Voice of the Nazarene 6-4-23

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 Ray Lasalle and the voice of the Nazarene.

I'd like to just kind of take off on another series, with your permission. I want to talk to you about David, the life of David and see if perhaps we can find some things that we haven't known. And hopefully I can work Father's Day in there some way or another. I want to talk to you about David unlimited.

Someone said that there's more said about David in the Scripture than any other man except for Jesus Christ. And divine red tells us that Jesus is a direct descendant of the house of David. The lineage of David, and the one day would sit up His kingdom and would sit on the throne of David. There in First Samuel chapter 13, verse 14, the Bible said the Lord sought for a man, he sought him a man after his own heart. He wanted someone that had a heart for him, heart for God. And there in Acts chapter 13, verse 22, it says, And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will. And there's only one man and all of the Bible that it said was a man after God's own heart. Isn't that intimidating to realize we haven't quite hit that level? But I want a heart for God, I hope you do, as well.

1 Samuel 13:14 Acts 13:22

And here's what I want you to understand with all of that and that intimidation of such an example yet David had his highs, and he had his lows. He had his ups and he had his downs. Now God had rejected the first king ever, King Saul, to rule over Israel. It said in First Samuel

1 the Lord said to Samuel, how long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reining over Israel? So now God is sending the old prophet Samuel, the preacher, out to anoint a new king. And in this 16th Chapter, verse one, he said, fill thine own horn with oil, and go and I will send the to Jesse, for I provided to be a king among his sons, into verse six. And when they were to come, he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord's anointed is before me. And verse seven says, But the Lord said unto Samuel, look not on his countenance, nor the height of his stature, because I've refused him. Why?

Well, man looks on the outward appearance but catch this God looks on the heart. Isn't that good news, God sees our heart.

Did you know that barriers were set up to keep David from ever becoming the king over Israel?

It just seem as you look in his life that were barrier after barrier after barrier that he had to overcome. And did you know that you can overcome the limitations that others have put on you? There's a football player by the name of Tom Brady.

Tom Brady probably has played longer in professional football than any other player alive.

He's in his 40s. He announced his retirement and then kept on playing and I guess just made a announcement that he is retiring again here in 2023. The first part of this year he said he was and I don't know whether he is or he's not. He's the only player to have won seven Super Bowls. And four times in the Super Bowls was the most valuable player. He was voted the most outstanding quarterback in the history of football. And what's intriguing to me was when he was in college, he wasn't even sure that he would get into the draft. And when they started the various draft rounds, it went round after round after round. 198 players were drafted and his name never even came up.

He lost all hope. And then a phone call came and said, Mr.

Brady, you just in the sixth or the seventh round, you've been drafted as the 199th player and the team that has chosen you have listed you as the fourth string quarterback. And then to be voted the most valuable player in the history of football. How amazing. Then I thought about David. David, tender of sheep, kind of an artsy sort of a guy, a songwriter, an author, he played instruments, he sang. But he was also a giant killer. He became a king. But what I want you to know, didn't start out that way.

Because limitations were placed on David by a lot of people.

There are four different groups that place limitations on the life of David. First of all, his father, Jesse, placed limitations on him. And I want to make a statement that's worth the price of admission. There's something that all of your children ought to hear from you as a parent. If you're a parent, there's something you ought to say to your children. You ought to look them in the eye once in a while and say, you have what it takes. You're not telling them they can be anything they want to be in life, because that's the limit of what their gifts are. But they can be successful because you have what it takes. And especially from a father to his kids, once in a while, just to know that you're on their side. Now, there's life and death on the power of the tongue, so it's important what you say. God had rejected King Saul. He had become arrogant, disobedient. He had lost his humility, and he was doing things on his own, going his own direction. God said I'm done.

Samuel goes down to Jesse's house. And what's interesting, it seemed like Jesse knew the preacher was coming. He marches all seven of his sons and parades them out in front of the old prophet. Big boys, all of them soldiers in Saul's army.

But not a one of them was to be the next king, none. There stood the eldest, Eliab. He appeared to have walked right out of GQ magazine. He had it all. I mean, he entered the room and commanded the atmosphere, woman, their heart fluttered when they looked at the countenance. He was hot. He was good looking. He looked good in jeans, gals just like for him to walk away so they could watch. He had it all.

But you know what? God's not impressed with curb appeal.

God's not impressed with your eloquence, or how great your six pack looks. God's not impressed with Ivy League university degrees. Fact of the matter, I'm not even sure God gets really impressed with the denominational degrees. I set a couple years ago, out in Kansas City, and they had invited the pastors of the 100 largest churches in America, in the Nazarene movement. 29 were there. And there was some questions about production and reproduction from our universities and whether or why we're not whatever the question was, it's none of your business, I guess. At least they didn't think it was ours either. And the general superintendent said, I want every one of you who graduated a Nazarene University that put your hand up. Every hand in the house went up, but one and the general looked around the room and he looked at me and said, Well, I'm sorry, sir.

I wasn't sorry. We're still pastoring one of the best churches that we have in our denomination in case you don't know it. This is one of the great ministries we met might be one of the great secrets of the whole denomination. I don't know. I doubt there's very many of our churches that have a television outreach and radio outreach and livestream outreach, like Bucyrus Nazarene church has. God's not impressed with all of our resumes. God looks at the heart. God's looking at the heart. And that's when the Scripture said, Man looks on the outward, but God sees the heart. And here's the scripture that's so amazing. All of these sons paraded before Samuel and he shook his head.

No, no, no. And the old man wouldn't give up, Jesse, had all of his boys go by him a second time. There in verse 10. Again, Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord had not chosen these, that amazing verse, verse 11. And Samuel said to Jesse, is this all the boys, you've got? I'm giving it LaSalle's interpretation, you can read it for yourself, if it makes you feel better. That's why King James said it, you feeling better about that? Is that all the boys you've got? I thought God sent me here to anoint a king from out of your family. And God said no on everyone. And I would have thought Jesse would've said, Well, I've got one boy, he's outstanding. He's a sharp kid.

I've got him tending my sheep.

He's the one. No, he didn't do that. Prophet had to say, is there any others? Is there anybody else? And finally Jesse said, Well, there's kid David, he's the youngest. And he's the least and he's the last and he just keeps sheep. The old dad put a limitation, he didn't see any future for that boy, David.

He hung the stars on all the rest. And he left David out and left him out on the field, place limitations, and perhaps limitations have been put on you. But all I want to say is you can overcome the limitations. You can overcome any limitation, God's not destining your future on your size, or what college you attended or didn't attend or what family you grew up in. An article was entitled one right was wrong and two rights were right. It was about a Methodist preacher. His name was Bishop Wright. Bishop Wright was the speaker at a large Methodist ministry, convention and conference. And somebody turned to Bishop Wright and they said, Sir, we want your opinion. Are men meant to fly? You see another preacher just stood up and he said there'll be a day when man will be up in the air, he'll fly, he'll travel in the air and they said we want your opinion. Are men meant to fly?

And Bishop Wright said let me say something, flying is reserved for angels. If God intended men to fly, he would've put wings on them. He was so disgusted and he turned to his two boys and said, let's go. And so the two boys followed Bishop Wright, their daddy out of that convention. One's name was Orville, the others name was Wilbur Wright. One right was wrong and two rights were right.

And they produce the airplanes space travel. I want to say something folk, father Jesse put limitations on David but also his brothers put limitations on him. David was anointed king but there was a sibling rivalry. And the brothers became jealous. How many of you have ever had jealousy or heard of jealousy in a family? You've probably never heard of that, have you? If you ever get out of Ohio, you'll run into it. There's sibling rivalry. Now I preach funerals.

And I have preached funerals where they had fight at the funeral home too. But I've had funerals and few days later, I mean, the family had a falling out and problems, why? Because where there's a will, there's a relative. And apparently there was sibling rivalry because the Bible said in First Samuel 17:28. Eliab, that's the oldest, said to his younger brother, for they were in the army was camped down here and across the valley was the Philistines and the Israelites are here. And here's all of David's brothers, and they're part of this army. And there's a big giant standing in the valley and he's calling across send me your champion.

1 Samuel 17:28

And King Saul was trembling. The anointing of God was off of his life. The light had gone out. He wasn't hearing the voice of God anymore. He had been rejected.

And here's all the Israelites, the men are afraid they're in their tents. And David takes this wagon of food down to his brothers and he hears this giant, he said, Why don't somebody go out there and fight that old boy? I mean, he's too big to miss. Give me a rock. And they said, You're crazy. He said, well isn't there a cause worth fighting for? And there's something worth risking your theological net for. Won't somebody stand up to him? And Eliab had just been rejected in chapter 16. This was chapter 17, all the other brothers had been rejected. There was David 17 years of age, they watched the old prophet uncap the horn of the apothecary, and pour the anointing oil over him, and they're jealous. And Eliab said to him, and I'll give it to you in LaSalle version. He said, You're just a nosy kid. Why don't you to go back to your handful of sheep. Goodbye. I'll tell you who put limitations on David, it was his daddy. I'll tell you who put limitations on David, it was his brother's. And I'll tell you who put limitations on David, it was King Saul. You see, the kid said, I want to fight that giant and King Saul said to him in verse Samuel 16:32, Thou are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with thee, for thou art but a youth. And he's been a man of war since his youth. You're no match for the giant. And you know what I know?

Sometimes superiors can put a limitation on your future too.

Sometimes those who are in authority, don't see in you what God sees in you. And maybe God's got a plan for exceeds anything they've ever thought about in your future. I want to show you something just real quick like, there was a man named Clifton Herring. How many of you heard of Clifton Herring? All of you?

There's going to be an examination after a while. You better study up, get ready. Do you know why you never heard of Clifton Herring, because he was a basketball coach back in high school days. That cut high school player from the basketball team because he saw no future in Michael Jordan.

Everybody's heard of Michael Jordan. Nobody's heard of Clifton Herring. Because he put limitations on that boy's future. Let me give you another, how many ever heard of Jim Denny? Jim Denny was the manager for the Grand Old Opera. He chose stars and he put others down. You had to get past Jim Denny. There was a young guy that sang a little bit on the side drove a truck most of the time. And in 1954, they brought him on the stage he sang. And Jim Denny said to him, You ain't going nowhere, son, you probably better go back to truck driving.

His name was Elvis Presley.

You've heard of him, but you haven't heard of Jim Denny have you.

Not only did his daddy and not only did his brothers and King Saul put limitations on him but Goliath put limitations on him.

42 the Philistine looked about saw David he disdained him. You ever met people that are so disdaining? Who has the right to disdain anybody else. Who in high heaven do you think you are? You arrogant, nobody. For he was full of youth and rowdy and a fair countenance. The Philistine said unto David Am I a dog that you come out with a stick to fight me? You think I'm chopped liver? You're no match for me why Israel won't even give you a worthy burial, when I get through with you. Here's what I want you to see. There were all kinds of limitations put on David. Perhaps there's limitations put on you. You say, Well, Pastor, how can I overcome these limitations? Don't tell me any more about them. Just tell me how do I overcome them? Let me give you four things then I'll finish. First of all, God's opinion of you is more important than anyone elses. What everybody else says about you is not nearly as important as what God says about you. David knew that his daddy's opinion and his brother's opinion and King Saul's opinion and Goliath's opinion was not nearly as important as God's opinion of him. And here's what you need to see God's got a good opinion of you. You know, most people live their Christian lives thinking God is against them. We kind of take that into parenting. You know what parenting is, parenting is watching our kids, catching them and then punishing them. Parenting, watch, catch and punish. But I can tell you a better kind of parenting. It's watch your kids when you see him do something good, affirm them for it. Brag on them, build them up, don't take the air out of them. And we kind of think that's the way that God runs thing he's setting up in heaven, he's watching us and he's waiting for us to mess up because he wants to punish us.

We think that God is against us.

And may I say that God is for us. And if God be for us then who can be against us? We can take the giants and we can take it all if God be for us. Here's what I want you to see in Matthew, chapter three, verse 17, Jesus gets baptized, I still believe in baptism. He set the example he was baptized and and if you've confessed your sins, and you quit the sin business, and you've gotten right with Jesus Christ, we'd love to baptize you. Turn the faucet on.

Let's get the baptistry going.

Well, Jesus, I don't know if you know this, Jesus walked 30 miles out of his way to be baptized, must have been important. And when he was baptized, there was a voice from heaven that spoke, the father said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And then Jesus leaves that scene and he goes out in the wilderness, he's tempted by the devil. And here's what the

3, if thou be the Son of God. And here's what he said in Matthew 4:6, if thou be the Son of God.

Matthew 4:6

Just not but a little bit ago, God said, That's my beloved Son.

And now the devil said, if you're the son, that's the very thing he's going to say about you. He's going to get you to question who you are in Christ.

And the best thing you can do is take him right back to the Word of God, what God has to say about you, to as many as received him, gave he the power unto them to become the sons of God. The devil doesn't have any say, so. Doesn't have any say so. You say, Well, we got to tell ourselves positive things, no, no, no. We need to tell ourselves what the word of God tells us. I don't know if you've seen the movie Chosen. And I may not tell this exactly, right, okay. But they say it is a tremendous movie. And there was a young girl in it, who had no background, raised without parents, kicked around this way and that way, had no value in herself, had become addicted to drugs, and was at the end of life, suicidal, and somebody offered her hope. Read Ephesians one and two, just read Ephesians one and two. And she struggled to read Ephesians one and two.

The next time she saw that girl, the girl was all glow and spiritually healthy and mentally and emotionally on top. She said, what happened? She said, I did what you told me. You told me to read Ephesians one and two, you said it would tell me who I am in Christ. And so I read it. And I found I was created by God, and that he designed me. It told me that he didn't make a mistake when he made me and that his son died for me and so that I could be forgiven and he picked me for his own and that I'm chosen and he's redeemed me and that I am wanted. He showed me grace and I can be saved. He said he had a future for me because he loves me. And I don't have to wonder who I am anymore, I'm a child of God. The devil will try to get you to question who you are.

Here's the second thing you need to do. You be faithful right where you are. Do you know why God used David to such a great extent? Because he was faithful to those sheep. If you can't be faithful to the little things behind the scenes when the blinds are pulled and nobody's watching, if you can't be faithful, then God can't use you elsewhere. If you do what you can with one you have where you are, God will not leave you where you are, but he'll increase what you have. Anybody hear me? If you do what you can with what you have where you are, God will not leave you where you are, but he'll increase what you have. So they anointed him king and he became a great king. No, you haven't read the rest of the story. He was anointed to be king, but it was 15 years later, before he became king. Persistence is what got the snail on the ark. You got to be faithful, persistent.

Couples get married today and within four years, they want to acquire everything their parents took 40 years of marriage to acquire. And here's all I'm gonna say. He was just faithful in keeping those sheep. If servings beneath you leading will be above you. Here's the third thing. Don't underestimate the power within you. Are you talking Tony Robbins stuff? No.

I'm talking biblical teaching.

Where did David get the confidence that he had when he faced Goliath? Do you ever wonder? He's about five foot seven at the most. This giant stood around 11 feet or so. He was twice the height of this kid. He's only 17, he don't even own a sword. About all he's got is that slingshot and he picks up some stones on his way down through the brook and into the valley to face the giant. Where did he get the confidence to face this giant? Did you know that David never called him a giant? David called him uncircumcised Phillistine. Now in the Hebrew culture, circumcision was the blessing of God upon your life. David knew that Phillistine did not have God's blessing on his life. And he knew that, but he knew that he did. You say well, why can't I believe God to do great things through me? And why should I believe that he will? Well, I believe God's got a wonderful plan for you as your pastor. I believe God wants to do something supernatural through every last one of us in the house, and those watching. First

13, Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed David in the midst of his brethren.

And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. What made all the difference? The Spirit of the Lord. What will make all the difference in my life pastor?

The Holy Spirit. We've got to be filled with the Spirit. We've got to walk in the Spirit. We've got to be led by the Spirit. We need to lean into the Spirit.

There's no power for ministry.

There's no power for anything outside of the Holy Spirit.

Corrie Ten Boom said the human spirit fails except when the Holy Spirit fills. The human spirit fails except when the Holy Spirit fills. You can rise above your limitations, number four. And when you do you'll help others also. Well nobody in my family ever. Yeah, but you could be the first. I don't think I can. You can. I'm too late. You can start right now.

Do you know how many giant killers were in Saul's army?

Zero. Do you know why? Saul never killed any giants. You can teach what you know, but you can only reproduce who you are. Do you know how many giants were in David's army? Four. Why? Because David was a killer of giants.

Billy Graham said, when a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others get stiffer. When you overcome the limitations in your life, you help others to do the same. It may mean looking at that boy of yours and saying, Dad was able to overcome that habit, you can too. And it may be that they'll see your life and they'll look at you and say, well, if mama could do that I believe I can to. I love to study presidency. And that history, and I do a little bit of it on the side, every chance I get. It's always so intriguing to me. John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States. His father was the second president. John Quincy Adams, when he finished his presidency, ran for Congress and served in Congress for 17 years after he had been President. He was a very persistent guy and he kept shoving legislation trying to push legislation through.

Things that he thought was important and American needed to make some changes on and he would bring it up and they would table it and he'd bring it up the next time and they would table it again. 80% of those in Congress owned slaves. And he kept bringing legislation in to abolish slavery, lost it ever time, couldn't get it through.

By the time he was 80 years of age, he died on the floor of Congress. He never did get it passed. He believed that all men ought to be free. But not 30 feet from the desk of John Quincy Adams was the desk of a young congressman who had watched the fight that was in that old man and the persistency of that old man. 15 years later, he freed the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation. His name was Abraham Lincoln. I'm simply saying you're going to rise above your limitations, and help not only you, but you can help others. Let's be overcomers by the blood of the Lamb of the word of our testimony and by our lifestyle that we live. Lets go out and break the bars of limitations.

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.