Voice of the Nazarene 8-20-23

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 talk about being fruitful and to do that we need the Holy Spirit to share with us the fruit of the Spirit. We hear people talk about have you received the Holy Ghost with the evidence of? And so next Sunday, I'd like to speak on Evidence That Demands a Verdict. And talk to you about receiving the Holy Spirit. I hope we have a great, great crowd. I'd like to answer some questions from the Bible perspective. Not the Methodists, Episcopalians, the Lutherans, Pentecost, the Baptist, the Nazarene, but what the Word of God says. And what the Word of God says is where we stand. We don't want to be outside of the word and we don't want to go beyond the word so don't miss next Sunday. How many remember a white bus that set out on the backside of the parking lot for a long time? Diesel bus, we got it out of Florida, and didn't use it that much. And mice were eating on the wiring and the tires are beginning to dry rot and some other problems. And when Stephen Parker was here, he pastors out in Salem, Virginia, powerful preacher. When he was here, he said, Man, we need a bus. And he had just opened up a campus in Roanoke, on a tough side of the city. He said if we just had a bus, they're begging for a bus. And the leadership gave to Stephen Parker and we want to remember him in prayer.

He's a fisherman, he's a hunter and he started fainting. And they got him into the hospital and the doctor said to him, Have you ever been bitten by a tick?

He said, I get bitten by a tick 20 times a year. What are you talking about? I'm talking about being serious. No joking. Have you been bitten by a tick? He said yes recently. Well, he said you got Lyme disease, and the top of his heart isn't sending signals to the bottom of the heart. What that causes is the heart to stop. And so it's very serious. And I ask all of our people remember Stephen Parker in prayer. But if you'd like to see that bus just for a moment on video and to see how it's being used. And here are some of the reasons why, I want you to run that video clip for us.

Remember the bus? Begin to count them there is a limit on this, pretty soon you'll count them.

Take your shoes off now. Keep counting.

I got a little text from Steve and he said, Preacher they were standing in the aisles. I know they were that bus is not made for that capacity. There were not enough seats. And I think they're going to start making two runs. So, these are good days, aren't they? And I'm so glad to see that bus in great use. When Emma was singing, what was some of the main words? Just think about it. Just think about it. Did you hear some of the licks on the guitar from Howard?

Yeah, I was impressed. And anybody that likes good music, you should have got excited.

Thank you, three of you. I'm reading from John chapter 15, beginning in verse one, I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh

John 15 · chapter mention

and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide

no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Fruit, more fruit now much fruit, for without me he can do nothing. Billy Graham said the largest package in the world is a man that's wrapped up in itself. You ever seen people that's even strut when they sit, that think it's all about them?

What a package. And yet the Bible said without me ye can do nothing. And the very secret to fruitfulness is with him. If you don't have him in your life, you're not going to be fruitful.

Without me ye can do nothing.

And I believe all of us can be fruitful in some capacities. I

5, I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. Now, I appreciate fruit bearers. And what God wants all of us to be is fruit bearing. He didn't say do fruit bearing but be fruit bearing. Got a lot of folk think you can do a lot of works but it's being in Christ being in the vine that our life produces fruit. And I've come to the conclusion that there's a lot of people in the church that are not fruit bearers, church at large. Fact of the matter, all they do is just come and consume. Did you know that 50% of the people that go to church never put a dime in the church?

Marry me and marry me and whatever hatch and match and dispatch. But they never put a dime in the church. When it comes to giving they stop at nothing. They're just fruit consumers. What have you got to offer us, you got something for the kids? You got something for the teens, you got something for us and you got something for Grandma and Grandpa, what do you have to offer? We're fruit consumers and I've been preaching now been around the church as a pastor 33 years and I've come to the conclusion that people are not only fruit consumers, but there's a lot of fruit inspectors. They come and they're always inspecting. They inspect the teachers, they inspect the music, they inspect the preaching, and they're turning the apple over this way and that way, seeing if they can find something. They're inspectors. Oh, I'm not a judge preacher. I'm just a fruit inspector. You're a fruit loop.

I heard about one family that had gone to church that Sunday morning came home sitting down around the lunch table. The father said that sermon was pitiful. Probably here. And the mother said well, the choir was awful. And the daughter spoke up and said that special song by that other girl was atrocious.

And the little boy said well, Dad for the dollar you gave I thought it was a pretty good show. Fruit inspectors. Then after pastoring for 33 years, I find that there's not only fruit consumers and fruit inspectors.

I've run across some fruit flies. What's a fruit fly? You know what a fruit fly is. They always show up when there's a lot of stink. If there's any stink, thing they show up. They just go right straight to it.

They kind of hunt it up, you know, drama mamas. And they look for some stink, you know, around the church, you know what I'm talking about. Don't sit there and act funny. And then, as I've already mentioned there's got to be a lot of fruit loops, they've just about over the years drove me to a fruitcake, I am becoming a fruitcake dealing with people. Here's what I know.

God wants us to live a fruitful life. And this is what God wants in your life. And that's why in Galatians chapter five, beginning in verse 22, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

against such there is no law. And that's what God wants for my life. And that's what God wants from your life, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. Hey, let me tell you something. If you have those attributes in your life, you will have positive results.

Because of you inject love, joy and peace into your life, to those around you, it'll change the society in which you live. I mean, if you inject love, peace, longsuffering and patience, you will have positive results. It will change the atmosphere, in your home, then the office, down there on the job and wherever you're at. Let me tell you something else. You'll have positive relationships, if you've got these attributes working in your life. I mean, how many of our marriages need a little bit more love, a little bit more peace a little bit more. Now, don't run the aisles.

We don't have any traffic cops here. We don't want any accidents. Will a little bit more longsuffering, a little bit more? How many of our marriages need more patience? Don't use that in the second sermon. Are you here? We could stand and put one hand up. Yeah, our marriage needs that. Hey, you could probably put both hands up all of us. We all need that love, that joy, that peace, that longsuffering and gentleness, all of that. Don't you love what Hudson Taylor said when he said, If your father, mother, brother, sister, even your cat and your dog in your house are not happy with you becoming a Christian?

The question is whether or not you really are one. Everybody is happier when you really get old time religion. You have these attributes in your life, you'll have positive results, you will have positive relationships and you will have positive reactions. I mean, if you're driving down the highway and everybody else is an idiot.

Everybody's stupid. Did you see that? And you're mad. Now, here's what I know. If you have the fruit of the Spirit in your life, rather than jumping into anger, you're gonna be moving into patience. You'll have these attributes and you'll have self control. And rather than submitting to all these habits and hang ups and strongholds and vices in your life, you'll find you'll have temperance, and you'll have self control in your life. Am I preaching yet?

You'll have positive results, you have positive relationships, you'll have positive reaction, but you'll also have positive reinforcement because what you're giving will be soon what you'll be receiving from others.

They'll want to be around you and will begin to take hold with them. And may I add you will have positive rejoice and look at verse seven These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, I need his joy not mine, my joy, he said, shall remain in you, and that your joy then might be full. And the secret is not to go out and seek joy. The secret is not to go out and seek happiness. The secret is to live a fruitful life, the byproduct of the Holy Spirit in our life is this peace, love, joy and all of those things. Now, there's four quick things I want you to see for a moment. Because if we're going to live a fruitful life, and that's God's plan for your life, God said, I want you to bear fruit. And not only that, but more fruit. And he moves on and says even much fruit. And if we're going to do that, then there's four things that we need to look at. First, we need our power source. Notice what the scripture said in verse one, I am the true vine. Now we start out, you know, young, and we think we're all of that and a bag of chips too. And in reality, it's all about Jesus Christ. It's not about us. It's about him. You see, he is our power source, your power source, my power. And that's why the Bible said, In Philippians,

13, I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. Because he's the vine. I think sometimes we're like the little mouse that got on the back of the elephant and the elephant went across creaky wooden bridge, and that thing shook all kinds of ways. And when they got the other side, the scared little mouse said, Boy, we sure shook that bridge, didn't we? Sometimes I think we think it's about us. And it's not about us. It's about someone that's in us. Greater is He that is in us, that he that is in the world. And I like Philippians

20, Now unto him that is able to exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to his power that work within us, he's able to do it through that power. Zechariah

6 says, It's not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. And so folk are strength, our power source is Jesus, because he's the vine, we're just a bunch of branches.

He's the vine. But verse one also says, My father is a husband. In other words, he's the vinedresser was that mean?

Pastor? It means he's the owner.

He's the owner. Now we're a bunch of branches, Jesus is the vine, God owns the vineyard. He owns the vineyard. Now I've got a few rentals, it's amazing to me when I get folk in some of those rentals, not everyone, but about 99 and a half percent. As far as their concern, the old boy's got the ownership. We just pay him his money and he can take care of it. We are renting cause we don't want to do anything. Don't matter if there's paper blowing out through the thing doesn't matter if they miss the trash dump, and they throw the bag in it goes over, they just walk off, doesn't matter if there's weeds around the front porch, it's a rental. And one day they come and say we're moving out. I said really, Where are you going?

Well, we bought a house. And it's amazing when you drive by their house, how well they take care of it. What are you saying pastor? I'm saying that God's didn't rent you God owns you.

God did not rent you God owns you and what a reality it is in our lives when we come to realize that God is our owner.

He's our owner, and we belong to Him. So our power source is the Lord and if God before us who could be against us? And I not only want to talk about the power source let's talk about the purging just for a while.

But look at verse two. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away ever branch that beareth purge with it, that it may bring forth more fruit and now you're clinging to the word was just spoken unto you.

Now, at one time in my life, I got really interested in an orchard and I put out 40 fruit trees. Boy did they ever produce over the next 10-15 years. I didn't have any two of the same kind. The apples were different, the Apricots were different, all of them were different. I had cherry trees, but among all of that I had what's called a grape arbor. Did you ever raise grapes? Now, I've raised red, green and blue seedless grapes.

I love seedless grapes, I hate spitting out seeds. Those seeds of those concord grapes you can already separate the seed from the meat. You need a crack between your teeth so you can get the seeds out. And I had a grape arbor and it was about four timbers long. And then it had another set on the other side and then I had timbers gone and you go walk under that grape arbor. Big ol four by six and four by eight timber. And then I ran wiring to help hold and my root stock it was about this size, and boy you talk about production. Now in order to do that I had a really prune it back. But boy, when it came time for the grapes, we had the biggest cluster of grapes you ever saw. I love grape juice.

Not after it gets old. I know what you're thinking I can read it here. Do you know what the grape said when the elephant stepped on it? It let out a little whine. I can read your countenance. And sometimes those big old cluster grapes would get so heavy they'd droop down to the dirt and would be getting in the dirt and I'd have to come along and spend some time lifting them up out of that and getting them all tied back up so I wouldn't lose the crop. But there were other times I'd have to trim them back and cut it off, they say in other words, it's called purging. Now we don't like to talk about that do we? That's not a spiritual thing that we get blessed by. But here's what's amazing. When you prune something, it means that you're cutting out the dead wood. And I researched this and when a vine connects to the branches right in that area a lot of times you get sucker shoots. They're kind of wild shoots, they're not a part of production. It just start shooting off. What they're doing the sucker shoots will zap the strength from the vine that shouldn't be going out into the branches and you're going to have less crops and smaller grapes. Your job is to come in there, if you're the vinedresser, if you're the owner, you need to cut those sucker shoots off. They're wasting the strength, they're not going to produce anything.

And sometimes God has to cut away some of those shoots in our life. Those that robs us spiritual strength out of our life, robs our time with God and prayer and with the reading of the word and just a lot of things that pull our attention.

God has to cut those things out.

May even have to cut out you know, sucker, Sam and sucker Samantha, and you look around and there's people in your life that are no longer there. What was God doing? He's trying to get you away from some things that are sucking you dry. And there's no spiritual production in your life and he's cutting the junk out of your life. You know want I've found? I've found that the purging the cutting is painful. It's hurtful. Sometimes we don't even understand it. And sometimes it doesn't make any sense that God's purging us.

Why? So that we'll produce more fruit.

It was all vines and the branches just go on and on and on. You don't do any pruning.

You're gonna have vines and a lot of leaves. You're not gonna have any fruit He wants more fruit and much fruit and so God's cutting and God's cutting and you begin to wonder when he's gonna quit cutting. Why?

Why did I lose that employment job, why did I not get that house that I thought we would get and why has some relationships going sour in my life? I got a call from a man whose dad used to pastor this ministry. He's a multimillionaire, he calls me every couple months. And the call this time was different than it had been in the past. He called and, man he said how you doing and I said fine, as far as I know. He said well it's been the toughest time in my life. I think he has about 50 rentals over somewhere there in Idaho and 30 some elsewhere and he's got a big camp grounds and he was telling me he had this group booked for this week and the next group another week and on and on, and the Nazarenes for the fourth time had canceled on him. And he said it left us sitting with all of our help and all the food bought. And he was bothered by it, I think I would be a little too. And then he'd had a house and a man he couldn't get the man out and the judge didn't move him out and he stayed on and wouldn't move out.

And before he moved he put gravel and cement down the drain, I shouldn't give you that idea. This landlord made a mistake telling you about that.

And it took $30,000 to try to dig that out. And when he got it all done, the city said we really want the line coming on the other side of the house another $30,000. And in the meantime, another house he had somebody broke in and poured paint green paint all over the tiled floor and the wall.

I said, Ron, are you learning any patience? It's just real hard. We want to react other ways.

He said, Well, you don't know anything about it. I do. I just had a fire in one of my apartment buildings. It meant, people have to move out. Means you're dealing with insurance problems. You find out what you're made out of whether you're really got all the fruit of the Spirit that you need. No wonder we need to pray all the time. Just fill me fill me just keep filling me. I'm leaking would you fill me? God's cutting. Then we don't always understand why didn't I get that promotion? Or why didn't I win that account? And why didn't my business succeed? And God's cutting away. But have you ever learned that God has too loving to be unkind and he's too wise to be mistaken. And when you can't trace his hand, you need to trust his heart. Lord, I don't understand. But you just keep on purging. Now I know there's a lot of cheap religious jargon out there, grab it and blab it. But I want to tell you something that stuff's not true.

Life can be tough. Sometimes we go through dark tunnels.

Sometimes we experience real deep disappointment. And sometimes the loads we carry are astronomical. And we talked about the power. We talked about the purging. Let's talk about the promise for a moment. I want you to notice he said If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. Now I want you to understand something. People will say you just pray and God will answer it. It really doesn't matter how you live and what you do, you can do your own thing. And hey, just just tell God and God is gonna jump to your tune. No, no, no, no.

That's not the way it works. You need to read this again. And there is a Greek word for that I was studying Greek the other day is called bologna. But God's not going to answer your prayer when you're out here, just doing whatever you want to do outside of him. Because if you read it again, look what it says If you abide in me, not outside of him, and his way and his will and his word. That word abide means to continue. You continue in me and my words continue to abide in you, then you shall ask. Now can I move to another vein before I close out? I think while all of this is happening, I think the devil tries to get into the vineyard too. He did back there and that other garden. Remember that? Well, if you didn't, Adam and Eve, they probably remember if you roll them over in their grave. The devil will come along and he doesn't want your life to be fruitful. He doesn't want you producing the fruit of the Spirit. He doesn't want to see you paitence, loving, kind and gentle. He'll do everything he can to make you a nervous wreck and mess up your testimony and make you to be a hateful if he can. He wants to cut you off from being fruitful. He doesn't want you to have an impact on other people's lives. He doesn't want you involved in ministry and the devil sees what your marriage can be. And he sees how your kids can really turn out was a blessing for the kingdom and he wants to cut it off early. He doesn't want there to be any fruit in your life. And the devil sees what you can be and wants to cut it now. And he sees what you're continually doing and how God can really use you. And he wants to destroy the possibility of a fruit in your life. He'll get you discouraged where you'll throw in the towel.

How many ever heard of Tony Evans? There's Tony. Tony Evans was in Bible school poor as a churchmouse. I guess that's poor. And he was studying for the ministry and times were rough and money was short. And finally his wife said, I think you ought to just drop out and quit. So Tony sat down, and he looked at his wife and he said, Honey, you think I ought to drop out and forget the ministry and quit. What would it take for you to stay in and just support me till I finish college? She said, Well, I'd be impressed if God would show up with $500 today.

I'd believe him and I'd support you. He went and knelt down in the other room. And he said, God, you know what it's gonna take. That's today. What he went out to the mailbox and pulled the lid down, there was only one little letter. And he opened the envelope, pulled out the note and it said God, laid it on my heart to get this piece of mail to you by such and such a date.

And there were five $100 bills.

I want to tell you something, the devil if he could, he'd like to cut off your fruitfulness.

You hang in there. God will always come through. There may be some purging, but God always comes through. And then I want to talk about our purpose. What is your purpose? And I want you to know something to start with fruit. We're fruit bears, and it moves from fruit to more fruit and then on to much fruit. Look at verse eight. Here is my Father glorified. Now how is this that you bear much fruit?

So, should you be my disciples, fathers glorified when we bear much fruit. Now, Why does God want us to bear fruit? So you can be glorified. And I want you to know something. I don't care if you're a plumber or if you're a preacher, Your job is to glorify God. I don't care if you're a street sweeper or if you're a surgeon. Your purpose is to magnify and to glorify God by doing what bearing fruit not doing fruit but bearing fruit.

And to bear fruit you got to be in the vine. And this is what I know. I want to live a fruitful life. Now I want you to look at verses six, seven and ten.

There's one word and every one of those it's the same. It's if, if, if a man abide not in me, he's cast forth as a branch and is withered, men gather them and cast them what was the cast did not their works the man cast him in the fire and they were burned. If you abide in me verse seven, my words abide and verse ten if you keep my commandments, if, if, if. Somebody said if's an buts were candy and nuts we'd all have a Merry Christmas. You see, if it must be then it's up to me. I've found about everything in life, if it was gonna happen I've got to get up and get on my feet and get off my duff and I gotta make it happen. And friend, you can be as close to God as you want to be. You can be as close to God as you want to be and none of us are crowding him any. Now I've been here 30 years, somebody the other day wanted to know if I had any regrets. I wonder why they asked me that. I've been thinking about been laying awake at night thinking about that.

Not very much though. And yes, I have I do. I've got some regrets. One of the regrets that I have over these 30 years is that I wish I'd preached more on being spirit filled. Spirit filled. Because if your full of the Spirit, you're going to have the fruit of the Spirit. I'm a lot more concerned about having the fruit of the Spirit in my life than the gifts of the Spirit. I'm not a very gifted guy, so I'm not all hung up on gifts. I don't need any gifts at Christmas. I tell my kids don't get me anything. I don't want anything. I got what I need. My birthday who wants to talk about my birthday? I don't need any gifts. I'm just old codger. I don't need any gifts. But I do need the fruit of the Spirit. Do you know that 70% of the pastors are living in depression?

Preaching is almost become mechanical these days. I want to tell you something. If you're down and defeated and discouraged, you're not anointed, becomes mechanical.

Do you know something? Your marriage needs the Holy Spirit.

Trust me, and I believe in accountability gives but on your own you can't quit some of the vices and the hang ups and the habits you've got in yourself, you need the Holy Spirit to help you to do that. You don't have the power to do that. You need the Holy Spirit. D L Moody used to pray. And he would say, fill me with your Spirit. Fill me with your Spirit over and over and over. Somebody asked him why,he said because I leak, I leak. And when you and I are in a world full of the world and the flesh and the devil, and it comes at us from every side, and it hits you this way and it hits you that way and all kinds of battles that you deal with mental and emotional and all kinds of temptations, you're gonna leak some. There's just kind of a process of evaporation. And you need continually filled with the Holy Spirit. We spend so much time in America just on the outside, don't we? We change the color of our wig. We put all kinds of things on our skin pores, we make our eyelashes longer and fingernails get longer. And we put this on and that on and we have this injected into us and we change your shape and everthing on the outside. And I want to tell you something. You will never be fruitful until you get someone on the inside and that's the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes, the fruit of that is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. That's the secret.

And at the end of the day, the only way to get more of God is to give God more of you. Anybody here want more of God? All you've got to do is give God more of you, that's it. God you can have more me you can have this area, that area and more of my time and God, you can have it all. And that's the way you get more of 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.