Voice of the Nazarene 7-16-23

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 joined our Pastor Ray Lasalle and the voice Samuel Chapter 30 and I want to begin reading at the first verse of the Nazarene and it came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag and smitten Ziklag burned it with fire. Who did it?

The Amalekites. King Saul previous king was told to utterly destroy all of the Amalekites and everything they had wipe them out. Take away their memory. The Bible said that he spared the best and I want to tell you something folk. If we don't deal with some of the things that are weak in our lives, and utterly destroy them those same characteristics will trouble the next generation.

Somebody's got to break the chain. It's headed where they burned it to the ground. They had taken the women captives that were there and they slew not any either great or small, but carried them away and went on their way. So David, and his men came to the city and behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.

David's two wives were taken captives Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal, the Carmelite.

David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved every man for his sons, for his daughters. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. David said the Abiathar the priest Ahimeleeh's son, I pray thee bring me hither the ephod. Abiathar brought the ephod to David. And David enquired at the Lord saying, shall I pursue after this troop?

Shall I overtake them? And he

for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. I'm continuing the David series for a moment this morning. Jotted down a few thoughts if God will help us maybe, it'll take hold and mean something to you. David could not encourage himself with the conditions, they could not have been worse. He had left his family and left everything he possessed, fled for his life.

Even got out of the will of God, and has joined the enemy, the Philistines. 16 months his gone.

And he left something behind.

Now when he returns, he sees smoke rising into the sky. And when they crest the hill, he sees that the smoke is the smoldering remains of his home and his city. He and his 600 men have no home to go to no families, they're all taken.

Fact of the matter, David's two wives were gone. Ones name meant grace, the others meant joy. You know what hell wants to take from you. It wants to steal your joy. It wants to take away your hope and your future and wants to rob the grace of God out of your life. Things could not have been any worse. He could not encourage himself in the conditions. And then you come to verse six, and it talks about the men turning on him. He couldn't encourage himself and his companions for they're talking about stoning him. And you know, things haven't changed much over 1000s of years. When things are going good, God gets the credit and a couple people around the church and if they go lousy, let's stone the preacher, let's beat the preacher up.

Their kids are gone and so they're broken. And they've turned on David. So what did David do? The Bible said that David encouraged himself in his creator. He encouraged himself, it says, in the Lord. Now to get back what you've lost, you've got to go back to what you have left. And David returns back to what he had left. And he's realizing now what he had lost.

You know, the church doesn't need new doctrine. We don't need new teaching, we aren't needing new revelation. I believe if we need anything these days, the holiness crowd needs the supernatural. We need a movement of God, we need a breakthrough.

I was reading over there and

26. And the king of Moab sought to break through.

The Bible said he could not. He sought for a breakthrough and he could not. Verse 27 says, He took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead and offered him for a burn offering.

I looked at that. And I thought, listen, if we don't cry out to God for a breakthrough, the devil is going to destroy the next generation. If we don't get a breakthrough in the supernatural, and the miraculous and the unexplainable we're going to sentence the next generation to spiritual suicide.

For all we're going to have as a religious club, a social gathering. We have the doctrine, we have the theology, we understand the movement of this thing, but we're doing it without the anointing of God, just another club along the highway. Now, I believe the holiness movement is in danger of becoming a movement that doesn't want the supernatural.

That doesn't want a divine interruption or intervention of God, that we don't want the Spirit of God to take over because we're afraid we might lose control. Devils always been a liar. This is how we were born into this thing. And I believe we need an operation of the Holy Ghost. We need something to happen around the church that even the young people will be asking the adults, and we'll have to admit we can't explain it. Why? Because God has visited. And to get back what you've lost you gotta go back to what you have left. And what did you leave? Did you leave maybe the desperation that we once had? Have we left some of the glory? Have we left our prayer life? Have we left our desire?

Have we left our hungring and thirsting after righteousness?

Now, I'm not talking about emotionalism. I'm talking about literally seeing the loss come to Christ. I'm talking about a turn around in lives. I'm talking about chains being broken. I'm not talking about leaving the doctrine. I'm not talking about leaving the teaching. I'm not talking about leaving theology, but if we're not careful, we'll settle for doctrine with no visitation of God. And doctrine without demonstration is frustration.

Doctrine with demonstration and visitation becomes trance formation. And that's what we need. We need the word and we need the Spirit. Let's not settle down for any rut or get used to that. Let's ask God move on us. Don't come and say move me if you think you can preacher. Singers move us if you think you can. But if we want God to move, we need to move. If we want God to act, we need to start acting. Now. I've been around the holiness movement ever since I've been a boy and you wonder how long ago that's been. I do too at times. This has been my family. I love this crowd. I put my life into this thing called the holiness crowd.

I've given 23 years as an evangelist traveling and traversing the nation and outside of it. I've given more than 33 years full time pastoring and pouring my life into this. I want it to happen.

I want God to come. I believe there's something different about a holiness crowd than all the other religiosity out yonder and other kinds of movements and churches. I'm not a fiving them I'm not against them. But I believe there's a spatial anointing the holiness crowd had. They were my crowd. I've tried to raise budgets. I've been pastoring now more than 33 years. I've paid every budget, with the help of the people probably raised more than $5 million for the support of the district and the general church and our educational system and the mission fields in our local gathering. Paid off mortgages and tried to raise money and we're one of only 20 some churches in more than 55 years that has paid all budgets and been a 10% church.

But we're missing something.

There's a lack of anointing, and it was really bothering me.

There's a lack of the power of God and powerful preaching, and there's a lack of burden. And I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and be satisfied to watch this thing just become a theological institution. I believe we need a divine interruption of the Holy Ghost.

Jesus said, Without me, ye can do nothing. But we want to look back at God and say, You want to bet on that? Look at the buildings that we can build and look at the colleges that we can put up at and look at the cute little services that we can put on. Are you impressed? God is saying you can't cast out any Devils on your own. You can't heal anybody on your own. How many drug addicts have you changed? How many alcoholics have you brought in and seen him transformed? Without me, ye can do nothing. Paul said I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. I'm trying to say to you and I that without him we're weak and can't handle it. Now I know we have moved into a sophisticated age, we've got our iPhones and iPads and it's all about I, I, I. And I'll tell you what. God's not very impressed with all of our emails, he only answers knee mails. And this time we get back on our knees and say, God, visit us again, come on our services, let the new generation see what it was that called us out. I'd rather be out under the stars preaching and have the anointing of God, that in a nice building, and no anointing, and no move, and no prescence. Back in the early beginnings, it said in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. And God said, what I'm trying to say to you, God is saying, If you don't let me move, I don't talk. I have nothing to say if I can't have freedom to move. And the outstanding thing about us in early beginnings was not just our doctrine. It was the fact that we allowed God to move among us. And God began to say things to us. God told us stuff.

God inspired us. God gave us songs to write and sermons to preach and things begin to happen. Paul warned that in the last days, it'd be just a form of godliness denying the very power thereof. Now, I believe in morality. But that shouldn't be a substitute for the reality of God. Sometimes, if we're not careful, it can be a safety zone. You know, I don't drink and I don't chew and I don't run with women that do and it's just a safety zone that we're good people. But what I'm trying to say that's not it, when's the last time that God moved in your house and in your family and moved on you? You know why we always come and sit in the same seats? Because nothing happens there. And we kind of feel safe.

And I'm just simply saying we need something to happen. Acts chapter four, verse 31, and it says, when they had prayed, the place was shaken, where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they begin to speak the word of God with boldness. Now the Bible I'm getting back to my passage, I got away from it, didn't I?

That's where you were, and so I was going for you. But the Bible said the David's home was Ziklag and the enemy and invaded taken his wives and his kids and his trinkets and his toys and everything that he had, and he's scared to death. And listen, the reason he lost something was because he left something. What did he leave? He left his trust in God and according to First Samuel 27 verse one, he had gotten tired, and weary from running from that insanely jealous, crazy King Saul, who sought for his life at every turn. He had run for months and months and months, hiding out in caves he and his 600 men, but now he's weary. And he says, There's nothing better for me to do but to escape to the land of the Philistines, that's the enemy. And Saul will get tired of me. And what he was saying is God, I'm gonna leave you as my Savior. And I'm going to save myself how many of us have done that? When things didn't work in our live, we tried to work it out, pray a little bit and didn't wait for God to answer and we try to answer ourselves.

Abraham did that. Try to have offspring if you remember. And when you choose to save yourself, you lose the overshadowing presence of God.

And if it's been a long while since you heard his voice, you need to ask yourself, what have I lost? What did I leave that caused this to happen? Did I leave my joy? Did I leave the prayer room? Did I leave reading the word? What did I leave? You know a joyless believer is literally an insult to God. I mean, to live with no joy, and here your sins have been forgiven. Your name has been written down in that great Lamb's book of life. Do you know you're going to the New Jerusalem where the Lamb is the light, and you don't have any joy? Listen, you may not have everything else going for you in life. But if you have joy, it's just good to be a Christian. And the promises of God are not self fulfilling. God goes on record.

He said, This is what I'm going to do. Now. What are you going to do to make it happen? That's where David is. So David turns around as cities burn, everything's gone. And he said, Shall I pursue? Shall I pursue?

He only asked two questions. But God gives him three answers. God said, pursue for Thou shall surely overtake them. And without fail, recover all. Now, he didn't ask to recover. He just said Shall I pursue and here's our problem. You're never going to possess, what you're unwilling to pursue. And we can sit there all we want to and say we believe in this, we believe in that, but you've got to go after it. If you want the presence of God, and you want the direction of God, and you want to see your kids saved, you got to go for broke. And so you got to reach for it. You'll never possess what you're unwilling to pursue. And you will never pursue until you're persuaded that it's available.

So he said Shall I pursue, shall I overtake? And God said, pursue, for you're going to overtake and you're going to recover all. And he takes off, chasing what he had lost. And he'd only lost when he left his confidence and distrusted God, frustrated over his problems, he's trying to fix things. Now to get his attention the Lord allows the enemy to burn down his home and his city. Now, I didn't finish reading the rest of the story. He pursues after the enemy. And there's some real interesting things in that chapter if you want to study it.

But on his pursuit, he finds where the enemy is. And as they come over the hill, in the evening, the fires are burning all over the place, and the enemy is dense. And I'm gonna just read it or you'll think I'm making all this up. Part of its true. Verse 16, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken from the Philistines and from the Jews. Now listen, the enemies party is over your pain. The devil rejoices when you've lost something. And I think it's time that we get a little angry at the adversary that's stolen. Here's what I'm trying to preach to you. I want the stuff back. I want my joy back. I want God back. I want my determination back. I want my faith back. I want my kids back.

I want my marriage back. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Have you lost something and you need it back, your hunger, your thirst after God. If you've lost the power of God, the joy of God, you ought to want it back.

Now I'm thinking of Samson as an illustration, first of all, because he had left his morality and he's no longer telling the truth. He's violating his vows.

And he's sharing it with a harlot and Delilah is in the sack with him. And he's laying there with that cheap slut having what he thought was a good time. He'd forgotten about the hand of God forgot about the anointing of God, and he's gotten a crew cut. He lost something and he didn't even know what he had lost. The Bible said he wished not that the Spirit of God had departed from him. He had lost something and didn't even know that he lost it. I don't know of anything any more dangerous, because it's keeping our vows that make a difference. You're not even aware that you lost something, it's when you need it, you're aware of it. You don't need it when it's calm, you need it in a crises. And when you're in a crises for your life like Samson was, it's too late to find it.

They cut his hair off, put his eyes out, put him in a dungeon, they have him grinding. And the Bible said after a period of time, his hair began to grow.

And God began to come back. And the Bible said they brought him out to make sport. And they bring him out. Here's this one had killed 1000s he'd beat the Philistines at their own game, he could take the jawbone of a donkey and slay 1000 Philistines and they were giants. And they feared him. I think hell ought to fear us. I don't want hell to think I'm on their side. I want them to know my name just like they did Paul. I want them to know the name of this ministry.

I hope we haven't lost that something. And they bring him out to make sport, they have a lad lead him since he can't see.

And he says to the lad, would you lead me over to the great Colosseum. 1000s of the Lords of the Philistines are there to make fun of him. And he says I want you to lead me to the two pillars that is holding this great colosseum up so I can lean against them. And the lad leads him over to the pillars and he puts his hands up against them.

And I think there's a little revelation there. I believe we need to raise up a younger generation to help the older generation. I've expressed to the board one of the greatest concerns that I have as a pastor. I said before I ever leave here. I'm concerned if we don't get some of these younger generation young guys who are about 30 and 35 and 40. If we don't get them to become a part of the church and learn leadership and get involved, we're not going to have a board in five or 10 years. It's time some of the young people need to step up to the plate to help the older generation. They put his hands against the pillars. And he said Lord would You remember me one more time? I don't know how many times I have prayed that I've been in my office and pray well God forget all the past would you just help me one more time? I know I'm in the human I know I'm just a preacher boy but if I don't have your anointing I'll walk out I'll lay an egg. I need the anointing of the Holy Ghost just one more time. If I failed you forgive me but please don't leave me alone.

And don't let me walk out and stand in the pulpit without your anointing please God and he said would you remember me? I know I messed up God I know I've embarrassed you and I've insulted myself and I know the enemies laughing. But just one more time would you give me a pay day for my eyes. And he killed more, destroyed more, did more for God in that vital moment then he had done in his lifetime. While he was there, what he lost came back. And I'm here to tell you I don't care what you've lost or how long you've lost it. If you get real honest and admit to God, it's gone. God will restore God will give it back to you what you've lost. So here's David at Ziklag.

He's weeping. He's crying. He lost everything trinkets, toys, his retirements, gone all the 401 K's all the CDs, everything's gone and everybody has turned against him and want to kill him. And he encouraged himself in the Lord and said, Shall I pursue? Listen. He had been away from Ziklag for a year and four months, 16 months.

He left something and in leaving something he lost something. Did you know during that 16 months, he never wrote one Psalm. I know there's 150 Psalms. He's credited with it 3000s Psalms but in this or Solomon was but he had written at least 75 of the Psalms. But during that 16 month period, there's no record in the Chronicles in the Judges, in the Samuels, in the Book of Kings. Not one record of any prayer that he prayed any worshiping that he done any song that inspired Listen, when you miss the will of God, the music stops. The song stops, harps get hung on the willow tree and victory is gone. So he makes a return. I don't want to be like Saul and have God's say, I repent that I ever made you a king. I don't want God to say I'm sorry that ever called you to preach. God said in Malachi one, the Lord said to Israel I have no pleasure in you, they we're redeemed they were in the covenant. And God was saying, I don't like hanging out with you.

I don't like your attitude. I don't like your spirit. And listen to me when God withdraws from us. God fills all time and space, so there's no place for him to go he's everwhere. So when God withdraws, he takes away his guidance, and his favor, and his anointing and his answers to your call. When God withdraws. I'm glad when He convicts, I'm glad when He speaks in conviction, Are you?

It's the voice of God saying you're better than that. It's God waking us up in the night and saying LaSalle, I don't hear much from you now and I don't like your attitude. You've let the problems override my power.

And all you can think about is a few adversaries and you're no longer spending any time with me. You're better than that. I start returning and say, Oh, God, I need you. Forgive me, for getting my mind on other things being loaded down God, I just humble myself before you. And suddenly there's a fresh anointing and a fresh drive and a fresh motivation. Three times in Samuel it said that David recovered all, three times. Now what part of all are you struggling over? All means all.

If you really want to return, God said, I'll give it all back.

I'll give you your praise, and I'll give you your song. You've got to find what caused you to leave what you've lost. And I'm saying that we need to go back to what we left to find what we lost. It's Luke chapter two. And it's Passover time. And so Joseph and Mary take young 12 year old Jesus along with him and they journey to the great city to Passover. And when the Passover had ended, Mary and Joseph just suppose and I think we suppose too much we just suppose what we ought to be spiritually. We suppose the Lord's with us, We're supposing God's still gonna anoint us, we just suppose supposition. They headed off and they'd gone a day's journey before they realize Jesus wasn't there with him and when he's not with you, you've lost him he's not there.

Doesn't take a scientist to figure that one out. This seems to be the only place in the scripture where God sanctions going back. We say don't backslide. Don't go back on God.

Don't go back to the world. But I want to say if you wake up one day, and you find God's missing, I'm saying you better go back to find him. The Bible said they went back, they'd been gone a day's journey, however long they may have been, but they went.

And let me say this, they assumed that he was among their friends. I don't care how dynamic and how spiritual the church is, you've got to have God for yourself. You can't have a relationship with God by proxy. You've got to know him.

The church can't bail you out every time you get into spiritual trouble. Preacher, doesn't have a good enough sermon to preach you out of your jams every time. You've got to know God for yourself. And they found him down there in the temple. I'm glad he was at church. I want God to be here. I invite him to you, let's invite Him, God be with us. Jesus is there 12 years old talking to those scholars. They had more degrees than a thermometer. And it was there they found what they had left. Can I ask you something? Have you lost something? Where did you leave him? I hope the holiness crowd never walks away from morality and modesty and righteous and the holy living. Let's always follow that too. I'm out of time. So let me land my boat.

I'll skip some. You know, when a business begins to lose money, you know the first thing they do? They go back to their founding principles of why they started. When a ball team loses game after game after game, they get into the locker and the coach holds up a football and said this is a football. Have you ever seen one?

He takes him back to the fundamentals. When a marriage flounders, you've got to go back to what it was that brought you together, the romance, the integrity, the respect that you had. Got to go back to what you left to find what you lost. And the only reason that David got back what he lost is because he went back to the God that he had left. He'd stopped praying, he'd stopped singing, he'd stopped worshiping, he'd quit psalm writing. And when you leave God alone, he'll leave you alone.

God may be withdrawing for he said in Hosea Chapter five, Verse 15, I will go and return to my place till you acknowledge your offences and seek my face in their affliction. Surely they'll seek me early. I'm glad that when God withdraws, he always kind of whispers but I'll leave the door open.

You can come back. You can come back. King Saul lost the voice of God, the protection of God, Why? He left God when he became disobedient and rebellious. And when we leave God and His principles, we lose God.

The young preacher boy was helping build that college. Back in the I think the Book of Kings, he had borrowed an axe.

And when he went to swing it to cut down a tree, the axe head flew off. We lose a lot of things when something flies off the handle, don't we? We kill her influence, hurt the name of Jesus, when we throw that little fit or whatever. But it went into the Jordan River and sank.

And the old prophet came over and he said, if you can tell me where you left it, I'll help you to recover it. Now, I believe there's enough God in the house this morning. If somebody wants to recover what you've lost, you'd say pastor, we're not having the prayer life in our house and we can sense it in our relationships. Preacher I'm not where I ought to be this morning, and I've lost something. And I need to recover it I need to come back to where I was before I left off, going my own way doing my own thing.

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.