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Pastor Ray LaSalle (00:01):
Coming to
you from North Central Ohio. We
share with you the voice of theNazarene a week by week. Venture
into the Word of God sponsoredby the Bucyrus, Ohio Church of
the Nazarene. We join ourPator,Reverend Ray LaSalle and
the voice of the Nazarene.
Join me, if you would, inMatthew chapter 11 and the 11th
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verse, some of the words fromChrist's own lips and about his
own cousin. What an insight.
Jesus said, verily, I say untoyou, among them that are born of
women, there have not risen agreater than John the Baptist.
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Those born of women, there's notrisen a greater than John the
Baptist. Just seems like everylight begins to focus on John
the Baptist for a moment, andall of the curtains are pulled
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back, and we're all given aglimpse, small glimpse, his
ministry only lasted for sixmonths, and yet he said,
notwithstanding, he that isleast in the kingdom of heaven
is greater than he I'd certainlylike to get in on that last
phrase, the least can becomegreater. I think it's time to
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man up. I think there's somesteps to better ourselves. I
believe there are steps that wecan become better men. And as I
share with you this morning, I'mtalking to the men and the
ladies. I don't know ladies,whether you've realized it or
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not, but in the word woman,there's the word man, wool man.
I think you'd all agree that inthat word, human is man. We're
all of a human race. I'm talkingto all of us. We're all apart.
And let's talk about some stepsof becoming a great man and
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woman, two boys were talking,and one of them said, my dad can
whip your dad. And the othersaid he didn't think he could,
but he said, You haven't met mydad. My dad, he can whip every
man in the neighborhood. Fact ofthe matter, he's got a list of
all the men that he can whip,and your dad is at the top of
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the list? Well, he went homepretty dejected, and he told his
dad. He said Johnny said thathis dad could whip all the men
in the neighborhood, and he saidthat your name is at the top of
the list. The guy was about 250pounds, six foot, five, bulging
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chest and bulging arms. Justlook at me. You'll kind of get
the picture.
Not much support here from themusic department. And he said,
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In the light of that son, let's,let's go visit the guy. They
went across the neighborhood andknocked on the door, and this
little, frail, short guyanswered the door, and the big
guy said, I want to see the manof the house. He said, you're
looking at him. He said, I'mlooking at him well, he said,
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Your boy said that you you canwhip every man in the
neighborhood. You got a list ofall that you can whip. He said,
I do. You're right. Well, hesaid, my boy, your boy told my
boy that I'm at the top of thelist. He said, You are. Well, he
said, I'm here. What do you wantto do about it? He said, I I
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want to move your name off thelist. Jesus said that John was
the greatest born among women,and I thought of He's the
greatest. I thought I'd neverlooked at it this way, but I I
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thought maybe it'd be good tolook again at the life of John
and see what were the qualities,the characteristics, the
idiosyncrasies that Jesus saw inJohn. Maybe, in looking at these
qualities, maybe we canincorporate some of those great
traits into our own life. I'dlike to be a better man. And the
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first quality that I noticedabout John, he recognized he
needed a Savior that's more thansome folk have realized and
recognized. Ignite. John makes abig splash. He comes onto the
scene. Big guy, clothed in camelhair and wore a leather and
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girdle, had a diet of honey andwild locusts. Can you imagine
that beard full of matted honeyand full of kicking grasshopper
legs, the kind of growls of thecrowd and people gathered from
all over to watch him baptize inthe flowing Jordan River. They
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came in droves. He was a prettyprophetic guy. Great crowds, but
he said something in John one,verse 20, and he confessed and
denied not. He said, I confessthat I am not the Christ. I'm
not the Messiah. I'm not I'm notthe Lamb of God. And then in
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verse 29 of that chapter, helooks up and he sees Jesus
coming toward him, and he saidto that great audience, he said,
there's there's the Lamb of God.
They're taking away the sin ofthe world. And here's what I
want you to understand, sir,every man needs a Savior. You
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can't be the man you ought to beuntil you put your trust and
your faith in Jesus Christ. Youcan't be the person that you
need to be, until you come torecognize that you need to put
your faith in God's only son.
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That's step number one, sir, andthat's step number one, lady,
Listen, I'm not trying to makeyou a Methodist. I'm not trying
to make you a Pentecostal. I'mnot here to impress you to
become an Episcopalian or aBaptist or a Lutheran. The Bible
said I know in whom I havebelieved, and in the womb, it's
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not a witch, it's not a what.
It's a person, and you need apersonal relationship with Jesus
Christ. Deion Sanders, quite anathlete. Big guy, towers above
many of the others in thefootball world, he was at the
very top. It was through himthat he was able to help his
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team win two Super Bowls. Butnot only did he win two Super
Bowls and play football, but hehas the distinction of having
played in the World Series. Hewas at the apex in football,
winning two Super Bowls, and bythe same token, was in the apex
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in baseball, playing in theWorld Series. He said, I had it
all. I had everything. Just lookat me. And he said, it, I had
it. You name it, I've got it.
But in 1997 he said, My life wasso empty I didn't want to live
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anymore. They said I had it all.
And I want to tell you somethingyou can have all the world has
to offer. And you can be empty.
And he said, in 1997 empty, hesaid, I decided to take my car
and drive it over a 40 footembankment, and in my life, and
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he did that only he survived.
And there the hospital. He said,There must be a God, and that
God must have a plan. And whenhe got out of the hospital, fell
on his knees and invited Christinto his life, and he made this
statement. He said, I I used tobe on the enemy's team, but now
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I'm on God's team. I don't knowwhich team you're on, but I hope
you're getting into the rightteam. That's what I that's what
I want to say.
He was not only John, not onlyrecognized the fact that he
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needed a Savior, but the Biblesaid he was filled with the Holy
Spirit. I believe that's a greatquality. Luke one verse, 15,
don't turn me off. I'm nottrying to make it complicated,
but it said in Luke 115 he wasfilled with the Spirit. Now get
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this. You receive Christ, andthe Holy Spirit literally comes
into your life. You say, Well,preacher, I'm not interested in
the Holy Spirit. You don't knowwhat you're saying, because you
can't be a Christian without.
The Holy Spirit. It's the HolySpirit that pricks your heart,
and it's the Holy Spirit thatshows you your need of a Savior.
So when you get saved, the HolySpirit comes into your life. And
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Ephesians 518 says, Be filledwith the Spirit. Have you ever
noticed after you get saved. Doyou ever notice that your life
is pretty clean? I asked for aquart size. This is a gallon,
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half a gallon. But if you noticethat after you get saved, you
hang around the church and otherChristians and and they're not
all cursing and damning andsaying terrible things and and
you your language begins tochange and and your thought
pattern begins to move away.
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You're no longer running thewith the other crowd, and you're
no longer out in the honky tonksand those leap in, leap out,
sort of hell holes and and yourlife gets all cleaned up, but
after a while, things begin toget back into your life. Have
you noticed that you might getaround somebody that gossips.
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The next thing you know, you geton the telephone and you start
gossiping. You don't all have tosay, Amen, I know where my notes
are. I know where I'm going. Andthe next thing you know, maybe
you got some secret thoughtsthat you ought to have, and they
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get into your mind and get intoyour life, and suddenly you're
not nearly as hungry for God asyou were, and you start missing
church, and you don't have theprayer life and other stuff
begins to get into your life.
And you know what the Biblesays? The Bible said that we
need to be filled with theSpirit, filled with the Spirit.
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Now, what happens when I'mfilled with the Spirit? What
begins to happen all thesethings begin to get back out of
my life. Now listen to me overthere in Galatians, chapter five
and verse 16. What say I thenwalk in the Spirit and you'll
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not fulfill the lust of theflesh. Man, here's what I want
to say to you. If we're notcareful, it isn't long, these
things can start getting backinto our life. That's what I'm
saying. And I'm trying to tellyou this morning that we need to
be filled with the spirit or thecarnal appetites will start
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showing up. I need to stay full.
And if I want more of God, whatdo I need to do? Give God simply
more me. Okay, well, let's moveon to something else. Not only
was he filled with the Spirit,and not only had he recognized
this need to be saved, but I sawanother quality as I read
through his life, thinking hereand there through the Scripture.
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I believe he was a man ofprayer. Where do you get that
pastor over there in Luke,chapter 11, verse one, the
disciples had gathered aroundJesus. They had been followers
of John, and they said, Lord,teach us to pray, as John also
taught his disciples, teach usto pray. May I say this man, you
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have a responsibility to pray.
You have a responsibility topray for your family. First,
Timothy two eight says, Itherefore, I will therefore, let
men pray everywhere, andnobody's going to pray for my
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family like me, and nobody'sgoing to pray for your boy, sir,
like you can, and nobody's goingto need to pray for your
companion like you can mayhem.
And so God has given us aresponsibility. And if you want
to become a great man of God,you've got to become a man of
prayer, a man who prays for hisfamily. I was reading after
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Howard Hendricks the other day,Dr Howard Hendricks, and in the
book, it said that he hadresearched over a two year
period, 246 men, men who hadwound up with moral failures in
their life. And you say, well,preacher, you're wasting your
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time. That'll never happen tome. Well, it happened to David
and it happened to Solomon. Ithappened to Samson. So don't
rule it out. I'm talking to you,he said, over the course of two
years. He He watched these men,246 who had moral failure, and
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he said the common denominatoramong all of them, they said, I
abandoned my time in prayer. Iabandoned my time in prayer.
There's something about prayerthat builds a barrier around
you, a barrier of protection sothe devil can't get in. And men,
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if you want to win the battlesin your life, get on your knees
and you'll never lose a battle.
Become people of prayer. Andthen another quality quickly,
John had a spirit of humility inMatthew, chapter three, verse
11, he said, concerning Jesus,I'm not even worthy to touch his
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shoestrings a humble spirit,spirit of humility. Do you know
a great man will serve his wife?
A great man will serve Hischildren? It's not all about
you, mister. God give you afamily. God bless you with
virginity. And we need to expandour vision beyond our little
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self and realize that we have aGod given family and a God
giving given companion, and weneed to serve them. It's strange
to me, sometimes guys that we'rekinder to the lady down at the
convenience store than we are toour own wife. Don't use that in
the next service. God said, Ifyou'll Humble yourself, I'll
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exalt you. But if you exaltyourself, he said, I'll I'll
humble you. One preacher thoughthe had really done good on that
Sunday morning. He thought hehad preached to filibuster on
the way home, he said to hiswife, he said, Honey, I wonder
how many great preachers thereare in America. She said, one
less than you think. Pray thatGod will keep us humble. God
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can't use you if you're nothumble, if we get all caught up
with self and opinions and andself worth and our achievements,
God can't use us anymore. God issupposed to get all the
accolades. What makes a greatman is when he has a spirit of
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humility, when you don't thinkyou know it all, when you don't
always have to have your ownway, when once in a while, you
admit that you're wrong. Nowhere's a fifth quality of John.
Listen to me. Faster. We'll getdone sooner. He got down, but he
went to the right place to getback up. And here's all I'm
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going to say, man, you're goingto get down once in a while.
Everybody has downtime. There'stimes of discouragement in life.
There's times of defeat. Some ofyou live in defeat at your home.
You hate to go to the house,even some of you, it's your job.
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But whether it's on the workrelationship, or whether it's in
the marriage, there will betimes when you'll be down and
you've gotta know where to go tothe right place to get back up.
You say, Well, did John ever getdown? Well, let's read about it.
It's Matthew 11, verse two. Now,when John had heard in the
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prison, that's where he was atthe works of Christ, He sent two
of His disciples and said untothem, Art thou that should come
or do we look for another? Nowlet me give you the background
he had been arrested. Old Herodhad made his wife, well he he
made his stepdaughter a promise.
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When he was half drunk, anythingshe had asked for, he'd give it
to her. She went to her mama,mama, what do you want? She
said, I haven't slept since thatpreacher preached. His name's
John the Baptist. I'll neverrest till they cut his head off
and I'll extract his tongue anddrive a dagger through it. I'll
silence him. So she had herhusband to arrest him, and John
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is down, and he's discouraged,and he hears about Christ, and
so he sends two of hisdisciples. And in Luke, chapter
seven, verse 22 they went to seehim, And Jesus said unto them,
Go and show John again thosethings which you do, hear and
see. The blind receive theirsight, and the lame walk. The
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lepers are cleansed, the deafhear, and the dead are raised
up, and the poor have the gospelpreached unto them. Go tell
John, Blessed is He who's notoffended. Here's what I want you
to see. John was down, but heknew to look to the Lord. He
sends messengers to find Jesus,and when you're down, you. You
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better know how to find your wayback up. You say, preacher, is
it okay to get down? Well, lookat Proverbs. 24 verse 16, it
says, For the just man, fallethseven times yet riseth again. It
doesn't matter how many timesyou get down, you keep getting
back up. And when you get down,pays to get your eyes on Jesus
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and get up real quick. Like,here's the sixth thing about
John. He was so like Jesus. Hewas like Jesus, according to
Mark chapter six, verse 14,when, when Jesus comes on, the
scenes and miracles begin tohappen, and word gets to Herod.
Herod, he's frightened. He saidit must be John resurrected from
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the dead. Jesus and John were somuch alike, and here's the last
thing, he brought others toChrist. You say, Pastor, what's
your goal in life? Well, I'lltell you, here's my goal. I
can't impact everybody, but Ican't impact somebody. And
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here's what I made up my mindand my little sphere of
influence, I don't come incontact with everybody. I wound
up pastoring in a little city. Ispent the first 23 years of
ministry and evangelism,traveling the countryside and
preaching on about 30 radiostations, putting out a
publication. I never came heretill I was in my late 40s. I'm
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now probably in the last chaptermy earthly ministry, someday
soon, I'll face God. I sure wishI'd have done better. I hope
there's some way that I I couldleave a little bit of the vision
that I have into your mind, andif I could lay the burden of my
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heart, to burden your heart. Iwished I could. I've struggled
through the years of pastoring,trying to get people to see a
bigger vision.
They want to spend every littlelast penny, but they don't want
to spend big money to invest inthe lost. Seem like we'll always
want to go backward to a smallerprogram and more comfort, and we
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never catch the vision of doingsomething big for God. I
wouldn't God that we can be likethe Heavenly Father that
welcomed prodigal sons ininstead of being like an elder
brother back in the housepouting. I don't like the music,
and I wish people wouldn't come,and I don't like all the change.
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God pity us. And here I amnearing the very end, and it's
only a matter of time. It didn'ttake a genius to see that. I'm
not telling you anything new,but what little influence I have
on somebody, whoever I want totry to impress them with God and
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impress them for good with theirlives while I can. And you know,
the first place that we're tostart with our realm of
influence, our impact, it's withour family. Look at what Acts
238, Then Peter said unto them,Repent, be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christfor the remission of sins, and
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you shall receive the gift ofthe Holy Ghost. So first of all,
we come to Christ, and then wereceive that gift of the Holy
Spirit. And then on down inverse 39 it says, For the
promise is unto you and yourchildren and to all that are far
off. Do you catch that thepromises unto you and your
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children? What's he saying? He'ssaying that I have a
responsibility to my wife or tomy husband and our children?
Joshua, 24 verse 15, he said,but it's for me and my house. We
will serve the Lord. You know,it's wonderful to talk about our
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house, but hold on, wait amoment. It begins with me. It
starts over here with me. Ibetter get myself right. I
better humble myself. I betterget into the prayer closet. I
better find and get acquaintedwith God if it gets with me and
then it moves on into my house.
I simply trying to say, men, youhave a responsibility pray for
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your family, Sir, you have aresponsibility to lead your
family. I sent a text to my boythis morning because I talked
with a trucker last night, andhe said he when he gets up in
the morning, he's going to gopast cabbage Hill, Oregon. He.
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It's called Dead Man's pass. Hesaid, I don't know how the
weather is out there, but hesaid, if he's pulling a trailer,
he can lose it three hairpinswitchbacks going down those
miles of mountain, he bettermake contact. In the last four
days, they've crossed into 11different states. He's moving to
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Eugene, Oregon, and all weeklong, I've been thinking about
my boy, the boy that I raised.
He had a better mother than hehad father. And I'm simply
trying to say to you that youand I have some responsibilities
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our boys and our girls. You everthink about the first three
questions in the Bible? Genesis,three, nine, Adam, where are
you? Where you at? You betterfind out where you're at, sir.
And the next question, chapterfour, verse nine, where's your
brother? It's about time some ofus get a burden for our brothers
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and sisters. I don't know ifyou're catching anything I'm
saying this morning, but Iwouldn't God that I could impact
and impart to you that. And thethird question, Genesis, 18,
verse nine, where's your wife?
Where's Sarah, thy wife? Whereare you at? Where's your
brothers? Where's your family?
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Begins with us. We have aresponsibility to bring our
family into relationship withGod. James Dobson, founder of
Focus on the Family. JamesDobson had a heart attack, and
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he thought he was dying. He waslaying there the hospital,
thinking, This is it. I'm goingout at the stage in life. I And
while he was there in thehospital, by the way, I've been
in the hospital with men dying.
I still do the chaplaincy thingthe local hospital, I got called
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out last week, lady going intohospice, calling for a chaplain,
somebody to come hold my handand pray with me. I cannot tell
you how many hands this hand isheld, men or women dying. I've
never had any of them brag abouthow many degrees they had and
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much how much education I'venever had any tell me how much
money they had in their bankaccount, or how many acres of
land they owned, I've held theirhand and they died while I held
it. I had a warm hand, andsuddenly I had a lifeless hand,
and suddenly they belonged tothe ages they'd stepped out of
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the great beyond Dobson laydying, and as he thought he was
dying, he asked himself threequestions. Number one, who do I
love? You know, I don't want tospend my time reaching the world
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and lose my family, as long asmy kids say I was a good dad, I
hope I was. And the nextquestion that he asked himself,
who really loves me? Well, I'vegot 1000s of people love me,
Pastor, well, you need to thinklong and hard on that. You know,
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30 minutes after you're gone,they'll be saying, pass the
beans. Would you pass some ofthat roast beef over there? You
better start pouring yourselfinto those that are going to cry
the loudest with your passingand loved you the deepest. You
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better start spending some timeand find out just where they are
spiritually. His third question,will I spend my eternity with
the ones I love? So he startedFocus on the Family, and then it
hit him, I'm starting a focushere and a ministry and an
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organization of how I can savefamilies and my own son, Ryan is
not a Christian. What am I goingto tell everybody when I try to
tell them they need to reachtheir children and my own boy,
he's away from God. Soon as hegot out of the hospital, he
begin to spend time with his boyand begin to build relationship
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with his boy, begin to pour intohis son's life. And Ryan became
a Christian and is now a pastor.
Somebody asked him about theheart attacks. He said, Thank
God I had a heart attack. Act.
It was that a heart attack thathelped me to realize what was
important. You know, we have alittle saying that when you die,
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you can't take anything withyou. That's not totally true.
You could take your family. Someof us could take a neighbor or
two. Some of us could probablytake that guy that's on that
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next machine, or that persondown there that sold you the
donuts. If we took just a momentto become their friend, you
he died, everybody's going todie. And the Bible said in Luke
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16, and in hell, lift up hiseyes, being in torment. And all
he could think about, I've gotfive brothers. Is there anybody
that would have enough influencethat could talk to them and keep
them out of this place oftorment? Is there anybody I
could send back to them? I'dlike to send you out to have an
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influence on some people to keepthem out of hell. Could be your
brother? God's going to ask you,where is your brother? Where's
your wife? Where are you at,father? Thanks for being a part
of the voice of the Nazarene.
Visit us every Sunday at 9amwith B and C's pastor, Ray
LaSalle, for more informationregarding B and C, visit
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bucyrusnazarene.org, you.