Voice of the Nazarene 5-27-23

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.

Talking on a series on prophecy or eschatology, and been here for 30 plus years, and never did a series on it, and there's a reason. We have so many visitors, so many new people coming. And most of them have not been exposed that much to the Bible. And I have done my best to give scripture for everything that we shared over that series, realizing that some folk will not understand, and it will almost baffle and scare them away. We have not meant to do that, would not do that on purpose. But still felt I needed to speak just for a few Sundays on the area of prophecy. I want to talk to you this morning about being influenced. And I'm reading from the pin of Solomon in Proverbs chapter one, verse eight, my son hear the instruction of thy father, forsake not the law of thy mother, for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head and chains about thy neck. What are the ornaments of grace?

Simply the instructions that your daddy gave while you were growing up and some of the concern and the rules and the advice given by mama. And on the other hand, they can be a chain around our neck, I'm talking about those instructions and what mama tried to advise you if you ignore those, it can be a noose, it can literally hang you. Now watch what happens in life firsthand, my son, same one that he was talking to in verse eight. My son, if sinners entice the consent thou not. If they entice you, if they draw you away, if they lure you, if they tempt you to get away from that instruction, or away from that sound advice, consent thou not.

Let's talk about influence for a few minutes, the power of influence. I'm reading from out of Proverbs and there are 31 chapters that make up this book.

What is a proverb anyhow, preacher? Well, it's a bit of advice. It's a saying, it's a strong sentence of advice. Maybe a short sentence, but it's lived out a long time of experience.

And Solomon is up in years when he pins these words. This book is simply about having common horse sense. Your daddy ever asked if you had horse sense?

And I always tried to tell him I took right after you dad. The book being short advice. Now who wrote the book of Proverbs?

Solomon did. And there are at least 800 Proverbs in these 31 chapters. And according to First Kings, chapter four, and I believe it's verse 32, you'll find that Solomon has written over 3000 Proverbs during his lifetime. Now why would we take his word to heart and believe it in honesty and intently, because according to First Kings, chapter three, it's recorded that King Solomon was the smartest and wisest man to ever live. And when you study the life of Solomon, you'll find that he wrote three books, Proverbs written in the mid term of life, and the Ecclesiastes, in the old age he pinned those words while his eyes were growing dim, and death was not far from him. And the Song of Solomon was written in those vital early years of his youth.

The reason why he wrote this book over and over and over sharing these proverbs was to give advice to his sons, and warning and wisdom. And when you read this book, 31 chapters, that's a chapter a day for a month. I don't know if you'll do this. But what I want to do as I begin this brand new month, I want to read a chapter a day and do that every month for the remainder of the year. I believe it'll change our life and the longest month has 31 days, all right. The reason it's so important for every day of living is because it's giving proper guidance for domestic relationships, how to get along in your marriage, how to rear your children, how to set an example. He gives wisdom of how to be successful out there in the business world, how to have religious benefits and knowing God. Every day success under the pressures of a hectic and crazy a world in which we live. And even though the book was written by the smartest man that ever lived, over and over, he keeps mentioning dumb, stupid and foolish people. Isn't that interesting? Sometimes smart folk think the rest of us are kind of dumb, don't they? So they need to dumb it down, right? Now there's four steps to being a fool according to the Bible, chapter 21 of his book, he calls it a simple fool that, one that refuses to learn, and just want to be a simpleton, we would simply say. Then step number two is chapter 27, it's called the hardened fool. Their mind is made up, they're not listening to anybody, this is the way they're going. They're a hardened fool. Chapter 29, he calls it the arrogant fool, they know it all. You can't tell them anything. They don't want a second opinion. And then chapter 30, they're called a brutish fool. They're just brutal.

Isaiah 27 · chapter mention

They're just run over the top of you. Now our text reveals three facts that we need to discover about influences in our lives.

Very simple, three things that affect us whether we like it or not. And number one, we're influenced by what we hear, look at verse eight. He's reminding his son that you're affected by what you hear. Listen, he said, to the instruction of your father, listen to the laws or the advice of your mother. Now, that's the time when teenagers think that the adults are brain dead. And that's kind of when we want to set them down at the dinner table and tell them to tune out the remote and silence the cell phone for a moment. And we need to talk. And it's those times it really kids don't want to connect because they think that the old dad and the old mom is just not in the groove. We're not cool anymore. We're fogies, we don't understand. But what Solomon is saying, keep placing your thoughts and your wisdom in their minds. Maybe some of it will take. Sometimes you just want to take a kid by the nap of the neck and shake them and say, Did you remember what we talked about? No, they didn't remember, because they knew it all. And if they live long enough that their brain can catch up with their rear, they'll realize that mom and dad were a lot smarter than they gave credit for, while they were growing up. Now, we also are influenced by what we see verse nine, where it's going to affect your head with that chain around your neck its something visible. So we're influenced by what we hear, we're influenced by what we're seeing. And this generation is a perfect example of what I'm trying to illustrate. We've never had so many stupid, idiotic stuff going on, and happenings around the countryside right before our very eyes. Now, where are they getting this influence? To be so rugged, so crude, so crazy. I mean, who would ever dream a kid would stand up in class and say, I'm not a human being, I'm a monkey. And I'd love to respond, but nobody's asked me.

Where does this stuff come from?

Where does this ideology come from? Well, it may be from that little cell phone that you allow them to have in their hand. And it's access to the internet. All kinds of fruit loops and crazy cross eyed concoctions of ideology coming out through all kinds of crazies, and it's influenced the world in which we live. Things that we listen to, things that we hear, we're affected by, and then you're affected by who you associate yourself with. Verse 10, he says when sinners entice the. In other words, when people have bad influence, come and they try to pull you down from the truth, the wisdom, the rules of the home in which you grew up, and we tried, we tried to share he said do not consent to them. In other words, don't go in that direction. Misery loves company.

That's why somebody that's blown their life and made a mess of things, they love to see you stumble and fumble, and they're glad to help you make the same mess of your life. Now you don't have to tell me how you're doing. All you got to do is tell me who you're running with and I'll soon tell you how you're doing. Now when I began serving God, by the time I got into high school, I soon realized there were people that you could run with, and they would better you, and there were others, you were not going to change them and they were going to bring you down, whatever it took, and I had to cut some ties. So we're greatly influenced by these things, we got to be careful.

Now I'm a preacher, my life is constantly warning people about what they listen to, what they look at, and who they associate with. Influence. Influences invade our lives every day. Then here's how they attacked us, it's through the media, it's through music, it's through vocations in which we work, it's through our families, it's through culture, it's through opportunities, it's through self interest. And I simply would warn you, as a pastor, be careful of who is influencing you. Who's your hero? Who do you want to be like? Who do you want to mimic? Who do you wish you were? And I want to warn you about being influenced by others. So let me mention just a few things that we need to be careful of, number one, be very careful who your friends are. I read again, the account in Second Samuel chapter 13. Hadn't read it for a long, long time.

2 Samuel 13 · chapter mention

It's about one of David's sons, David had many sons, one of them's name was Amnon. And Amnon had a problem. He fell in love with his own sister. He was attracted to her. He was bothered by it and so he went to a friend who was a bad influence. That friend happened to be a cousin of his, David's brother had a son by the name of Jonadab. And he was bad news.

And Amnon goes to him and said, Hey, I've got this problem. He said, What's your problem? Let's sit down, let's talk about it.

Well, he said I'm physically attracted to my sister, Tamar. I can't get her off my mind. And instead of being a good influence, he was a terrible influence. He said, sit down and he encouraged him and said, here's the kind of plan. Here's what you can do to have an affair with your sister and take advantage of her. And probably Amnon never, ever would have gotten involved with an incestuous relationship with his sister, if it had not been for the bad company that he was running with. But he had an affair. It was disastrous. And when Absalom, the brother of Tamar found out what Amnon had done to his sister, he threw a big party invited all the rest of the family and when Amnon came, he killed him. Amnon died as a fool, Amnon died as a pervert. Simply, it was all by the influence by people who he was hanging around with. A toxic friend, is someone who is stressful to your life, their behavior causes anxiety. And I'm simply saying, if you have friends that are leading you in a direction that's away from God. Without any hesitation, you need to cut off that relationship. Now there are early signs of having bad friends, I'm going to give them to you. You didn't ask for them, but I'm just a nice guy. Well, I thought I was. Number one, a bad friend, we'll talk about you behind your back. They'll pressure you and tempt you to do things that you don't want to do. They'll take advantage of you. They'll tell your secrets to other people. They judge you.

They give out bad advice. They cut you down, they lie often.

They change friends, because no relationships lasts very long with them. They hold grudges.

They're not there when you need them the most. They're losers, they're moles. They never tried to better themselves. And when you hang around them give it enough time, chances are instead of you raising them they're gonna lower you. You say, Well, pastor, I just hang around that sort because I want to raise them up. Well, can I give you a little illustration and see if it makes any sense. You can, Pastor. Thank you. You're healthy and you're well and so you go to a room that's full of sick people. They're everywhere.

They're coughing, they're gagging, and they're throwing up and they're all sick. But because you came and you're healthy, amazingly, they just all get well. No, you head for the door and you're getting nauseated and you feel like gagging, and you feel a fever coming on, and soon you're coughing, and the next thing you know, you need a doctor. You get the picture. The culture of this world, and the demons of hell will do everything they can to get you to be what you ought not to be. Oh, pastor, they're just old buddies, they won't harm me.

Yeah, it's not long, they pull out a joint and tell you it won't hurt you and you're back into your old habits. Are they giving you that little bag of powder, and soon we're back to drinking, they'll put you up with somebody of the opposite sex and the next thing you know, your life is so entangled that Humpty Dumpty couldn't put life back together again. I've traveled, I used to travel full time. 23 years full time as an evangelist, I was somewhere every week at a different location, they'd put me up in hotels, motels, no hotels, no tell motel. And I still hold a number of meetings. And I'll stay at these places, there used to be a day I'd go to a hotel and it was like being in America. I go anymore, and I expect to see a camel, I can smell a camel, I smell curry and I smell all kinds of strange spices. Some lady will come out and got a little red spot right here on their forehead. I don't know if they got shot or what.

I'm not making any fun, I'm just talking to you. You can't say, Amen, so it don't matter. And I wonder, Does that mean they're married or they're not married?

Or if you scratch that spot off and you marry them, you get a free hotel or you get a convenience store? That's just humor. Just let it go, three people got it. And they used to give you a key when you went to a hotel, they'd give you key, you take a key, put that metal key in the lock and you turn the tumblers and you go into the room. But they don't give you keys anymore. They give you these little things that look like credit cards, a little bit of plastic. And you put it up there or you slide it, it does something and it's supposed to turn the color green. And how many times I've carried my luggage up a number of stairs and I get to this room and I need to get in there quickly. I put that piece of plastic up there and it turns red instead of green and I can't get in. I got all this luggage and I don't want to leave it out in the hall but I don't want to carry it back down the stairs, and I go back. If you stay a week, it's almost a miracle for that little card to last a week and get you into that room. And I went back and said this card don't work.

Of course the guy said, Sawwe, sawwe, me too. And after about the second trip, I generally tell them, I'll tell you what I'll change the antifreeze in your camel if you get this thing to work. And the guy said, Sir, there's nothing wrong with the key. I put it in this machine, I put the power back into this plastic and you take it up there, it'll work. But you're sticking it in your pocket and I guarantee you, you're putting it next to your cell phone, aren't you? Yeah, well, that cell phone, when it rubs against that cell phone, it sucks that power right out of that plastic key.

I'll charge it up again but keep it away, don't let it rub against that. You get the You come to a good church, I think this is a great church.

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There's two or three people that like me as pastor, not many but a few. And I think we got great people and you come and you like and you like what's happening, you tune into the music and you listen to the message and God begins to change your life. But you walked out of here with the power of God on you and you begin to rub up against that old crowd. And it isn't long that it sucks the power of God, right back out of your life. And soon you're thinking the same old thoughts, going back to the same old habitat and getting into those same involvements of your yester years and you're in trouble, again, you get where I'm going? That's what happens.

And the reason we have people who are in and out and up and down, it's because of associating ourselves with people who are not right with God, and their influence on us.

But not only friends, this can also happen with family, sometimes our family can be our greatest enemies, when it comes to spiritual things. You know every family has its drama. I won't tell who probably is creating the most drama in your family, but I have a good idea.

It was Abraham that got bogged down with his own dad because his dad wouldn't let him leave and God said, I want you to go and I want to take you places.

And it wasn't until his dad died, that he finally got around to getting into the will of God.

His dad hindered him. I think about the influence of Lot and his family on him, how his wife turned and looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.

Your family that's not right with God would love for you to drift back into your old habits, so you fit in. It was Job's wife, she said, why don't you just curse God and die? It was Moses' wife, that refused to go with him back into the promised land and free the Children of Israel. She turned on him. It was David's own dad that didn't believe in him enough to even bring him in out of the field and show him to the Prophet to be anointed the future king.

Prophet had the pry and pry to get the news out of him. It was David's wife that became a snare to him, all of his life. But there's another side, I'm saying the influence of a family can hinder but there's the other side of the coin. If you're here, and you're a mother or a dad, don't give up on your family. If you've got kids, and they're away from God, don't quit praying for them. As long as there's life, there's hope.

You say well, they don't even respect me. Hang on. Dad used to tell me being there in the foxholes in the Philippine Islands, when the bombs were falling and boys were dying, you'd hear them screaming mama.

When the chips are down, you'll find they believed in you more than you thought they did. So keep praying for them. Keep living the life before them. But there's another influence we need to be concerned about, not only our friends and our family, but what about the influence of the flesh. Found over here in Galatians chapter five, It said the flesh wars against the Spirit. The Bible says that this way the flesh lusteth against the Spirit. May I just say don't feed the flesh because if you feed something, it automatically grows. Have you ever noticed that? I wanted to do something for my boy at graduation and he was wanting a dog so we went over to Mansfield and I drained the bank account to get him a dog. The dog was this big, it looked like a little white snowball. You can hold it and I said is this as big as it gets?

That's right, that's it. Well, who wouldn't want a dog that size? You could stick him in your pocket and not worry about him for three or four days. And the guy didn't tell me the truth. Have you ever get a dog, you get at home and it's chews on the furniture, it's not house broke. Try that on for size. You don't see anything everything looks clean, you just step into another room in the dark and they just eat you out of house and home. And in three months that dog is so big it can stand up over the refrigerator and eat itself to death. The thing you feed, will be the thing that will control you. You better live in the spirit and not in the flesh. But I quickly want to go to something else. What about the influence of our feelings?

Sometimes our emotions can get a hold on us. And according to First Samuel chapter 17 King Saul had a beautiful start in life but drifted away from God and had emotional problems.

1 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

Moods would hit him. He'd have mood swings. The fact of the matter The Bible said an evil spirit troubled Saul. They'd have to call in a musician and they'd bring in somebody and they brought in young David to play on the harp and suddenly a mood of jealousy and anger hit him and he grabbed the javelin and threw it and tried to kill young David, 17 year old chap.

Emotions, feelings, anger, bitterness over life, jealousy, envy, disgust, disdain, anxiety, confusion, strife. Evil thoughts coming into our mind affecting us emotionally. And if we're not careful, we can be led by how we feel. And you can get in trouble if you let emotions influence you. Now, they say there are seven parts to the human being seven different avenues built into the life of a human being.

The most untrustworthy, of those seven categories of life, is feelings, our emotions. And yet, that's what most people lean on, how they feel. And it's the most untrustworthy and we lean on it.

People say if it feels good, do it. No, that's not good reasoning. Just because it feels good. I know a lady she feels good every time she thinks she gets a bargain. She's a bargain hunter. You don't dare go by a house with a garage door open, something's for sale. They want to hop out and go in there and check it out. Personally, I could care less, if I want something, I'm not looking for a bargain. If I do, it's probably from Bangladesh and won't last, the first time I use the tool. I just go buy what I want, I don't need a bargain. But women, that woman anyhow, seem to be built a little different, they like a bargain. Something they really feel like they almost stolen.

And they come in and they'll have a receipt about three feet long and said, Guess what?. And course most of the time they ordered it through the mail and they don't want you to be home when it arrives. Or they leave it in the trunk. They'll show up with that dress. Where'd you get that? Oh, just it's been in my closet. Imagine one day and I just saved $4. Yeah, you spent$600 to save $4.

Now I'm one of these kind of guys, I like the same old thing.

You get me six shirts, all the same color, I'm alright with it.

Two of us are ordinary here.

Some normal people in an abnormal world makes you feel sub normal. And if I got t shirts, I like them. I don't need any other kind. Give me a V neck t shirt, I'm a happy camper. Though didn't come in with a bargain t shirt. You're gonna love it. I've wore the same T-shirts for years. And she said yeah and they're wore out too. That wasn't what I meant but they were. She said you feel this one it's not like any t shirts you ever felt. And boy did it feel good, till she washed it and it shrunk. It looked more like a halter top.

There was no way to hide the belly button. I mean, if a naval destroyer came through, that's a hula hoop with a nail in it.

What I'm simply saying just because it feels good, doesn't mean it's a fit for your life.

Go for truth, not feelings.

Feelings change with circumstances. But truth abides forever. And here's the last thing about influence is our faith. Bible says in the book of Acts, chapter four, verse 13, that when Peter and John were released from jail, they said about them, they were ignorant and unlearned men, but I perceive their influence that they have been with Jesus. If anything is going to influence my life, I want it to be this old black back book. I want it to be my faith. I want it to be my dedication to Jesus Christ.

And I want to ask you a question and a quick question. What's the greatest influence on your life right now? Is that the Word of God? Is it the church? Is it sermons? Is it prayer? Is it God? What's the biggest influence in your life? Is it your buddy's, the same crowd that got you in trouble and got you in jail and locked up a long time ago? Is that the crowd?

What's the greatest influence? I said it the early service and I say it in this service, in closing. I went to God, if God would give us just one young man that would stand up and say you know what? I'm going to be influenced by God alone. And I'm going to let God take my life and make it to be an influence on others. And one young lady that will dare to be different and stand out and keep themselves pure and live a life that makes people hungry for Jesus Christ. Or a couple that will say, You know what? I want to be a churchman. I want to show the rest of the church and then the rest of the world what it means to tithe and live pure and live godly and have an impact on neighbors and an impact on the rest of the family. And they will all turn and say there's something different about them, whatever it is. It's the way I want my life to be lived, influence, influenced by the gospel. And the greatest day in our life is when Christ so influences us that we want to quit the sin business and pick up our cross and follow our Lord and Savior.

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.