Voice of the Nazarene 10-15-23

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.

How many of you like to be more than conquerors? Well, we can be

37, We are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Not just conquerors, but more than. And the Holy Spirit is your power, is your power. Can I repeat a little story? It happened over in Indiana, been a few years ago, in a large town, small city, a computer warehouse caught on fire. And pretty soon it was raging, I mean there was a internal fire and all the fire trucks were there, they were fighting a losing battle. And the blaze was getting out of control and they begin to contact nearby fire departments.

In other counties and other towns and finally contacted a county that butted up against them and a small town and they had an old dilapidated fire truck. It was quite a thing to view. And when they got word, there was a fire, those volunteers jumped in that old truck and headed across county lines and into that little county and headed into that small city. And they're coming from up high and they're roaring their way down through they've got their bells on and their sirens going and people begin to realize the further this thing came, the faster it's coming, it begin to jump out of the street and onto the sidewalks and got behind cars trying to defend themselves and that truck instead of slowing down, plowed right straight through the wall of that warehouse and disappeared into the flames.

Everybody's wondering what's going on. And those volunteers, when they came to, they jumped off that truck and turned on the water and begin to spray from the inside and literally saved the day, put the fire out.

Everybody was amazed. They did it from the inside out, they got in where the fire was. And the owner of that Computer Corporation wanted to reward them and they had a ceremony and he cut a check for $10,000 and gave it to that Fire Chief and said, I know you came from another county and you brought your only truck. And we just wanted to give you that award.

Here's $10,000. And so reporter said to him, as he interviewed him said what are you going to do with it? Well, he said the first thing we're going to do is fix the brakes. Then after that we're going to repair the front end where we hit the wall. And what I'm trying to say to you the reality was once they got on the inside, they had success on the inside. God needs on the inside of our lives. Do you realize the Bible says in Romans

9, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you, dwell in you. And then

16, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dewlleth in you. Now he doesn't just show up in you, you've got to invite Him in. And then

11 The same Holy Spirit that resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead dwell in you. He then raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. So the power is within. Over in New York City just a few years ago, there was what is called the balloon man.

You could hire him to come into your area and he would put these balloons and send them up into the air and he'd send up some red balloons and some blue balloons and some yellow balloons and a little African American boy standing to one side watched all those different colors. And finally when nobody was near, he slipped up to that guy and he said to him, if you had a black balloon, would it also go up in the air? Big old tears in his eyes. And the balloon man said to him said Son, it's not about red or yellow or black or white. The secret is on the inside. We put helium in them. And when we do the secret it causes it to rise.

And I'm trying to say to you that the secret for success in your life spiritually is the Holy Spirit on the inside. On the inside. Jesus is said to the early church, and I'm repeating a few thoughts. He said, I'm about to go away to heaven, and what I want you to do, I want you to go to Jerusalem, and I want you to do nothing but wait, just wait. There'll be a little upstairs room and I want you to get together, get in one accord and get all your differences resolved. And don't come astronomically opinionated, just gather together, begin to seek.

And I'm going to send the comforter, he's going to come, don't do anything. But wait, don't go to preaching. Don't start any churches. Don't begin some new ministries, don't teach, don't sing, don't witness, don't do anything until after you've waited and got together. The Holy Spirit comes.

And when He comes, he'll empower you to preach. And he'll empower you to sing and to witness and to start churches and a new ministry. And ladies, gentlemen, anything we try to do without the power of the Holy Spirit is simply in the flesh. A church without the Holy Spirit is doing only what the human can do.

Charles Spurgeon, the first megachurch pastor said, without the Spirit, we can do nothing.

Like a ship without wind, like a branch without sap. Like coals without fire were useless.

That's what he said. And I'd like to make three or four statements in the simple little message this morning. The reasons for the spirit filled

18, Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but he said be filled with the Spirit. Another reason the Bible says we're kept by the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that we're justified by the Holy Spirit. The Bible says we're in dwelt by the Holy Spirit. It says that were sealed by the Holy Spirit. And the Bible says that the Holy Spirit does all of these things. But he said, your responsibility, you be sure that you're filled with the Holy Spirit. Now I'm recounting when I read Ephesians, Chapter Five, Verse 18, where it says to be filled with the Spirit. I asked immediatly, Who's he talking to?

And my attention is taken back to Ephesians 1:1, where it says, Paul, that apostle, Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints, to the saints, who's this message to? It's to the church. Who's he saying needs to be filled with the Spirit? The church of the living Christ, the church, the saints, we need to be filled. And there's nothing worse than a full church with half full people. Nothing worse than a full church with half full people. So he said, Be filled with the Spirit. Why?

Ephesians 1:1

First of all, obedience, not a suggestion, not super saints, it's something that God told us to do. He said, Be filled with the spirit. Now, if I showed up this morning, to preach and I was drunk. You think will peak I'm under the influence of alcohol? And I think a thought.

You'd immediately have the board get together and there'd be a lot of tail wagging. I mean, tongue wagging. And people talking, if I showed up drunk, you'd say being drunk with wine in excess is wrong.

And it's just as wrong for the preacher or you to show up and we're not filled with the Holy Spirit. And everybody can see it's wrong to be drunk, but it seems like we have a problem seeing that it's wrong not being full of the Spirit. So he said be filled. So I looked up that word filled because I got kind of interested in it. And I found the same word is used over in Luke, Chapter Four, Verse 28, where it says they were filled with the wrath. Same word filled, filled with the wrath.

Then over in Acts, Chapter 13, Verse 45, the same Greek word.

Acts 13:45

It said they were filled with envy, same thing. So it's talking about when you're overcome with a power that's greater than your own. And when you're overcome with a power greater than your own, when envy controls you, when wrath controls you, when a grudge controls you, when jealousy controls you, when wine controls you. What God is trying to say he wants us controlled by a power greater than our own, and that power is the Holy Spirit.

So a reason to be filled is obedience. Here's a second reason, opportunities. Look at that 18th Verse again, not to be drunk, but be filled with the Spirit. But look back at Verse 16. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.

Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. So how do I make the most of every opportunity? It's when we're filled we're walking by God's Spirit. Many stories in the Bible, but I go back to that 16th Chapter, First Samuel, Verse 13, where it says that David was full, he was filled with the Holy Spirit and full of the Holy Spirit. And when he was his daddy said to him, there's a battle on, the Philistines are fighting against us. Your brothers are down on the battlefield, they're hungry, I want you to get the wagon out and hitch it up. And I want you to take some cheese and bread down to your brother's. And he goes down there, and he slays the giant. Now why did he get that opportunity? Because he was in the spirit being led, impressed, influenced by the Holy Spirit. And I'm saying opportunities come into our lives when we're following God's Spirit. It's amazing how we begin to meet the right people.

And we get into the right places, and the right set of circumstances and situations begin to evolve when we're being led by the Holy Spirit. Now, I'm gonna tell you again, Michael, over here on the front seat, had me nervous here while back. And he needs to get a job. I mean, he's the guidance counselor over at Colonel Crawford. He's taking classes, he sells real estate is in charge of young life. And once in a while he works in being youth pastor here. And suddenly, I didn't have somebody to fill in over at Upper. And I said, Michael, would you run over and he was a good boy. And he did a great job. And then his dad said to me, he said, you know, come into that month, and he's not going to be able to do this anymore. I said, What are you trying to tell me? I said, I've got nerve problems. What are you saying? And then I go into the office and Miss Bev, she relays the message. Boy, Michael sure knew who to talk to, didn't he? And we're down to the last Sunday, and I didn't have anybody. And we needed somebody with credential.

Somebody that understood what we're trying to teach, somebody that can handle and not let the church fall apart. I noticed a new couple coming in. He looked like a preacher. Some people do, some of us don't. And I stopped them but one morning and they happen to be this particular morning, a week before. And I said to him, I said, you live here in Bucyrus. No, so we're driving in from Marysville. I said Marysville down there were Honda's at. Yes. Man, I said that's about 70 miles. I said, I've seen you for the last three Sundays. Yes. He said this amazing thing. He said understand us to hold revival for Max Case down at Marysville.

I said I did. He said it's been years ago we were there. But he said we saw a couple that we have not seen for over 20 years, about a month ago. And we happen to cross paths. We hadn't seen each other. And he said they said to me, have you heard that preacher that's on live stream up there out of Bucyrus? No. He said well tune into him. And he said we tuned in, it was exactly what we were needing. And he said we have made up our mind.

We're going to move up and build a home as close as we can towards Bucyrus and make this our church home and be a part of it. I said What have you done?

Well, he said I just retired from Honda. And he said I resigned my church. He said I pastored the Nazarene church for 20 years. And I go back to my office, and suddenly I feel impressed in my spirit. There's your campus pastor, timings just right. Michael had me nervous.

Innit amazing when God the Holy Spirit begins to work, everything ties together just at the right moments. And God leads us to this one and leads us to that one. I'm simply saying, God will put you in places and bring people into your path and he puts things together, and great opportunities take place. I talked to you about the reason let's talk about the requirements for the spirit filled life. And I say again, the Holy Spirit's not enthusiasm, not excitement, not a force, but he is a person.

He's as much God as God is God as much God as Jesus is God.

He's a person he feels he thinks he can be offended, he can be grieved. And in my studying of the Scripture, I find that he's very highly sensitive. So what are the requirements? I want this spirit filled life pastor, first of all, complete commitment. AW Tozer said, you can get as much God as you want.

So if you're not spiritual, don't put the blame on anybody else. You can have as much God as you want. And if you get spirit filled, it means total commitment. Know you're not that you're the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. In other words, we house, the Holy Spirit. He dwells in us, it's not this building. This is where people meet, but one of the Holy Spirit dwells is in us. We are the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit of the temple of God, we house the Holy Spirit. And if he can't have all of us, he doesn't want any of us. You can't tell him you can have this little room, but we got a lock over here in this other room, and we try to compartmentalize the Holy Spirit in our lives. You can live over here in my spiritual life. But don't say anything about my finances when I spend, You understand, Lord? You can have a spiritual life but you're not going to be involved in my business life. You you can be involved in my spiritual life, but don't begin to tell me what to do in my social life. And we try to put him in a compartment and control him. And it doesn't work that way. It's opposite of that. Even our thought life, our personal life, and he has to have access to every room. You say, Well, Pastor, I want to get the Holy Spirit. No, the Holy Spirit needs to get you. That conversion He comes into our lives. But there comes a time when we realize there needs to be a cleansing and a filling of His Spirit. And I'm talking about complete commitment, you can have every room, you can have all of me, my thoughts, my bucks in my back pocket, and everything and have it all. And then there's what I call continued control, Be not drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit. And the terminology here is in the present tense. That means its continuous. It's a continual way of life. And in

4, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. But by the time you get to Chapter Four, Verse 31, the very same crowd of people were filled again. So I'm trying to get you to understand it's a continuous thing. I don't know about you. But I find myself during the day saying, just keep me filled with your Spirit. I head up to the hospital and I've got to meet with somebody and they're dying, and I don't know them and I don't have a clue what I'm doing. But I say God help me to say the right thing. Put the right thoughts in my mind, and the only way you can do that, just be sure I'm full and filled with your Spirit continually. Be not drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit. Now why didn't it say, do not steal but be filled with the Spirit. Do not commit adultry but be filled with a spirit. Do not lie but be filled with the spirit. I believe for two reasons. One is a contrast and the other is a comparison. I heard the other day about a guy that was drunk and he was driving, That's scary, Innit?

About everybody goes to the bar ends up driving. Zoom that just went overhead. Nobody's out arresting them but they know they're drinking when they come out of there.

Zoom, there it went again. And he was driving he went down a one way street the wrong way.

And an officer pulled him over and he said you're going the wrong way on a one way street.

He said, Didn't you see the arrow? He said, I didn't even see the Indians. Now, before you get mad, I'm 1/8 Cherokee. So if you'd have seen my grandpa, you'd have thought he was full blooded. He was half. My great grandmother was a full blooded Cherokee Indian, okay, so I can tell the story. And you don't need to pout about it. Just watch out for the Indians though, what I'm wanting to say.

And then when you're drunk, you'll say things and you'll do things and you'll go places. One thing about being drunk, I've never known anybody whose morals went up when they got to drinking. Do I need to repeat that. But you go places you get involved with people that you wouldn't get involved with if you weren't drinking. I've seen guys that got drunk, and they were mad drunks. They wanted a fight everybody. One walked up to a plate glass window, he was trying to fight the reflection in the window. Some are happy drunks they're just happy. And of course, there's those crying drunks, they just cry and whine and the elephant stepped on the grape and let out a little wine.

All kinds of drunks. But here's what I know, when you're controlled by a power other than your own, you'll do things you otherwise wouldn't do. And when you're controlled by the power of the Holy Spirit, you'll do things ordinarily, you wouldn't do either. You'll say things you'll do things thatfact of the matter, you'll be willing to be involved in things you wouldn't have done otherwise, you'd be willing to give when you wouldn't have. And I'll tell you why you're doing those things because you're controlled by the power of the Holy Spirit rather than your own self. Now, here's the thought. And this is not my message. It's just a thought. If you want to stay drunk, what do you gotta do? You got to keep drinking.

There's a message in that isn't there. And the way is stay drunks keep drinking. And the way to stay drunk in the spirit is to drink from the fountain that will never go dry. Just wanted you to know. Somebody said the problem with the average church in America is that we've sobered up. And we're not drinking from that fountain.

Want to keep drinking. Vance Havner said, when a person becomes a Christian, the average new convert nearly has to backslide in order to have fellowship with the ordinary church folk. Because he's all excited, and he's got to calm down so he'll fit in. Moving along. What's the results of being spirit filled? Well, it'll have an impact on every aspect of your life. First of all, it'll affect your worship life.

Ephesians, 5:18, be filled with the Spirit. And look at what the next verse says, Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. And it's amazing when we get spirit filled, we like coming to the house of God being with the rest of the Christians.

The old drunk goes down to the bar looking for fellowship, looking for his buddies, why wouldn't we want to gather in church with all of our friends that we've experienced life with, and want to continue? It's not like I have to go to church, we want to go to church, we're spirit filled, but it also impacts our wedded life. And I've come to the conclusion if you can be a Christian at home, you can be a Christian anywhere.

Dad, does mom take the kids to school at your house? Most of the time. And then once you're great while you take the kids and Susan says to mom, Mama, why is it that all the idiots are only out on the day that Dad drives?

22, Wives submit yourselves to your own husband. You mean I gotta submit to him, How can I do that? You can't without the power of the Holy Spirit. You're gonna rebel at it, you're gonna dislike that, in your own strength you can't do it, but you can do it through the power of the Holy Spirit. And then it goes on. It didn't stop there should have but it didn't. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church. Now why does the Bible tell the husband to love his wife? Why didn't the tell the wives to love the husbands?

Because if a husbandwill love his wife everything else will pretty well fall into place. You say well, how can I love her as Christ loved the church only through the power of the Holy Spirit. And if your spirit filled and your made spirit filled, your marriage is going to make it, and if both of you are in the Spirit and you pray about it and you work at it, things will get better. By the way, it will also affect your work life. Think of Ephesians, 6:5, servants be obedient to them, they're your masters. Am I suppose to like my boss? Well, you're to treat your boss as though you were treating Christ.

Well, I don't like her, I don't like him, How can I do that? You can't, except through the power of the Holy Spirit, and then it affects your war life. We're in a battle. Just read right on in the next chapter, Chapter six, Verse 12, we are also not against flesh and blood, but principalities, against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places. It's saying here that we're in a battle. And you and I are no match for the enemy, only through the power of the Holy Spirit. Because greater is He that is in you that He that's in the world. Now, this is not a Baptist thing, it's not a Methodist thing, it's not a Pentecostal thing and it's certainly not a Nazarene thing.

But it's a biblical thing. We need God's power, we need God's presence, more than we need the latest technology or the greatest books that can be written. We need to experience the spirit filled life. Charles Spurgeon was asked once, how do you accomplish so much? Why he said, because there's two of us.

And when you have the help of the Holy Spirit in your life, you will accomplish a whole lot more. Do you know that God has made no provision for you to live the Christian life only for him to live his life through you by the Holy Spirit. So what's the steps? I'm gonna close.

Recognize your need. And unless the holy spirit fills then the human fails, recognize your need takes humility, and whatever that vise whatever that addiction, whatever that struggle is that you're dealing with, you can overcome it. Guy said the other day to me, he said, I've battled this thing of pornography for years. What do you think I said, it'll never get better, it'll only get worse. The only way you will ever get power over it is through the Holy Spirit living in you. He's greater than any temptation. He'll stand up when you would fall. And when you falter, he'll stand up on the inside and help you to be strong, we'll only overcome through him. Then, secondly, confess all known sin. And the Holy Spirit is just like his name. He's holy, He's holy. You say well I don't know if I've got any sin, well just talk to some of your family members.

They'll help you to understand what you're ignoring. And then yield yourself to God. The only way to get more of God's give God more of you. And then ask God to fill you. I believe the power of the Christian life is the Holy Spirit. He's a person.

All your education, all of your ability, it will not suffice without the Holy Spirit. You can't be the husband that you need to be. You can't be the wife that you need to be. Now I brought my gloves I just found out I've had these for a year, if you need to borrow them. You look pretty cold out there. You that still not asleep? I just found out these are magic gloves. These are magic gloves.

Now it's the Lord's days, so I can't sell them. But I can tell this glove touch my nose. Magic.

I can say to these gloves, gloves, raise my hands.

And they do. And I can say to these gloves, cross my arms and they do. You say Pastor, that's crazy. I know. There's no such thing as magic gloves. I know that too. It's what's on the inside. It's who's on the inside. And if you let the Holy Spirit on the inside, he'll begin to adjust your life the way it needs to be adjusted.

That's what I've been trying to teach you for the last 30 minutes. It's whats on the inside, the power. He dwelleth it says in you. Nine years of age. Mom and dad's bedroom, my brother sound asleep not convicted at all. I was so convicted. I thought I would die that night and if I did it believed I'd fall into hell and I woke up mom and dad and I said, Can we pray? Mom and dad hadn't been a Christian, even six months and immediately mama sensed the fact that God was dealing with my heart. She said, What do you want to pray about?

I said, I don't want to go to hell. And I feel like if I die right now, she said, you need to ask Jesus to come into your life. Now I knelt down and mom on one side and my dad on the other side, and I just begin to cry, and they begin to pray. And I didn't know how to pray. But I just invited the Lord God into my life. And the Spirit of God came to my life. A few years passed and it was a Christian school up in Anderson, Indiana.

And my brother and I, we enrolled and we had to stay on campus, and they had a dorm and girls dorm, boys dorm, and faculty dorm, and there was a revival going on. And a guy by the name of Sutherland was the Evangelists. I've never heard anybody preach like him. He was all thunder and wrath and he preached that we could be cleansed and filled with the Spirit. I'm sitting back there with all these boys from the school on the back seat and didn't seem like any of them was bothered by anything. But I was.

Suddenly I realized all the inconsistency, the struggles that I was having with with the dorm director, his name was Slaughter, what a name. He had struggle over me fact of the matter. years later, he wrote from the mission field and said, I'm trying to allow the Holy Spirit to come into my life. And he pointed out how angry you used to make me would you forgive me? All of us have our struggles, don't we? And the Holy Spirit begin to point out shortcomings and I stood there among those other boys. And I thought I gave my heart to the Lord when I was nine, and suddenly it just seemed like the Holy Spirit said, but I want to fit into your life. Kind of like that hand in the glove. I want to fit in, I want to impress I want to influence. Would you let me come in and dwell in you? And I shoved past Jerry and shoved past John and got out onto an aisle started down the aisle. I didn't care what anybody else did. I wanted the Holy Spirit.

About that time, things begin to break and John came and Jerry came and some of the other students started down the aisle as well. And I'm saying to you this morning, if you're dealing with a lot of struggles, and everything seems to be an uphill battle, you deal with this shortcoming of that, and you need the power of the Holy Spirit to help you to live it.

He's available in this service this morning. For us, for you.

If you want that marriage to work, you want that work pattern that you're in to work, this war that we're in with the devil and all that's happening and we're seeing reflections of it over in the Holy Land right now.

Everywhere you look, there's a battle on and it's not just a human thing. It's this was satanic battle. And I'm not big enough against the enemy. But there's one that I invited in, it's the Holy Spirit, and He's big enough that he can give us a peace right in the midst of all of the storm that's raging on every side.

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.