Voice of the Nazarene 12-31-23

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 join our Pastor Reverend Ray Lasalle and the voice of the Nazarene.

I want to take you into a passage, the great book of Joshua chapter four. And Joshua became the man of God that led the people into the land of promise. Beginning in verse 19, and the people came up out of Jordan, on the 10th day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho. Now catch this and those 12 stones, which they took out of the Jordan did Joshua pitch and Gilgal, and he spake unto the children of Israel saying, Now catch this. When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, what mean these stones? Then ye should let your children know saying Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you until you passed over as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we're going over. The same God that got us through this last year. And that all the people the earth might know the hand of the Lord that it is mighty. And you might fear the Lord your God, forever. Now, does that mean that God does good things for us all the time? No, fact of the matter it's during the adversities of life and the hardships of life that we come to know God a little better. I'm glad to know that he's the lily of the valley because I have spent a lot of time in the valley. And you will know God on a different level during hardships, reverses, adversities difficulties. Now, I want to pull from verse 21. These words what meaneth the stones, talk to you about the stone. Here's a little background for the story of the children of Israel and come to the Jordan River. And the Jordan River is at flood stage at this point. They didn't have any convoy of ships, they didn't have any boats no rafts.

Try to get two and a half to 3 million people across the flooded Jordan River. And God intervened stepped in and part of the waters and dried up the Jordan River and they crossed over. And God said to Joshua, I want you to gather some stones out of that riverbed. I want you to take 12 and carry them to the other side. And I want you to pile up the stones in such a way that any generation coming along sees those stones. They'll realize that they're not there by accident, there must be a purpose, by the way that they're piled up. And there will come a time when young people will come. And they will notice the stones from another generation, and they'll ask what do these stones mean to us? You get to begin to tell them about the goodness of God. You know, I read that and it amazed me. This is not the first time God asked for stones to be piled up as a memorial. Back in Genesis 28.

There's a guy by the name of Jacob. Jacob had been on the run Jacob had a unique life. He's exhausted, he lived in the flesh so long, and he needed to have an encounter with God. That night as you laid down, he didn't have my pillow.com All he could find was a stone. He took this stone and laid it down and put his head on that stone. That night God showed up and God did a work in Jacob's life. Jacob was so got that he the next day didn't want to forget, never got over that time. He took the stone and he poured oil on it.

And he said this stone is a reminder right here of what God did in my life. You know, I wonder sometimes we have all these gadgets and trinkets that we gather around us. I wonder if instead of a lot of trinkets maybe what we need is a lot of thinklets that remind us of what God has done for us in our lives. From where he brought us from, what he got out of our shirt pocket and out of our rear pocket and what he cleaned out of our refrigerators and the change that God has brought into our life. Some thinkIets. I was reading on and in First Samuel chapter seven. The Israelites defeated the Philistines, it was a battle they should not have won. So God, wanting them to always remember that it was he that helped them to win the battle. He told Samuel I want you to gather some stones and put them in a pile as a memorial that they will not forget. And call this place Ebenezer, which means God helped us. Now let's go back to the gist of the story that we're beginning with. God told Joshua pile up the stones 12 to be exact. For I want the young people when they come along to see these stones and ask, what are these stones mean?

Can I just stop there for a moment? May I say to you that there are people that we need in our life? Don't be a lone ranger.

Everybody needs a tonto. Cisco kid needed a sidekick all of us need somebody. There are three people that every one of us needs in our life. I know it's not in your notes. I'm just free handing it here for a moment.

Every one of us need a Paul in our life. Somebody who's been where we have not been. Do you remember what he said in Corinthians 11 Four? He said to follow me as I also follow Christ. In other words follow me because I'm following Christ.

I'm a little bit ahead of you but I'm reaching back to you and helping you to catch up I'm trying to be an example. Every one of us need a Paul in our life somebody that has experienced what we have not yet encountered and can can give us some guidance in life. We not only need a Paul, we need a Barnabas. We need as Acts chapter four verse 38 tells, this guy by the name of Barnabas, his name meant encourager. He was a guy that could come and give you a boost could lift you up make you feel good. It's kind of like the little boy said to his dad, Dad.

Let's play darts. I'll throw the darts and you tell me how wonderful I am. All of us respond to praises and raises.

Everybody needs that encourager.

You say well, I just need somebody to confront me. Well, it won't be Barnabas. It'll be Paul. Barnabas is an encourager, you say well, how can I tell if people need encouragement, I can tell you how to tell if their still breathing. Because everybody needs encouragement.

That spouse of yours needs to be encouraged, that son or daughter of yours needs encourage, mom and dad need to be encouraged grandparents, everybody needs a boost. Everybody needs somebody to come along and lift them up.

But we also need a Timothy and Paul had a young man that he was pouring his life into. He said, I'm pouring into my son in the faith. I'm mentoring him. I'm guiding him. I'll always remember Ed and Betty Dillinger telling me about a couple up in the area of Tiffin at their church that they attended, who came along and pulled them to one side and taught them how to be churchmen, taught them how to be churchman. I probably ought to stop right now and say, there's a lot of young couples here that we need you for the future. I looked at the board and it's like looking in the mirror. I see a lot of aging.

And I thank God for this board.

And I thank God for those who are involved in leadership. But I'm telling you, we need a new generation coming on that we have enough time to mentor you and we can't do it if you're not a member. We need leadership for the future. We Nazarene's of Bucyrus we need you to understand what we believe in and what our doctrine is and we teach from the Word of God for future leadership. And all of us need to have a Timothy in our lives, somebody that we're putting our time and our energies into, and, and all of that. May I move on to say, back to the story, the Bible said, I want you to pile up the stones.

There's a new generation coming on, they're not going to know.

And I want the older generation to tell them what those stones me. An old man is supposed to tell them, this is what the stones tell us. These stones represent to us, first of all the stones mean that God is interested in the next generation.

Let's not be such a stick in the mud that we're not concerned about the next generation.

That's why little churches are closing all over America. They weren't concerned about the next generation, they were too busy maneuvering, who could be in charge at the local level at that time, they're gone now.

It's not about not being willing to change enough to make a difference for the next generation that's coming on.

God's interested in young people. I believe that God's interested in the church going on. I think it's why he said I want those young people to come along and I want them to see something and they're going to ask, what does this mean? Let me tell you. I'm interested in the next generation. When I hit my 40s, I realized evangelism, and revivalism as such was over. The economy in America changed and suddenly the wife had to go to work. Wife is working one shift and dad works the other shift and kids are left to shift for themselves. And everybody's so busy and inflation hit and a long came Hollywood and television. And suddenly folk were so busy. And the school demanded so much more time of the kids, suddenly, they didn't have time for revival. I thought I've got to get out of this thing. It's going to close in on us. I believe I can be an evangelist and pastor of a local church and get folk in and we can keep them. I'm interested in another generation, the next generation, been for a long time. You say, well, been a lot of change around BNC, and I'm not for all the change, I understand. But every last one of you 31 years ago, when I came, you didn't have computers, you didn't have iPads and iPhones and you don't drive Model T's anymore, either do you? Been a lot of change. They say, Well, I'm not comfortable with it. Well, I can tell you who to blame. You're looking at the guy. I'm responsible. Not every change was perfect. Not every change that we made worked out. And some change was hard to come by and most of us, cost us a lot of blood. But we have grown as a church we didn't fold while other churches around us were folding. I don't know if you've caught on to anything and outlive a lot of enemies. Trail hadn't been easy. But thank God we can reach the next generation. First thing I thought of I've got to get started, what am I going to do?

And I thought if we reach the next generation, we've got to have a childcare. And we worked on coming up with Sonshine.

We're worked on starting Upward basketball and that ministry is growing and it's moved on. I remember hiring youth staff. We hadn't had it in the years. And amazing thing happened with youth leadership staff, paid staff. Suddenly we got focused on not just being ingrown and root bound but we realized there's a world out yonder.

There's a university and there's district camps and children's camps and youth camps and we need to get our kids away from just here and get them into the camp setting. I was holding a camp out in the state of Indiana and they asked what we're needing somebody to help us with the youth. I said why don't you use my youth guy. And then we piled in about 28 to 30 of our youth and headed him out to camp meeting and an amazing thing happened they came back converted. They came back with a call of God to ministry. And if you go to our young people right before that, including my own two kids, most of them aren't in church now. Very few of them are red hot for God. But from that time of getting him them involved in camps, we've seen them called to preach and we're still see them going out from here into ministry. It's a beautiful thing. I believed in excellence. I wanted excellence because we've got a new generation coming on. I didn't think we needed to have somebody come up in the pulpit and start to sing and miss the timing and said, start that tape over and oops, the devil is fighting me, would you play it again, and let me start again. I've just heard of that kind of stuff. I wanted excellence. I tried to find the best music people I could find in the country. We have them here. I tried to staff this thing just right. I think that God has given us a good staff.

Amazing things are happening. We brought Michael Hurls on, he's the Paul to the next generation.

I didn't try to destroy the music program. I've watched young preachers come in the first thing they want to do, we're going to change everything gonna change the music program.

We don't like the old style, we're doing the new style that made the old folk mad, the money quit, new people didn't come and the church folded. It's going on all across districts. Instead of fighting with the old crowd, we let them have sermons, we believed in them, we hugged them, we put an arm around them, we just simply started another service and allow the next generation to have the kind of music they could respond to. I'm simply saying I'm interested in the next generation. I want to pour everything I have into the next generation. I want to pour everything I know, into the next generation. We care as a leadership team. And as a board in our young people enough. I don't know if you know this, but you need to know this. We're supporting students in our local university, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, we're giving up to $1,250 per semester, to help with their tuition. Right now we have nine students. One's about to graduate, we're about to add three more. And it'll change the number but we believe in them.

We believe in our young people enough that we're involved in helping to fund Christian education in the local public school system. And some of our people right here are going out and teaching in that particular system. The young people asked what are these stones mean? They mean, the old man said that God is interested in the next generation. Do you realize pretty soon we're gonna be gone?

And if we don't pour ourselves in the next generation the church will be gone to. But before you leave, the old man said, There's something else these stones tell us. They tell us that God still answers prayer. What do you mean God still answers prayer? Well, the old man said, God's people were in bondage for 400 years down there in Egypt. And look what happened, they cried, and God heard their cry, you'll find in Exodus chapter three. In bondage and slavery but God heard their cry. And the old man said, Don't leave yet I want to tell you something else these stones are saying. They're saying that God saves by the blood. That's what these stones represent. Explain that old man. And he begins to tell them, It's God's people they are in bondage, and they prayed and God is going to deliver them. And God said, I'm going to create a disturbance.

I'm going to smite the firstborn of every male in every family in Egypt, not only the firstborn, but the firstborn animal as well as person. And what you need to do as Israelites. You need to go out among your flock and find a lamb without spot without blemish, and slay that lamb and take the blood and apply it over the door. And on the mantle on either side so it looks like a cross. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. It's called the Passover. And I don't care if you're a Baptist or a Pentecost or a Methodist. None of that matters much anyway. But what I do care about whether or not you've been washed in the blood of the Lamb, if you haven't, that's where you need to go. And that's what these stones are saying. The old man said, Let me tell you what else they represent. God is interested in the next generation. God still answers prayer, and God saves but there's something else. God supplies our ever need. The old man said, Let me tell you about my people. They spent 40 years wandering around in the wilderness, a trip that should have taken only 11 days. But while they wandered around God took care of him and met every need every step of the way. When they needed water, God brought water out of a stone, that's like getting blood out of a turnip.

And when they were hungry, God opened up the heavens to give them some bread. And when they wanted a little meat, God blew some quail in. What about the clothes well read Deuteronomy chapter 29, verse five, God gave him clothes that never wore out for 40 years. Boy that'd mess with some women and their styles. Wouldn't it? Just go into the closet and there's same old thing about look like your pastor, I know what you're thinking.

Deuteronomy 29 · chapter mention

Boy, I hate to read minds. You don't want me to tell you anything else. You're thinking do you?

And shoes 40 years in their shoes never wore out. What's it saying to us? These stones represent that God meets every need. And by the way, God is your source. Philippians 41:9.

But my God shall supply all of your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

He's our source. Young people said, well, we gotta go. The old man said, Don't leave yet.

There's one other thing I want to tell you about these stones.

They tell us that God keeps His promise. God set out to deliver my people. Do you know that God made a promise over in Matthew 16 Verse 18. God said upon this rock, I will build my church.

Matthew 16:18

He's going to build his church.

Hell can't stop the church,[eople can but hell can't. God said, I'll build my church are you say, Well, Pastor was our role, what's my role? Your role, my role is to build people. And we'll build people God said he'll build his church. I'm trying to tell you, we need to concentrate our attention on people. One at a time, the greatest person ever lived one at a time. People. I want to tell you something interesting.

I've been in ministry a long time. And I've lived a little longer than I've been in ministry. I've been in ministry at least three years. What's amazing to me, I know a lot of religious leaders that love large crowds, but they don't like people. They like a big audience, but they don't like people enough to even make a call or a hospital on them. Or to be bothered if they want to come by and meet at the office.

And I'm trying to tell you one at a time people, people are important. People will be in heaven. Buildings won't be. And I'm saying we're within about$350,000 of being paid out of debt. We need to clear this debt, get it over with and begin to take every dollar and begin to pour it into people. That's why we're doing it with our students at Mount Vernon. That's why we're involved with other ministries right here in town, financially, helping to finance the Salvation Army and what's the other, Born all kinds of ministries were involved in it.

But it's nothing like we can in the future, if God will help us.

God's called us to pour ourselves into people. And if I'm not willing to meet with one person to talk with them, then I ought not be up preaching to the hundreds. There's one other little verse or passage rather, it's Luke 19, verse 37, And when he was come nigh, Jesus that is, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. Some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones.

Luke 19:37

Want you to get some stones, pile them up. He said, These stones will immediately cry out, the rocks will cry out, if we keep our peace and don't give God the glory. They will testify of me. He's saying they'll be a reminder that I'm still on the throne. But God doesn't want the rocks to cry out. God wants us to look at the rocks or stones and he wants us to remember what God has done in our lives. eyes.

God wants us to praise him. I love Psalm 150 Verse six, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. And Psalm 47:1, oh clap your hands all you people shouting to God with a voice to triumph. Psalm 100 Verse four says, enter into his gates with thanksgiving into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. Psalm 136:1 says, Oh, give thanks to the Lord for His good for His mercy endureth forever. Psalm 134 verse two, lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord. So there's nothing wrong with clapping your hands once in a while. Nothing wrong with raising your hands and praising the Lord. Fact of the matter. That's about all they do in heaven. So some of us better start practicing now, or we're gonna really be a misfit when we get there. Dottie Rambo wrote a song. When I was a kid I traveled a little bit and held revivals. Hard to find singers, sometimes you could get somebody that couldn't sing and would sing. But he didn't go to sing, sing and be made to sing. I've told you what's worse than 10 people that can sing and won't sing. It's one guy that can't sing and will sing. I love Dottie Rambo's songs. That's basically what I use. Stood at the graveside of a baby and sang this playing my guitar, I want to close by just putting a few of the words. She wrote the things that I love it. I wish that when you went home this afternoon, you'd write down the things that you love. Just take a sheet of paper and write down the things you really love and hold dear to your heart, they are just borrowed. They're not mine at all. Jesus already let me use them to brighten my life.

Psalms 47:1 Psalms 136:1

So remind me, remind me dear Lord, roll back the curtain of memory now and then show me where you brought me from, and where I might have been.

Remember, I'm human and humans forget. So remind me, remind me, dear Lord. And I hope this morning that somehow we have stirred up your pure minds by way of remembrance. That God's been good. God's been good even in 2023 God has been good here in Bucyrus to this little ministry. God's been good in your homes. Some of you have taken the toughest licks that you've ever faced in your life, but still, God's been good. Hadn't he? That's why he said, Let everything that has breath Praise the Lord.

And if we don't praise him, he said, I'll let those stones begin to cry out. There'll be a reminder that I'm still God if you don't want me to be your God. The rocks will cry out that I'm God.

Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene visitors every Sunday at 9am with BNC's Pastor Ray LaSalle. For more information regarding BNC, visit Bucyrus nazarene.org.