Voice of the Nazarene 1-28-24

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.

But there's a chapter over here in Second Chronicles, it's one of the historic books. And it's chapter 20. You can read it when you go home, if you're into sports. Have you noticed that when it comes down to the teams with that are involved in the playoff, how important and ever every eye is on those final games. And when it comes down toward the final score, they only put it in the best players.

They're not putting in subs, now it's do or die. It's down to the final moments, the ball has to be handled right. And I'd like to say to you that I believe the coming of Jesus is really near.

I believe we're down to the end times. And I believe that God is putting in his best players for such a time as this. And we need to win. I texted a couple preachers here across the district and I said I, I'm trusting that you'll carry the ball well, on your end of the field this morning, I want to do so here. And God has called you to get into the battlefield. And it's the final moments, and less win well. Now our story is found over here in Second Chronicles chapter 20. I'll tell you more about it in a moment. But the man's praying he said God will thou not judge them. For he said we have no might against this great company that come up against us. Neither know what to do, we want to do we don't know what to do. What do you do? Do you ever get on the phone when dad was still alive? And you call home dad, I don't know what to do. Would you help me with this judgment call? Or you called a close friend and admitted to them I'm at a point in life when I literally do not know what to do. One of the toughest issues I've dealt with as a pastor is getting the call out to the hospital and racing my way across town and slipping in and sometimes it's in Columbus, sometimes it's been in Cleveland, and see the family standing in the hall and seeing that look that lost confounded look on their faces. And you come up real close and they turn and they say, Pastor, they have asked us if they can pull the plug and they're waiting on our decision. What do we do? Do we prolong death? Do we prolong life? What do we do? You say, Well, my situation is not that dire. Well, I should hope not.

2 Chronicles 20 · chapter mention

But I do know there'll be situations and times and every one of our lives when we literally do not know what to do. Now I used to know how to rear children. Fact of the matter, I was single. I didn't know about marriage, but I thought I could give advice. But what do you do when you got children and you don't know what to do? What do you do when you're in a relationship and you don't know what to do? Should I quit my job and take that job?

Should I invest in this stock or not invest? Should I marry this person are not marry this person? Should I make this decision or not make it, should I go for the surgery are not have the surgery? Should I buy that house or not buy that house? Well, there's a man on the Bible and his name was Jehoshaphat. And his story is in this 20th Chapter of Second Chronicles. You go all the way back and slip into that dusty moment in history. And you'll find him nearly at the end of himself. He didn't know what to do. He's faced with big decisions. He was a king over a small portion called Judah, not even the entire kingdom. He wasn't over Israel, but he was over this little kingdom called Judah. He was in a powerful position. And he's got a problem. He looks up his problem is three large armies abandoned together and they're coming down against his little army. I mean, multitudes were coming. It was a most one sided battle in the annals of human history. There was no way to win. They're coming was the Amorites, and the Mobites and the Edomites. And if you knew anything about the Amman and Mohab, I mean, these two guys, they were so immoral.

And those tribes were so involved in all kinds of incest, if you studied about Lot and how a lot of his daughters came out of Saddam, and how they had lived in this wicked mindset for so long, and they said one to the other, we're going to die without children. And if we don't have someone to impregnate us, and they said, let's get our dad drunk, and let's get involved with our dads. And they had two sons, they each had a son apiece, one named the son Amman and the other name their son, Moab. You're talking about messed up, these two boys were actually half brothers. Their dad was Lot, but their mother's dad was Lot also, so Lot was their dad and Lot was their granddad. And they're half brothers, but they're also nephews to each other. And this whole kingdom of this wickedness, and these three armies are coming down against Judah, and against Jehoshaphat the king, and he don't know what to do. So what do you do when you don't know what to do? Have you been there? Well hang around three great armies. May I say to everyone that's listening to me this morning you're in a battle also. And there's three armies coming against you. Every one of us, we have a world, the flesh, and the devil. And they're gonna hit us in every form and from every angle of attack. There'll be temptations from within the world from without, and Lucifer stepped out of the choirs of heaven and threw down his garment and in anger turned against God, and you're just in his way. And we're fighting against the devil. We're in a battle. What do I do when I don't know what to do? And I pastored here for over 30 years.

This week, when this message fell into my lap, and God began to talk to my heart. It suddenly dawned on me, I'm not just preaching to you, people. This is a message to me as a leader, and a pastor, as well. So I'm preaching to people, but I'm preaching to myself. And I am convinced that if something doesn't stir me first, there's no reason to share it with you.

Somebody said a great lesson is monkey see, monkey do. But you don't teach where you don't go.

And may I say we teach what we know but we reproduce what we are. What are we do when we don't know what to do? Let's look at Jehoshaphat. Let's look at what he did. He did five simple things, that if somehow God would help me enough to get the message across it'll make a difference I believe in all of our lives for the future. He did five simple things when he didn't know what to do. Here's what he did. First of all, he exposed his part powerlessness, and I love what he said. He said, I know I'm the king. I know I'm in this position. But I'm gonna be real honest. He said, I don't know what to do.

You can be a leader and sometimes not always know what to do. And he said, I don't know what to do. Jim Cymbala, pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle, he made this statement he said I found an astonishing truth. And it's that God is attracted to weakness. He can't resist those who humbly and honestly admit they desperately need Him. God is attracted to weaknesses. God can't resist those who honestly and humbly admit they desperately need him. You know, Jesus describes himself only one time in all define scripture, one time. Somebody said Jesus is love. Jesus didn't say he was love. John said Jesus was love.

He didn't say I am holy, No, Simon Peter said, Jesus was holy. Only one time does he described himself and that's over in Matthew chapter 11, verse 29, when he said, I am meek, and lowly in heart. And if you want to be like Jesus, you need to be meek and you meet need to be lowly. And when we realize that it's not about our pizzazz and our talent and our strengths and our wisdom, and it's totally him, that's when we become pliable and usable in his kingdom. Somebody said the way up is down. The way to be exalted is to humble yourself.

Matthew 11:29

The way to win the battle is to surrender the battle. You need to understand something brokenness on Earth, creates openness in heaven. Brokenness on Earth creates openness in heaven. And when we humble ourselves, and God sees that we realize it's not us, it's only him, we're only going to make it through him. He comes to our rescue. Jehoshaphat exposed his powerlessness. I don't have anything in myself. I'll learned a long time ago, that I didn't have it. Every time I walk out here, I, say in the study, God, if you don't go out there with me, I'm gonna lay an egg. I'm gonna blow it good. They're gonna see me for what I really am not much of a preacher. If you go out with me, and if you'll anoint, nobody will know the difference. And I'm saying God, I want you to get the glory. I want the people to get all the help, but just let me be a channel, just a vessel.

Somebody said, I don't know how LaSalle does it? Neither does he. It's not about us. It's about God. And when we can lay ourselves down and let God realize that we depend totally on him that's when God will step up to the plate and rescue us.

He did something else, he not only exposed his powerlessness, but he he entered into a prayer look at it. He said in verse three Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. He prayed and fasted he not only prayed and fasted, he literally call all the people to prayer and fasting. And if you look at Second Chronicles, Chapter 17, verse four, chapter 18, verse four, chapter 20, verse three, he had a history of doing this. I like what Abraham Lincoln said, in one of the most darkest hours of presidential history. He said, I've been driven to my knees by an overwhelming conviction that I can go nowhere else. My wisdom and all about me seems insufficient. I'm driven to my knees. Pastor, What do you do when you don't know what to do?

2 Chronicles 17 · chapter mention

Let it drive you to your knees.

Get along with God. I read again the praying of this man Jehoshaphat in the fear that gripped him as he looked at the enemy coming at him from ever side another way in the world win. And he asked God three questions in his prayer. He said here in verse six, are you not, by verse seven he said, did you not? Verse 12, he said, wilt thou not? Look at it, He said, Are you not? Other words, it reminds us of who God is. You better know who God is when you go to him? And he said, did you not? In other words, did you not do this? And said, wilt thou not? In other words, would you do it, again? Do it again. If God did it for someone else, maybe you could ask God to do it again for you. George McCluskey, He began to pray for his children. And he asked God to use his children use their lives. The problem was he didn't have any children.

You said Well, do you agree with that? Yeah, I highly recommend that. Even before you have children begin to pray for them.

Begin to pray about the future.

He got married and and he took an hour every day from 11 o'clock to 12 o'clock noon to pray for his children still didn't have any but he kept praying for him. And then he had two little girls were born and he prayed over whatever day he would pray for those two girls in their future. Fact of the matter, his vision enlarged and he began to pray for his grandchildren. God would you bless my grandchildren. The years passed, and those two daughters that he had prayed for through the years, married preachers. And they reproduced and had four daughters, and one son, and as he prayed for those four granddaughters and that grandson, all four of those granddaughters, married preachers, and the grandson was called to preach. And they had two great grandkids for him.

They were cousins, they grew up together, went to high school together, and then headed off to the same college and became roommates at the same college and old granddad still praying, hair has turned white now. He won't live long, but he's praying for them. And one of those grandsons was called to preach. And the other one, George Mcklusky, called his black sheep. He never got called to preach. Here's all of his.

His daughters are married to preachers and granddaughters made to preach his grandsons, a preacher, and now his great grandpa, and he's got this other black sheep that's not. He likes psychology he began to study psychology and he got his doctorate in psychology. He wrote a book. And the book did well become a best seller. So you wrote another book and it became a best seller wrote another book and he got on radio did so well that he got another station soon he was heard over 1000 stations. The black sheep his name was Jim Dobson. I'd love to have a black sheep in my family, like Jim Dobson. And his cousin who was HB London, to me one of the greatest preachers that ever stepped into shoe leather. All because, a man began to pray for his children that he didn't have. Jehoshaphat entered into prayer. I would just like to suggest if you got some situations, and some dreams and some wishes, get into prayer with God and begin to talk to God about it long before it even needs to happen. Don't wait till everything's exploded and reactive, get proactive for a change. Let's not be in a jam than then we call on godless call on God knows him. So well though, when the jam comes is not even the jam do us. Thank you, good preacher, you deserve the best. What did he do after that? He exposed his powerlessness. He entered into prayer, the three armies are coming. And the next thing he does the third thing, he examined his past. Look at verse seven. He said, Art thou not our God, who did drive out the inhabitants of the land from before the people Israel, you gave it to the scene of Abraham, my friend, forever. And he's simply saying, God, you're the one that gave this land to Abraham and, you led him to this land, and it's their possession.

And now I'm the king of this little area and you drove out the former inhabitants. And he said, God, I'm looking into the past, you've been there. If you let me just simply paraphrase it. He simply looked back and said, God, you've always been faithful. Can I just say to you, this morning, God's been faithful in your past. Maybe you just don't see very well. Maybe you haven't looked into the mirror lately. But if you look back and see what God's brought you through, you never dreamed you'd make it this far. Some of you lost loved ones. You thought you'd never survive it. Some of you had health setbacks, some of you lost financially. Some of you been through some horrendous things. But God was still there.

And God always showed up and God always comes through. I like what Charles Spurgeon, he said, The God of the past is blotted out my past sins. The God of the past is blotted out our sins. I drove the other day and I had Jan with me and I wanted to show her and after I got there, we still hadn't it it looks so bad.

I wanted to show her where I was as a boy at three years of age when mom married dad. They came and got my brother and I and got the little rental moved to Indianapolis, and it was there at 842 South Bellevue that I knelt down in that little house at mom and dad's bedside and gave my heart to Jesus Christ.

Far as I know, I had been out in any big sin I may have told a liar to I don't know I don't remember. I don't remember you Amening yet, either. Memories failing me, I guess. But God blotted out in the wrong past.

And God allowed me to be born into the Family of God, the God in the past blots out our sins, the God of the very present he's working all things out to our good, if you allow him to. And the God of the future will he promised he'd never leave us nor forsake us. Here's a fourth thing that he did. Look at verse eight, nine, he embraced a promise. He said, and they dwell there in and have built you a sanctuary for your name. He's talking about Solomon's temple.

And if evil come up on us as a sword, or judgment or pestilence or famine, and we stand in this house, in your presence, your names on the house, and he said, and cry unto you and our affliction that we'll hear and help. Now where did he get that?

He got it from Second Chronicles 7:13 and 14. If I shut up the heavens, there's no more rain or if I command the locusts to devour the land if I sin, pestilence among my people, no, wait, catch this, If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, turn from their wicked ways. He said, I promise you, you're gonna hear from heaven. I'm gonna forgive your sin and lock up your land.

2 Chronicles 7:13

He embraced that promise? May I say that you and I live our lives based on the promises of God. I don't know about you.

When I really hit the skids. I grab me a promise and I ride it till the wave quits and I move to another I live on the very promises of God. And when you're going through a rough time, may I just suggest, embrace the promise. I've grabbed a hold of

28, so many times, we know that all things work together for the good of them that are called according to His purposes. He's called us. He said, I gotta walk off, he's not gonna fail this. And if you ever get all alone, and you don't feel God, just remember, God's not a feeling God is a fact. You need to tell yourself Hebrews 13:5, He said, My God will never leave us nor forsake us if you go through a tough time.

Hebrews 13:5

I've always grabbed Psalm 66, verse 12, he'll go with us to the fire and through the water.

Psalms 66:12

And he'll be the Lord our God You ever cried yourself to sleep? There's a little Psalm over there, weeping only endures through the night. But joy comes in the morning. He not only entered into prayer and embraced the promise, but I'd like to leave something with you. And I hope God will tack it to your mind. He expressed praise. When the darkest times of life comes.

Sometimes the only way out is to praise your way out. I've gone through moments where I couldn't pray my way through. I couldn't reason my way through. I couldn't beg God enough to get my way. I found to always get through with praise. That's why the psalmist says enter into the gates with praise. God's not going to turn us down when we're praising him. If I needed something from dad, without even doing it psychologically, I didn't even realize what I was doing. I'd come in and brag on him a little bit. I never did have dad run me off when I bragged on him and thanked him for being good to me. Enter into his courts with praise. Now keep in mind Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah. But now he's at the end of his rope and there's a prophet by the name of Jahaziel.

And there in verse 14 and verse 15. It said that the Spirit of the Lord came up on the prophet and the prophet went through the king, and he spoke to the king.

Hey, who wants to have the ear of the political leaders? I believe it ought to be the man of God. Now I'm going to be a good boy not say anything politically. Jesus helped me.

And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. And he said, I want to talk to you, King. I want you to get a hold of your ego for a moment and lay it to one side.

And remember something this isn't on you. You can't win this battle. This is not your battle.

The battle he said, is the Lord's. The battle is the Lord's, you can't handle it.

David said over there in First Samuel, chapter 17, verse 47, he was going up against the giant.

1 Samuel 17:47

And he said, I want the assembly to know that the Lord save us not by sword nor by spirit.

That's not the way he does it.

But the battle is the Lord's.

The battle is the Lord's. I don't know what you're dealing with today. I know what I'm dealing with. But I don't know what you're dealing with. But you're gonna have a nervous breakdown trying to fight things through or you can just simply say, God, I'm gonna give it to you. There's an insurance company that says that their hands are good hands. But I want you to know, there's better hands and that's God's hands.

And God's got this. And God's got the future. If he can handle the past and get you through the present, then I believe that God's got a good plan for the future. And so he says to the Jehoshaphat, in verse 17, I want to remind you, you shall not need to fight in this battle.

Set yourself, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

See the salvation of the Lord.

Now, when I fight a battle, I want the best I can find. And I think that Jehoshaphat did. I think he wanted to call in the Navy Seal. I think he wanted to call him The Green Berets. I mean, he's going up against three humongous armies, his army is small. And the old prophet said no, it's not your battle.

You couldn't win it if you tried. Don't call in the Green Berets, you need to send in your praise singers send in your praise team. And I want to read it to you just for a moment. So you'll think I'm not making all this up. Part of its true. I can't hardly see but if you got your bibles just turned to this for a moment. It's in Second Chronicles chapter 20. He said send in the Levites. That's the praise team. And he said there to praise the Lord. That's all there to do. They're gonna go to the head of the battle. They're the marched in the front. And I want you to appoint singers and I want them to praise the beauty of holiness, verse 21. And praise the Lord, for his mercy endureth forever. Now, where does God well, God dwells in an atmosphere of praise. God doesn't dwell in that atmosphere of whiners. And you're not going to strong arm God and you're not going to twist his arm, you're not going to put him in a headlock to get your way. God dwells in an atmosphere of praise. And if you want God to come create a little atmosphere, begin to praise Him. And when God shows up, guess who leaves.

2 Chronicles 20 · chapter mention

We're to draw nigh to God and when we do, we resist the devil.

And he flees from us. And guess what God did when he sent the praise team in and they begin to praise God, and the enemy got confused, and the Bible said next that God set ambushments against the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seer. And they were so confused without a leader because their leader had left they begin to slay each other. And the next day when the Judah went in, they found all of the enemy dead and just took all the wealth and riches and walked off. I don't know about you, I think it's high time we begin to start praising God around here.

Before any thing is going on, begin to praise him. You may have got the worst news of your life. But instead of letting it beat you down, don't let those armies coming against you win the battle begin to praise God and God will come and when God comes, the enemy flees. If I brought my wife with me this morning she is over at the West Campus. But suppose I bring her in next Sunday. Okay, can you get that in your head? I really want to surprise her and so I find the five best looking guys here. Jesus help me to find them. And big guys and guys that are impressive. And I stand them at the door and said tell her just say I love you. boys you like it. And she comes in and these five guys say I love you I love you. Sickening budge. You know what she's not caring about you saying I love you. She wants to hear it from me. But they can say it better than I can pastor, I know. But she's not interested in hearing it from them, she wants to hear it from me. And I'm trying to tell you, God wants to hear from you that you love him, that you're going to praise him. Maybe somebody else can do a better job, but I'm gonna make a joyful noise myself under the Lord, that everything that has breath that includes me, praise the Lord God wants to hear from you. Psalm 69:30, I will praise the name of the Lord with a song and I will magnify him with thanksgiving. Now, I'm not a scientist, and I've never gone down that trail I buried my brother about six months ago, he was always more scientific than I have ever been. He's always pulling off something he found a little one of these cranks that would generate some electricity wired it to the doorknob and said Ray, Would you come in here? I got a hold of that doorknob, I'm telling you, it turned me ever way but loose. I remember him calling me over and he had found a rock with a crystal in the rock he took a little wire and a little battery and a safety pin. And he moved around on that crystal to pick up a radio station. How in the world he could do that, I don't have a clue. All he wanted for Christmas was a magnifying glass. And then he wanted one of those microscopes. So we could put some little something on that lens and he can focus in and it would make it get great big and magnified it. And he found that if he put a drop of oil on that lens, it would jump it up a lot more, it would magnify it to 90 power. And he said I want you to magnify me with thanksgiving. I can only magnify him to one power I'm just one guy. But I can get Keith over here to get happy.

Psalms 69:30

And if he had joined me, we can magnify Him to two power. And we can get Miss Patty, then magnify the Lord, three power. And if I can get Sandy and Bob, partnership and all of us, we can magnify the Lord, beyond anything we could do on our own.

Do you see it? Now, Does that make God any bigger than he already is? Known helps you to see bigger, how big God really is. Because most of us are so busy that magnify Him. Our God has gotten so small in our mind and our sight. I'd just like to say to you this morning, God is so much bigger. I don't care if the world, the flesh and the devil and all hell raises up against us. It will just expose our partners to say God, I'm nothing I can do. But I'm going to enter it into prayer. I'm gonna get my little prayer going. You did it in the past so you could do it in the future. I want to embrace a promise. I've examined the past and most of all, I'm going to express some praise. I'm going to begin to praise you. And can you imagine what would happen we begin to praise God what God would start doing around this ministry and around this town. I like we've talked about how bad everything is long enough. It's about time that we talk about how big and how good God is. How many would join me and say preacher, I'm gonna join you in magnifying the Lord I'm gonna see God for as big as God is as God opens my eyes of understanding..

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