me, In my Father's house are many mansions, even we're not sure I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself that where you are or where I am there you may be also and the way you know. Poor old Thomas, how can we know the way? Jesus said I am the way to go. I'm the truth to know, I'm the life that you can grow. And then after talking to all these guys, he's talking to Philip. And now look what happens for seven. Jesus said, If you have known me, you should have known my Father also. And from henceforth you know him and have seen him and Philip say them to him. Here's Philip the human calculator, Lord, show us the Father and it'll satisfy us. And Jesus sayeth onto him, Have I been with you so long time and yet has now not known me, Philip? He that have seen me have seen the Father and has and how say us now then show us the Father. He said my goodness Philip. Dumb and Dumber. When are you ever gonna catch on? Here you are out and overthinking yourself again.

John 14 · chapter mention

I and the father are one, we're one. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. If you know me, you can know the Father. If you want to know how to use like just take a peek at me. And ladies and gentlemen, the best thing that you can know about God the Father is to know Jesus Christ for the two are one. Now here's what's interesting. If you study the book of John and I've been reading out of John, he uses the word know k-n-o-w, we can know that we know that we know. He uses that little word 141 times the word know. But you got to understand something. There's four levels of that word know. Level number one is to know the fact. Yeah, there's a God somewhere, I agree with you. And level number two, when you know and understand the truth behind the fact. Well, I guess he sent his son and his son died. And I guess we can come to him. But you can know level number one, and you can know level number two, you can know the facts of it, you can know the truth behind the fact and still be as dead as last year's birds nest. And level number one and level number two, you can know both of those and know Him, and still be lost. But level number three, is to know in relationship and John 17:3 says this. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast

John 17:3

1 and Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bear Kane. An intimate relationship. And he saying here that you can know Christ in an intimate relationship, the only true and living God. But level number four, is to know Him in a deep relationship. Salvation is about going to heaven. Submission is about heaven on earth, would you like to have a little heaven? To go to heaven in. Just simply submit. You want to know God?

Well, some of you had parents.

You didn't know your parents until you became that adult.

Come on folk. That old couple that was trying to raise you, you thought they knew nothing.

You thought you knew more than they did. That's why you snuck behind their back and did things that you did. But when you grew up, suddenly you begin to really know who mom and dad were.

That's some of the problem around the church world, we got a lot of folks that have never grown up. They haven't gotten off the bottle again. They're still over there in the playpen, fussing about spilt milk, crying hold me, hold me, pick me up, burp me pastor. And it's time that we get off of just milk and get into the strong meat of the word. And some folks don't know him because they've never gone to a deeper relationship. And there's more. Pator do you have a verse for that? Philippians 3:10, That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering. being made conformable on his death, Paul said I met Christ on the Damascus Road but I want to know Him more than just that. I want to know him and the power of his resurrection. The power that raised Him from the grave would be the power that I can overcome anything that I might face. I want to know him like that. He's saying I'm willing to suffer if it'll take me to a level where he knows me and I know him. I want to know his power, even if it means suffering. And here's what I want you to know in closing, all of us here are at some level of knowing. You got to decide which level that you're on.

Philippians 3:10

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 Bucyrus nazarene.org.